Fox Feature Syndicate Archives

The saga of the Fox Feature Syndicate character the Flame is more complicated than it appears.  The character, his powers, and his backstory evolved steadily, sometimes without explanation, from his 1939 introduction in Wonderworld Comics #3 through his final Golden Age appearances in the January 1942 cover-dated issues of Big 3, The Flame, and Wonderworld[...]

Among others,  Blue Beetle #1, #3, and #5 are important moments of that change in the comic books, and there are many other Golden Age issues of Blue Beetle, and Mystery Men Comics are up for auction in the 2024 September 26 – 27 Heroes of the Golden Age Comics Showcase Auction #40265 at Heritage Auctions. Blue Beetle[...]

Thor, God of Thunder from Fox Feature Syndicate's Weird Comics was one of the most interesting comic book takes on the character.

Although Fox Feature Syndicate published its last comic book in 1951, several characters it published have had life after Fox.  The Flame, Phantom Lady and Samson were later used by Ajax-Farrell for example, and more famously, Phantom Lady (who had started life at Quality Comics) and Blue Beetle ended up at DC Comics.  The little-known[...]

The Green Mask who debuted in 1940s Green Mask #1 was a complete reboot of the character whose previous existance had been a mystery indeed.

Fox Feature Syndicate publisher Victor Fox had high hopes for Dick Briefer's Rex Dexter of Mars from early on.  A few months after his debut in Mystery Men Comics #1, Rex was part of Fox's push via the Mitchell J Hamilburg Agency to get Fox properties into film, radio, merchandise, and syndicated newspaper strips.  A[...]

Characters such as Dr. Doom, Electro, and Marga the Panther Woman made their debuts in Fox Feature's Science Comics #1.

The Golden Age's first Flame-based superhero, Fox Feature Syndicate's The Flame debuted in Wonderworld Comics #3.

Mystery Men Comics #3 is best known for its spectacular Lou Fine cover featuring the Green Mask.  Comics featuring Fine's covers are highly sought after on that basis alone, and virtually all the comics he worked on have historical importance for many other reasons as well.  While Mystery Men Comics #3 features one of the[...]

While he didn't have the newsstand publishing experience that many Golden Age comic book publishers had acquired by the late 1930s, Fox Feature Syndicate publisher Victor Fox was highly interested in copying what seemed to be working for others.  Emulating the likes of DC Comics publisher Harry Donenfeld among others, Fox had launched a magazine and[...]

Fox Feature Syndicate's V Comics was launched during a period when Fox had decided to go all in on patriotically-themed war titles.  The Eagle was rebooted as a patriotic hero during this time, launched in his own series, and also given the cover feature of Weird Comics.  The new character U.S Jones was launched in[...]

The history behind Victor Fox's Wonder Comics gives us a fascinating glimpse behind the scenes of the comic book industry of 1939.

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 romance Fox Giants haven't caught on to that extent, but perhaps they should.  Many of these are ridiculously rare, with several of the issues listed here having CGC Census numbers in the 3 to 5 copy range, and some stand-out covers among them.  There are several romance genre Fox Giants up for auction in[...]

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 discussed some early Blue Beetle origin revisions recently, and a similar situation developed with another Fox Features Syndicate hero named Green Mask.  Both characters had debuted in Mystery Men Comics #1 in 1939 and were rebooted with added superpowers when they both received their own series early the next year.  In Green Mask's case,[...]

After his debut in Mystery Men Comics #1, Blue Beetle finally gets his origin moment in his series debut in Blue Beetle #1.

Clipping from The Sacramento Bee via Newspapers.com In 1942, Fox Feature Syndicate was forced into bankruptcy by creditors.  One of those creditors, printer Holyoke Press took over the title With Fox's Blue Beetle and other titles the publisher acquired under similar circumstances from Frank Z Temerson, Holyoke decided to get into the comic book publishing business. [...]

Initially, Eisner and Lou Fine's The Flame for Fox Feature Syndicate title Wonderworld Comics didn't have quite as much to do with fire as one might think either. The creation of the costumed superhero version of the Flame was prompted by what can now be considered one of the most important sequences of events in American comic[...]

A regular cover-feature of Fox Feature Syndicate's Weird Comics, the Dart has his origin in the pre-Roman Empire era of Sulla.

The infringing publications by the defendants were contained in the "Mystery Men Comics" August and September, 1940, issues." This corresponds to Detective Comics #38-41 and Batman #1 from DC Comics and Mystery Men Comics #13 and #14 from Fox Feature Syndicate.  While there's only a very general resemblance between Batman & Robin and Lynx & Blackie,[...]

This means it may be a relatively inexpensive way to buy one of The Blue Beetle's earliest incarnations. #gallery-1 { margin: auto; } #gallery-1 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-1 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-1 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */ Big 3 #4 (Fox Feature Syndicate, 1941) Big 3 #4 (Fox Feature Syndicate, 1941)   Big 3 #4 (Fox, 1941)[...]

In Fox Feature Syndicate's Mystery Men Comics #28, Blue Beetle was shown using the power of flight throughout his adventure that issue.

Weird Comics #18 features one of the strangest and fun covers from a golden age book, featuring the Eagle and his sidekick Buddy.

Wonderworld Comics #22 features the Flame, Black Lion and much more in a classic WWII-era issue from Fox Feature Syndicate.

Debuting in the appropriately titled Weird Comics from Fox Feature Syndicate, the Dart certainly qualifies as a weird superhero even by the standards of the Golden Age.  As his origin in Weird Comics #5 explains, Caius Martius was a citizen of the ancient Rome of "2200 years ago" who fought the racketeers and extortionists of[...]

There are seven of the eight issues of Fox Feature Syndicate's Science Comics series up for auction in the 2022 December 1 Fox Comics Showcase Auction #40214 at Heritage Auctions. Science Comics #3 featuring Dynamo/Electro (Fox, 1940) Science Comics is also a good example of another influence that has loomed large over pop culture in the subsequent decades[...]

The Eagle first appeared in the venerable Fox Feature Syndicate early 1940 release Science Comics #1.  As the series name implies, the origin of his powers was based in science: "Bill Powers, young scientist, discovers an anti-gravitation fluid which, when placed on his specially designed wings, enables him to fly like a bird."  But Fox[...]

At the height of the late 1940s crime comic and good girl art boom, Victor Fox covered all of the bases.  Not only did he publish comic books featuring a combination of those things, like Crimes by Women and Famous Crimes, but he even had a title that also combined them with another popular genre[...]

Demand is also inextricably linked to rarity, in practice.  A desirable comic book that becomes widely known as rare tends to become less rare over time — usually.  With all this said, 20+ years into the era during which we have CGC census and public sales data available, Fox Feature Syndicate as a line is[...]