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']]}First off, there is no “This Month In . . . 1934,” simply because no comic book was published in June of that year. What is widely accepted to be the first ongoing comic book series, Famous Funnies, made its debut in May 1934. But it started out as a bi-monthly title and the second issue would not appear on newsstands until July.
However, by June 1939, 75 years ago this month, and just five years after a completely comicsless month, the field had grown to 29 comic book series put out by nine different publishers — Centaur, David McKay, Dell, DC, Eastern Color, Fiction House, Fox, Quality and United Features. Actually, if you consider that Max Gaines’ All-American line was not yet officially a part of DC Comics, we could call it 10 publishers.
The big-whoop of June 1939, of course, is the official debut of the Sandman in Adventure Comics #40, following his stealth appearance in New York World’s Fair Comics #1 back in April. However, it’s worth noting that the Blue Beetle also makes his first appearance this month in Mystery Man Funnies #1, a mere two months after Batman first swung onto the scene, indicating he probably was in production before Batman appeared, making him more a reaction to Superman’s popularity that an attempt to clone success from the Darknight Detective.
In addition to Fox’s Mystery Man Funnies, two other companies launched new series this month. Quality Comics issued its second title, and its first featuring all-new material, with Smash Comics #1. Meanwhile, David McKay rolls out yet another collection of comic strip reprints with Magic Comics #1.
Interestingly, and I assume this is because it was a five-week month, three titles published two issues in June 1939. This is, at least, according to the sales data on Mike’s Amazing World of Comics. Per Mike, McKay’s Ace Comics and Dell’s Popular Comics, as well as Action Comics from DC, all put out issues during the first and last weeks of the month.
Discounting those three repeaters — their frequency being more a function of the calendar than an attempt, a la modern-day Marvel, to double-dip into fanboy wallets — we find soon-to-collpase Centaur is actually the industry leader at this point, with six titles, or 18.8 percent of the market. DC Comics puts out five titles (six if you count All-American) followed by five for Dell and three each for McKay and United Features.
Although super-heroes are rapidly rising in market share, the majority of comics are still strip reprints, as indicated by the number of titles featuring some variation of the word "Funnies," with fully half of the covers dedicated to comic strip characters or generic humor.
Here’s the breakdown, with some brief commentary on each comic book, for this month in 1939:
On-sale Thursday, June 1
(Note: The actual release date for some books listed as June 1 are unknown)
COMICS ON PARADE #16
United Features, 10¢, 64 pages
The coloring on this cover gives the image an almost photo-realistic feel, despite the cartoon-style rendering of boxer Dynamite Dunn. Yup, that's NOT Joe Palooka. Dunn, interestingly enough, shared title billing on the Joe Jinks comic strip for a mere two years, ending in 1936, two years before he gets cover billing here, proving, I guess, that early comic books were dipping pretty deep into the well for their features. Abbie and Slats, although written by the legendary Al Capp, is a strip you've probably never heard of. It stopped appearing in newspapers in 1971, four years after I was born. Still, at this point it was a big enough deal to warrant five pages in the anthology of strip reprints, while other feature enjoyed one or two pages, at most. Interestingly, while spinster Abbie gets a cover cameo, Slats gets shunted aside for Judy. I'm pretty sure that's Slat's love interest of the era, Judy Hagstone, and not the star of some other comics feature inside the book. These Comics on Parade issues are pretty rare — rare enough at any rate that I've yet to find a copy posted anywhere online.
HEIGH-YO SILVER (aka Large Feature Comic #3)
Dell, 10¢, ~72 pages
And speaking of rare, here's a comic that's SO rare, the Grand Comics Database hasn't even indexed a copy! It's presumed to have run about 72 pages, although comics in this series ranged from 68 to 76 pages. Oddly, you won't find this comic listed in price guides under its actual title. During this era, Dell published a variety of one-shot comics. Most fans are familiar with the one now grouped in the Four Color Comics line. This series, because they had more pages than the average comic book, became known as Large Feature Comic, although that title only appeared in small print on covers to the the final five issues in the series, which ended with #30 in 1942. The issues were numbered sequentially, however, which is why they are grouped together even though, for most of the run, they consisted on unrelated strip reprints. Silver would return in issue #7, although that one's really not a comic book, but a 47-page prose story with accompanying illustrations, making it more of a full-sized Big Little Book. I'd be willing to bet this issue is something along the same lines.
