Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, September 17, 2003 - Page 11 ■ ObserverMelbourne Collectables Feature Harken to thee, faithful ones readership from 9000 to 20,000 per By Robert Thomas This week is the 34th birthday edition. He left in 1964 to become of the Melbourne Observer. founding editor for Rupert Murdoch's There were some interesting sales in The newspaper was re-launched new national broadsheet, The Austra- the Australian comic book market on on September 18 last year. lian. eBay last year. The Observer was founded in He resigned a year later after a dis- A frenzied bidding war resulted in 1969 by Gordon Barton, but its pute with Rupert Murdoch and began the record sales of the following comic most colourful owner was self-publishing a profitable newsletter, books: Maxwell Newton. Incentive (dubbed 'Invective' in some ● Amazing Spider-Man #1, $360 Part of the empire was a comic journalistic circles), dealing with poli- ● F antastic Four #1, $204 publishing enterprise, whose tics and economic policy. ● X-Men #1, $204 products make more today as ● Incredible Hulk #1, $202 collectables, than they did in Gap ● Silver Surfer #1, $112.00 the mid-1970s. In 1970 Maxwell Newton began The Comic Buyer's Guide currently publishing the Melbourne Observer, values a near mint copy of Amazing stances. A scholarship in 1951 to later renamed the Sunday Observer, Spider-Man #1 at $US20,000, so why study economics saw him attend Clare seizing the opportunity to fill a gap is $A360.00 considered a record? College, Cambridge, UK, where he after the previous owner of the paper More like a bargain price surely? passed his exams and achieved the had closed it down, leaving Melbourne That would be true if referring to the award for outstanding economics without a Sunday newspaper. original Marvel version from the graduate of the year and was made After the first few struggling years United States. honorary scholar. he achieved respectable circulation for However this version is the Austra- After graduation he secured a job of Australia House in London. In 1954 the Sunday Observer, achieving at its lian comic reprint. $360 for a 30c larising both in equal measure by in the Australian Public Service work- he was recalled to Australia to work their loyalty or loathing of him. At height print runs of up to 200,000 a black-and-white reprint? A 1200-fold ing as a clerk in the Treasury section in the Canberra office of the Treasury. copy. price increase on something produced the heights of his career he rubbed After a year he applied for and ob- shoulders with politicians and Prime However, competition reared its on the cheap by a comic company that tained a position in the research de- head when a rival paper, the Sunday lasted little over a year? A more re- Ministers, captured the attention of partment of the Bank of New South thousands of readers through his Press, began publishing in 1973. Max's cent listing on eBay saw F antastic Wales. Boredom quickly set in and as newspaper was being printed on "baby F our #1 for auction with an asking newspapers, fought the establish- an outlet for his active mind, Maxwell ments of the newspaper industry and presses" (i.e. small suburban company price of $800! So what's the story wrote a series of letters to The Sydney presses) throughout the Melbourne here? commanded the respect of his peers Morning Herald on political and eco- with his influential economic and po- district. Genius nomic issues, which brought him to Concerned that the competition litical columns. the attention of its editors. By contrast, the depths of his ca- may deny him secure printing con- The story begins with the Perth- They were impressed enough to tracts and facilities for his newspaper, born journalist and newspaper entre- reer were equally extreme. While con- contact him and, after an interview stantly battling the life-long demons Maxwell bought and took over Regal preneur Maxwell Newton and the where Maxwell bluffed his way into Press, giving him the capacity to print company in question was Newton of booze and prescription drugs, he achieving a higher salary, offered him would endure bankruptcy, accusations the Sunday Observer on his own. Comics, which during 1975 - 1976 was the job of the Herald's political corre- Maxwell moved his premises to 1 licensed to reprint Marvel Comics for of espionage and police raids on his spondent. offices. Newton Street (the street name is a co- the Australian market. Thus began Maxwell's roller- incidence) and heavily upgraded the Maxwell Newton (1929-1990) has He also briefly boasted the largest coaster entry into the world of jour- brothel and pornographic publishing printing facilities and plant operations been described as brilliant, complex, nalism and politics. As an astute of Regal Press, allowing him to pub- creative, driven, gifted, a genius, ex- house Melbourne had ever seen prior writer he would formulate policy and to his self-imposed exile to the US in lish colour magazines and newsprint. cessive, extreme, erratic, passionate, speeches for opposition Labor leaders, In a rush of extravagance he hired unorthodox and, sadly, ultimately self- the 1980s. 