Today, May 20th, is the 110th birthday of Everett "Busy" Arnold, one of the prime movers of the Golden Age of comics! And he was born in Providence, RI, to boot!
Growing up in Rhode Island, Everett had a nasty habit of talking in class which earned him the nickname, "busybody". Shortened to "Busy", it would stick with him for the rest of his life. After graduating from Brown University in 1921, "Busy" worked in various printing companies and was the Eastern sales representative for NYC's Goss Printing Company during which time he sold presses to Eastern Color Printing which would later publish the first American comic book, Famous Funnies #1, in 1934.
After investing in several comic book enterprises, "Busy" formed his own company (Comic Favorites, Inc.) in collaboration with three newspaper comic strip syndicates. In 1937, "Busy" published Feature Funnies which mixed reprints of popular comic strips like "Joe Palooka" with new material purchases from the new comic "studios". These "studios" were companies built solely to supply the exploding comics market with material that they produced and then sold to publishers. For most of his new material, "Busy" relied on the successfull Eisner and Iger studio. Unlike many other small publishers of the time, however, "Busy" also cultivated an 'in-house' staff of creators.
In 1939, a restructuring of the company saw the syndicates ownership bought out and "Busy" became a 50% owner of the new company. Quickly, they began producing new comics that would become to be known as "Quality" comics. In August of 1939, they published Smash Comics #1 which was the first of their new line and their first comic to contain entirely new material. Exploding with creativity, Quality soon added to their line with Police Comics (featuring Jack Cole's Plastic Man), Military Comics (with Blackhawk), Hit Comics (starring Kid Eternity) and many others.
But "Busy" wasn't done with 1939 yet. In a surprise move, Arnold hired Will Eisner away from his lucretive and successful studio to work on the art staff at Quality. This meant that the Eisner & Iger studio was dissolved with Iger buying out his former partner but Eisner also taking several artists with him to Quality. In addition, "Busy" was exploring a new outlet for comic books: newspapers!
The syndicates were not happy at losing their readers to comic books and were looking for a way to exploit this new medium. "Busy" designed a comic book insert that would be included with comics. At first, the syndicates wanted Lou Fine to handle the based on a sample that "Busy" had produced. Worried that Fine would not be able to keep up with the deadlines passed the work off as Eisner's. Getting the syndicate job was one of the reasons that Eisner agreed to dissolve his studio and it was from these discussions that The Spirit (arguably one of the finest comics ever created) was born.
Quality continued to published through the 1940's and into the 50's often following the publishing trends. The one Quality horror title, Web of Evil, was one of the comics singled out by Dr. Frederick Wertham during his infamous campaign against comics in 1954. This event, coinciding with the dwindling of his staff, led "Busy" to close up his shop in 1956 and sell the copyrights to the Quality characters to DC.
After comics, "Busy" started Arnold Magazines, Inc. where he published several magazines devoted to mystery and detective stories. It was one of his other magazines, Classic Photography, that would create the most sensation. Rather tame by today's standards, the magazine offered tips and hints for photographers and featured shots of several nude and semi-nude women. Two issues of the magazine were deemed "obscene" by the U. S. Post Office which made them ineligible for second class mailing rates which, at that time, was a devastating blow to any magazine.
Everett "Busy" Arnold later retired to Florida where he passed away in 1975. By all accounts, "Busy" was one of the few (if not only) honorable businessmen running a comics publishing company during the Golden Age. In his groundbreaking work Steranko's History of Comics, Jim Steranko said, "Arnold was, without a doubt, one of the most generous comic publishers. He was always very fair with the artists and believed in sharing the wealth. He often delivered an extra bonus to his men in appreciation for their work and loyalty. He was, perhaps, the only publisher who paid his men what they were really worth."
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