Press Feature Service

Dun's Gazette for New South Wales v.90#3 (July 17, 1953) reports the new company, Press Feature Service Pty. Limited: "Reg. 3/7/53. Cap.: £50,000 in £1 shares. Objects: To carry on the business of publishers, printers, advertisers and advertising agents, etc. Subs.: Marion H. Gorfain and Arthur D. Gorfain (1 share each). Reg. office: Sydney. (Lodged by Robison, Maxwell & Allan, 19 Bligh-st., Sydney.)"

Arthur Gorfain (b. 1912) sold crosswords, columns, short stories, photo stories and comics to Australian newspapers and magazines (including Australian Women's Weekly). Gorfain travelled overseas and became Australian representative for a number of agencies, including The Daily Express, the Daily Mail, London Punch and Curtis Brown.

Gorfain was editor and publisher of Silver Jacket, published by Beaconsfield Productions from October 1953 to May 1956. The Silver Jacket was a boys’ paper mainly composed of text stories and features. The bulk of its comic work was drawn by John L. Curtis, who also painted most of its covers. Press Feature Service and Beaconsfield Productions were both based at 149 Castlereagh Street.

Press Feature Service engaged George Roots, John Curtis, Royce Bradford and other artists as well as handling freelance material by Stan Pitt and 'Carmac'. It was for this syndicate that Roots created Wilbur which ran in a few papers such as Hobart's The Mercury, Brisbane Telegraph and Singleton Argus from as early as February 1947 until at least 1954.

Press Feature Service published some children's books during the 1950s. The company's most famous property was Frontiers of Science, an illustrated strip of 'science fact' created in Sydney and syndicated worldwide through over 600 newspapers between 1961 and 1982. Gorfain sold the company to Alan Foley Pty Ltd in 1963 (renamed Auspac Media in 1988).

(Based mainly on John Ryan, Panel by Panel, p. 203-204.)