Alan Class Comics was a British comics publishing company that operated between 1959 and 1989. The company produced anthology titles, reprinting comics stories from many U.S. publishers of the 1940s to 1960s in a black and white digest size format for a UK audience. During the 1960s and 1970s, these reprints were the main medium through which British children were introduced to American monster and mystery comics, as well as most non-DC or Marvel superheroes. The various Alan Class titles contained reprints of stories originally from such U.S. comics publishers as Timely, Atlas (and their later incarnation, Marvel Comics) American Comics Group (ACG), Charlton Comics, Archie Comics (and their Red Circle Comics and MLJ imprints), Fawcett Comics, Lev Gleason Publications, and Sterling Comics, as well as King Features comics and newspaper strips. Included in these reprints were many early mystery, superhero, and monster stories by artists such as Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby that are now regarded as classics of the 1950s and early 1960s. Although Alan Class put out more than 25 titles in all, the company's six core titles — Astounding Stories, Creepy Worlds, Secrets of the Unknown, Sinister Tales, Suspense Stories, and Uncanny Tales — lasted almost the entire publishing history of the company. History Alan Class (born in London, England, 21 July 1937) began as an importer of remaindered copies of American movie, romance, and detective magazines for UK distribution. (After World War II, the U.K. was intent on promoting homegrown publishers, and thus banned the direct importation of American periodicals.) To avoid the cost, supply, and importation difficulties he had encountered, in 1958 Class set up a publishing business, Alan Class and Co. Ltd, to produce his own magazines, and entered into an agreement with an American comic and comic strip syndication company for the rights to reproduce U.S. comic books and strips under their control for a U.K audience. (Coincidentally, in 1959, the U.K. lifted the previous ban on importing foreign publications.) The company's first offering was the one-shot Race for the Moon (1959), anthologizing Harvey science fiction reprints. Other one-shots and short series followed, and in the summer of 1962, the first of the Alan Class core titles, Creepy Worlds debuted; followed shortly thereafter by the debut of another long-running title, Secrets of the Unknown. Core titles Suspense Stories and Uncanny Tales debuted in 1963, Sinister Tales in 1964, and finally Astounding Stories