Today in Comics History, August 11: Happy birthday, Lyle Stuart!

Born on this day in 1922: author and publisher Lyle Stuart, founder of (natch) Lyle Stuart, Inc., which published classics like The Sensuous Woman and Naked Came the Stranger, not to mention Crucifix in a Deathhand by Charles Bukowski. he also published The Anarchist Cookbook (huh!) and The Turner Diaries (ick!). Most relevant to our interests, he was the business manager of EC Comics line (he was a good friend of publisher Bill Gaines). Here is is freakin' out over what Bill's doin' with the company money (understandably so)!

"The Board of Educational Comics" EC subsciption advertisement by Will Elder
(Click picture to adult-education-size)
Stuart was also notable for a running feud with gossip columnist Walter Winchell, whom he exposed as a hypocritical adultere and a racist, and it ended with Lyle's arrest over a parody of A Visit from St. Nocholas printed in the first issue of Panic. All that about Santa Claus! Let's let Mark 'n' Sergio explain it all for you:


from The CBLDF Presents: Liberty Comics (Image, July 2008); co-script by Mark Evanier; co-script, pencils, and inks by Sergio Aragonés; colors by Tom Luth; letters by Stan Sakai