I bought them off the newsstand. I liked the painted covers. As far as TV tie ins I bought stuff if I liked it on TV. Honestly I preferred their original material like the Jungle Twins. I didn't buy them regularly due to spotty distribution where I lived. I actually could find Charlton Comics titles more than the Gold Key ones. And yes they have a special place in comics history IMO. I view them like Archie Comics. Good memories of wholesome stories.

Contrary to some opinions, GK's Star Trek--while never on the level of the series it adapted--was presented as interesting space opera, rather than the sci-fi drama of its source. Main artist--the great Alberto Giolitti--was a "win" for this title, as his experience with realistic western and adventure titles, made him a perfect fit for the kind of planetside stories so often used for GK's Star Trek. That, and as you'll likely see repeated, the excellent painted covers from George Wilson made GK's adaptation one of the most consistently entertaining ST adaptations ever published.

The Occult files of Doctor Spektor was a unique title, in that its running themes of the supernatural was not all that common in comics of the time (the title launched in 1973). Yes, you had on-again, off-again Doctor Strange titles at Marvel, but supernaturally aligned human characters (IOW, not The Spectre) were sort of pushed to the side, particularly if they existed in a superhero universe. Doctor Spektor and his assistant (Native American Lakota Rainflower) were a unique pair in stories that could have been read as scripts for a weekly TV series. Between Jesse Santos' stylish, very "un-Marvel-like" art to the unending benefit of George Wilson's magnificent painted covers, The Occult Files of Doctor Spektor was an example of Gold Key having its own, distinctive voice outside of adapting TV and film properties.





Where to start? Between Ripley's Believe it or Not, Star Trek, Dark Shadows, Grimm's Ghost Stories, The Twilight Zone, Boris Karloff's Tales of Mystery, Space Family Robinson, etc. Gold Key enjoyed some of the finest covers of any publisher, and are still standouts in the sub-category of painted comic book covers (that's saying much in a field playing host to Warren and Marvel magazines, to name a couple of publishers).




I've collected most of the titles listed in this post, along with short-lived offerings such as The Green Hornet and Thriller.
-Did you grow up reading them off the newsstand/spinner rack? With all the tie-ins to properties from shows/movies, did you buy based on that?





Although movie and TV adaptations pre-dated the launch of the Gold Key imprint, it was through that company that the idea of actively adapting TV series created a very fixed, almost expected trend / sub-category in comics, one that was profitable. For example, in John Wells' book American Comic Book Chronicles: 1965-69 (TwoMorrows Publishing, 2014) the success of a Gold Key TV property in 1967 - the very height of the "superhero boom"--gave an indicator of how Gold Key was not "buried" by the competition as is the standard myth about the company:



Impressive: at the time, MAD was on fire as a sharp, witty, occasionally dark humor magazine (arguably the height of their vitality in that category), Archie was only growing in popularity (even before the creation of records & Filmation cartoons), and Bat-tiles were (for a time) a license to print money, yet a Gold Key title was right up there in terms of sales. That the title outselling most of the competition was a TV adaptation certainly made Gold Key a name associated with such four-color spin-off in ways DC and Marvel never would be--certainly not as prolific as Gold Key in terms of output

I suggest you seek out GK's adaptation of Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970), which has the distinction of being the first adaptation of the original film series, and arguably the best, as Giolitti's art is so much closer to the film source than Marvel's published some five years later. Samples--

Gold Key's Flash Gordon was pretty darn good, with Carlos Garzon on the art. Nice sort of sequel to the classic Alex Raymond adventures, with a little modernization.



One area where I wish the interiors were as good as the covers was with The Phantom. George Wilson did painted covers for it (and th Avon paperback books); but, Bill Ligante did the interiors and it really lacked punch. he wasn't a bad artist; but it was less dynamic than others, even Sy Barry, on the newspaper strip. They couldn't hold a candle to the Charlton Phantom comics, with Pat Boyette; and, especially, Jim Aparo and Don Newton.