MOVIE COMICS #4
DC Comics, 10¢, 64 pages
The infamous first failure of DC Comics (published by in-name-only subsidiary Picture Publications Inc.), nears the end of its six issue run. The book largely featured "fumetti" — comics stories made by patching together movie stills that were then airbrushed and lettered. Is that as horrible as it sounds? Yes, yes it is, exactly as horrible as it sounds, explaining why DC never put out a hardcover Movie Comics Archives. I have not been able to find any examples online from this issue, which featured Captain Fury, a Hal Roach movie about at Australian cowboy, but here's the adaptation of the John Wayne classic Stagecoach from issue #2, and of the Laurel and Hardy film, A Chump at Oxford, from #6, to give you some idea of how gross this book truly was.
POPULAR COMICS #41
Dell, 10¢, 64 pages
Dell's first comic books series, following The Funnies in 1929, Popular Comics is a fairly unremarkable collection of strip reprints mixed with some new material. You can read this issue here, minus the copyrighted Tarzan text feature. What I find most interesting about this issue is that it features not one, but two aviation features — Tailspin Tommy and The Masked Pilot. Things would get REALLY interesting is a few issues with the debut of the character with the oddest name in comics, Dr. Hormone, in Issue #54.
FRANKIE DOODLE (aka Single Series #7)
United Features, 10¢, 68 pages
Just as Dell had its Four Color and Large Feature series of one shots, so, too, did United Features, publishing strip reprints in a chaotically-numbered line we now know as Single Series, because each issue featured a single character, as opposed to the anthologies United Features otherwise published. Frankie Doodle seems an odd choice for his own book. His comic strip — originally titled The Doodle Family for its first year until Frankie took over and the the rest of the clan was jettisoned to funny page purgatory — only ran four years, from 1934-1938, and in just 87 newspapers at that. Like Dynamite Dunn, above, his strip had been canceled by the time this collection was published. It's possible United was trying to pawn Frankie off to comic book readers as an original creation. GCD indexers report the last digit on the copyright date "has been edited out." However, I suspect youngsters of the era, at least in the big cities, knew of Frankie, who was reportedly a male version of Little Orphan Annie. At the very least, United appears to have had enough confidence in the popularity of this particular issue that it tested a 15¢ variant edition, the only one in Single Series' 30-issue run.
TIP-TOP COMICS #39
United Features, 10¢, 64 pages
Another United anthology of strip reprints, Tip-Top would eventually become a showcase for Nancy and last until 1961, well into the Silver Age. At this stage, however, Tarzan was the cover feature, although you might have trouble telling that's him on this particular cover. I mean, get a comb, jungle boy! Despite Tarzan's presence, Tip Top appears to have been a comic that wound up in a lot of WWII era paper drives. Only a smattering of issues have been indexed on GCD.
Friday, June 2
ACE COMICS #28
David McKay, 10¢, 64 pages
While United Features Syndicate published its own comics books, King Features Syndicate was content to farm out its strips to David McKay, a book publisher who's main claim to fame was issuing in 1907 the first complete collection of Shakespeare's works published in the United States. McKay got out of the comic book game in 1950. His company, by then run by his son Alexander, was absorbed by Random House in 1986. Ace Comics was almost exclusively King material, and pretty good stuff at that. Highlights in this issue include Alex Raymond's Jungle Jim, Billy DeBeck's Barney Google, Hal Foster's Prince Valiant, Chic Young's Blondie, and George Harriman's Krazy Kat. Having by far the better strips, Ace seems to have been saved by more buyers, given that nearly all of its run has been indexed on GCD.
