The comic book “GI Jane” by Hal Seeger and Bill Williams is being auctioned

Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: Harry Donenfeld

The most successful title of the unknown publisher Stanhall Publications, “GI Jane”, was the creation of animators Hal Seeger and Bill Williams.

Hal Seeger (1917-2005) is best known as a creator and producer of animated films, most famously with the series from the 1960s Batfinch, Milton the Monster, And Fearless Fly from his own Hal Seeger Studio, but he was also active in the comic book industry during the late Golden Age. Seeger’s path into comics and animation began at Fleischer Studio, where he originally worked as an assistant to Bud Counihan on the Betty Boop Comic strip. Seeger worked at Fleischer on a variety of cartoons until the company went bankrupt in 1941. Seeger’s career in the comics industry was short but memorable. She began working on DC Comics’ Leave it to Binkyincluding titles for Stanhall Publications such as The farmer’s daughter, Oh brother And GI Jane.

Stanhall Publications was owned by the father-son team of Michael Estrow And Stanley Estrow and was created as a vehicle for Seeger’s comic book work, with the company name derived from the first names of Stanley and Hal. The publishing company was part of a constellation of magazine publishers with loose ties to the founding figures of DC Comics. Harry Dönenfeld And Paul SamplerDonenfeld and Sampliner are best known as co-owners of DC Comics and the Independent News distribution company, among others, and were involved in a number of other comic book and magazine companies in the 1940s and early 1950s. In addition to Stanhall, Ribage and Trojan Publishing are other parts of this constellation in which the Estrow family is specifically involved.

The last issue of GI Jane was published by a company called Merit Publications. Merit Publications has obvious ties to the Estrow comics publishing empire through ongoing titles by Stanhall, Trojan and Ribage, and shares the same editorial address as Stanhall. But the New York-based Merit Publications company was founded in 1939 by former Prentice Hall executives. Glen Hutchens And General Practitioner Anthonyalong with Maria Pinto. Merit Publications was primarily a publisher of inexpensive diet and self-help books. The exact details of Merit’s brief foray into the comics industry are unknown, but it is generally believed that the Estrow companies were failing or otherwise withdrawing from the comics business at this time, as was the case with many publishers with the advent of the Comics Code. Note that Merit Publish (in contrast to Merit Publications), best known for the Whiz Bang-Style illustrated joke book Hot dog a few decades earlier this probably has no relevance here.

In 11 issues, Stanhall’s GI Jane was the company’s most successful title and is best known for some suggestive covers by Bill Williamswho was formerly an animator for Walt Disney Productions. It’s a short but polished series with some underrated stories and illustrations, and there’s a GI Jane Group of 5 (Stanhall/Merit, 1953-55) Condition: Average GD+, which will be auctioned in Comic Books Select auction #122426, June 23-25, 2024 (Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday) at Heritage Auctions.

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