Anyone know anything about DC's founder Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson?

[PUNYHUMAN]

Mark, get in touch with Roy Thomas , publisher & writer of Alter Ego Magizine. I'm sure he could help you out with some info. His e- mail address is in the mag , if you don't have it PM me ,I'll send it to you.

[FFB]

This is slightly OT, but I wanted to thank you guys for mentioning Men of Tomorrow a few months back. I wouldn't have heard about the book if not for you guys and I really loved reading it.

[esquirecomics]

This is slightly OT, but I wanted to thank you guys for mentioning Men of Tomorrow a few months back. I wouldn't have heard about the book if not for you guys and I really loved reading it.

 

What are friends for?

 

I can't believe I admitted being friends with you!

[FFB]

This is slightly OT, but I wanted to thank you guys for mentioning Men of Tomorrow a few months back. I wouldn't have heard about the book if not for you guys and I really loved reading it.

 

What are friends for?

 

I can't believe I admitted being friends with you!

 

What do you mean? I was talking to everyone BUT you.

[deathlok]

This is slightly OT, but I wanted to thank you guys for mentioning Men of Tomorrow a few months back. I wouldn't have heard about the book if not for you guys and I really loved reading it.

 

What are friends for?

 

I can't believe I admitted being friends with you!

 

What do you mean? I was talking to everyone BUT you.

[mrwoogieman]

Well, obviously you haven't read the Major's autobiography. Here's an excerpt:

 

 

"The details of my life are quite inconsequential.... very well, where do I begin? My father was a relentlessly self-improving boulangerie owner from Belgium with a low grade narcolepsy and a penchant for buggery. My mother was a fifteen year old French prostitute named Chloe with webbed feet. My father would womanize, he would drink. He would make outrageous claims like he invented the question mark. Sometimes he would accuse chestnuts of being lazy. The sort of general malaise that only the genius possess and the insane lament. My childhood was typical. Summers in Rangoon, luge lessons. In the spring we'd make meat helmets. When I was insolent I was placed in a burlap bag and beaten with reeds- pretty standard really. At the age of twelve I received my first scribe. At the age of fourteen a Zoroastrian named Vilma ritualistically shaved my testicles. There really is nothing like a shorn scrotum... it's breathtaking- I highly suggest you try it."

 

 

[Timulty]

Yo, Woogie stop ripping off Dr. Evil!!!

[mrwoogieman]

Yo, Woogie stop ripping off Dr. Evil!!!

 

[Timulty]

Yo, Woogie stop ripping off Dr. Evil!!!

 

[mrwoogieman]

Yo, Woogie stop ripping off Dr. Evil!!!

 

 

Please don't dishonor the memory and legacy of the great Major MW-N with your insulting graemlin war. Instead, make a meat helmet and wear it proudly, in honor of this great, great man.

 

 

Either that, or it's the burlap sack reed-beating again....

 

 

[Timulty]

Really wasn't a graemlin war. Need at least 5 graemlins to make it so. Though, it would be nice, if someone would come up with SOME useful info.

[mrwoogieman]

Really wasn't a graemlin war. Need at least 5 graemlins to make it so. Though, it would be nice, if someone would come up with SOME useful info.

 

[BLBcomics-migration]

The comics exhibit at the Bremer Museum in Atlanta has closed but it's traveling and they have a few new spots lined up for next year. I have a copy of the program and it's very nice.

 

Wheeler-Nicholson was indeed showcased in a recent CBM. Nice piece of work.

 

And here's what Michael Uslan said in his book about the sale of DC by Nicholson to Donenfeld and his cronies:

 

Major Nicholson did not have the financial resources necessary to keep publishing through those Depression years, and he soon went into receivership. Harry Donenfeld, a publisher of pulp magazines, offered to buy him out for $19,703 plus assumption of debts. The offer was accepted. New Adventure # 24 was Major Nicholson's last stand. Number 25 was published by A.L. Nemin, receiver; number 26 was the first issue put out by Donenfeld's Detective Comics, Inc., in May 1938.

 

Can you imagine that DC was bought for such a pittance? Man, first they buy the company for a song then they screw Siegal and Shuster. I have the greatest respect for the people at DC right now, but jeez, what a bunch of opportunists and creeps they were back then.

 

I had the opportunity to interview Irwin Donenfeld several times for a total of 18 taped hours plus a lot of stuff he would not commit to taping. This culminated with me getting him to go to San Diego in the summer of 2001 whereat i interviewed him along with Mark Evanier on stage - that interview was transcribed and placed into an issue of Alter Ego a couple years ago.

 

 

Detective Comics Inc was incorporated in Dec 1936 - i have seen the corporate seal, held it in my hands at Irwin's place. I have it on video tape. Detective was to be a joint venture between the Major and Harry.

 

Harry Donenfeld took over the publication of National Allied when the Major could not pay his printing bill - covers which were on Harry's printing presses. At that stage when this deal was cooked up to "sell" National Allied, there was More Fun and New Adventure Comics, plus the Detective Comics start up, which was also barely in the black circ wise.