ACTION COMICS #14
DC Comics, 10¢, 64 pages
Zatanna's dad gets his second and final cover feature on the nascent Action Comics, although by this point editor Vincent Sullivan had figured out who the real attraction was, being sure to make certain readers knew Superman was also "in this issue." Supes' story is notable as the second appearance of the Ultra-Humanite, the first super-villain to face off against the Man of Steel and, decades later, the big-bad of my favorite JLA/JSA crossover of all time. Here, however, in his pre-body hopping days, ol' Humie is not the big white gorilla Bronze Age comics fans will grow to love, or even smoking hot movie starlet Dolores Winters. Instead, he's just a grizzled old, mad scientists, looking more like Lex Luthor than Luthor himself would when he first appeared 10 issues down the road. This story also contains one of Jerry Siegel's favorite tropes: Superman, still the social crusader in these early adventures, beating up on crooked developers who're just trying to make an easy buck by skimping a little on the quality of their construction. As often as this theme was played out in early comics, by Siegel and others, you'd think buildings and bridges were falling down on top of people as an almost daily routing in the 1930s!
Rounding out this issue, in addition to Zatara, are long-forgotten characters, including athlete Pep Morgan, explorer and pool party staple Marco Polo, soldier of fortune Clip Carson, adventurer and future whip-wielding mustachioed super-hero Tex Thomson, and cowboy Chuck Dawson. Carson, a creation of Bob Kane, insomuch as he hired Bill Finger to write this as well as Batman, makes his first appearance here. The Clipster would prove far less durable than Batman, however, his entire run lasting only 30 issues.
For what it's worth, if I wrote for DC, I'd team these early Action Comics characters into a covert term of operatives working, Doc Savage style, for Superman, on those cases where super-strength and freeze breath just won't do the job.
COMIC PAGES Vol 3 #4
Centaur Publications, 10¢, 48 pages
Given Centaur's nuthouse numbering system, due in part to the fact that it picked up most of its early titles from an outfit called Ultem Publications, which in turn acquired it from the Harry "A" Chesler studio, this issue is also listed in some places as #22. This is actually the first issue of Comic Pages, the numbering, such as it is, picking up from Funny Picture Stories. With its weird numbering, frequent title changes, sub-par production, and mix of inferior comics aside the occasional flash of brilliance, found, he can assume, almost by happenstance, Centaur was basically the Charlton Comics of its day. This title only lasted three issues. Neither the Digital Comics Museum nor Comics+ has a copy, but here's Vol. 3, Issue #6, to give you a feel for what the book was like.
Wednesday, June 7
AMAZING MYSTERY FUNNIES Vol. 2 #7
Centaur Publications, 10¢, 48 pages
Also known as #11, AMF was less like Centaur's attempts to mimic the United Features, David McKay catalog of humor strips (see Comic Pages, above, and Star Comics, below) and more an effort to cash in on the super-hero craze created by DC. Here, Fantom of the Fair makes his debut by Golden Age great Paul Gustavson, creator of the Human Bomb for Quality Comics, as well as Marvel's original Angel. In addition to the cover — as iconic, I think, as any super-hero debut of the era — the work inside is pretty darn good, as well. You can read it here. Unfortunately, when your whole shtick is fighting threats, Phantom of the Opera-stlye, at the New York World's Fair, you're tenure is bound to be short-lived. Even a change of name to Fantoman couldn't prolong the character's crime-fighting career. He lasted a mere 14 issues in AMF, plus one in Amazing Adventure Funnies, although he did merit his own "Fantoman" series in 1940. Although that one lasted just three issues, it was on stands only two months after Batman's first solo outing.
