Martin Goodman

Martin Goodman, born Moe Goodman (January 18, 1908 – June 6, 1992), was an American publisher of pulp magazines, paperback books, men's adventure magazines, and comic books, launching the company that would become Marvel Comics. Moe Goodman, who would later adopt the name Martin, was the oldest son of 13 recorded children of Isaac Goodman (b. 1872) and Anna Gleichenhaus (b. 1875), who had met in the United States after separately emigrating from their native Vilna, Lithuania, then part of Russia. The family lived at different homes in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. As a young man, Moe traveled around the country during the Great Depression, living in hobo camps. Circa late 1929, future Archie Comics co-founder Louis Silberkleit, then circulation manager at the magazine distribution company Eastern Distributing Corp., hired Goodman for his department, assigning him clients that included publisher Hugo Gernsback. Goodman later became circulation manager himself, but the company went bankrupt in October 1932. Goodman then joined Silberkleit and other investors as part owner of Mutual Magazine Distributors, and was named editor of Silberkleit's new sister company, the publisher Newsstand Publications Inc.

As editor[]

• Marvel Comics 1
• Marvel Mystery Comics 2

Notes[]

• Martin Goodman was married to Jean Davis, who was a cousin of Stan Lee and Larry Lieber. Is it a surprise to anyone that Stan was a Nepo Baby?
• In 1957, Martin Goodman shut down the Atlas distribution line in favor of the more economically feasible American News Distribution company. As such, all of the Atlas titles produced by Marvel at this time were discontinued.