Blue Bolt

Novelty Press sold the character and rights of Blue Bolt to L. B. Cole, who was the cover artist for the character. Cole and Kramer began Star Publications with the known Blue Bolt character, even continuing the issue numbering where Novelty Press ended, with issue number 102. With increasing demand for horror and occult genres, Star Publications made a shift in Blue Bolt, renaming it Blue Bolt Weird Tales, and later Ghostly Weird Stories. Star Publications shut down in the mid-1950s, following years of bad press and Kramer’s death. Blue Bolt Weird Tales included such violence and gore that it inspired public outcry. This eventually led to the establishment of the Comics Code Authority.