Odhams Press

In 1834 William Odhams left Sherborne, Dorset, for London,[lower-alpha 1] where he initially worked for The Morning Post. In 1847, he went into partnership with William Biggar in Beaufort Buildings, Savoy, London; and in the 1870s he started the business known as William Odhams. Originally a jobbing printer and newspaper publisher, William Odhams sold the business to his two sons, John Lynch Odhams and William James Baird Odhams, in 1892. The business, then a small printing firm in Hart Street employing about twenty people, became known as Odhams Bros.

Odhams Limited was created in 1898. Julius Elias, who left school at the age of 13 before going to work as an office boy at Odhams Bros, worked his way up to become managing director and eventually chairman of the firm, which after a merger with John Bull in 1920 took the name Odhams Press Ltd. That same year, the company also founded Ideal Home and acquired the equestrian magazine Horse & Hound.

Odhams acquired a 51% share in the Trades Union Congress paper the Daily Herald in 1930 (by that point, Odhams was already publishing The Sunday People). A promotion campaign ensued, and in 1933, the Herald became the world's best-selling daily newspaper, with certified net sales of 2 million. This accomplishment set off a war with more conservative London papers, such as the Daily Express.

By 1937 Odhams had founded the first colour weekly, Woman, for which it set up and operated a dedicated high-speed print works. Later, Odhams expanded into book publishing, for example publishing Winston Churchill's Painting as a Pastime (1965), Rupert Gunnis's Dictionary of British Sculptors 1660–1851 (1953), and an edition of the complete works of William Shakespeare.

In 1954, Odhams Press Hall was built in Watford, designed by Yates, Cook and Derbyshire. The building was later protected by the Watford Borough Council because of the innovative clock tower, which houses a water tank for use in printing.[2]

In the 1950s, Odhams was one of London's three leading magazine publishers – along with Newnes/Pearson and the Hulton Press.

Throughout the 1960s, Odhams Books Ltd (likewise founded by Odhams Press) operated the Companion Book Club (CBC). This published a large series of hardcover novels.

Odhams published Mickey Mouse Weekly from the 1930s (acquiring it from Willbank Publications), which featured American reprints as well as original British Disney comics material, including a number of non-Disney-related strips. Odhams lost the rights to Disney characters in 1957, and almost immediately launched the weekly comic Zip, which inherited the non-Disney strips from Mickey Mouse Weekly.

In 1959, Odhams purchased George Newnes Ltd[3][4][5] as well as its imprint C. Arthur Pearson Ltd. Notable comics titles originally published by Pearson and continued by Odhams included the romance comics Mirabelle and Marty, and the Picture Stories and Picture Library series.

In 1959–1960, Odhams acquired Hulton Press, renaming it Longacre Press,[lower-alpha 2][6] thus taking over publication of the children's comics Eagle,[7] Girl, Swift,[8] and Robin.

In 1960 Cecil Harmsworth King, chairman of the Daily Mirror newspaper, made an approach to Odhams on behalf of Fleetway Publications (formerly the Amalgamated Press). Odhams' board found this too attractive to refuse and, in 1961, Odhams was taken over by Fleetway.[9] In 1963 its holdings were amalgamated with those of Fleetway and others to form the International Publishing Corporation (known as IPC). Between 1964 and 1968 Odhams operated as a subsidiary of IPC.

Odhams' "juveniles" (i.e., children's comics) competed for readers with DC Thomson, publisher of such popular titles as The Beano, The Dandy, and Commando. Alf Wallace, who had found success at Fleetway with his line of War Picture Library comics, was brought over to oversee Odhams' comics line. He was, however, unable to reverse the declining popularity of Eagle and Swift, or succeed with Boys' World, launched in 1963.[10] In fact, by early 1964, Swift and Boys' World had both been absorbed by Eagle, which, along with Girl, was then taken over by IPC.

In desperation, Wallace recruited veteran cartoonist Leo Baxendale, who had worked for DC Thomson for many years, to create a new, energetic comics weekly.[10] Baxendale's Wham! debuted on 20 June 1964, breaking the mould of traditional British humour strips with its use of bizarre humour, outrageous puns, and surreal plots. With the success of Wham!, the next title in the new line, Smash!, debuted on 5 February 1966. With Odhams acquiring the Marvel Comics license in early 1966, The Hulk became the first Marvel superhero to show up in an Odhams title when he debuted in Smash! #16 (21 May 1966). The popularity of that strip led to Wham! adding Fantastic Four reprints beginning 6 August 1966. In late 1966, with two Odhams' titles featuring superheroes (and the third, Pow!, on the way), the Power Comics line was created. The line, which also came to include Fantastic and Terrific, was notable for its use of superhero material reprinted from Marvel, serving as an introduction of this new breed of American superheroes to UK readers.

In 1968 Odhams encountered financial problems, partly due to unfavourable economic conditions in Britain.[11][12] As a result of this, and of IPC's desire to rationalise its titles and eliminate duplication, the comics published by the Odhams Press imprint were closed or transferred to IPC Magazines Ltd, another IPC subsidiary. This contained the losses on the Power Comics range within Odhams, which was a limited company with separate liability, but, in consequence, Odhams became financially unviable. On 1 January 1969 it effectively ceased to exist as a publishing business, when publication of its last surviving comics title, Smash!, was taken over by IPC.[lower-alpha 3] (In 1971, Smash! merged with the IPC title Valiant.)