Some 47 years later, in Secret Origins #7 (1986), Roy Thomas would recycle the Fantom as The Phantom of the Fair for his Sandman origin story. As noted below, while Sandman makes his official debut this month in Adventure Comics, a story prepared subsequently was actually printed first in DC's New York World's Fair Comics #1. Thomas had Sandman debut at the fair, where he met and fought a villainous version of the Fantom. The character, who even warranted a Who's Who in DC Comics entry, later appeared in Sandman Mystery Theater. Malibu Comics' Gavestone also was based on our friend Fanty.
This issue also contains an "Air-Sub DX" story by Human Torch creator Carl Burgos and a tale of policeman Bobby O'Neill by Bill Everett, of Sub-Mariner fame. Somewhere in the multiverse, there's an Earth were Centaur, not Timely, scored the seminal works by these two authors, which must have been produced at about this same time. Instead of sputtering out, Centaur went on to become comic's House of Ideas, while Martin Goodman got out of the game as quickly as he got in. Thus, Marvel Comics never existed and Stanley Leiber, having nothing else to occupy his time, went on to become the great American novelist. Or an insurance salesman. It's hard to say.
STAR COMICS Vol. 2 #6
Centaur Publications, 10¢, 48 pages
Whole number 22, and the penultimate issues. A Centaur humor mag along the lines of Comic Pages. There's really not much going on here, as proven by the fact that the CGD index for the issue is all question marks when it comes to creator credits. Good luck finding a copy. Neither DCM or Comics+ has one posted, attesting to its relative rarity.
Thursday, June 8
MORE FUN COMICS #45
DC Comics, 10¢, 64 pages
Ah, yes, 1939, when good, wholesome fun was getting your nuts chomped off by some kind of wolf-bear hybrid. Although DC was by now making great strides with Superman in Action Comics and Batman in Detective Comics, while introducing future standout Sandman this month in Adventure Comics, it was still trying to figure out what to do with its first title, inherited from Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, who himself would have a great comic book character. There was the frequent balls-in-danger cover motif (see also: Issue #43), but beyond that, not much to differentiate the characters inside. This issue has Siegel and Shuster's Radio Squad and Bernard Baily's Buccaneer, plus, in keeping with the most-popular genre of the day, not one, not two, but three aviators, in the form of Wings Brady, Gary Hawkes and The Flying Fox. Other features included Marg'ry Daw, another Little Orphan Annie take-off, making her penultimate of nine appearances in More Fun, plus adventurer Biff Bronson, a refuge from Adventure Comics, Detective Sergeant Carey, a white officer investigating crimes in Chinatown, and Lt. Bob Neal of Sub 662, who enjoyed a remarkably long run of 27 issues, from #36-62. There's also The Red Coat Patrol, featuring stories of the Canadian Mounties starring an Irishman named O'Malley. Go figure, eh.
SUPER COMICS #14
Dell, 10¢, 64 pages
Now I ask you, what's more fun than a cow in a bathtub? Nothing, I tell you! Nothing is more fun that a cow in a bathtub!! This was Dell's powerhouse package of comic strip reprints, featuring Dick Tracy, Smilin' Jack, Little Orphan Annie, Terry and the Pirates, Smokey Stover and Gasoline Alley, just to name a few still familiar to today's Sunday funnies aficionados.
Tuesday, June 13
DETECTIVE COMICS #29
DC Comics, 10¢, 64 pages
Batman makes his third appearance and second cover shot in what had to be an attention-grabbing image to young readers of the day. Here, he faces off against the diabolical Dr. Death, his first traditional super-villain. Interestingly, Gardner Fox, and not Bill Finger, wrote this issue's Batman tale, as well as the concluding chapter in #30. That may be why Dr. Death didn't appear again until #512, in 1982.
