These characters are pretty influential when you think about it. Jim Shooter knew what he was doing when he used them for Valiant. I was waiting for a video on these guys.

If nothing else, they had amazing painted covers. Paintings like these were more common for the black and white magazines like  Warren Publishing and Marvel's Curtis magazine imprint. That made their comics rather unique.

“Magnus most importantly was taught to think for himself.” Yup, that’s becoming more of a superpower month by month. Might have to seek Magnus first issue out. Cool.

As a little kid in the 60s, Gold Key comics grabbed my attention more than the popular superhero comics of Marvel and DC. Seeing them in later years always sparks intense flashbacks. My favorites were Dr. Solar (I was crazy for anything atomic and he had that visor!) , The Phantom (the skull ring!), and Magnus (his white go-go boots… wait… I guess it was the robot designs). Their covers really sparked my imagination, they seemed more “real“ than the others on the rack and really made me wonder what was going on inside. They were like sci-fi book covers (I may be mistaken but one of the Solar covers shown here looked like it was done by Richard Powers) and movie posters. I even remember the price increase! I was shocked! I didn’t know yet that prices could change. “What?! FIFTEEN cents?!!” Three cent increase is a lot of money when you’re trying to stretch your 50 cents per week comic book and candy budget at the corner carryout. Made it harder to buy an occasional Top Flite Space Master kite.

Those are comic book covers? They look more like pulp magazine covers and the interior artwork is unlike anything marvel or DC we're doing at the time. Fantastic stuff. It's always a good day when fizzpop uploads a new video.

My first introduction to many of these characters were through Valiant Comics back in the 1990's. (Still love the Turok video games to this day. I'm 41 now and was between 15-17yo when they released). However it did cause me to go to my local comic/hobby shop in the day and find out that these characters were far older than I though they origionally were. Glad you mentioned this line. Gold Key had a bigger impact than most people think they actually did

Once again you have given life to heroes of a barren wasteland. I hope that these heroes will rise again and show modern heroes something special.

I wish these characters were part of the Valiant Universe again. A Turok movie needs to happen asap.

BACK IN THE 1960 S I USE TO  READ THEM.  THEY WERW OKAY. NOW I MISS THEM.

When I was a kid, the spinner rack at the local Woolworth's (the only store close enough for me to walk to) had only Gold Key comics.  I bought Dr. Solar, Mighty Samson and Tarzan, when I had money, but my hands-down favorite was Magnus.  This was over fifty years ago, and now I see the situation in Magnus coming true.  I can't help but notice the similarity of Magnus' upbringing and training and that of Doc Savage.  Even after I could lay hands on the coveted Big Two comics, I still had a soft spot for Gold Key.  The painted covers were absolutely beautiful.  I still have most of them.

I think a lot of these characters are great, I think the post apocalypse N'york story would be cool with all the nuclear panic going on, Turok is a video game that needs to come back and Doctor Specter is perfect to compete with Constantine.

Gold Key is definitely underrated. Awesome cover artwork as well...

Lots of inspirations for Steve Gerber, looks like, too.  Names that end in -ar, pulp barbarians in a post apocalyptic setting.

Reading GOLD KEY was always a strange, disconnected experience.  Many of the books had no letters page or creator credits.  It was very mysterious.

My favorite Gold Key comics growing up in the 1970s were Dr. Spektor, Boris Karloff Tales Of Mystery, The Twilight Zone and Ripley's True Ghost Stories. I also loved the Disney line, The Little Monsters and Wacky Witch. I really loved the beautiful covers of these titles.

Don't forget Space Family Robinson, apparent inspiration for Lost in Space (though completely different in style and characterization) and  Kona of Monster Isle, a prehistoric muscleman who aided a scientific crew and even learned to fly a plane.

I had a few of these in the early 80’s when I was a kid. Tragg, Mighty Samson, but my favourite was Turok. It was difficult to get much media with dinosaurs in those days (believe it or not), and Turok was a very unique and interesting story with loads of epic dinosaur encounters. Good times!

I love Gold Key comics!! Magnus, Robot Fighter, Doctor Solar, and The Occult Files of Dr Spektor and UFO Flying Saucers were my favorites!!

Wow, when I was young I grabbed every Gold Key book I could get my hands on.  Loved those things, but they were very hard to come by compared to the stuff from the Big Two so I hardly ever managed to find enough issues of any one book to really understand the characters.  Always felt like I was looking through a peephole at a much broader story, the mystery of which just made them more appealing to me.

This was a major nostalgia rush. Magnus robot fighter, space family robinson, mighty samson, and mars patrol were my favorites back then.