My Friend Irma was the franchise that brought Martin & Lewis to film, but it was also some of the best Dan DeCarlo work outside of Archie.
golden age Archives
In 1945, paperback publisher Avon Publications entered the comics with Molly O'Day, including work by George Tuska, Paul Gattuso, and Jack Cole.
The character appeared in numerous other series during the Golden Age, and was included in Miss America (which eventually transformed back into a comic book) for the remainder of its 93-issue run Meanwhile, the Patsy Walker series itself ran for 124 issues 1945 – 1965. A spinoff series also starring her frenemy Hedy Wolfe, Patsy[...]
Dark Mysteries editor William K. Friedman made a career of helping publishers push limits, and faced off against the Senate over the title.
Wild Bill Hickok became Avon Publications' longest-lived series, but the title character took a back seat to Calamity Jane on his series debut
In 1946, the New York Times reported on tons of missing Uranium ore in Brazil, a historical incident forgotten by everyone, except for The Shadow.
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[...]
In Top-Notch Comics #1, the Wizard foils a Japanese plan to attack Pearl Harbor -- two years before such an event occurred in real history.
Blummer, and with a cover by Elmer Wexler. Long considered an important key by collectors, there's a CGC VG/FN 5.0 copy of Startling Comics #10 (Better Publications, 1941) up for auction in the 2024 September 26 – 27 Heroes of the Golden Age Comics Showcase Auction #40265 at Heritage Auctions.
Startling Comics #10 (Better Publications, 1941) featuring[...]
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[...]
On March 6, 1942, the notorious Golden Age publisher of Blue Beetle and much more, Victor Fox was forced into bankruptcy by creditors. Fascinatingly, one of those creditors, printer Holyoke Press took over the title, and with Fox's Blue Beetle and other titles the publisher acquired under similar circumstances from Frank Z Temerson, Holyoke decided[...]
1940 was the Blue Beetle's year. After launching in June 1939 in Mystery Men Comics #1, Dan Garrett, the Golden Age Blue Beetle would get a newspaper strip starting in January 1940, and his own series which hit newsstands around the same time A radio show started in May 1940 Like a lot of superheroes,[...]
It features an adaptation of the first Captain Future story from the pulp Captain Future v1 #1 with the lead character renamed Major Mars, an adaption of the first Jim Hatfield, Texas Ranger story from Texas Rangers v1 #1, and perhaps most interestingly, an adaption of the first Black Bat story from Black Book Detective[...]
The series launch of the Hangman, a uniquely dark character from the Golden Age of comics, appropriately begins amid a veil of mystery Surprisingly, MLJ debuted the series for this foreboding character under the blandly neutral title Special Comics #1, rather than with the eponymous "Hangman Comics" name right from the start — like MLJ[...]
Although you may not have heard of him, MLJ Magazines' the Comet has one of the most interesting story arcs of the Golden Age — and he likely inspired one of the X-Men in the process The Comet was created by Jack Cole, the writer/artist best known for creating Plastic Man The character ran in[...]
Hughes and David Gabrielsen, and with a cover by Elmer Wexler, there's a CGC VG 4.0 copy of Exciting Comics #9 (Nedor, 1941) featuring the first appearance and origin of the Black Terror up for auction in the 2024 September 26 – 27 Heroes of the Golden Age Comics Showcase Auction #40265 at Heritage Auctions.
Exciting Comics[...]
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[...]
A historically important part of the Golden Age, there are copies of five of the six-issue Samson series up for auction in the 2022 May 29-30 Sunday & Monday Comic Books Select Auction #122222 at Heritage Auctions.
Samson #1 (Fox Features Syndicate, 1940)
Samson, based on the biblical figure of the same name, was a super-strong[...]
The creation of cartoonist Walter Frehm, the Green Mask was the cover-feature of Mystery Men Comics #1 in 1939, debuting in that issue alongside the likes of Blue Beetle and Rex Dexter of Mars. The Green Mask was more of a mystery than any other feature in early Mystery Men Comics, as he is portrayed[...]
An obscure, unusual, and fascinating superhero saga from the WWII era, there's a CBCS VG/FN 5.0 copy of Blue Ribbon Comics #16 (MLJ, 1941) and several other issues of Blue Ribbon Comics featuring Captain Flag and others up for auction in the 2024 September 26 – 27 Heroes of the Golden Age Comics Showcase Auction[...]
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[...]
The iconic cover artist Alex Schomburg created over 240 Golden Age covers for publisher Standard/Better/Nedor, among them a group of Miss Masque covers on Exciting Comics, America's Best Comics, and Fighting Yank during the late Golden Age. Created by artist Lin Streeter, Miss Masque was a sign of the times in comic book in this[...]
Madam Satan is something of an oddity from MLJ's Golden Age. Seductive and macabre in a manner that largely seems intended for older readers, the character first appeared in the background of the cover of Pep Comics #15. But her story began in Pep Comics #16 from 1941, which revealed her rather tawdry origin story[...]
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[...]
MLJ Magazines joined this fiery fray and launched their own fire-based character with Fireball in Pep Comics #12 shortly after those. The first appearance and origin of an overlooked Golden Age superhero, there's a CGC GD/VG 3.0 copy of Pep Comics #12 (MLJ, 1941) up for auction in the 2024 September 26 – 27 Heroes[...]
His soldiers and spies are everywhere, and all hope of liberty seems gone forever."
The source of Power Nelson's power is left vague in Prize Comics #1, which simply states that "A scientific way has been discovered to endow one man, and one man only, with tremendous power." Chosen to receive "the strength of a steam[...]
The Black Owl went through two quick reboots in the early days of Prize Comics -- one from a character called K the Unknown.
With names like the Eagle, featuring a scientist with anti-gravity wings; Dynamo, master of electricity; and Marga the Panther Woman, the product of a "mad physio-biologist"; the characters of Science Comics were true to the title of their original series. But all three of these characters hit the Weird Comics series after the demise of[...]
Undeniably, the lure of an intriguing cover plays a significant role in sparking a collector's interest in Golden Age comic books, and the unusual cover of Speed Comics #28 is another great example Published by Harvey Comics at the height of World War II in 1943, the cover here by an unknown artist serves as[...]
Platt contributed work to various publishers during the Golden Age, including Marvel/Timely, Standard/Better/Nedor, Fawcett Publications, and MLJ He took over the long-running Mr and Mrs newspaper comic strip 1947-1963 Platt did extensive writing work for TV animation during the 1960s, including for The Jetsons, The Flintstones, and Jonny Quest The 1961 novel The Blue Man[...]