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Amazing Man 5-26, the quest is finally over...

Started by G.A.tor,

92 posts in this topic

Sqeggs

Sqeggs

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Do you think this run is much more difficult than collecting a run of other pre hero titles such has More Fun, Adventure Comics, Detective Comics, etc? If so, what would the ranking of titles be in your view from rarest to rare?

 

So Amazing-Man ain't a hero? :sumo:

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Dark Knight

Dark Knight

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Do you think this run is much more difficult than collecting a run of other pre hero titles such has More Fun, Adventure Comics, Detective Comics, etc? If so, what would the ranking of titles be in your view from rarest to rare?

 

So Amazing-Man ain't a hero? :sumo:

 

Wasn't thinking amazing man is a "hero." but even if its a hero title, i know how difficult it is to collect this run. Just talking in terms of rarity and how much more or less difficult to complete compared to other pre hero titles which is around as rare.

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G.A.tor

G.A.tor

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Do you think this run is much more difficult than collecting a run of other pre hero titles such has More Fun, Adventure Comics, Detective Comics, etc? If so, what would the ranking of titles be in your view from rarest to rare?

 

So Amazing-Man ain't a hero? :sumo:

 

Wasn't thinking amazing man is a "hero." but even if its a hero title, i know how difficult it is to collect this run. Just talking in terms of rarity and how much more or less difficult to complete compared to other pre hero titles which is around as rare.

 

to do what Peter did, collecting tec 1-26 in grade, is tough tough tough....but, if you are not grade conscious, aman is much harder....for every copy of aman 26 Ive seen, for example, I've seen 6 copies of any pre hero tec.... the pre adventures are tough too...13,14, etc are on par with aman 25, 26, etc...

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Dark Knight

Dark Knight

Posted
Posted
Do you think this run is much more difficult than collecting a run of other pre hero titles such has More Fun, Adventure Comics, Detective Comics, etc? If so, what would the ranking of titles be in your view from rarest to rare?

 

So Amazing-Man ain't a hero? :sumo:

 

Wasn't thinking amazing man is a "hero." but even if its a hero title, i know how difficult it is to collect this run. Just talking in terms of rarity and how much more or less difficult to complete compared to other pre hero titles which is around as rare.

 

to do what Peter did, collecting tec 1-26 in grade, is tough tough tough....but, if you are not grade conscious, aman is much harder....for every copy of aman 26 Ive seen, for example, I've seen 6 copies of any pre hero tec.... the pre adventures are tough too...13,14, etc are on par with aman 25, 26, etc...

 

Thanks Gator (thumbs u So in simple terms, they are all tough to buy even in any grade lol

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jbcomicbox

jbcomicbox

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I wrote this twenty years ago for CBM.....At that time I was trying to show there was no Amazing Man 27. I have eliminated most of the article so you do not snooze much. If you want the word doc on it, pm me.......

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

AMAZING-MAN.......

To battle evil that is The Great Question

 

In the wake of Superman, men of special abilities were churned out by the comicbook publishers that sprang up in 1939 and 1940. Although DC was able to squelch the first pretender to Superman (“Wonderman” as produced by Fox Publications), it was unable to stem the inevitable tide of costume crime-fighters that followed. One of the earliest entries into the super-person sweepstakes was “Amazing-Man”, who first appeared in September 1939 in Amazing-Man Comics produced by Centaur Publications. “Amazing-Man” has the distinction of being the first “super-hero” to debut in his own title. (The character also has the distinction of being the first/one of the first comic characters to be announced in an amateur fan magazine as reported in a fanzine overview by John Giunta in Amazing Mystery Funnies 2/11, December 1939!)

Amazing-Man finds his origin in Tibet. (East Asia was a fairly popular breeding ground for super-heroes. This area was the site of the origins for characters such as “Wonderman” in Wonder Comics, “The Flame” in Wonderworld Comics, “The Black Condor” in Crack Comics, “The Human Meteor” in Champion Comics, etc.) An American orphan, Aman was raised and trained by the Council of Seven for twenty-five years. Each member did his part to develop the child to have all the characteristics of a man who would be imbued with the traits of strength, knowledge and courage. As the first story opens, Aman sits chained before the Council waiting for his final tests before setting forth into the outside world. Six of the Council have endowed him with the benefits of kindness, tolerance and bravery, but a seventh, “The Great Question”, has plans of “dire evil for the perfect boy...”

