Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored | Tagged: Robert W Farrell, secret love

The Elusive Ajax-Farrell Secret Love #1 From 1957, at Auction

After a relatively quiet 1956, Ajax-Farrell launched (or relaunched) a burst of titles in 1957, including the return of romance comic Secret Love.

Published Tue, 20 Feb 2024 15:47:07 -0600

by Rich Johnston

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Article Summary

Rare Secret Love #1 comic from 1957 features Jack Kamen-style work from Iger Studio.
Published by Farrell Publications with a cover by Bill Ward, creators mostly unknown.
First comic artwork by Steve Ditko was published under the Farrell Comic Group.
Founder Robert W. Farrell had varied career including comics and reviving newspapers.

What's your Secret Love? Farrell Publications was the name of a number of comics publishers formed by lawyer Robert W. Farrell in the 1940s and 1950s, best known for its pre-Comics Code horror comics, mostly produced by the S. M. Iger Studio. Farrell also published romance, Western, adventure, superhero, and talking animal comics. Farrell acted as editor throughout. In 1940 he registered "The Comicscope", an optical projector for reading comics that was heavily advertised in the comics of the day.

The Farrell Comic Group was founded in 1951 with the financial backing of Excellent Publications. As well as comics creators Ken Battlefield, L. B. Cole, Matt Baker, and Bruce Hamilton, they published the very first comic book artwork by Steve Ditko. Imprints included Ajax-Farrell who put out six issues of the romance comic Secret Love in 1957 and 1958. Issue 1 with a cover by Bill Ward is up for auction from Heritage Auctions, it is CGC graded at only 2.5 but that is the highest grade this comic has ever received, and is the only copy that Heritage Auctions have ever had. Writers and artists are unknown, but the art has the Jack Kamen-like look of much of Iger Studio's output.

Secret Love #1 (Ajax-Farrell, 1955) CGC GD+ 2.5 Off-white pages. The first copy we've ever offered. Bill Ward cover. Overstreet 2023 GD 2.0 value = $0. CGC census 12/23: 0 in 2.5, none higher. light, multiple stain cover small tear with crease bottom of back cover, small, multiple piece out top of front cover, tear with crease bottom of front cover

After his comics publishers closed, Robert W. Farrell started the humour magazine Panic in 1958 in the manner of Mad, and revived the newspaper The Brooklyn Eagle which he was once a gossip columnist. He then worked for Myron Fass from 1969 to 1981, as publisher of the black-and-white horror magazine company Eerie Publication, as well as reviving the New York Daily Mirror in 1971. He died in New York at the age of seventy-eight in 1986.