T
his well-known and widely distributed comics series was first printed as Spire Christian Comics by Fleming H. Revell Company of Old Tappan, New Jersey USA in the 1970s and early 1980s. Later in the '80s a number of these booklets were reprinted as NEW Barbour Christian Comics by Barbour & Company of Uhrichsville, Ohio USA, two or more of them with different titles. Several of the books were translated into Spanish and possibly other languages as well.
The first Spire comic books (
"The Cross & the Switchblade" and "God's Smuggler"
) were published in Sept 1972. All the books were 32 pages + cover, in full mechanical color (except for
"Barney Bear: Tell It on the Mountain,"
which was hand-painted).
Overall sales of Mr. Hartley's comics are said to be more than 40 million copies, including international sales
("at least 60% of which were true US sales" or 24 million comics). 30-50% of that figure, or approximately 7.2 to 12 million copies, may represent just the "Archie" titles.
(From information supplied by Al Hartley to Breakaway Magazine in their October '92 issue, confirmed/expanded by a source working with Barbour, with "Archie" supposition by Nate Butler.)
Victor Gorelick, editor of the secular Archie Comics titles, reports that he colored a few of the Christian "Archie" comics but that regular "Archie" colorist Barry Grossman did most of them. The majority were lettered by the late Bill Yoshida, who was also a regular letterer on the secular "Archie" titles.
The 57 titles below may be an incomplete list. Mr. Hartley once said in print that he did 59 different comics titles, and others have reported that he told them 60 titles. It is possible he may have included his two hardcover "Yankee Doodle" storybooks in his totals. However, a CCI site visitor named Dave Treber believes that one of the "missing" titles may be a second version of
"Tom Landry and the Dallas Cowboys."
He writes: "The first was after they defeated Miami in a Super Bowl ... the second was a revised version later in the '70s to have their game against the Denver Broncos as the featured game ... their 2nd Super Bowl win."
You can find a few
additional details about the Spire/Barbour Comics here
. You can read
Al Hartley's biography here
.
(Cartoonist Al Bohl also drew some Barbour Christian comics after
Al Hartley
retired that are not listed here.)
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A History of
Spire and Barbour
and their
Christian Comics Titles
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The "Spire Christian Comics" were first published by in the 1970s by the Fleming H. Revell Company which was founded originally in 1870.
Founder Fleming H. Revell (1849-1931) was the brother-in-law of Dwight L. Moody, the famous evangelist from Chicago. Moody had established a Sunday school publication and convinced Revell to take it over. Eventually the company became one of the largest and most influential publishers of evangelical books in North America.
Fleming Revell married Josephine Barbour and their son, Fleming Jr., joined the company in 1907. Fleming Sr. retired from the presidency in 1929, named Fleming Jr. his successor. William Barbour, Fleming Sr.'s nephew, became president in 1931, replacing Fleming Jr.
Both of Barbour's sons, William Barbour Jr. and Hugh Revell Barbour, became principals in the Revell-Barbour family business for many years.
After the death of William Sr., Wilbur Davies became president and launched a line of religious mass-market paperbacks, "Spire Books," in 1963. Spire became the top mass-market religious paperback imprint. Davies retired in 1968 and was succeeded by William Barbour Jr. At the same time the company moved to Old Tappan, New Jersey.
During the 1970s the Revell Company was a pioneer among evangelical publishers in getting its books into secular bookstores. By 1977 sales to these stores accounted for about half of the company's sales. It was during this period that the "Spire Christian Comics" titles were published. Many of the biographical comics were adapted from best-selling books in Revell's "Spire Books" and "Chosen Books" lines.
Financial pressures led to the Revell Company being sold in 1978, and again in 1983, 1986, and finally (to current owner Baker Book House) in 1992.
In 1981 Hugh Barbour left Revell and started his own company "Book Bargains" which bought and resold other publishers' excess stock. Soon the new company began publishing its own titles and became Barbour & Company. During this time it acquired the rights to republish many of the titles in the "Spire Christian Comics" line and did so under the "NEW Barbour Christian Comics" imprint.
Later the company became known as Barbour Publishing, Inc. After Hugh Barbour retired, it was acquired by president & CEO Tim Martins.
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Sources:
Barbour Publishing website
Baker Publishing website
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