Years in Operation:
1941 - 1953
Detail
Country:
Canada
Web Site:
Brands:
12
Indicia Publishers:
3
Series:
259
Printings:
1084 (1079 Issues)
Notes:
Company known as Commercial Signs of Canada from 1939-1942, though their first comics weren't published until 1941. Canadian Golden-Age publisher of original material and then of reprints of American comics from various publishers.
Bell's output can be divided into 4 time periods.
The first, and arguably the most important, period is from 1941 to early 1946. During this time Bell produced 100% Canadian comics, known popularly as Canadian Whites (even though a few of the early ones were actually in full colour).
The second period is a very short time in 1946 when Bell was producing comics for the British market. These normally had an original Canadian cover with a reprint of a contemporary U.S. comic inside.
After this was the third period where Bell reprinted U.S. comics with covers from the U.S. comics themselves. Comics from Archie, Marvel, Quality and other U.S. publishers were common. Sometimes the comic being reprinted had the correct cover, sometimes it didn't. This period was from approximately 1948 to 1951.
The fourth period is after 1951. Bell continued to reprint U.S. comics but mostly under different titles and covers from the original U.S. comics. Splash pages were modified to serve as covers or illustrations from one company were combined with logos from another and some of the titles and logos from the Canadian Whites were revived.
Besides a few of the very early Canadian Whites, a few of the British exports and a couple of the earliest U.S. reprints, Bell did not include dates in the comics. The estimated dates are based, primarily, on the earliest possible date based on what is being reprinted. The estimated dates of other issues in the series are also taken into account as well as the existence of date stamps. It is quite possible that some comics were actually published months or even a year or two after our estimated date.
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