By Jamie Coville
Before there were Superhero comic books there were Funny Books.
People called them "funny" books because inside were reprints of
comic strips from newspapers, much like the Garfield or Calvin and
Hobbs strips you read today.
One of the first American funny books came over 100 years ago! In 1896
a book called The Yellow Kid came out. It was the first time
a comic strip was printed into a pulp magazine.
This trend continued when Dell Publishing put out the first issue
of The Funnies in 1910. This book was published on a monthly basis.
It was a big tabloid-sized book that was distributed by the
newsstands along with newspapers.
In 1933, the first true "comic" book came out. It was called
Funnies on Parade, and it appeared in the same 8" x 11" format
that comic books are printed in today. There were 10,000 copies printed, all
given away with coupons for Proctor & Gamble products. The idea for
this came from George Janosik, Harry Wildenberg,
and a salesman named M.C. Gaines. They got a contract with the
McNaught and McClure Syndicates to reprint some of their comic strips.
M.C. Gaines saw what a success these comics were, and continued
printing more comics.
Famous Funnies: a Carnival of Comics was the second M.C. Gaines
comic book. Printed in 1933, it was 64 pages with a 10 cent price.
It was the first retail comic that was distributed to the public.
It was distributed only through chain department stores. M.C. Gaines
and Eastern Color Printing worked together on creating it and got George Delacorte
of Dell Publishing to publish the book. After the first issue, Dell
Publishing (not seeing any profit) decided to stop publishing the
comic. Eastern Color Printing then decided to publish the
book themselves and got newsstand distribution through the American
News Company.
In May 1934 (the comic was dated July), another first issue of Famous
Funnies appeared on the newsstands. It featured four pages each
of several newspaper comic characters. After this issue, Famous
Funnies was produced twice a month and distributed through
newsstands. It took several issues before Eastern Color saw any profit.
Some of these stories did have somewhat ordinary heroes fighting
crime, such as Dick Tracy,and
The Shadow. But despite what wonderful gadgets
they had, they were still 'ordinary' people. Another pre-Superman comic
strip hero of sorts is Popeye. He was created by Elzie Segar and
first appeared in a strip called Thimble Theater in 1929. While he
didn't go out and fight crime, he did eat his spinich and displayed some
'above average' feats of human strength while fighting his nemises
Bluto. This picture is the first ever appearance of Popeye.
In February of 1935, New Fun Comics came out. The
creator, Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson decided that he didn't want
to pay the fees that the newspapers were charging for their old
comic strip reprints. So he got new comic material that wasn't being
published in the newspapers. National Allied Publications Inc.
published New Fun Comics in a much bigger 10" x 15" tabloid size.
New Fun would be the first comic book that a company later called "DC" would
publish. It was the first comic book to contain advertisements.
By issue #6 New Fun would increase their comic books to 64 pages,
and in issue #6 was a team-up of two important people. Jerry Siegel
and Joe Schuster created a character known as Dr. Occult. They later
created Superman. Dr. Occult had an earlier appearance under the name
Dr. Mystic in The Comic Magazine, which came out in 1936.
This comic is the first American publishing of The Phantom, who is now a worldwide
hero. The Phantom made his debut on February 17th, 1936 and he was the first costumed
hero. He was created by Lee Falk, who still today is working on his stories.
The Phantom was the kind of hero that despite his normal "human" capabilities,
fought crime with bravery and death defying stunts. Many future heroes would
follow his lead. For more information about this breakthrough hero read The Phantom
biography. Also in 1936 The Clock appeared in Funny Pages #6.
The Clock was a masked detective; this is the first time a character
used a mask to hide his face. Later on, masks would be used in most costumes
so the hero could disguise his or her true identity.
In March 1937, Detective Comics #1 came out. This comic was the first
true DC comic book. This issue was the first production of two
companies that formed the DC company. Comic producer Major Malcolm
Wheeler wasn't making much money with his comic books (New Fun being
one of them). So Wheeler collaborated with his printer/distributor
Harry Donenfeld to produce this book. By 1938, Donenfeld bought out
Wheeler's books to become the sole owner. DC is the
longest running comic book title ever. This is due to another
character who took over the title some time later...