 

There was a 10 year contract between the Major and Harry Donenfeld which was up in 1947 - the contract stipulated that More Fun Comics and Adventure Comics would continue publication thru that time span for Harry D to retain ownership - if lapsed, the Major would revert the ownership on those titles. That is why you see the radical format changes in More Fun thru the years leading to its demise. The contract had to be followed thru on, otherwise the Major would have a claim to take over ownership of the DC line.

 

During that 10 years, the Major got a 10% cut of the profits - which ended abruptly at the end of the 10 years. If the Major could have held on another year, he would have been a co-owner in the Superman franchise.

 

 

The Siegel and Shuster contract was re-written in late 1939 to reflect the contents of the Bob Kane contract - and Siegel and Shuster each received half a million dollars during the course of the ten year contract they had, up in 1948 with Superman #52 being the last issue to carry the S&S created by-line.

 

With #53 Mort Weisinger issued to "new" origin story with no S&S credits.

 

If Jerry had not been talked by a lawyer he worked with when editor of the Pacific Area Stars & Stripes military newspaper during World War Two into suing to try to gain 100% control of Superman, a lawsuit spawned by the advent of Superboy in More Fun, which was part of the ongoing effort to keep the More Fun title alive as well as the transfer to Adventure with 103, also necessary to keep that title alive to avoid defaulting on the initial contract written up in early 1938, Siegel and Shuster would have enjoyed 10% of the profits off the publication in National comic books and the Major would have also been a co-owner.

 

As it was, Donenfeld never got a penny from the syndication of the Superman newspaper comic strip - ALL that money in royalties from McClure went to Siegel and Shuster - until 1948 when they lost rights brought on by the ill-advised lawsuit to gain 100% control. There was a $150,000 pay off for Superboy - and the lawyers on the S&S side got most of that money.

 

At one time, the Superman newspaper strip had a circulation of 20 million readers and brought in big bucks to Siegel and Shuster.

 

Further, Siegel and Shuster got all the money from the Fleischer Bros Superman cartoons, such as that might have been.

 

Irwin went into detail about the fact that Harry D paid for a few eye operations for Joe Shuster, who had begun to go blind in the 1940s. And he was adamant that if S&S had never started those lawsuits to gain 100% contol, they would have not ended up losing and losing out on all aspects of Superman during the prime of their lives.

 

Such is what Irwin related to me, portions of which were witnessed by either Mike Gold and in later interviews by Mike Catron.

 

Hope this helps a bit with my 25 cent tour - more details abound in the history book i labor on when i have the time. The more funny books i sell, the more time i have to conduct my research.

 

Robert Beerbohm

http://www.blbcomics.com

[CentaurMan]

Wow, Bob, absolutely fascinating stuff. Thanks for taking the time to post it!

[Harvey Dude]

Thanks Bob,

 

I certainly learn so much from information posted in the golden age forum.

[PUNYHUMAN]

Bob , Thanks for sharing your knolwedge. Your posts are always informative & a joy to read.

[BLBcomics-migration]

Does any one have any further questions?

 

More on the major and his DC connections and the origins of New Fun from the 1934 short lived title Comic Cuts 1-9 can be found beginning on page 381 of the traditional size Overstreet titled

 

The American Comic Book

A Concise History of the Field as of 2005

"The Modern Comics Magazine Supplants The Earlier Formats"

by Robert L Beerbohm and Richard D Olson, PhD © 2005

 

specifically beginning on the last paragraph at the bottom of page 384 and most all of 385.

 

I have some update "new info" stuff going into Overstreet #36 2006 edition on Major Wheeler-Nicholson and origins of New Fun i have learned - as i learn new stuff each year as we all do.

 

As i have undertaken to learn new grading standards on high grade which seem to tighten each year, at least no one finds fault with my comics history research into our beloved hobby -

 

robert beerbohm

http://www.blbcomics.com

[Harvey Dude]

Does any one have any further questions?

 

Hi Robert,

 

I believe flooding ravaged your inventory (one million?) of comic books in the 1980s. Was their any issues that were impacted particularly hard as it relates to the number of copies in existence?

[BLBcomics-migration]

I was at the beginning of the origins of the Direct Market of Phil Seuling bringing in DC, Marvel, Warren, Archie, etc into the DM as defined by the "undergorund" method of "direct" sales to stores which started in the San Francisco Bay Area in early 1968 when Print Mint took ZAP COMICS (Crumb, Griffin, Moscoso, Wilson, then Shelton, Spain, Williams), national with ZAP #2 having an initial print run of 20,000 copies and Print Mint reprinting #1 and #0 in equal numbers. These numbers quickly sold out and reprinting in ernest occurred for many years.

 

By the time Print Mint brought out ZAP #6 in early 1973 it had an initial print run of 100,000 copies which also quickly sold out and has been reprinted ever since.