Growing up in the Midwest, Gold Keys were easier to find than other places, since Western's HQ was Racine, WI. You'd see them in toy departments, in stores, some newsstands and some grocery stores, especially the bagged sets. When I was collecting, they and Charlton were harder to find, unless you lucked into a good shop, like Heroes Aren't Hard to Find, in Charlotte, NC. I searched quite a bit for some early Doctor Solar and found a few there, and some Magnus (Magnus was tougher to find) and it was really hard to find stuff like Space Family Robinson and Dagar. Forget about the Disney and other humor/kid stuff, as a lot of shops only wanted to carry back issues of superheroes (had trouble with westerns and war comics, when I would hunt for them). Every once in a while I would find a shop that had a decent selection, if not thorough. Very hard to find them in better than good-Very Good Condition. I wasn't that picky; but, you didn't see a lot of them in much better condition, when you'd find them. Funny enough, I didn't have much trouble with locating all of the Flash Gordons.

Gold Keys were also the first comics that I had been given, though mostly in humor sets, with a couple of adventure ones. I remember getting at least one set with Space Family Robinson and Turok; can't recall what might have been the third title. Had one or two with Uncle Scrooge, Super Goof and one of the other Disneys. There was a bit of shared universe happening, as the Beagle Boys would be villains in both Super Goof and Uncle Scrooge.

Beneath the Planet of the Apes is so very close to the film and novel (using some of the novel and original script's dialogue during the climatic fight over the Alpha-Omega missile), and achieved in one issue what other publishers would stretch out for several issues.

Here are some samples from The Occult Files of Doctor Spektor, with covers and splash pages from issues #9 (August, 1974) and #13 (April, 1975). The covers were from the brush of George Wilson (of course), while the interiors were from the underrated Jesse Santos (also co-creator of Gold Key's Dagar the Invincible with Donald Glut)--







Many a comic reader and historian usually gloss over the fact that Gold Key had its own mini-universe of characters crossing over with one another; Doctor Spektor played host to Doctor Solar, the revived Dell character the Owl, and Tragg (from Tragg and the Sky Gods) and the aforementioned Dagar.

With Doctor Spektor being an early 1970's creation, everything from his stories, allies, style of dress and art were heavily leaning in the gothic horror genre having a major resurgence at that time (thanks in large part to Dan Curtis' horror TV movies, the Dark Shadows TV series, and the films of Hammer Studios), rather than being a supernatural character treated to the same superhero handling one might see at other publishing houses. Spektor was not cut from the cloth that created Doctors Fate or Strange, and arguably had more appeal as a semi-tragic hero.

Santos--as strong with the pencil as well as the brush--was wise to blend art more associated with romance comics with his intricate line art and stylized appearance of characters, giving the title so unique a look. Eaily one of my favorite Gold Key titles.

My very first comic* was a Gold Key:



I think I had a few Disney titles as well, but my memory of those is blurry. If I saw the covers I might recognize them.

*It was either this or Marvel Super-Heroes #48, which has thee same cover date. Maybe I got them at the same time, I don't remember.

I used to get Gold Key (and later, Whitman) comics at the supermarket, usually in the polybags. I was a sucker for Little Lulu digests, and anything with Super Goof and/or the Beagle Boys.



I remember the day I bought all 3 issues of the Flash Gordon movie adaptation in the same bag! Even as an 11 year old, I knew that if they had spread it across 3 bags, they could have sold 3 times the bags!



One of my favorite books in my collection is the trade paperback collection of the Starstream comics, called Questar. I have the single issues of Starstream, too, somewhere. It was really a daring experiment on their part... serious SF from classic short stories, illustrated by the Gold Key/Whitman stable of artists... including some newcomers, like Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez!



The very first "trade paperback" collection I ever got was a Star Trek The Enterprise Logs... from the treasure box at my dentist's office!



Concerning those awesome painted covers, Gold Key would usually reprint the cover on the back cover, without any text! I think they knew they were doing something special!

I know certain creators jumped from Charlton to DC or Marvel but I am uncertain of creators that came from Gold Key