According to a letter that surfaced on eBay in 2009, Bill Everett's mom Grace Everett is likely the co-creator of Centaur superhero Amazing Man. In a letter dated March 1, 1939, she wrote, "Bill has a lot of work to do on his present three comic strips, and Centaur Publications wants him to do a […]
Serious Golden Age collectors know Exciting Comics #22 for the debut of the American Eagle, one of several patriotic hero debuts that followed the success of Captain America Comics. But a year and a half after the debut of that series, Exciting Comics #22 hits a very specific wartime nerve. Cover-dated October 1942 and on […]
Matt Baker's cover for Cinderella Love #25 (St. John, cover-dated December 1954) is considered among his best pieces of cover artwork, and it's easy to see why. A festive, celebratory theme, a budding romance in the background, and a beautiful woman in the foreground who clearly has something on her mind. Like much of Baker's […]
Liberty Scouts Comics #3 from Centaur is one of those Golden Age books where the timing is everything. With a June 1941 on-sale window and an August 1941 cover date, it lands in the narrow range of months when the United States was still officially at peace while also bracing for the possibility of all-out […]
Three months before Pearl Harbor, Silver Streak Comics #15 was already playing out the details of what the unfolding conflict might soon mean for America on the newsstand. Cover dated October 1941 but on sale September 5 of that year, it drops Captain Battle, Daredevil, and a supporting cast of heroes into a pre-war American […]
Keen Detective Funnies had become one of the most interesting anthologies in comics by the time #20 arrived. Hitting newsstands around the same time as Adventure Comics #48 (which was introducing Hour Man in that issue) and Marvel Mystery Comics #6, there was certainly plenty of competition by that time, and like some others, the […]
Blue Ribbon Comics was the debut comic book title from MLJ Magazines, the publisher which would soon become known as Archie Comics. But MLJ's earliest star was a wonder dog named Rang-A-Tang. Created by Norman Danberg and Will Harr, Rang-A-Tang was a German Shepherd who ran away from a small-time carnival after being abused by […]
Zip Comics #33 hit newsstands around December 1942, delivering art and stories ripped directly from the headlines of the world at war during that year. While many Golden Age comics used the war as a generic backdrop for superheroics, this issue hits harder than most, using a wide range of then-recent real events for its […]
Released around September 1942, Cat-Man Comics #14 hit newsstands at a moment when American wartime paranoia was arguably at its peak, and not for no reason. That July, the FBI announced that the U.S. government had thwarted the plans of Nazi agents captured during Operation Pastorius, a failed plot to destroy American industrial targets. Six […]
Shield-Wizard Comics #11 is a stand-out horror cover of this unique MLJ Magazines series. Though a little-known name in comics history, cover artist Clem Weisbecker (sometimes known simply as "Clem") worked in comics from about 1941 to 1943 for publishers including MLJ Magazines, Marvel/Timely, and Fawcett Publications. He often combined superheroics or adventure with horror […]
Best remembered today for its cover by Lou Fine, the publication of Wonderworld Comics #6 in late August 1939 captures a powder-keg moment for both the comic book industry and the world. In hindsight, it's no surprise that these things are related. From that point forward, over the next few months, the comic book industry […]
Publisher Lev Gleason apparently had a lot riding on the appearance of The Saint in the company's early-days flagship title Silver Streak Comics. In an editorial in issue #20 of that series, he noted, "I have spared no expense to give you the very best. We lead off in this issue with The Saint by […]
Startling Comics #16 hit newsstands in May 1942, some six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, and a time of profound unease mixed with rising determination. The contents of this issue were put into production after President Franklin D. Roosevelt's State of the Union address delivered on January 6, 1942, with the lead Fighting […]
Samson, based on the biblical figure of the same name, was a super-strong and durable superhero who first appeared in Fox Feature's iconic Fantastic Comics title. He later got his own series which ran for six issues. Said to be a direct descendant of the biblical figure in his origin in the debut issue of […]
Captain Battle debuted in Lev Gleason Publications' Silver Streak Comics #10, the creation of Carl Formes and Jack Binder. He was the youngest combatant in World War I and lost his left eye fighting in that war. He subsequently gave his life over to "the scientific perfection of inventions which he uses to overcome evil […]
By the fall of 1939, American culture was heading towards two incompatible futures at once, a reality reflected in many comic books of that year. At Flushing Meadows in Queens, the New York World's Fair promised "The World of Tomorrow" through shiny architectural curves and futuristic exhibits. Visitors saw a carefully crafted vision of highways, […]
In a moment that triggered one of the most important sequences of events in American comic book publishing history, the Wonderworld Comics title was launched as Wonder Comics #1 on March 17, 1939. Its publisher Victor Fox was sued by DC Comics virtually the instant his debut issue hit the newsstands, "for infringement of copyright […]
With a cover date of June 1946 and an on-sale date of April 11, the contents of America's Best Comics #18 were likely in various stages of production over the prior few months. The Black Terror, Pyroman, and Doc Strange stories were clearly conceived while World War II was still ongoing, and had been hastily […]
Hitting newsstands shortly after Whiz Comics #3, Slam-Bang Comics #1 is the launch of one of Fawcett Publications' earliest yet most underappreciated comic book titles. The debut issue includes work by two of mainstream comics' most unrestrained stylists in Gus Ricca of Chesler fame and Jack Cole of Plastic Man fame, and contains a wild […]
Blue Ribbon Comics was the debut comic book title from MLJ Magazines, the publisher which would soon become known as Archie Comics. But MLJ's earliest star was a wonder dog named Rang-A-Tang. Created by Norman Danberg and Will Harr, Rang-A-Tang was a German Shepherd who ran away from a small-time carnival after being abused by […]
