Ausreprints

...covering Australian comics

Ayers & James by James Zee

Introducing Ayers & James

Classics Illustrated #21 ([January 1949?])
Classics Illustrated 21: Tom Brown's Schooldays by Thomas Hughes (Ayers & James, 1949).

The Australian run of Classics Illustrated, commencing in 1947, is Ayers & James most enduring and famous comics legacy, although the company is associated with thousands of comics from the 1940s until the 1970s.1

Most of this publishing output is disguised behind diverse trading names or successors—such as Red Circle Press, Illustrated Publications, Approved Publications and others—all associated with the later Magazine Management company.

Toby Tortoise and the Hare [nn] ([1940?])
Toby Tortoise and the Hare: (Ayers & James, 1940?).

Ayers & James only gradually transitioned into comics publishing. The company was founded some time before 1916,2 operating initially as an importer3 of diverse consumer products from the United States.4

By the 1930s, Ayers & James was distributing 250,000 copies each month of magazines from Macfadden Publications (New York), a founder of the new genre of "true confessions" magazines. Macfadden launched True Story in 1919, followed by other well-known magazines such as True Detective, True Experiences and True Romances.5

Walt Disney's Uncle Remus: Brer Fox and the Rabbit Trap [nn] (1947)
Walt Disney's Uncle Remus: Brer Fox and the Rabbit Trap: (Ayers & James, 1947).

In August 1938, Ayers and James director, Mr CP Ayers,6 argued against an Australian ban on those periodicals as it discriminated against American publications, while comparable UK publications continued to be available in Australia.7 The following month, the US company's public relations counsel, Mrs. E. Lumsden, arrived in Sydney to continue the argument that the magazines were not morally offensive.8

It seems the appeal was briefly successful. However, in April 1940 imports of virtually all US magazines, including Facfadden magazines, were banned under war time credit control regulations.9 With foreign publications increasingly restricted during the war years, it seems Ayers & James saw an opportunity to be part of the burgeoning local industry.

Gun Packed Westerns [nn] ([1945?])
Gun Packed Westerns: (Ayers & James, 194-?).

Among Ayers & James' earliest publications (dating from around 1939 or 1940) were children's picture and activity books, including reprints of Walt Disney Picture Books10 and Little Golden Books.11 The Australian Little Golden Book reprints did not include the US series brand and the distinctive spine binding was just printed on the cover. Ayers and James continued to publish children's books until at least 1951.

Throughout the 1940s, Ayers & James also published reprints of pulp western stories in magazines with titles such as Gunpowder Westerns, Wild West Stories, Prairie Westerns, Action Packed Westerns and Gun Packed Westerns. These drew on the output of US companies such as Magazine Publishers (Western Trails, Western Aces) and Street & Smith Publications (Western Story, Wild West Weekly).12

Ayers and James introduced its first comics sometime soon after 1940.

