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Jack Kamen Covers the Transformation of Jo-Jo Comics, Up for Auction

With Matt Baker and others, Jack Kamen redefined the look of The Fox Feature lineup beginning in 1947, creating some of the most memorable covers of the era.

Best remembered for his work at EC Comics, Jack Kamen's work for Victor Fox via Iger Studio during that publisher's Good Girl era is also important from both an artistic and historical perspective.  Along with the covers and artwork of the legendary Matt Baker, Kamen's work at Fox during this period substantially shapes the way we think of the Good Girl comics of the pre-Code era.  His covers on Fox's Jo-Jo Comics are among the early cover examples of this type of work from Kamen, and there are copies of Jo-Jo Comics #8 (Condition: VG-) and Jo-Jo Comics #11 (Condition: VG/FN) up for auction in 2024 October 3 – 5 Good Girl Art and Romance Comics Showcase Auction #40269.

Victor Fox's recovery from his company's 1942 bankruptcy and his return to comics publishing is a complex bit of history. After regaining control of Blue Beetle, he was faced with a comic book field undergoing dramatic change.  War-driven superhero titles were on the decline at most publishers. By 1946, he would launch a range of children's humor and funny animal titles, like Jo-Jo Comics,  Zoot Comics, and Wotalife Comics. First, the remnants of his once-significant superhero line failed, and subsequent history suggests that the humor titles were doing poorly as well.

Perhaps prompted by Samuel "Jerry" Iger, Fox began to put a new plan in motion with titles that hit newsstands in April 1947.  Blue Beetle resumed with issue #45, touting itself as the "Return of America's No. 1 Hero,"  but with no apparent editorial changes — yet.  More importantly, Zoot Comics #7 featured a radical change from kid's humor comic to Good Girl title, with the debut of Rulah, Jungle Goddess by Matt Baker in an interior story, and a Jack Kamen Rulah cover.

Within five months, Fox transformed a line entirely composed of children's humor comics into a line entirely composed of comics with racy Good Girl covers. Blue Beetle was de-emphasized on the covers of his own comic book in favor of beautiful women, most notably by Kamen. Along with Zoot Comics,  Jo-Jo Comics and All-Top Comics were likewise converted to jungle adventures.  Most importantly, Phantom Lady was introduced to the Fox Feature Syndicate line-up with significant work by Baker and Kamen.

Baker and Kamen were at the forefront of this line-wide publisher reboot, and played a substantial role in the creation of a chapter of comic book history in the process.  Highly sought-after Fox Feature covers from this era, there are copies of Jo-Jo Comics #8 (Condition: VG-) and Jo-Jo Comics #11 (Condition: VG/FN) up for auction in 2024 October 3 – 5 Good Girl Art and Romance Comics Showcase Auction #40269.

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