Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: Avon Publications, golden age

The Mystery of Avon's Comic Book Debut, Molly O'Day #1 Up for Auction

In 1945, paperback book publisher Avon Publications entered the comic book business with a mysterious release titled Molly O'Day.

Published Thu, 09 Feb 2023 07:47:10 -0600

by Mark Seifert

Last updated Sat, 11 Feb 2023 11:11:51 -0600

Comments

Avon Publications had been a presence on America's newsstands for four years when they entered the comic book field in 1945 with Molly O'Day Super Sleuth #1. Molly O'Day was created by unknown creators working for the Harry A. Chesler studio. The release was cover-dated February 1945 and may have been put together simply to demonstrate to business partners that Avon was entering the comic book business, but beyond that, this one-shot title is a bit of an underappreciated mystery. There's a Molly O'Day #1 (Avon, 1945) CGC VG/FN 5.0 Off-white pages up for auction in the 2023 February 9 Good Girl Art in Comics Valentine's Showcase Auction #40216 at Heritage Auctions.

It appears that Avon's Joseph Meyers used Molly O'Day to pitch The Saint creator Leslie Charteris on doing a comic book series featuring The Saint. Avon was already publishing The Saint paperbacks and sent Charteris a copy of Molly O'Day along with their proposal. As for the character herself, she's a bit of a mystery. A film actress named Molly O'Day was popular from the late 1920s through the early 1940s, and would've still been a fairly well-known name in 1944 when this comic was being produced.

Avon Publications began life in 1878 as J.S. Ogilvie Publishing Company, a publisher of dime novel material in various formats including paperback-like Thick Books. Distributor American News Co. bought the publisher, by then partly owned by Joseph Meyers and Edna Meyers Williams, and renamed it Avon Publications. Avon published over 100 comic titles (in comic book format) from 1945 to 1956, most of them extremely short-lived. Avon Books also sporadically published paperback format collections of newspaper comics and similar material throughout that period and continued to do so through the mid-1990s. The company was acquired by Hearst in 1959 and is currently a romance imprint of HarperCollins, where it has been active through at least 2019.

Notably, the cover of Molly O'Day Super Sleuth #1 is a swipe of the figure from the cover of Inside Detective Volume 10 #1 (January 1940) by Peter Driben. There are only 23 entries for Molly O'Day #1 on the CGC census, but you can get a copy of Molly O'Day Super Sleuth #1 in CGC 5.0 Off-white pages up for auction in the 2023 February 9 Good Girl Art in Comics Valentine's Showcase Auction #40216 at Heritage Auctions. Bidders who are new to Heritage Auctions should check out their FAQ on the bidding process and related matters.