Also in this issue are the Crimson Avenger, who actually beat Batman to the masked crime-fighting game (he'll then take a break until Issue #37) and Siegel and Shuster's Slam Bradley, known to modern comics fans for his starring turn alongside Catwoman a few years back. The remaining characters are mostly forgotten these days, including private detective Larry Steele, who returns after a two-issue break (he ran from #5-26, and #29-63), Jerry Siegel's Bart Ragan, Spy (ran #1-77, #81-83), Fred Guardineer's Speed Saunders, Ace Investigator (ran #1, #3-58), aviator and amateur sleuth Bruce Nelson (ran #1-36), and Cosmo, the Phantom of Disguise, who actually never wore a disguise in more than a third of his adventures, published in Detective #1-20 and #22-37.
Thursday, June 15
ADVENTURE COMICS #40
DC Comics, 10¢, 64 pages
And here it is, the big whoop of the month, the debut of The Sandman! Here he's wearing orange (the more familiar green suit would come in #44) and has yet to add an 's' to his name, going by Wesley Dodd (he'd become "Dodds" in #44 as well). Sandman's co-creator, artist Bert Christman, who also drew the Scorchy Smith newspaper comic strip, was killed during World War II. His plane was shot down in 1942 while fighting with the famous Flying Tigers in defense of the Burma Road. He was just 26 years old. this story was reprinted in Justice League of American #94 (1971) and the hardcover Golden Age Sandman Archives (2004). Sadly, there was no Millennium Edition of this issue, probably because Sandman was its only costumed character.
Apart from Sandman, other features herein include: Adventurer Barry O'Neill (who bounced around several of DC's Platinum Era titles), Siegel and Shuster's Federal Men (which also landed in several early titles, lasting in Adventure until #70), cowboy Jack Woods (who came over from New/More Fun Comics before bowing out here with #42). Jack by the way, is the answer to the trivia question, "Who appeared on the cover of the very first DC comic book. Other features include flying ace Captain Desmo (who would transfer to More Fun after #47, where he'd stay aloft until 1941), Army intelligence officer Skip Schuyler (who'd lose his job by #46), and Anchors Aweigh!, about a pair of Navy pals (which weighed anchor in #52).
In addition to Sandman, two other characters make their debut in this issue of Adventure. Adventurer Bulldog Martin plays straight man to the racial stereotyping of his faithful sidekick Jonah. He'd gain super-powers in #52, thanks to invisibility pills, but missed his shot at joining the Justice Society as he disappeared into comic book limbo after #55, never to be seen again. Boxer Socko Strong might have been given a shot at the JSA if he'd thought to dress up like a panther. Instead he fought on through #57 before retiring into obscurity.
There's also a Bob Kane gag feature, Rusty and His Pals, as well as a two-page feature called Don Coyote, featuring "A playboy in King Arthur's Court, on which I can turn up little information.
FAMOUS FUNNIES #60
Eastern Color Press, 10¢, 64 pages
The first regular comic book series is also the first one to reach #60, naturally. It's mostly reprints of comic strips that, frankly, weren't all that famous. Read this issue here. The art, however, is far superior to most comics books on the stands at this time, and among the features is Christman's Scorchy Smith, mentioned above. The Boy Scouts strip also is pretty decent.
THE FUNNIES #33
Dell, 10¢, 64 pages
Grizzly month continues, as we find our third comic book of June 1939 to feature a bear on its cover.
Primarily a place for NEA Syndicate newspaper strips including Alley Oop and Captain Easy, The Funnies was, by this point, tossing in original material based on familiar concepts such as John Carter of Mars, The Wizard of Oz and cowboy hero Gene Autry.
The book converted to funny animals and became New Funnies with #65 cover-dated July 1942. That gave way to a particular group of funny animals and a name-change to Walter Lantz New Funnies with #109, in March 1946. The title lasted into the Silver Age, finally dying at #288, dated April 1962.
MYSTERY MEN COMICS #1
Fox Features Syndicate, 10¢, 64 pages
Somewhat less celebrated than The Sandman, though perhaps more popular in his day, at least by virtue of headlining his own title under two publishers from 1940 to 1950, with a revival by a third in 1955, the Blue Beetle also makes his first appearance on newsstands in June 1939. You might think that's him on this excellent Lou Fine cover, given the blue costume and the words "The Blue Beetle" floating just above his head. But you'd be wrong. That's actually the lead feature of this comic, a costumed character called The Green Mask. Yup, let that one sink in for a moment. Let's just say comic book coloring was not then the priority it is today.
