Diversification and decline

Duke and the Dope 1: (Atlas, Australia)

From 1955 Atlas entered its final period and its comic output declined, despite some new titles such as Red Ryder Comics, Billy the Kid, Duke and the Dope, Little Beaver, Mr. Nobody and the Australian Anthony Action.

Most of its comic series appear to have ended by 1956, including long-running titles such as Secret Agent X9, Rip Kirby and Sergeant Pat of the Radio-Patrol.

Little Beaver 1: (Atlas, Australia)

Atlas's gradual exit from the comics market probably had numerous reasons—growing censorship,¹ reduced sales as interest in comics declined through the decade,² and the company directors' broader interests. Atlas artist Arthur Mather reports the company's founders Jack Bellew and Clive Turnbull didn't value comics and had broader publishing aspirations. "...They hoped to use [Captain Atom] as a seed-bed for their publishing company,” says Mather, “for the publishing of high quality magazines...”³

From 1955, Atlas released numerous fiction and pulp novels series, including the Science Fiction Library,⁴ Crime Library,⁵ Police File,⁶ Detective Library,⁷ Western Library,⁸ Deadshot Western,⁹ and Western Stories.¹⁰ Other pulp oriented novels were also released.¹¹

Flash Gordon 8: (Atlas, Australia)

The company's output included fiction-oriented periodicals such as Science Fiction Monthly and Mercury Mystery Book Magazine.¹² Squire continued to be published until at least 1956.

In 1955, The Pharmaceutical Guild of Australia contracted Consolidated Press to print Family Circle. Bellew and Warnecke soon took over producing the magazine, but with little financial success. It ceased publication in 1957. That year, Jack Bellew died and George Warnecke permanently relocated to Ireland. The entire company appears to have ceased operation by 1958.¹³

Grey Domino 56: (Atlas, Australia)

Among Atlas's last comics, probably published in 1957 rather than 1958, were some of its longest running Australian titles, Ghost Rider and Grey Domino, as well as reprints such as Buck Ryan and Flash Gordon.

A number of Atlas Publications' comics were later issued with new covers (and in some cases repeatedly re-issued) by Page Publications in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Page generally picked up the numbering of the original series, suggesting that the company had significant knowledge of the backlist of titles and possibly acquired the full files from Atlas.