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1st cover appearance of Green Arrow: More Fun 77 or Leading 1?

Started by RedFury,

15 posts in this topic

RedFury

RedFury

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Ciorac and I were hanging out on Saturday, drooling over funny books like we always do. He was looking at my Leading Comics #1 and said, "Is this the 1st cover appearance of Green Arrow? The notes say it's the 1st Vigilante cover, but they don't mention Green Arrow." I thought about it for a second and replied, "Maybe. He didn't appear on the cover of More Fun right away. Let's check it out!"

 

A quick check of GCD provided this info: Green Arrow's first cover appearance in More Fun was #77, dated March 1942. Leading 1 is dated Winter 1941/42. We weren't sure exactly what "Winter 41/42" meant, but it sure sounded like Leading 1 had beaten More Fun 77 to the stands.

 

So then today I decided to try to search the Heritage archives and other sites to see if I could find any copies of these books with date-stamps that might help shed some more light on the question.

 

I couldn't find any More Fun 77s with a date-stamp, but I did find a #78 with "Feb 18" on it ( More Fun 78 in Heritage Archives ). Since #78 is dated April 1942, Feb 18 makes sense as the arrival date. And since it's a monthly title I feel pretty comfortable extrapolating the arrival date of More Fun 77 to be around Jan 18 1942.

 

For Leading 1, I found a copy with a date-stamp of Mar 11, 1942 ( Leading 1 in Heritage archive ). That doesn't seem to make sense as an arrival date given that the book is dated the Winter issue. That would mean the book would be sitting on the shelves during the spring. Perhaps in this case the date isn't the arrival date, but the sell-by date?

 

To make it more confusing, I did find a copy of Leading #2 that appears to have "3-10" or "3-16" or "3-18" written on the cover ( Leading 2 in Heritage archives ). It's the Spring issue, so an arrival date of March makes sense. And since it's a quarterly title, that would imply Leading 1's arrival date was in December 1941. And that seems to make sense for a book dated Winter 41/42.

 

So what do you guys think? Did Leading 1 really hit the stands in December 1941? Did More Fun 77 really appear in Jan 42? Is Leading 1 Green Arrow's 1st cover appearance? Anyone have any more info to add, or other ideas to consider? Appreciate the help!

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jerome34

jerome34

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House ads for Leading 1 appear in February issues of Action (45), Adventure (71), and

Detective (60), and in Batman 9 (February-March). That corresponds to Mare Fun 76.

Thus if the books appeared on the stands in the order the publishers thought they would,

Leading 1 would have come out a few weeks before More Fun 77. This usually, but not

always, happened.

 

I would vote on Leading being the first appearance.

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RedFury

RedFury

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My copy of Leading #1 has the arrival date of 12/17 written on it.

Great info, thanks BZ! If you have time could you post a scan?

 

House ads for Leading 1 appear in February issues of Action (45), Adventure (71), and

Detective (60), and in Batman 9 (February-March). That corresponds to Mare Fun 76.

Thus if the books appeared on the stands in the order the publishers thought they would,

Leading 1 would have come out a few weeks before More Fun 77. This usually, but not

always, happened.

 

I would vote on Leading being the first appearance.

More great info! It does indeed look like Leading 1 beat More Fun 77 to the stands by a few weeks to one month.

 

Now will you be able to get the Price Guide to correct the notation?

If I can gather enough evidence I will certainly send it in. I think it needs to be accompanied by an act of Congress, though, before Bob will address it...

 

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BangZoom

BangZoom

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My copy of Leading #1 has the arrival date of 12/17 written on it.

Great info, thanks BZ! If you have time could you post a scan?

 

I had a scan of this comic that I made some years back on an old scanner but it made the comic's colors look overly toasty so I made another scan.

 

Hope this will be of some help to you.

 

 

arrivaldate.jpg

 

leadingcomics1.jpg

 

 

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RedFury

RedFury

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Thanks. To follow up on this, I was able to further corroborate Leading 1 being the 1st Green Arrow cover appearance by checking the newsstand arrival dates on Mike's Amazing World of Comic website ( www.dcindexes.com ).

 

They say Leading 1 was on the stand Dec 17 1941 (which exactly matches Bang Zoom's copy's arrival date) and More Fun 77 was Jan 27 1942. So Leading 1 is indeed the first Green Arrow cover appearance.

 

I sent this info in to Overstreet in Feb 2013 and they added it to the guide.

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rjpb

rjpb

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It only took 40 years before anyone cared enough about Green Arrow to add this information to the OSPG.

 

Maybe one day they'll note the importance of All-Star #8 as the first Dr. Midnite cover. ;)

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RedFury

RedFury

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Here's a chronological list of the earliest Green Arrow appearances by order released. First date is cover date, second date is approximate newsstand release date.

 

More Fun Comics #73 - Nov 1941 - 9/25/41 (1st appearance of Green Arrow)

More Fun Comics #74 - Dec 1941 - 10/23/41

More Fun Comics #75 - Jan 1942 - 11/21/41

Leading Comics #1 - Winter 1941 - 12/17/41 (1st Green Arrow on cover)

More Fun Comics #76 - Feb 1942 - 12/19/41

More Fun Comics #77 - Mar 1942 - 1/21/42 (Green Arrow on cover)

More Fun Comics #78 - Apr 1942 - 2/20/42 (Green Arrow on cover)

Leading Comics #2 - Spring 1942 - 3/18/42 (Green Arrow on cover)

More Fun Comics #79 - May 1942 - 3/20/42 (Green Arrow on cover)

More Fun Comics #80 - Jun 1942 - 4/22/42 (Green Arrow on cover)

More Fun Comics #81 - Jul 1942 - 5/20/42 (Green Arrow on cover)

Leading Comics #3 - Summer 1942 - 6/17/42 (Green Arrow on cover)

More Fun Comics #82 - Aug 1942 - 6/19/42 (Green Arrow on cover)

And so on...

 

So Leading Comics #1 is the 4th appearance (or possibly tied for 4th with More Fun #76) of Green Arrow. The label is wrong.

 

 

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