Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: black cat, Harvey Comics, joe simon

The Earliest Black Cat Adventures in Pocket Comics #1-3, at Auction

The Black Cat made her debut in Pocket Comics #1 by Alfred Harvey and Al Gabriel, and the featured covers by Joe Simon and Bob Powell.

Of the genesis of Pocket Comics which debuted long-running character the Black Cat among others, Joe Simon noted in his biography Joe Simon: My Life in Comics, that "Alfred's first offices were on 44th Street in the same building as Fawcett Comics. He had this idea for "pocket comics," little books that were half the size of regular comics, but were still ten cents. I thought it was a crazy idea, but he was my friend, so I did a lot of free work for him. So did Jack Kirby. I drew the covers for Champ and Green Hornet, and we both did some covers for Speed Comics. We signed our work 'Jon Henri' to avoid any conflict with Timely Comics. After all, at that point we still thought we were going to get royalties on Captain America."

"At first the concept seemed to take off like a rocket," Simon noted. "Pocket Comics was Harvey's debut title, hitting the stands in 1941 [Harvey had previously acquired titles Champ Comics and Speed Comics from other publishers]. I did the cover and some artwork for that first issue, while Bob Powell and Al Avison did interior features. It had the first Black Cat story ever published, written by Alfred Harvey and drawn by Al Gabriele. But then it came to light that a lot of the pocket omics were being stolen, right off of the newsstands. They fit conveniently into the pockets of the buyers, and the vendors dropped them like a hot potato. Immediately Alfred went back to the regular comic book format."

The Black Cat's debut in Pocket Comics #1 in 1940 is a fascinating combination of pulp fiction mystery, espionage action, and old Hollywood glamour. The story opens with Linda Turner, daughter of silent film star Tim Turner, working as a stuntwoman in Hollywood. Linda suspects a film director named Garboil of being a Nazi spy, and to gather evidence on him, creates the costumed identity of the Black Cat. She quickly runs into a reporter named Rick Horne who is investigating the same Nazi spy ring.

Working together, they discover that Garboil is planting secret information into his films. Linda uses her knowledge of the studio to thwart Garboil's plans, but the villain manages to escape, leading Linda to continue as the Black Cat to keep watch on him.  Pocket Comics is a short-lived and underappreciated series, and there are copies of Pocket Comics #1-3 up for auction in the 2024 May 30 Adventures in the Golden Age Comics Showcase Auction #40261 at Heritage Auctions.

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