The Blue Beetle inside is not the Blue Beetle you know. In fact, he's not even the Golden Age Blue Beetle you know, his costume limited to a Spirit-style suit and mask, with a beetle cravat. Interestingly, while it's often the modern Ted Kord version of the Blue Beetle whom we think of as an inventor, the original, policeman Dan Garrett, actually invented the cell phone!
The Grand Comics Database says this story may have been written by Will Eisner, but it doesn't really read like Eisner to me. He is however, credited with the two-page text piece in this issue, entitled "The Haunted House."
Despite the title, the Blue Beetle and the Green Flame are the only mystery men in this debut issue. The remaining line-up consists of the usual man-of-action types typical of the early Golden Age. There's sci-fi with Dick Briefer's Rex Dexter of Mars, crime with Chen Cheng, Mastermind (who's actually the villain of the piece), yet another aviator in the form of Wing Turner, Zanzibar the Magician by the great George Tuska, gunfighter The Waco Kid, Inspector Bancroft of Scotland Yard, Secret Agent D-13 by Bob Powell, Denny Scott of the Bengal Lancers, and, lastly, Lt. Drake of Navel Intelligence by Klaus Nordling, who at this point in his career could apparently only draw his hero from one angle in three-quarter profile. There's also a humor piece, with obvious antecedents, titled Hemlock Shomes and Dr. Potsam.
Friday, June 16
SMASH COMICS #1
Quality Comics, 10¢, 64 pages
If you've landed on this page, and if you've read this far, you are no doubt a true comic book fan. And, as such, you've probably asked yourself more than once, "Gee, I wonder, is it even possible for someone to draw a bad cover of a giant robot fighting a giant gorilla?" Now you know. It is. I've never been a fan of covers in which the hero has his back to the viewer. Unless said hero is walking away from a trash can with his costume hanging off the edge, best to try some other pose.
Smash is Quality's second title, published soon after founder Everett "Busy Arnold bought out two of his three newspaper syndicate partners in Comic Favorites Inc. to form Comic Magazines Inc., Quality's corporate parent. Initially, Arnold had his comics packaged by Harry "A" Chesler, but by this point the material was coming out of the Eisner & Iger shop. As such, Eisner contributes Espionage starring Black Ace and Archie O'Toole (the latter in a cartoon style) both of whom star in stories continued from Feature Comics #22. There's also Chic Carter, Ace Reporter, by Vernon Henkel, who additionally contributed Abdul the Arab and the 12,000th aviator of the month, being the 10,550th named "Wing" or "Wings," in the form of Wings Wendell of the Military Intelligence. Other features include Captain Cook of Scotland Yard and Clip Chance at Cliffside, the latter continued from Feature Funnies #16, from before the ownership change and change of title to Feature Comics.
Finally, Bozo the Iron Man, as opposed to Marvel's Iron Man, who sometimes acts like a bozo, enjoyed a surprisingly long run given the artistic crudeness of the strip. With his second appearance next issue, bozo was outfitted by his controller Hugh Hazzard with a propeller on top of his head that enabled him to fly.
Monday, June 19
STAR RANGER FUNNIES Vol. 2 #4 Centaur, 10¢, 48 pages
With numbering continued from Cowboy Funnies, Star Ranger was another of Centaur's humor series featuring forgettable characters, largely produced just for the comic, by creators unknown to this day. This issue is listed in some sources at #19, and I've also seen it listed, inexplicably, as #204. The title would only see one more issue before cancellation.
Wednesday, June 21
KING COMICS #40
David McKay, 10¢, 64 pages
David McKay's flagship title, starring King Features' flagship strip, Popeye the Sailor Man. What else do you need to know? This book was mostly Sunday strip reprints of material from King Features Syndicate. Because most are still copyrighted, you don't often find issues posted online.
