Welcome to our re-read of the first and greatest superhero team in comics ... and quite a bit more!
My plan is to re-read and discuss the Golden Age Justice Society of America, which ran from All-Star Comics #3 (Winter 1940) to All-Star Comics #57 (February-March 1951), and is currently being reprinted in DC's "DC Finest" line.
But, as ever, I am consumed by context. What events brought us to All-Star Comics #3? What characters did editor Sheldon Mayer and writer Gardner Fox have available from which to choose? What else was competing in the superhero space? To achieve that context, I plan to start the discussion at the publisher's beginning, when Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson launched National Allied Publications Inc. in 1935. That was the first step toward the Justice Society — and to DC Comics as we know it today.
So before we even get to the JSA, I'll re-read and open for discussion all the solo stories starring JSA members, mostly from DC's Archives and Famous First Edition series. Which is actually quite a lot! (Although not as much as I'd prefer. I want it ALL!) I'll be writing about non-JSA superheroes created by National, Detective Comics Inc. and All-American Comics Inc. too, like Crimson Avenger and Doctor Occult. I'll also be tipping my hat to some non-powered characters, principally those who managed to appear outside their parent title, like Slam Bradley and Hop Harrigan. That means no re-read for the likes of "Bart Regan, Spy" and "Speed Saunders." Sorry, fellas, but I had to draw the line somewhere — before I found myself doing a deep dive into the history of Ginger Snap.
Speaking of drawing lines, I won't be re-reading Superman and Batman. They are peripheral at best to the Golden Age JSA, and would overwhelm the discussion through sheer volume. The volume issue extends to Wonder Woman as well (Sensation Comics, Wonder Woman, Comic Cavalcade), but she was a major player in the JSA, so I haven't decided yet if I'll include her solo stories. (And I have quite a bit of time to decide, since the bulk of DC"s Golden Age Archives books consist of material published before Sensation Comics #1.) Fortunately, Jeff of Earth-J is already doing a re-read of the Golden Age Superman.
I should note that I'm using cover dates instead of ship dates (not all ship dates are available) and assigning specific months to seasonal cover dates. That is to say, I consider "Spring" to mean March-April-May, "Summer" to mean June-July-August, "Fall" to mean September-October-November and "Winter" to mean December-January-February. I know the books with seasonal dates don't always align with the months I've assigned. But I'm organizing by month, so I have to assign months to seasonal cover dates. The cover date for All-Star Comics #3 was Winter 1940, for example, so I'm going to call it "December." (The actual ship date was Nov. 22, 1940, according to the Grand Comics Database, for whatever that's worth.) It's not necessary for Golden Age books to be in specific order very often, but where they need to be (like Detective Comics #38 and Batman #1), I'll order them properly.
I've tried to be comprehensive, relying on a variety of sources, from online to reprints to "companion" books. A tip of the cowl to some of Luke Blanchard's posts in what amounts to almost an outline for this discussion. But I'm sure I've left out tons, especially reprints that I don't have or can't find, which may be at hand in your collection. I hope folks will do re-reads of reprints I've left out, as well as comment on what I've written. So let's hear what I've missed Legionnaires — and what you think!
Replies
JANUARY 1938
A new year begins, and where does DC stand in the mystery man category? it's got Doctor Occult, and maybe Nadir, and ... um, gee, that's about it. At DC's competition, the list was short as well. The Clock, Bob Phantom (sorta), maybe one or two more short-run, superheroish characters I overlooked. Toss in Slam Bradley as a kind of pseudo-superhero.
Did I say "superhero"? Yep,as we all know, that's about to become a thing. Nobody knew that in January 1938, but WE know! It's kinda cool to anticipate it.
Come to think of it, my dad would have been 14 or 15 when Superman debuted, and I kinda wish I'd asked him about his perspective on the phenomenon — the comics, the cartoons, the movie serials, the radio show. Then again, he was pretty busy with the Depression and World War II and so forth, and probably didn't notice. Ah, well. Maybe some other Legionnaire's dad or granddad had something to say?
'MORE FUN COMICS' #28
Doctor Occult: "Vampire Venom" by Siegel and Shuster (4 pages). Ellsworth, once again a captain, calls Occult in on a murder, where the victim is drained of blood and has two holes in his neck. "We're dealing with a vampire!" Occult says, demonstrating his astounding deductive brilliance.
Occult says the victim will turn into a vampire, so "several nights" later they wait in the graveyard. Sure enough, the corpse emerges and meets with "a bat-man." (One has to wonder if Bob Kane read this story.) Both figures look like bat-men to me, but that's not important, as the ever-impetuous Ellsworth (he gets the first hame "Vin" here) wades in with gun blazing. It doesn't work, but Occult drives them back to their graves with his "mystic symbol." It still doesn't look like the Mystic Symbol of the Seven, but that must be what it is. Occult and Ellsworth finish the job with stakes. "Their faces! — How peaceful they look ... now," Ellsworth says.