In June 1938, Action Comics #1 came out, featuring a man in a red
and blue costume lifting a car over his head! This was Superman,
the very first comic character to have powers far beyond a normal
human being. Sure, Flash Gordon and The Shadow were neat, but they
couldn't lift a car over their heads and throw it at someone! Nor
could they let bullets bounce off their chests, or run faster than a
train, or leap over tall buildings in a single bound. To say the
least, Superman was a fitting name. When Siegel and Shuster were younger they tried pitching the Superman
idea at newspapers and comics. One of their earliest proposals was a
cartoon character called The Superman in 1933. They were
constantly rejected, to the point that artist Joe Shuster once tore up his Superman
artwork and stated that he'd redo the character properly if the
time ever came. Today Superman is one of the 10 most recognized 'people'
on the face of the planet. He has been in several movies, cartoons
and TV series.
Detective Comics #27 hit the stands in In May, 1939. In it we saw the
first appearance of Batman. While Superman was pure and clean,
Batman was grim and gritty. In this comic, the villain fell into a vat of acid,
which killed him. Not showing any remorse for causing the death, Batman
observed "A fitting end for his kind." Batman was created by Bob Kane and
has always remained in print. During a time when superhero
comics were not so popular, Batman survived by focusing on his
detective abilities, making his comic stories more of a mystery series
than a superhero book. The reason Batman is so popular is because he is a compromise
between the two types of heroes. He didn't have superpowers, but he
did have an intellect, a costume, and neat gadgets that would put
him on par with the superheroes. Batman has been put on the big
and small screen several times in T.V series, movies, and
cartoons.
Also in May of 1939, Wonder Comics #1 came out. This title's star hero was
called Wonderman (no relation to the Marvel character). His powers were
virtually identical to Superman's. This got DC angry enough to file
a copyright infringement case against the publisher, Victor Fox. The case
went to court and the judge decided in DC's favor. There was a Wonder
Comics #2, but no Wonderman in it, and that would be the last of this
title's run.
In the Summer of 1939, Superman continued to show his success. He was the very
first hero to get a comic book fully devoted to telling his adventures. Up until this point,
all comic books had a variety of characters and stories in them. Because of the success
of this title, other comic characters are also given a chance with their own titles.
In 1939, A book called Motion Pictures Funnies Weekly came out
and in it would be Marvel Comics' first and longest running character,
Prince Namor the Sub-Mariner.
Namor would appear in an 8-page black and white story in the back of
this comic. This same story would be expanded a little and would
reappear in Marvel Comics #1. This Motion Pictures comic was supposed
to be handed out free at movie theaters along the east coast of the
States. Most theater chains turned down the book, so the amount of
distribution is not known.
Later on in October, 1939, Marvel Comics #1 came out. A group of successful
superhero veterans from Funnies Inc. contacted publisher Martin
Goodman. The Funnies group told him that they would present to him a
prepared, finished comic book every month, for a service fee. Among
this group was Bill Everett, who created Prince Namor the Sub-Mariner
for this book. Other heroes from this comic are The Human Torch, created
by Carl Burgos, Ka-Zar, The Angel, and The Masked Raider (who was a Lone
Ranger rip-off). This company would go through three different name changes.
The first was Timely Comics, the second was Atlas, and the third and
present is Marvel Comics. The Human Torch was re-done as a teenage member of the Fantastic Four
in 1961, but The Original Human Torch was brought back for a short
time in the 80's. The Angel was re-done as an X-men member, and Ka-Zar
still lives on today, he recently got his own series.
The Shield made his appearance in Pep Comics #1. The comic hit the stands in January 1940.
The Shield was the very first patriotic American hero. His star spangled costume and fight for America
created many imitators, Captain America being one of them. This comic book was published by MJL
Magazines. This character along with many others heroes were used by Detective Comics in the 80's
and had new adventures in a 1991 Legends of The Shield book under a !mpact Comics imprint.