'Doc' Evatt and Arthur Calwell. He Maxwell Newton's hectic career a 727 jet to import the equipment destructive. ● Max Newton: proprietor was later appointed Managing Editor began in relatively quieter circum- from Germany. He made friends and enemies, po- of Newton Comics of the Financial Review, building the ● Turn to Page 12 CHAPTER 1 BOOKS & COMICS Buy - Sell - Exchange Classics & Collectables, Non-Fiction, Fiction, Fantasy, Crime, Sci-Fi, Romance, Childrens & First Editions Thousands of Book & Comic Titles Available! Mail Order & Want Lists Welcome! Shop 2, 260 Dorset Road, Boronia (Inside the Boronia Arcade) Phone: (03) 97651 1330 ■ Fax: (03) 9762 5420 Write to us at: P.O. Box 79, Boronia, Vic. 3155 E-mail: [email protected] ■ Page 12 - Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, September 17, 2003 ObserverMelbourne Collectables Feature Marvel Comics in Australia: a comic book story ● From Page 11 Most kids had no idea they were Born in Casino, NSW, Marty The crowning piece was a giant reading reprints anyway and were Dougherty worked his way up the R oland colour press that cost happy just to marvel at the exploits journalistic ranks starting as a police $240,000. At the time it was the big- of Superman, Batman, Wonder rounds cadet for the Sydney Morning gest sheet-fed colour press in Victoria Woman, the Justice League, the Teen Herald in 1963. with the capacity to print 20,000 Titans and myriad other heroes with He worked on The Australian and glossy colour covers per hour. all their wild and imaginative adven- Sydney Morning Herald before be- Armed with secure and updated tures. coming managing editor of Newton's printing facilities Maxwell now had to Many comic collectors today were publishing vehicle, Regal Press. tackle the problem that many new introduced to their hobby through the T all, affable and easy-going, with an publishers face when publishing a KG Murray range of reprints. Particu- Irish-Australian shrewdness and socia- once-a-week newspaper. lar interest in these comics has grown bility, he would prove adept at bring- The Sunday Observer only saw the over the last decade and they are ing people together and securing deals. presses operating on weekends there- much sought after items at conven- He would later start his own suc- fore Maxwell needed to publish some- tions, collectibles fairs and eBay with cessful public relations consultancy, thing during the week to keep the price ranges varying from $5 to $40 Dougherty Communications, boasting presses running. and sometimes higher. an impressive clientele including Sir It was in this market that Maxwell Peter Abeles, Donald Trump, Rupert Collapse Newton would launch his own New- Murdoch and Kerry Packer. His solution was two-fold: he used ton Comics imprint in 1975, reprint- Dougherty Communications is still the presses to publish soft-core por- ing Marvel Comics. Marvel Comics operating to this day. nography, selling by mail order revolutionized the comic world in Instrumental the federal government enacted an through his newspaper. He printed 1963 with The Fantastic Four, Spider- adopted by writer Stan Lee and Martin Dougherty was also instru- and sold such titles as Bedside Plea- import ban on foreign comics, KG Man, Avengers and X-Men and other Murray Publishing had been success- thrilled to the dynamic artistry of mental in Warwick Fairfax's ill-fated sure, Eros, Colour Sexy Swingers and now heroic icons. attempted take over of John Fairfax fully reprinting National Periodical/ comic legends Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Kings Cross Whisper. Readers identified with the realis- John Romita and others. Ltd. in the late 1980's, serving as group Such was the success of these maga- DC comics from the US for the Aus- tic "heroes with problems" approach managing director for The Sydney tralian market in black and white. Stan Lee, ever the great communi- zines that Maxwell would concentrate cator and salesman, struck a rapport Morning Herald. solely on publishing pornography af- These included such titles as Tip Marty Dougherty always had a gen- T op, Superman Supacomic, Wonder with his readers with his irreverent ter the collapse of his newspaper busi- and firmly tongue-in-cheek Bullpen eral interest in comics from a reader's ness. (These titles are no doubt col- Comics, Mighty, Climax, Super Ad- point of view. venture, All Favourites and many oth- Bulletins letters page chock-full of lectibles today in some markets but hyperbole and hoopla, ushering in the Charged with the responsibility of that may be an article for another ers under the Planet Comics and later producing comics for Max Newton's Murray Comics banner.