'NEW ADVENTURE COMICS' #23
Nadir: Untitled by Bill Ely (4 pages).
Robin Hood, by Sven Elven, begins. If there's an antecedent for the first 50 issues of The Brave and the Bold, it's this title.
'DETECTIVE COMICS' #11
Slam Bradley: Untitled story by Siegel and Shuster (13 pages). Slam and Shorty deal with some new characters with German names. That's all that GCD gives me. But I'm sure they're fine people, up to nothing bad at all.
THE COMPETITION
Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, makes her debut in Wags #46 in the UK.
FEBRUARY 1938
'MORE FUN COMICS' #29
Doctor Occult: "The Spectral Killer" by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster (4 pages). Occult and Ellsworth (a sergeant again) are witnesses as a murderer is electrocuted in the chair. Before the execution, killer Ed Murphy curses the spectators, saying he'll come back from the grave to kill them all. Sure enough, the witnesses all start dying, strangled in their beds with no clues. The killer specter comes for Occult, who banishes it with his mystic symbol. This is just a straightforward horror story, and Occult doesn't raise a sweat.
Barry O'Neill appears for the last time in More Fun Comics. O'Neill, who has been fighting Fang Gow since New Fun #1, jumps to New Adventure Comics, where he will remain until 1941, when the strip is canceled.
'NEW ADVENTURE COMICS' #24
Nadir: Untitled by Bill Ely (4 pages): I'm sorry that I don't have a lot to say about Nadir. I've never read a Nadir story outside of his first appearance, and GCD doesn't say much. And, spoiler, his strip won't last very long.
'DETECTIVE COMICS' #12
Slam Bradley: Untitled story by Siegel and Shuster (13 pages). There are lumberjacks. That's all I know.
MARCH 1938
'MORE FUN COMICS' #30
Doctor Occult: Untitled by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster (4 pages). Occult and Ellsworth (a captain again) investigate a spiritualist, Madame Zora, to see if she's on the level or faking it. Turns out she's for real, and is possessed by "an elemental" that wants to kill them all with an ornamental spear. Occult almost defuses the situation before Ellsworth blunders in again, so Occult changes the spear to a snake. When asked how he did that, Occult says it was just "an optical illusion."
March-April 1938
Bob Merritt ends. He was a sort of proto-Blackhawk, a pilot with a squadron of buddies who righted wrongs ... from Long Island. He started in New Fun #5 (August 1935). Quality Comics would do a better job with this concept!
'NEW ADVENTURE COMICS' #25
Nadir: Untitled by Bill Ely (4 pages).
'DETECTIVE COMICS' #13
Slam Bradley: Untitled story by Siegel and Shuster (13 pages). Pirates. No, seriously, GCD says pirates.
THE COMPETITION
Centaur enters the field (and Ultem exits) with Funny Pages v2 #6 and Funny Picture Stories v2 #6 (March 1938).
APRIL 1938
'DETECTIVE COMICS' #14
Slam Bradley: Untitled story by Siegel and Shuster (13 pages). Slam and Shorty go to Alaska.
MAY 1938
'MORE FUN COMICS' #31
Doctor Occult: "The Master of Corpses" by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster (4 pages). A man tells the police he escaped from the Daro Mine, where all the other workers are zombies. Occult and Ellsworth investigate and speak to Daro, but he is on to them (somehow). "You are police! Sieze them, men!" The men are actually zombies, and Occult realizes the truth. "As I thought! You're a Hatian [sic] and you've brought your black magic to America!"
Daro shows them his mine full of zombies, who are building tunnels under the city, so that Daro's zombies can emerge from the ground and take over. (I have never understood this particular Golden Age trope. So what if you take over a city in the contiguous United States? The Army or National Guard is eventually going to take it back. And if you do enslave everyone in a city, you still have to feed your slaves. Where are you going to get food, power, medicine, clean water and other resources when you're in an isolated city in a hostile country? It just doesn't seem sustainable.) Daro is going to inject Occult and Ellsworth with a serum that will turn them into zombies. (He probably got it from the same place the landlady in the werewolf story got her werewolf serum.)
"At this moment, Occult is forced to resort to a dangerous little-used power. — At a wave of his hand, a section of the ceiling caves down upon the Master of Corpses, crushing him to death!" Then the whole mine starts to collapse, and Occult and Ellsworth barely escape in time. Wow, Occult's been hiding a pretty potent power! I'm glad to see Siegel realized he needed to explain why Occult had never used it before.
