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Treasure Chest of Fun and Fact
The Treasure Chest of Fun & Fact was an American Catholic comic book that began publication by George Pflaum of Dayton, Ohio, with a cover date of March 12, 1946. It was a response to the undesirable comic books of that time with the intent to use the comic book format to teach tenets of both Catholic faith and American patriotism. It was generally not available for sale at newsstands but rather via distribution through the Catholic parochial school system. Publisher George Pflaum was a well-known Catholic publisher. As head of the company founded by his father in 1885, he was in charge of such titles as The Young Catholic Messenger, The Junior Catholic Messenger, and Our Little Messenger, each addressed to different age groups in the Catholic school system. Pflaum, who died in 1963, was active in the Catholic Press Association and was a founder of the Catholic Civics Clubs of America, a joint project with the Commission on American Citizenship of The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. The Treasure Chest had a run of 508 issues between 1946 and 1972, almost all of which are digitized here. Contributors included Frank Borth, Bob Powell, and Reed Crandall. In the 1960s the comic began to fade and by the time it ceased publication with Volume 27, No. 8, July (Fall) 1972., The digital collection contains the first eighteen volumes running from 1946 to 1963, which are in public domain. There are some issues missing from Volume 4 (1948-1949). The issues published from 1964 through 1971 are still under copyright protection, which cannot be included in the digital collection at this time. Issues published in 1972 were not copyrighted and will be added to the collection soon.