Maple Leaf Publishing

49.3°N 123.1°W / 49.3; -123.1

Maple Leaf Publishing

Status	Defunct (c. 1946)
Founded	March 1941
Country of origin	Canada
Headquarters location	Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Publication types	Comic books

Maple Leaf Publishing was a World War II-era Canadian comic book publisher active during the Golden Age of Comic Books. They were one of four publishers—along with Anglo-American Publishing, Hillborough Studios, and Commercial Signs of Canada (later renamed Bell Features)—which published "Canadian Whites", black-and-white comic books with colour covers^[1][2] that proliferated during the war years when American imports were restricted.^[3] Maple Leaf Publishing started publishing comic books in March 1941 and went out of business when the restrictions were lifted after the end of World War II.^[1]

History

Canada declared war on Germany on September 10, 1939, entering World War II. In December 1940, with Canada's trade deficit with the still-neutral United States growing, the government passed the War Exchange Conservation Act, which restricted the importing of non-essential goods—including comic books—from the United States.^[1][4]

Four Canadian publishers, Maple Leaf, Anglo-American Publishing, Hillborough Studios, and Commercial Signs of Canada (later renamed Bell Features), independently emerged to take advantage of the legislation.^[1][4] While the other three were based in Toronto, Maple Leaf called Vancouver home.^[1][4] Maple Leaf and the larger Anglo-American published their first comic books in March 1941, the others following later in the year.^[4]

In contrast to the larger Anglo-American, which for example bought American Captain Marvel scripts and simply had them redrawn by Canadians,^[5] Maple Leaf focused on home-grown, 100% original material.^[4] Maple Leaf's first publication, Better Comics #1, is thus considered to be the first true Canadian comic book.^[4][6] It is also credited with the first Canadian superhero, Iron Man,^[1][4] debuting in March 1941 in the first issue of Better Comics, preceding Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's unrelated superhero of the same name by over two decades.^[4]

Maple Leaf's comics were modeled on the American regular comic format, minus the colour interiors.^[4] Other notable titles Maple Leaf published include Big Bang Comics, Lucky Comics and Rocket Comics.^[4][7]

However, with the end of World War II in 1945, American comics were once again dominant in Canada; Maple Leaf, Anglo-American and Bell tried to compete post-war, but failed.^[1]

Titles published

• Better Comics (34 issues, March 1941 - August/September 1946)
• Bing Bang Comics (31 issues, November–December 1941 - May–June 1946)
• Lucky Comics (34 issues, June 1941 - October–November 1946)
• Name-It Comics (1 issue, November/December 1941)
• Rocket Comics (32 issues, 1941–1946)