'NEW ADVENTURE COMICS' #26
Nadir: Untitled by Bill Ely (4 pages).
'DETECTIVE COMICS' #15
Slam Bradley: Untitled story by Siegel and Shuster (13 pages). "Hurry! Someone's in trouble!" Honestly, that's all the information GCD has. But it's kind of sublime in its simplicity.
There are lumberjacks.
Are they OK?
They sleep all night and they work all day!
Given the page count, Slam Bradley was the closest thing that the early DC had as a "star" character.
It's not that hard to mix the bizarreness of Doctor Occult and the two-fisted action of Slam Bradley and get Superman as the early Man of Steel had his surreal moments as well.
As the comic pages of the newspapers were a mixture of various genres, so were the early comics, looking for their hook. They'd soon find it!
Given the page count, Slam Bradley was the closest thing that the early DC had as a "star" character.
I think so, too. Not only was he 13 pages long every issue, but he was usually in the “anchor” spot in Detective Comics, which is where you’d find a given book’s second-best story. Speed Saunders usually had the lead spot, so they apparently had hopes for him, as well. I'd say DC considered Slam and Speed to be Detective's stars until Crimson Avenger and that other guy came along. But even after Batman, Slam kept the anchor spot. So he gets points over Speed, who was relegated to the #2 spot, which is nothing to brag about.
Strangely, though, I don’t think Slam ever had the cover in the first 26 issues. (After that, he’d have little chance!)
It's not that hard to mix the bizarreness of Doctor Occult and the two-fisted action of Slam Bradley and get Superman as the early Man of Steel had his surreal moments as well.
I have some thoughts on this, which will be in Monday’s post.
As the comic pages of the newspapers were a mixture of various genres, so were the early comics, looking for their hook. They'd soon find it!
Tomorrow’s post! Can you feel the tension?
Cap, you're making be regret more than ever that DC cancelled their plans for that slipcased set of Detective Comics #1-26.
Jeff of Earth-J said I didn't need the Alan Scott, Jay Garrick and Wesley Dodds miniseries, and I take Jeff's recommendations as gospel, but now I'm wondering if I shouldn't get those as well (and pair them with re-reads of Sandman Mystery Theatre and James Robinson's Starman).
Thanks for that... and I stand by it. But I feel much less apprehensive when someone doesn't buy something on my say-so than when someone does. Go ahead and get those recent min-series if you feel you must, but don't say I didn't warn you. the next time I attempt a Sandman Mystery Theatre of a James Robinson Starman re-read (which I woudl be up for any time), it will be via the "compendium" editions. (I love those.)
Maybe some other Legionnaire's dad or granddad had something to say?
Not about Action Comics (and he had his chance)* or Superman or comics books in general, but he did wax eloquently on occasion about comic strips (noteably Dick Tracy and Terry & the Pirates). Also, he was able to tell me about Doc Savage after I bought Marvel's b&w #1 with Ron Ely on the cover.
Tomorrow’s post! Can you feel the tension?
I can. I'm ready for these preliminaries to be over.
*It was he who wrote the check when I clipped the coupon for the treasury edition of Action Comics #1.
Cap, you're making be regret more than ever that DC cancelled their plans for that slipcased set of Detective Comics #1-26.
I know. I just freaking hated that decision. I want to know what’s in those books!
I feel much less apprehensive when someone doesn't buy something on my say-so than when someone does.
I feel the same way. I know they’re not going to blame me if they end up not liking it (probably), but I don’t want the guilt!
Go ahead and get those recent min-series if you feel you must, but don't say I didn't warn you.
You’re talking me out of it again. I’ll finish The New Golden Age and Stargirl and the Lost Children and then decide. If I get sufficient info to be conversational about Red Lantern, for example, I won’t need Alan Scott: The Green Lantern.
The next time I attempt a Sandman Mystery Theatre of a James Robinson Starman re-read (which I woudl be up for any time), it will be via the "compendium" editions. (I love those.)
Yeah? What a coincidence! I just have a smattering of Sandman Mystery Theatre TPBs, and no Starman reprints at all, so I checked Amazon to see what was available. And sure, there’s a four-book omnibus series with all the Starman, which would be my normal choice, because it would like nice on my shelf. But then I heard the words of a wise Legionnaire saying, “if I re-read something, what format do I want it in?” And I realized I’d probably want something like the compendia, which will barrel me through the series fast, but I won’t have to hold a bulky hardback up to the light to read. (That is how I have to read now.) I’ve never bought a compendium before, so I’ve been hesitant. But you have encouraged me to explore this idea.
I'm ready for these preliminaries to be over.
You’re tellin’ me! But I can’t change history. And going step by step like this is educational for me, making me understand just how much happened that I’d never known about before, or just didn’t care about before (because no superheroes). It’s giving me a grasp of time and scope I’d never had before.
