Early life and career Goldwater was born in
East Harlem, New York on February 14, 1916, to Jewish parents. "His mother died giving birth to him... and his father succumbed to grief, abandoning his baby and dying soon afterward," leaving the orphaned John to be raised by a
foster mother, Rose Ettinger. leaving "New York, hopping freight trains and bumming rides to the Midwest, where he worked for a time in
Hiawatha, Kansas as a
news reporter. Assigned to school sports, he hung around with football teams, meeting the players and the girls they attracted, who would later supply him with ample comic material." A few years later, "he continued west to the
Grand Canyon, where he worked at a lodge," from which he was dismissed for "socializing with the female help." His employers paid for him to travel to
San Francisco, where he saved enough money (again working as a reporter) to travel by ship back to New York. Finding success in his venture, Goldwater was soon joined by Silberkleit and Maurice Coyne to form their own publishing venture
MLJ Comics (named after the first initial of each of the three individuals).
Success The success of the Archie line of comics, thought Goldwater, was because At its peak, the Archie
comic strip ran in 750 newspapers, while comics sales continue to sell millions of copies each year (from a height of c. 50 million) through grocery stores and newsvendors as well as tailored comics shops - Archie Comics' output is among the few still carried by the full range of venues. ==The Comics Code==