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The First Appearance and Origin of Marvel's Lana Lane, at Auction

Marvel launched situation comedy Lana Comics in the same month it debuted series featuring Blonde Phantom, Namora, and Venus.

Published Fri, 07 Apr 2023 04:27:10 -0500

by Mark Seifert

Last updated Sun, 09 Apr 2023 17:44:40 -0500

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Not to be confused with DC Comics' Lana Lang, Marvel's Lana Lane was the result of a number of trends developing at the publisher during the post-WWII era and beyond. The character was part of a wave of humor titles that Marvel introduced during that period, and also caught the rising tide of an industry-wide trend of titles headlining female characters in various genres. After being introduced in a backup story in Annie Oakley #2, Marvel launched Lana Comics with a debut issue that hit newsstands in May 1948 along with seven other #1 issues that month including new series launches for the Namora and Venus.

As explained in Lana Comics #1, Lana Lane was a prospective Broadway dancer in New York City, hopeful for her big break in the business. She lived in Mom Murphy's boarding house with her roommate Eve Noble and neighbors E. Worthington Hamm and Clara Bright. Clara was Lana's rival, both for the affections of Mom Murphy's son Mickey, and for making it big on Broadway. Booking agent Speedy Swift was also a series regular. In the first issue, Clara enlists Speedy in a scheme to gain publicity at Lana's expense by manufacturing some drama romantic drama over Mickey with newspaper photographers present. The plan backfires with Lana making the front page of the Timely Globe as a result, leading to multiple offers from Broadway producers.

The series continued on in that vein, lasting seven issues August 1948 – August 1949. The title was rebooted as Little Lana, a children's comedy along the lines of the likes of Little Dot or Nancy, though there's no indication that Little Lana is meant to be the same character. The creators of Lana Lane are unclear, though given the time frame Stan Lee would appear to be a strong possibility. Lana Lane would also appear in stories in a number of other titles 1948-1950, including Rusty Comics, Tessie the Typist Comics, Gay Comics, Hedy De Vine Comics, My Friend Irma and Nellie the Nurse. Oddly enough, the Lana of Frankie and Lana which ran during this same period was obviously not the same character. Lana Lane's final appearance appears to be in Joker Comics #42. which was also the last issue of that series. The humor line on the decline by this time, with the Marvel line looking fairly diverse with crime, western, romance, horror and war titles.

It's hard to gauge what CGC census numbers mean in the context of the Marvel/Atlas late 1940s to early 1950s humor titles, this material is quite a bit rarer than people might think, and specific issues can be incredibly elusive. Lana Comics #6 has only two copies on the census, while issue #4 is completely absent from the census listings for the title. A silly, charming situation comedy with some pretty covers, the first appearance of Lana Lane in Annie Oakley #2 and most issues of her series is up for auction in the 2023 April 20 Timeless Good Girl Art Comics Featuring Dan DeCarlo Showcase Auction #40221 at Heritage Auctions.