But yeah, there’s a lot that’s just plain boring!
In regard to the cancelled Early Detective Comics box set and the previous Monster Society of Evil collection (which I ordered and, of course, never got), I feel that older media should not be censored or even feared. Yes, they could be disturbing but they're from a different time where things just aren't acceptable now or ever. Putting such works into historical context is better than erasing them outright.
But more importantly, we must be grateful that Superman and Batman never (fully) went down that route. Imagine had Superman had a major villain of "The Yellow Peril" variety or Batman with a stereotypical black valet. How history could have been altered!
It would mean a world without Batman and Superman. Maybe they'd be watching Doctor Occult and Crimson Avenger movies.
Since New Fun was a tabloid, and the features modelled after newspaper strips, the initial features were mostly 1 page or 1 page with a topper (which in newspapers as here might be placed below the main strip).
New Comics, as a half-tabloid, predominately used 2 or 4 pages. Some number of the early 4-pagers are really two instalments of a 2-pager, but some are true 4-pagers, including the first “Federal Men” story in #2.
When More Fun became the half-tabloid More Fun Comics 2 or 4 pages became the normal lengths there, too.
However, from More Fun Comics #13 and New Comics #8 the lead features - “Sandra of the Secret Service” and “Captain Jim of the Texas Rangers” - were 3 pages. My guess is this was so subsequent items could appears as spreads.
The “Dr. Mystic” story in The Comics Magazine #1 appears to have been drawn for the new company as the logo is lettered as part of the splash panel by Shuster. That suggests Siegel and Shuster briefly switched to the new company but went back to Wheeler-Nicholson.
“Federal Agent” in #2 isn’t “Spy” but “Federal Men” under another name, with the hero renamed Bart Regan.
The early issues of New Comics have poster-like centrespreads. (The ones in New Comics #1-#2 are illustrations of Gulliver's Travels by Walt Kelly.) These also appear in More Fun Comics when it goes down in size. Initially they're B&W, later colour. A fair number of Comics Magazine Co. issues also have them.
In the first two Wheeler-Nicholson titles they give way to two-page spreads of gags.
When Detective Comics started the comics features in the two earlier titles were still one to four pages. Comics Magazine Co.’s “Picture Stories” titles ran longer stories, but many of these were stand-alones. There were recurring features, but they didn’t have regular line-ups. So it was Detective Comics that established the standard Golden Age style of line-up: around six to nine main features of varying lengths. Detective Comics #1 has nine, Action Comics #1 eight.
Just after Detective Comics started the line adopted a standard cover-style. The logos of Detective Comics and New Adventure Comics were remodelled after the existing logo of More Fun Comics. They were placed in their own space, with a heavy line above and below. The covers now featured polished images that made full use of the cover space. This style first appears on Detective Comics with #2 and New Adventure Comics with #15 (=the first issue named that in the indicia).
I think the attribution of Speed Saunders's creation to E. C. Stoner is an error, stemming from the belief that he drew the story. The GCD used to say this but now says Creig Flessel, which must be basically right (maybe he didn't do it solo) as the art is very similar to that in #3's instalment - the feature skipped #2 - which has his byline "Fless".
Detective Comics #1 has ads on the inside front cover and first interior page. The inside back cover has a next issue/indicia page. "Slam Bradley" was placed last and the other 13-pager, "The Claws of the Red Dragon", was placed so that it ended at on the left side of the centrespread.
In #2 the indicia page is an intro/indicia page on the inside front cover, and "Slam Bradley" starts on the first interior page. "The Claws of the Red Dragon" is 12 pages and the last main feature, followed by a gag page. "Slam Bradley" also led, with "Speed Saunders" last except for filler pages, in #5, #7, #22 and #26. The "Slam Bradley" instalment in #3 was drawn by a different artist, credited as Jim Bettersworth. It's his only credit at the GCD.
From #3 Detective Comics carried 6-page text stories that started on the centrespread with a poster-like splash illustration. These gave way in #13 to 2-page centrespread text stories. (I find this puzzling, as the thinking seems opposite. The 6-page ones put a striking image on the centre pages, and the 2-page ones don't.)
On the face of it “Dr. Occult” ended because its pages were wanted for “Radio Squad”. The latter feature had been 2 pages to that point, and went up to 6 and into the second slot where “Dr. Occult” had been (but didn’t stay there for long). “Spy” also went up to 8 pages at that point.
So even before the sales figues for Action Comics came in Siegel and Shuster were being treated as a top team. Between “Superman”, “Slam Bradley”, “Spy”, “Radio Squad” and “Federal Men” they were doing 44 pages a month, and nearly a third of Detective Comics! But “Spy” quick dropped down to 6.
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