Friday, June 23
CRACKAJACK FUNNIES #14
Dell, 10¢, 64 pages
More strip reprints from Dell, which, because most have long since lapsed into public domain, can be read here. Red Ryder is particularly good, and there are not one, but two female leads, including redheaded "Boots" and the variable hair-coloring of Myra North, Special Nurse. We also have yet another aviator in Speed Bolton, Air Ace, who spends more time here walking than flying. Plus, there's Clyde Beatty, Lion and Tiger Tamer, based on a real dude! Meanwhile the lead feature is Dan Dunn, Secret Operative No. 48, who was the first character ever to make his first appearance in the comic book format, way back in 1933 in a one-shot mag put out by Humor Publications. All other characters who appeared before Dunn in anything resembling a comic book were actually reprinted from other sources, including Mr. Obadiah Oldbuck.
Sunday, June 25
ALL-AMERICAN COMICS #5
All-American Comics, 10¢, 64 pages
Although thought of today as a DC comic, All-American Comics was the flagship title of a separate company, founded in 1938 by Max Gaines, who is purported to have invented of the comic book format five years earlier. All-American had separate editorial offices from DC, but was founded on funds provided by DC publisher Harry Donenfeld, while the two companies shared the services of numbers man Jack Liebowitz. The Flash, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman and the Justice Society were all published by Gaines' company, until he sold out to Donenfeld in 1946, just as the Golden Age of comics was waning.
Max Gaines appears to still be trying to figure out what his comic book wants to be, if this generic patriotism cover is anything to go by. Inside it's mostly reprints of newspaper strips, including Mutt & Jeff, Toonerville Folks and Reg'lar Fellas, along with original features like Red, White and Blue, created by Jerry Siegel, and Spot Savage, All-American News Hound, by future Flash creator Harry Lampert. There's also a four-page story of Hop Harrigan, the only aviator on stands this month to eventually warrant his own radio show, along with a movie serial and a fan club. The high point of the issue, however, is undoubtedly Sheldon Mayer's semi-autobiographical Scribbly, the Boy Cartoonist.
Monday, June 26
FUNNY PAGES VOL. 3 #6
Centaur, 10¢, 48 pages
Or, issue #29. I haven't found this issue online, but here's #8 to give you some idea what it was like. The main attraction, of course, was Paul Gustavson's The Arrow, who preceded a certain emerald archer by more than three years. Like Star Comics, this title was purchased from the short-lived Ultem Publications, which in turn bought it from Comics Magazine Company, founded by John Mahon and Bill Cook, employees of financially strapped Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, whose titles would form the basis for DC Comics. They reportedly walked with some of the Major's inventory, including Dr. Occult pages, in lieu of payment.
JUMBO COMICS #9
Fiction House, 10¢, 64 pages
Jumbo, shrinks from large tabloid size to an 8.5x10.5-inch package with this issue, eventually settling into standard Golden Age dimensions with #10. The only version I've found online is from black & white microfiche, but there's much to recommend it. Packaged by the Eisner & Iger shop, there are three features, each, by Will Eisner and Lou Fine, albeit under pen names, as well as Bob Powell's Sheena, Queen of the Jungle — hummina, hummina, hummina!
KEEN DETECTIVE FUNNIES Vol. 2 #8
Centaur, 10¢, 48 pages
Or, #12. A mix of new features and reprints Centaur got when it bought Ultem, taken from Detective Picture Stories. The lead feature, making his second appearance here, was The Masked Marvel, by Ben Thompson. Mostly, it and everything else in Keen is pretty forgettable stuff, although Dean Denton may be the only super-ventriloquist super-hero.