.......

 

His friend Nika has been working on an invisibility potion that has certain problems. He injects it into Aman and tells him he can will himself to disappear and, in his absence, will appear a thick green mist. Nika gives him a vial of the formula which must be taken once every week. Aman takes the customary good guy pledge to “always do good and never maliciously harm a brother human without just cause”.

.........

Amazing-Man had neighboring features drawn by notable artists: “The Iron Skull” by Carl Burgos (his first android creation which was to be followed by additional android creations of “The Human Torch” for Marvel Comics and “The White Streak” for Target Comics), “Catman” by Tarpe Mills (who would render “Miss Fury” for Timely), features by Paul Gustavson (who would contribute “The Angel” for the first issue of Marvel Comics) and the wonderful “Frank Hardy” fantasy-adventure feature by Frank Thomas. Additionally, John Kolb contributed “Minimidget”, the first diminutive hero, who would soon be followed by Eisner’s and Fine’s “Dollman” in the December 1939 issue of Feature Comics. Latter issues of Amazing-Man featured the unique talents of Basil Wolverton in “Meteor Martin”- a variation of his classic “Spacehawk” character.

“Amazing-Man” was created by Bill Everett and was Centaur’s principal character in the super-hero sweepstakes. Although not the first published work by Bill Everett (that had occurred earlier in Centaur’s adventure anthology, Amazing Mystery Funnies 1 (cover) and the “Skyrocket Steele” feature in the second issue- September 1938), “Amazing-Man” was Everett’s first publicly distributed super-hero, beating by a month his most famous creation, “The Sub-Mariner” for Marvel Comics. .........

 

 

According to his bio that appeared in the November 1939 issue of Amazing Mystery Funnies (Centaur profiled many of its artists in the middle issues of this title), Everett was “tall, red headed and handsome” and loved to “strum” his banjo and sing songs of the old west. The bio stated that Everett is “crazy about the sea”. In latter interviews, he acknowledged that he had been fascinated by Admiral Byrd’s expedition to the South Pole. This intense interest in the sea probably explains the reason that he created several characters that focused on the sea or water- “Sub-Mariner” (Marvel Mystery Comics), “The Fin” (Daring Mystery Comics), “Subbie” (Kid Komics), and “Hydroman” (Heroic Comics) and “Namora” which he helped refined/developed.

 

Centaur began publishing in March 1938. The publisher, Joe Hardie, had taken over a number of comicbook titles that were floundering (such as Funny Pages and Funny Picture Stories from Comic Magazine Co./Ultem Publications and Star Comics and Star Ranger Comics from Harry Chesler). He created a number of new titles with the help of Lloyd Jacquet. Jacquet had been an editor and packager of comics since the beginning- New Fun 1. While an editor for Centaur, in early 1939 Jacquet decided to set up his own company packaging comics to sell to publishers. He set up Funnies, Inc. with John Mahon (former business manager for National Periodicals and former owner of Comic Magazine Co.) and Frank Torpey. Jacquet took with him from Centaur Everett, Burgos, Gustavson and others. Everett became the art director for Funnies, Inc.

Jacquet created one of the first comicbook “shops”. Along with shops such as Iger-Eisner, Jack Binder, Harry Chesler and others, he packaged comicbook material to feed the insatiable hunger of publishers for comicbook material. At Centaur, he had utilized the talents of such soon-to-be luminaries such as Everett, Carl Burgos, Paul Gustavson, Ben Thompson and others. These men formed the nucleus of Jacquet’s Funnies, Inc. which packaged several comicbook titles in the late 1930s and early 1940s. The group that produced the features in Amazing-Man Comics were the same folk that were used to package the early issues of Marvel Mystery Comics. In fact, the premature demise of Centaur in early 1942 can probably be traced to the fact that much of its early talent was absorbed by the needs of larger publishers such as Timely and Quality.

