The company was founded in 1947 by
Jack Bellew and
George Warnecke, two former journalists at
The Daily Telegraph, and
Clive Turnbull, who at the time was a staff writer and art critic for the Melbourne-based
Herald. The company was managed by
Peter Ryan, who characterised the founders as "a small syndicate of well-off Melbourne lefty journalists". Warnecke himself would later describe the venture to friends as an "Intelligent Young Man's Guide to Capitalism". The company achieved a major success with its 1948 series
Captain Atom drawn by
Arthur Mather and written largely by Jack Bellew under the pen name "John Welles". Captain Atom (no relation to the later American superhero
Captain Atom) was one of the few original Australian comic heroes to have his own merchandising and fan club. The comic was originally published entirely in colour, but Atlas followed their chief rival,
K.G. Murray, and switched to black and white two years later when the cost of colour printing became prohibitive. Despite the switch to black and white, the
Captain Atom series remained successful, running to 64 issues over the next six years. The majority of Atlas's comics publications were reprints of British or American comic strips or Australian versions of them, such as
Sergeant Pat of the Radio Patrol (based on two characters of the American strip
Radio Patrol) and
Brenda Starr with illustrations by
Yaroslav Horak, who like Arthur Mather and
Andrea Bresciani became a regular artist for Atlas. However, Atlas was best known for its home-grown Australian comics—in addition to
Captain Atom, it published
Keith Chatto's
The Lone Wolf and Terry Trowell's
Grey Domino. In 1955, Atlas launched its
science fiction magazine,
Science Fiction Monthly, which ran for 18 issues and ended in 1957. Although it largely published stories reprinted from foreign magazines, including three by
A. Bertram Chandler,
Science Fiction Monthly also published some original stories such
Wynne Whiteford's "Ancestral Home" and articles on the science fiction genre by
Forrest J Ackerman. In the mid-1950s Warnecke and Bellew also bought out
Frank Packer's interest in the women's magazine
Family Circle and began publishing it under the Atlas imprint. Atlas's other publications included
Miss Young Romance comics,
Heart-Throb photo novels, novelettes of Western stories, a racing guide, and the men's magazines
Zowie,
Fun and
Frolic. Through its associated imprint, Western & United Publishing, the company published reprints of books aimed at teenage girls such as its 1952
How To Get Along With Boys. Atlas ceased publication in 1958. Jack Bellew had died in 1957. George Warnecke moved to Ireland that same year. Page Publications acquired the rights to some of the Atlas comics such as
Sergeant Pat of the Radio Patrol and continued to publish them through the 1960s. Clive Turnbull remained in Melbourne and went on to write a series of biographies, a history of Australia, and a book on Australian art. ==Notes==