Wednesday, June 28
WONDERWORLD COMICS #4
Fox Features Syndicate, 10¢, 64 pages
Having been retitled from Wonder Comics with #3, after being sued by DC over supposed Superman-clone Wonder Man, Wonderworld is still being packaged here by the Eisner & Iger shop, with the primary attraction underneath this generic cover being Lou Fine's The Flame, along with super-magician Yarko the Great, by Eisner and Powell. Everything else in the issues is mostly meh, including Esiner's X-51 Spies at War, although we do have work here by Tuska, Powell and Nordling.
Thursday, June 29
ACTION COMICS #15
DC Comics, 10¢, 64 pages
Our second issue of Action to grace newsstands in the month of June 1939 has a rare (only?) Superman drawing by Fred Guardineer, who normally handled Zatara. In February 2014, the original art for this cover — the fifth to feature Superman after Nos. 1, 7, 10 and 13 — sold at auction for $286,800. It's the oldest Superman cover known to exist and may be the earliest extant drawing of the Man of Steel, period. If you're ever at Bedrock City Comic Company in Houston, you may be able to see this cover, as its new owner, Richard Evans, was the buyer.
The guts of the book are much the same as described in #14, above, with Superman using his powers to uncover $2 million in sunken treasure for funding needed to keep the doors open at Kidtown, a home for underprivileged youth. It's not a particularly good story, frankly. You can read it in Superman: The Action Comics Archives Vol. 1 (1997), The Superman Chronicles Vol. 2 (2007), or Superman: The Golden Age Omnibus #1 (2013)
Friday, June 30
FEATURE COMICS #23
Quality Comics, 10¢, 64 pages
A nix of new features and strip reprints, including Joe Palooka and some stuff by the great Rube Goldberg, as well as the cover-featured Charlie Chan. There's also a badly drawn story of The Clock, who was the very first masked hero in comic books, who first appeared as the cover feature of Funny Picture Stories #1, on stands Sept. 18, 1936. That book was published by Comics Magazines, which eventually became Centaur, but at some point The Clock's creator, George Brenner, made the jump to Quality Comics, taking his character with him. Brenner, by the way, also was the brains behind Bozo the Robot. Otherwise, there's not much to recommend this issue. It would be several more months before Feature would hit its stride with the introduction of Doll Man.
MAGIC COMICS #1
David McKay, 10¢, 64 pages
A new title from McKay comprised almost entirely of strip reprints. That's Henry on the cover, a mute who was sometimes drawn without a mouth. He communicated entirely through pantomime, which I suppose must have been hi-larious back in the day. Henry started out as a Saturday Evening Post gag cartoon in 1932 before transitioning to newspaper strips. According to wikipedia, he still appears in about 75 papers, but he only lasted as the cover feature on Magic through #7. He shared the cover, somewhat incongruously, with Mandrake the Magician from #8-11, before giving way entirely. With #25 the Bumstead clan, primarily in the form of patriarch Dagwood, took over the cover for the rest of Magic's run, which lasted through to the end of 1949.
And finally, here are the covers for the other two, double-shipped books for the month, with contents much the same as described above.
POPULAR COMICS #42
Dell, 10¢, 64 pages
ACE COMICS #29
David McKay, 10¢, 64 pages
JUNE 1939 INDEX
32 comics from 10 publishers: Centaur (6—18.7% of the market), DC (6—15.6%), Dell (5—15.6%), McKay (3—9.4%), United Features (3—9.4%), Fox (2), Quality (2), All-American (1), Eastern Color (1), Fiction House (1).
Cover price:
32 at 10¢ ($1.71 in 2014 dollars).
Median and average cover price: 10¢
**Total retail value all comics: $3.20 ($54.58 in 2014 dollars)**
Page count:
Five at 48 pages, 25 at 64 pages, one at 68 pages, one at 72 pages.
Median page count: 64
Average page count: 61.88
Cover features:
Humor (10—31.3%), super-hero (7—21.9%), comic strips characters (6—18.8%), action/adventure (3), crime (1), jungle (1), movie/tv adaptation (1), patriotic (1), western (1).
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