Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: Al Feldstein, Fox Feature Syndicate, Jack Kamen, Romance Comics, victor fox

Kamen, Feldstein, Seduction of the Innocent: Fox Romance at Auction

Victor Fox's romance line is largely undiscovered country compared to most comics of that era, but contains material by Kamen, Feldstein, Wood and more.

Published Fri, 01 Mar 2024 14:27:09 -0600

by Mark Seifert

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Long considered one of the most notorious publishers in comic book history, Victor Fox was seemingly a desperate man by 1947. With the superhero genre well into its post-War decline, in August 1946, remaining Fox flagships Blue Beetle and Green Mask were halted, and Fox's rising tide of funny animal and other humor titles completely took over the company. Such titles are all Fox Feature Syndicate published for the subsequent eight months, but this effort seems to have failed entirely. 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.

My Life #4 (Fox Features Syndicate, 1948

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. 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. In the meantime, the romance genre had caught fire after the introduction of Simon & Kirby's Young Romance. Fox did what he always had done and started placing big bets on the trend, beginning with My Life #4 (taking over the numbering from Meet Corliss Archer) in September 1948. Roughly 40 different titles across around 115 distinct issues eventually followed, most of those titles obviously short-lived.

My Life #4 was also mentioned by Fredric Wertham in Seduction of the Innocent. "The confession comic into which this one turned has a totally different style, the new love-comics formula. One story, "I was a Spoiled Brat," begins with a big picture of an attractive girl looking at herself in the mirror and baring herself considerably."

Historically, the Fox romance line has tended to be confusing, but this is changing with the collaborative efforts of modern reference and research. Victor Fox cycled through a dizzying array of similar titles (22 of those titles start with "My" for example), and many of these issues are so difficult to get that it has hampered research into the Fox romance line. We recently discussed Wally Wood's contributions to Fox romance, and as one might expect from the timeline, there's little-seen Jack Kamen and Al Feldstein work here as well, among others. And then there's those covers, which often added provocative dialog to the Good Girl-style artwork. Overall, the Fox romance line is undiscovered and underappreciated country for collectors, and there are a bunch of issues up for auction in the 2024 February 29 – March 1 Golden Age Romance Featuring Fox Comics & Comic Art Showcase Auction #40258.