Then, it all stopped virtually overnight. The import restrictions were lifted in 1959 and American pulp magazines and comics flooded the country again, falling out of fashion altogether soon after as TV conquered middle Australia. And with a dire shortage of company records, very little original artwork or text remains.

In 1939, American fiction magazine imports were undercutting local production. It prompted artists, writers and publishers to lobby for tariffs to stem the tide, and a thriving new market sprang up to slake the public’s voracious thirst for cheap, short fiction.

Though easy to scoff that it’s only in America you’d find an industry lobby group for pizza chefs and pizzeria owners, awards from the Pizza Expo are world-renowned and not to be sniffed at.