References

1
Since this article in 2011 proposed that Ayers & James later became Magazine Management, I've confirmed that the two were originally separate companies. At some point, Ayers & James was acquired by Magazine Management, which also took over other previously separate companies. Magazine Management used the brand on a few books and comics in the 1970s. When I get greater clarity on the relationship, I will prepare a new article. [James, 4 November 2017]
2
For an interesting historical view of Ayers & James, see the City of Sydney Archives collection item SRC14555. Dated around 1920, the image shows a view of cables being laid in York Street, looking north toward the corner of Margaret Street, with Ayers & James Pty Ltd centre in the Columbia Building (19 York St). The view shows workmen laying Calender Cable on the east side of York Street with Wynyard Park at right. The Offices of the Presbyterian Church (21-23 York) are at left, with a sign showing 'Electrial Fittings', probably Lawrence & Hanson Electrical Co at 33 York St.
3
In 1916, Ayers & James Pty. Ltd. was listed as part of a customs inquiry into "Contravention sec. 37 Beer Excise Act, 1901-12: L.F. Probert, Deniliquin; J. Hall, Deniliquin” (SMH 24/2/1916). In the same year, the company also donated to the YMCA appeal for "Expansion of War Work" (SMH 17/4/1916. In a later legal skirmish in 1921, the company was accused of short-selling a case of silk-cotton stockings (SMH 9/11/1921). "An action was recently disposed of by Mr. Justice James and a jury in which Constantine Nicholas Malick, trading as Stanton, Malick, and Co., merchants, claimed £350 compensation from Ayers and James Proprietary, Limited, importers. Plaintiff stated he agreed to purchase from the defendants a quantity of silk-cotton stockings, to be shipped from America through a New York firm… A consignment was shipped on September 13, 1918, by the steamer Tamar, and on arrival in Sydney one of the cases was missing… A second consignment was forwarded… and again a case of the goods was found to be short. Each case was supposed to have contained 200 dozen stockings.” Earlier newpaper reports refer to "Ayers, James and Co." operating in Melbourne in 1914, but it might not be the same company (eg Examiner 23/11/1914).
4
A newspaper advertisement in May 1917 (SMH 5/5/1917) calls for "Australian Manufacturers Requiring Supplies of raw materials from America are required to communicate with us. Our facilities for procuring such to-day are unsurpassed. Ayers and James Pty., Ltd., 19 York Street, Sydney…" Over the years, Ayers and James is reported as distributing 'Dexma for Eczema' (SMH 21/7/1926 ); ‘pro-phy-lac-tic’ tooth brushes (SMH 9/10/1926); roller skates (SMH 12/2/1930); fountain pens (SMH 1/5/1951); and stationery (SMH 1/12/1951). In 1919, the company announced a salvage sale following a fire at its Melbourne offices (see The Argus 9/6/1919), comprising hosiery, pins of all descriptions, brushware, fishing lines and reels, fancy goods, bicycle repair outfits, books, pencils, rouges, hardware, oil, baizes, fly wire, sets of garden tools, carriage bolts, fly traps, silks and millinery, wire, hooks and eyes, black and white millinery wire, hat pins, toys, E.P. Ware, Shears, Cutler, etc., etc." (SMH 19/7/1919). An obituary for Tony Ayers (1938-2005), part of the company's founding family, reports that Ayers & James was primarily known for importing Bic pens into Australia.
5
See The Courier-Mail 9/2/1937. In February 1937, Mr. J. E. Williamson, export manager for Macfadden Publications arrived in Australia to establish an Australian version of True Story using Australian material. It isn't clear if the Australian editions were established at that time. From at least 1949, related titles were published for the Australian market, including True Story, True Romance, True Experience and Master Detective. Many of these are listed as published by KG Murray, although early issues could have been from a different publisher. See also Bernarr Macfadden (1868 - 1955), the "Father of Physical Culture". It isn't clear if this is the same company as MacFadden Publications International that syndicated DC Comics' editorial content to international markets from the 1940s onwards (se Spiros Xenos, notesfromthejunkyard.blogspot.com).
6
Ayers and James was a family company. A Harold Ayers (and Clarence Sivier) from the company were reported attending a funeral in 1927. (SMH 25/10/1927) Based on the 1938 report, Mr CP Ayers was with the company in 1938. An obituary for Tony Ayers (1938-2005) describes how he "graduated in Commerce from the University of N.S.W. and went to work for his father in the city at Ayers & James, an import business know primarily for importing Bic Pens into Australia. He also spent some time in New York working in the businesses." (KAC Bulletin: Official Journal of the Kosciusko Alpine Club, Issue 3: December 2005) There is no known information on the "James" side of the partnership. Bodwin Thomas from the company was aso reported donating to a UN appeal for children in 1948 (SMH 20/9/48).
7
SMH 26/8/1938: "Mr Ayers said that no English publications had been banned although it was impossible to differentiate between a number of American magazines on the black list and many English novelettes and magazines which could be obtained for as little as 2d a copy from any bookseller and which frequently contained objectionable matter. Moreover, added Mr. Ayers, certain American magazines which had recently been banned could by no stretch of the imagination be classed as offensive. He instanced ‘True Detective’ and ‘Master Detective’ which he said had been commended by high American police and public officials for their consistent policy of bringing home to the rank and file the fact that crime did not pay, and ‘True Experiences’ which he claimed was purely romantic and entirely unobjectionable. None of his magazines which had been banned had come before the Literary Censorship Board. The sole judges had been the Acting Minister for Customs Mr. Perkins and officers of the Customs Department. Mr Ayers said that Mr. Perkins had promised a deputation of importers that the department was not interested in prohibiting magazines which emphasised the fact that clime did not pay and, further, that permission would be granted for the importation of magazines in transit when the ban was imposed. Neither of these promises had been honoured."
8
SMH 26/9/1938, MAGAZINE BAN. Macfadden Publications. Woman Executive Seeks Lifting. "Mrs. E. Lumsden, public relations counsel throughout the world for Macfadden Publications, Inc., of U.S.A., arrived in Sydney on Saturday by the Niagara. She is on her way to Canberra in the hope of persuading the Federal Government to reconsider the import ban placed recently on several Macfadden magazines, including "True Detective," "Master Detective," and "True Stories of Love and Romance". 'Your authorities have got it in reverse,' she said on Saturday, speaking of the ban on the Macfadden detective publications. 'Our publications have proved to have a high value In the prevention and detection of crime. One feature, "Line Up," in which we publish the photographs of wanted criminals and oller rewards to supplement those offered by the police authorities, has been responsible tor 200 criminals being caught. Many famous American and European authorities on crime prevention, detection, and control have written for us.' Mrsr Lumsden said that 100 magazines were banned by various American States, but no Macfadden publication was among them, nor was any on the Canadian banned list, A number of times in the past seven years Macfadden magazines had been Included in bannings by various countries, but always, when the position had been explained, the bans had been removed. 'What I hope is that your authorities will agree to a re-analysis of the position in the light of the explanation that I am able to give them,' she said. 'As far as the "Love and Romance" type of magazine is concerned, while we cannot claim that it is of high intellectual value, it is literature of the people for the people, written in their own words--the very warp and woof of their own lives.'"
9
SMH 12/4/40.
10
These could date to the late 1930s if Australian editions were published soon after their US counterparts. The Whitman Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was initially published in 1938, following the 1937 release of the Disney film.
11
Children's Classics report the first batch of 12 different US Little Golden Books were published 1 October 1942.
12
For some of these, see The Douglas Taylor Collection of Australian Pulps and Paperbacks at the University of Melbourne. The company appears to have had a long-running series called Ayjay Westerns, extending to at least issue 62 (with Hot-Foot Buck by Claude Lane; The bandit in the Red Sombrera by Allan Washbrook), probably in the 1950s.
Article status

Ausreprints ID

  • 34

Article details

  • By James Zee
  • 12 July 2011

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