March 1936 brings three more companies into the comic book publishing game: Centaur Publications, United Features, David McKay. Centaur Publications was formed by two former employees of National Allied Publications, John Mahon and Bill Cook. Their flagship comic book is Comics Magazine #1, which includes a feature called “Dr. Mystic, Occult Detective”. The feature is […]
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New Comics #3 (February 1936) brought another adventure for Siegel & Shuster’s “Federal Men”. It also had the first contest to win original artwork of its hero Steve Carson. Eastern Color’s Famous Funnies #20 also featured a letter from a reader for the first time.
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With the introduction of its New Comics magazie, National Allied Publications renamed their “New Fun” comic to “More Fun”. Sandra of the Secret Service had been present in that magazine since its first issue and is thus the very first example of a female comic book hero. Note that the villain here, Count Taurus, has […]
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In December 1935, New Comics #2 featured a 4-page story called “Federal Men” by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. Steve Carson was an FBI agent in the 1930s. The bad guy’s girl is named Kate Lane, she comes to her senses just in time for her villainous boyfriend, Walsh, to kill her in the heat […]
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November 1935 brought National Allied Publications’ second title, New Comics #1 – not to be confused with “New Fun Comics”, which was renamed to “More Fun Comics” in its next issue. New Comics featured several adventure strips like “The Strange Adventures of Mr. Weed” (a strip about an eccentric historian who does a bit of […]
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Detective Dan Dunn had a child sidekick by October 1935 in the form of an orphan named Babs (shown above from Famous Funnies #16). It feels like they were going for a Little Orphan Annie vibe here, but I’m sure it’s not coincidence that Dick Tracy also had also adopted an orphan son (Junior) just […]
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It’s September 1935 and here we are, the birth of the DC Universe. With this panel Doctor Occult becomes the first character to exist in the DC Comics universe, though obviously there was no such concept of a shared universe / continuity at the time. The strip debuted in New Fun Comics #6 by National […]
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Famous Funnies #14 (August 1935), saw Eastern Color Printing start to include editor pages as messages to readers. This was a trend started by National Allied Publications (later to become DC Comics) a few months before, and I think it was an important step in building up the comic book industry, as it made the […]
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Brad Hardy was 3/4 page adventure strip written and drawn by Richard Loederer in New Fun Comics. This is a panel from New Fun #5 (July 1935) inside the Cave of the Golden Bat as Brad and his girlfriend were fighting Rat People. Nice pencil work on the bat wings!
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Here is an full-page color ad to buy the Buck Roger’s Disintegrator Raygun for four bits from Famous Funnies #12 by Eastern Color. Looks like someone on ebay has one of these babies and current highest bid is $77, while a like-new full replica kit is sitting there for a cool $295.
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