In February of 1940 More Fun #52 came out with a new hero. DC made a mistake
with this new superhero because they made him too powerful. The Spectre was a police officer that died,
and upon talking to God he was sent back down to Earth as a ghost. Possessing almost
unlimited superpowers, he would turn all the evil doers into
ash. But the character wasn't a big success because he was quite cold, humorless,
and unstoppable. Bullets would pass right through him, he could walk through walls;
he had no weaknesses. Despite the initial failure, The Spectre was brought back
by DC three times and today has a ongoing series.
Also in February 1940, Whiz Comics #2 came out. This comic had a character
that would cause DC trouble for some time (click name to
see why). His name was Captain Marvel.
Some interesting footnotes about this book was that in Thrill Comics #1
(which was an ashcan - promotional small comic) had a character
called Captain Thunder, but quickly found out that the name was
already taken, so it was changed to Captain Marvel and the title of the comic
changed. This comic was also supposed to be named 'Flash Comics', but a few days
before their distribution DC put out their own Flash Comics title,
featuring The Flash and Green Lantern.
The very first sidekick came out in April of 1940. His name was Robin
the Boy Wonder. He first appeared in Detective Comics #38. Batman
and Robin would be the best known 'dynamic duo' in comic books.
Robin was important in comic books because he was a hero that the
younger readers could relate to. Because of the popularity of Robin, other
superheroes got their own teen-aged side kicks. Three different characters have
filled the Robin costume. The first was Dick Grayson, the second was Jason Todd
(who will be talked about later), and the third and current one is Timothy Drake.
In the Winter of 1940 the very first superhero team formed. It was called the
Justice Society of America. They appeared in All Star Comics #3.
The original members included: The Flash, The Green Lantern, The
Spectre, The Hawkman, Dr. Fate, The Hour-man, The Sandman, Atom, and
Johnny Thunder. All of these characters were great in
their own titles, but readers responded with excitement to putting them all together.
Creating superhero teams is still a very common thing today.
In 1941,Wonder Woman first
appeared in All Star Comics #8. She started out as the Justice League Society secretary,
but she would later become the first big name super heroine to go toe to toe with Superman
and Batman. Not only could she battle them on equal terms, her book would last as long as
theirs. During a time when superheroes were not so popular, Wonder Woman comics, like
Superman and Batman, remained strong.
Captain America made his first appearance in March, 1941. But the way he
appeared was just as exciting as the character. Captain America #1 was his first
appearance; Captain America was never tested in another book before receiving
his own comic title. This was unheard of in comics to that date. Comic companies did not go
out and hire a group a people to produce a comic title if they didn't know the character could
sell it. They always tested out the character in another comic first, and gauged reader reaction
to the character via sales figures. They did it with Superman in Action
Comics #1; it was a year before he got his own book. The same went for Batman.
But Timely Comics publisher Martin Goodman saw the rough sketch of Captain
America by Joe Simon and knew immediately it would sell. So he gave
Captain America his own book right away and was successful with it. Captain America wasn't like Superman who spoke of "Truth, Justice and
the American way". Superman was an alien from outer space; Captain America
was a "real" American. Also, Captain America was fighting the Nazi's long
before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor happened, after which America entered the Second World War.
Even though there were other patriotic heroes in comics, Captain America was
the first one to be really successfull with readers.
Also in 1941 Pep Comics #22 came out. Little did people know that the
superheroes on the cover would not be the big attraction. A story in
the back of the comic about a teenaged boy in a love triangle named Archie Andrews
would become the draw for this book. Archie Andrews would
completely take over this company and keep it successful to this day.
In this issue Archie's friends called him 'Chic'; Archie was modeled roughly
around Mickey Rooney's Andy Hardy character. By 1943 this company, known then
as MJL Magazines, would change its name to Archie Comics.
After WWII, superhero comics began to loose their popularity- but not
because kids didn't like them. It was because other people didn't
like them.
The Golden Age of Superheroes