“Amazing-Man” appeared in issues 5 through 26 of his own title (not 27 as stated by the Guide), and all five issues of Stars and Stripes. The first issue was number 5; there were no issues 1- 4. Although it has been suggested that the title continued from Motion Picture Weekly Funnies 1 and the covers numbered 2, 3 and 4, this supposition is probably incorrect. More probable is that Amazing-Man Comics continued from Western Picture Stories 4, one of the four titles produced by the Comic Magazine Co. Centaur clearly had continued each of the three other CMC titles (Comic Magazine/Funny Pages continued as Funny Pages. Funny Picture Stories continued with the same name from its previous company incarnation. Centaur’s Keen Detective Funnies 8 continued from Comic Magazine’s Detective Picture Stories, although issues 6 and 7 probably do not exist). It does not appear to be reasonable that WPS would be the only title that was not “extended” by Centaur. Therefore, it is only logical to conclude that Centaur “extended” the title run of Western Picture Stories with issue number 5 of Amazing-Man Comics.

 

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THIS THEORY GUYS?

 

.........

 

After being a monthly publication since issue 9, issue 22 is a month late and issue 23 does not appear until three months later (August 1941) wherein Amazing-Man obtains the services of a boy companion. (Several stories of Amazing-Man continued in Stars and Stripes which started also in May 1941. Interestingly, the story in the July 1941 issue picks up the story line from Amazing-Man 22. However, the preceding story in the May issue of Stars and Stripes involves a storyline wherein Zona is whisked to Tibet to be given powers to aid Aman in his fights. This storyline is never pursued, apparently due to an editorial decision to give Amazing-Man a boy companion a la “Robin” as opposed to a “woman side-kick”. Coupled with the subsequent bi-monthly scheduling of the title, the addition of a boy companion was an obvious attempt to boost sagging sales.) ........

Tommy, the “boy wonder” (sound familiar?) outfits himself with a yellow shirt with a large red “T” on it. His presence in the stories is most often superfluous with Tommy usually being more interested where he can obtain his next ice cream soda than aiding Aman. Aman and Tommy battle Nazis until the last issue of January 1942. (Note the “Meteor Martin” story in this issue ends in a cliff-hanger with the tagline to see the conclusion in the next issue of Stars and Stripes, which did not appear). Along with this issue of Amazing-Man, Centaur/Comic Corporation of America ceased to publish. Several inventory features and previously printed features were published shortly later as distributed by Chicago Mail Order Company in Liberty Guards, C-M-O Comics and, a publishing oddity of a comicbook with the Amazing Mystery Funnies logo on the cover to Amazing-Man 23 with the interior of . (This is in addition to the “remainder” reprints distributed by Elliot Publishing Co. in Double Comics.)

“Amazing-Man” remains a short-lived, but significant character of the golden age due to its creator Bill Everett, the host of reknown artists who contributed features to this title and the enterprising Centaur line of comicbooks.

 

 

JSB 6/23/95

 

YOU MAY WAKE UP NOW............

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Et-Es-Go

Et-Es-Go

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I read every word of your article, just like I did the first time you published it. For me, this is the essence of what has driven me to collect certain titles and issues. The history combined with the rarity of a title or publisher holds a special allure, and hunting down some of these specific issues can take a life time of collecting.

 

Jon has been for many many years a wealth of information as noted in this latest article that he posted. I very much appreciate his very genuine interest in the history of this American ephemera. These days it seems it has been reduced to only the grade of the book and what that relates to in monetary terms. Pristine issues for some of these issues are exceedingly rare, so just finding a complete copy can be a challenge, so don't get hung up on the grade. If you go beyond that concept and consider the people and the space in time where they created these works of art it creates a completely different dynamic and the appreciation for what they accomplished. There is simply an amazing portfolio for some of these artist where the volume and quality of their work is really just amazing!

 

So thanks to Jon for always providing such an excellent perspective on the history of these titles and characters we covet and collect via this unique American art form, Golden Age Comic Books.

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