 

Bud Plant and I were room mates on Harmony Lane in San Jose when Phil called with his new deal which he planned on plugging into the underground market place - he said so in his interview of him by Will Esiner in WILL EISNER QUARTERLY #3 1984, printed just after Phil had passed away.

 

Thru the 1970s and into the 1980s were explosive years for growth of the comic book store system.

 

What i found myself doing was examining the creative joices going into any given title, say a Neal Adams, Jim Starlin, John Byrne, Frank Miller, etc and buying huge quantities for the secondary after market - in effect, betting that demand would be so high, and supply so short, i could pull a profit on what was then a new term called "hot comics" brought on by another term in paly back then called "regional scarcity"

 

At the time of the ware house flood in Feb 1986 Best of Two Worlds had something like 85,000 John Byrne Xmen comics in there as i had been buying 10,000 of an issue - selling zillions, trading with say Chuck Rozanski my Xmen at aftermarket "retail", say $10 for Xmen 114-119 per issue against his Edgar Church books, and at one time i had maybe 400 Mile High books due to that.

 

Figure my initial investment into the Byrne Xmens of 35 cent cover was 17 cents per - well, they were crazy times -

 

When Dazzler #1 was first issued, i bought 13,000 - and sold 12,000 of them

 

GI Joe # 1 i bought initially 30,000 copies (theysaid it was returnable, so what the hell); #2 i bought 12,000 copies and that was a also a wind fall, as they were short supply all over the country and at one point some dealers were asking $50 a copy for #2 - but not me, i was sitting pretty

 

I read Alan Moore's swamp Thing #24 as my first issue - i soon thereafter called every dealer i could think of who had quantity of stuff and offered to buy ALL their Swamp Things (1-25) at 18 cents a pop.

 

Within a month or so, i had amassed 20,000 Alan Moore Swamp Things 20-25 - and had cleaned out the entire country. I waited a couple months and then set the retail prices.

 

20 21 were $20 each

22 23 were $15 each

24 25 were $10 each

 

with wholesale at 40% off those prices to some 300 regular store wholesale customers.

 

By #28 the rest of the country caught on, as in the dealers ordering this stuff for their stores and Alan Moore became the house hold comic book writer name he enjoyed for quite some time, thenhe got into his Watchmen disputes with DC, thought he could self publish with Bug Numbers, and now, probably few remember him as being the best writer in comics.

 

me, back then, i was making wind fall profits off Xmen, Swamp Thing, oh, yeah, and GI Joe - much/most of which was simply plowed back into buying more books, expanding the older material -

 

Just like the stupid money being spent on 9.6 versus 9.4 versus 9.2, if you ask me

 

So, to answer your question, i honestly do not know -

 

i do know that handling what was turning into paper mache bricks destroyed my mind for a long time as i had 20 years of my life building something up wiped out in a week end.

 

I definitely feel the pain of victims of Katrina, Rita, further back, Andrew - 90% of what i then owned was no more. Stuff was hauled away to paper recycling. One starts over from scratch.

 

Then there was the 3000+ covers and interior pages of mainly DC and Marvel original comic book art (what i distinctly remember is the 30+ pages of Russ Manning Magnus Robot Fighter pages i had gotten from Flaming Carrot creator Bob Burden in trade for some expensive Sunday page he wanted more from me plus dozens of George Perez Teen Titan pages), a lot (100s of 1000s) of baseball cards, 1000s of Fillmore Avalon rock concert posters, and assorted what not.

 

 

 

Robert Beerbohm

[Moondog]

Bob:

 

Thanks for clarifying the details of the transfer of ownership from The Major to Donenfeld et al, but it seems the underlying message of your post was that Siegal and Shuster didn't get screwed. Is that your belief?

 

Taken at its face value, your report would tend to make me think that:

 

1. Siegal and Shuster were compensated very well by the Fleischer Studio, the newspaper syndicate and DC. It appears they made millions of dollars...if that's the case what did they blow it on and why did they have to continue working as a writer/editor and artist? A million bucks in 1945 was an incredible amount of money.

 

2. Harry Donenfeld was a true humanitarian. I've never read anything anywhere where Donenfeld, Gaines, Liebowitz and the rest of that gang were "humanitarians" (though I have read some glowing accounts of Max Gaines' generosity).

 

3. I've read (can't say where right now...CBM maybe?) that DC was very angry about the S & S lawsuit and after they won they punished S & S and basically wrote them out of the history of the company. Is this why they were not given credit on subsequent issues?

 

I'm skeptical (as I'm sure you've noticed) about the intent and the dealings of Donenfeld and his cronies. In 1938 S & S were 23 years old and wanted more than anything to have their oldest creation published. It seems they would be easy targets of business guys who honed their skills in the pulp business and had the best copyright and trademark lawyers at their disposal. Any more you can add to what you originally posted?

 

Thanks for contributing here, Bob. Always nice to hear from you.

 

--Gary