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Well, kids, there wasn't much action going on at the newsstand 80 years ago this month. In fact, the nascent comic book industry saw just two issued published in September 1935. Now, on the one hand, a modern comics fan might wonder at the oddity of just two books published in an entire month, but think of how those two issues must have rocked the world of young Depression-Era readers, used to none!
Well, not quite none. The grandpappy of them all, Famous Funnies, was up to its fiftieth outing , which you can read here, less the Buck Rogers strips, presumed to still be under copyright. It's unknown today when exactly in the month it went on sale, but it's cover boast of "100 popular color comics" must have been hard to for kids to resist, whatever the date. For what it's worth, it's 10-cent cover price was the equivalent of $1.74 in 2015 dollars, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Only a few of the Famous Funnies features, just as Joe Palooka and the aforementioned Buck Rogers are likely to be familiar to modern readers. Still, most features in the book were reprinted from comic strips of the era, mostly from the now defunct Ledger, Bell and McNaught syndicates. Of note are the number of strong female leads, including Connie, Dixie Dugan, Somebody's Stenog, Olly of the Movies, Jane Arden, and Queenie, reflecting the large number of women who read the newspapers. But young boys are not ignored, with the still burgeoning craze for aviation addressed in the issues two-page text feature, :Just a Flying Coward," by the probably pseudonymous Robert M. Hyatt, and a brand-new fact page, "Fight," which, the editors trumpeted, "contains the most interesting facts you have ever seen about aviation."
Famous Funnies, which launched in June 1934, would last 21 years, until Issue No. 218, on sale in May 1955.
Also on sale this month, hitting stands September 13, was the final issue of New Fun: The Big Comic Magazine from National Allied Publications, the forerunner to DC Comics. The title would swap out "New" for "More" when the next issue hits stands in December, and by Issue No. 9, on sale in March 1936, would truncate to the more manageable More Fun Comics. Known today as the birthplace of such super-hero stalwarts at The Spectre (No. 52 — on sale Jan. 2, 1940), Dr. Fate (No. 55 —April 2, 1940), Johnny Quick (No. 71 — July 24, 1941), Aquaman (No. 73 — Sept. 25, 1941) Green Arrow (also in No. 73), and Superboy (No. 101— Nov. 24, 1944), New/More Fun began and ended with humor features on its cover.
The legend is that National founder Maj. Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, a former calvary officer who wrote for the pulp magazines and imagined himself a publishing entrepreneur, set out to copy the success of Famous Funnies. However, unable to afford the reprint fees charged by the newspaper syndicates, instead turned to original material peddled by every Winsor MacCay wannabee too young, or unskilled, to land a newspaper strip. Two such men were Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, who by this point had already created Superman. They made their comic book debuts in this very issue of New Fun with two less fantastic, and thus more salable features, swashbuckling musketeer Henri Duval and mystic detective Doctor Occult.
More Fun Comics lasted until issue No. 127, on sale Sept. 26, 1947.
Data errata
for Sept. 1935
Two comics from two publishers
Two comics from two publishers
DC Comics (1 title - 50% of the market): New Fun Comics #6
Eastern Color Press (1 - 50%): Famous Funnies #15
Genres (by cover feature) 1: Humor (2 - 100% of all titles)
Average and median cover price: 10¢ ($1.74 in 2015 dollars)
Average and medan page count: 52 pages
Come back on the following dates for the remainder of this review:
Sept. 6 — 1945 (70 years ago)
Sept. 8 — 1955 (60 years ago)
Sept. 10 — 1965 (50 years ago)
Sept. 15 — 1975 (40 years ago)
Sept. 17 — 1985 (30 years ago)
Sept. 22 — 1990 (25 years ago)
Sept. 24 — 1995 (20 years ago)
Sept. 29 — 2005 (10 years ago)
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