Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: blue beetle, fox features syndicate, golden age, Jack Kamen

The Jack Kamen Comics that Got Blue Beetle Banned, Up for Auction

Shortly after the Jack Kamen era of Blue Beetle began in 1947, the title showed up on comic book ban lists in cities around the country.

Best remembered for his work at EC Comics across a range of genres including science fiction, horror, and crime, Jack Kamen also made noteworthy late-1940s contributions to publishers like Fiction House and Fox Feature Syndicate, where his good girl artwork on titles like Phantom Lady among others is also highly sought after by collectors. We've mentioned his Fox work on Dagar, Desert Hawk, and Rulah, Jungle Goddess recently, and his Blue Beetle work is also highly sought after by collectors.  This era of the Blue Beetle series is well known to have garnered a couple of mentions in Fredric Wertham's Seduction of the Innocent, but that's only part of the story.  In 1948, shortly after the harder-edged true crime story and good girl art era had begun for this series, a number of major metros around the country put Blue Beetle on their banned comics lists.  An important part of comic book history that has long been sought after by collectors, there's an issue from this key period in CGC FN+ 6.5 with Blue Beetle #56 (Fox Features Syndicate, 1948) plus many other Golden Age issues of Blue Beetle up for auction in the 2024 September 26 – 27 Heroes of the Golden Age Comics Showcase Auction #40265 at Heritage Auctions.

The stage for this 1948 moment was set by Victor Fox over the prior 18 months. Long considered one of the most notorious publishers in comic book history, Victor Fox was seemingly a desperate man at that time. 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.

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.

1948 is an under-discussed flashpoint for the comic book industry and its battle with would-be censors.  Even as the Association of Comics Magazine Publishers announced its code guidelines and the U.S. Supreme Court's rejection of a New York State statute prohibiting the sale of publications with "pictures and stories of deeds of bloodshed, lust or crime" in WINTERS v. PEOPLE OF STATE OF NEW YORK, dozens of cities across the country were preparing local comic book ordinances designed to circumvent that decision.  Blue Beetle and much of the rest of the Fox line were on most of those lists. While much of the Fox line survived the 1948 era, Blue Beetle effectively ended that year with issue #57.  With the beautiful women of Kamen and others increasingly pushing the title character off the covers almost entirely and true crime-style content crowding him out of the interior stories, perhaps Fox felt there was no longer a point in keeping up the pretense. But undaunted by the times, Fox would launch five new titles within three months of cutting Blue Beetle.

The title would briefly return in 1950 near the end of the Fox Feature Syndicate lifespan, with a more traditional style of superhero story. But these 1947/1948 issues of the title are an important part of the history of the period, and there's an issue from this key period in CGC FN+ 6.5 with Blue Beetle #56 (Fox Features Syndicate, 1948) plus many other Golden Age issues of Blue Beetle up for auction in the 2024 September 26 – 27 Heroes of the Golden Age Comics Showcase Auction #40265 at Heritage Auctions.

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