November 1969 Gold Key Comics Club News

The following page is scanned from the November 1969 issue of Gold Key’s Walt Disney Mickey Mouse comic book. This particular issue featured Goofy as well so the cover read “Walt Disney Mickey Mouse and Goofy; other issues were titled Walt Disney Mickey Mouse and Pluto whenever Mickey’s faithful dog was included.

In 1969, the title was published four times a year so the next issue didn’t come out until February 1970. Gold Key Comics Club News was a one-page “advertisement” in which the publisher promoted its various comic books. Note that the comics guide is for the month of September. Although the issue has a cover date of November it was actually on newsstands months earlier, conceivably in August.

Scan of a full page Gold Key Comics Club News advertisement
Gold Key Comics Club News
Copyright © Western Publishing Company, Inc., 1969

Note also how many television tie-in comics are listed. Gold Key published comics based on Star Trek, The Lone Ranger, The Twilight Zone, the animated Fantastic Voyage and Thriller (Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery was originally called Thriller but was retitled after the show was canceled).

Gold Key’s comic book adaptation of ABC’s Fantastic Voyage, the Saturday morning cartoon spin-off of the 1966 film that ran from 1968 to 1969, only lasted two issue. The second is advertised here.


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5 Replies to “November 1969 Gold Key Comics Club News”

  1. I believe the phrase “New Terrytoons”, in this case, Ivan, meant that a) the stories were, in effect, “new” to Gold Key, and not reprints from earlier Terrytoon comic books- and b) the characters featured in them were from the studio’s post-1959 era [after Gene Deitch left]: Heckle & Jeckle (the one tie-in from the studio’s “Golden Age”, in THEIR post-1959 design), Sidney the elephant, Hashimoto the Japanese mouse, Deputy Dawg, et. al.

    As for the retitling of “Thriller”, that might have had something to do with Gold Key unwilling to pay MCA/Universal the rights to use the “Thriller” title after that series was cancelled in 1962. But Karloff’s monthly comic was still popular {and profitable}, and they decided it was cheaper to deal directly with him, and license his name and image for “Tales of Mystery” [note the copyright notice on the panel reproduced for the “Club News” page is in KARLOFF’S name]. Therefore, his likeness continued to “host” a mystery/horror anthology that was basically an extension of his former TV series…even after his death. Of course, there was no problem with Gold Key licensing “THE TWILIGHT ZONE”, and Rod Serling’s likeness, because that was their most popular comic, published right through the ’70s…

    What intrgues me is that there was a “Choo Choo Charlie” comic book, featuring further adventures of the kid from the famous “Good ‘n’ Plenty” candy commercials of the ’60s {by permission of Quaker City Chocolate & Confectionery Company, the makers of “Good ‘n’ Plenty” at the time}. You remember the jingle:
    “Once upon a time there was an engineer,
    Choo Choo Charlie was his name, we hear,
    he had an engine and he sure had fun,
    he used Good ‘n’ Plenty candy to make his train run!
    Charlie says…
    ‘Love my Good ‘n’ Plenty!”
    Charlie says…
    ‘Really rings the bell!’ {DING!}
    Charlie says…
    ‘Love my Good ‘n’ Plenty, don’t know any other candy that I love so well!'”

    I’m quite sure that “Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier” was a reprint from the mid-’50s….

  2. I used to love the Gold Key Comics Club News! I have not seen nor thought about it in decades! This really takes me back. I used to look at the list of the titles for the month, and make a wish list in my head. I see that the list here includes “Choo Choo Charlie.” I never knew Choo Choo Charlie had a comic book! Internet searching and eBay, here I come!

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