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On the stands with Action 1

Started by Weird Paper,

60 posts in this topic

ft88

ft88

Posted
Posted

Regarding the Mile Highs, you have to figure that Action 1 was handled more than any other book. Taken out of any protective sleave more often. Inspected more often etc. The Tec 16 probably was too but not nearly as much so books like it probably made out better than the Action 1. I just wonder how many tiny flaws were introduced to the Action 1 after Chuck brought it home the first time.

 

Ed

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MrBedrock

MrBedrock

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Posted
I just wonder how many tiny flaws were introduced to the Action 1 after Chuck brought it home the first time.

 

Ed

 

Eight?

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ciorac

ciorac

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Posted
I just wonder how many tiny flaws were introduced to the Action 1 after Chuck brought it home the first time.

 

Ed

 

Eight?

 

27_laughing.gif

 

Dude, why aren't you this funny in person? You rarely ever crack jokes. Have the Boards released the hidden comedian in you? 893crossfingers-thumb.gif

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Scrooge

Scrooge

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Posted
Scrooge makes a good point about cover composition.The simplicity of the Action cover with its basic color scheme really "pops" out when stuck in the middle of a bunch of other comics, especially when many of those covers have very similar themes. This was a really interesting exercise. What might be even more interesting (though more time consuming) would be to put together a June 1939 virtual newstand and compare the two -- just to see how much of an impact Action 1 had on the industry.

 

acclaim.gif

 

June 1939 893scratchchin-thumb.gif If I have the time later tonight, I might try to get a list together unless you guys whip one up quickly.

 

Nobody asked for it so I did it anyway. The lists might not be complete as I only went for the obvious publishers. Any additions and corrections are welcome.

 

A year did diddly squat to the marketplace. Look at what was on the stands in June 1939 - I was able to find 21 books -

 

Centaur Amazing Mystery Funnies V. 2 # 6

Centaur Funny Pages V. 3 # 4

Centaur Keen Comics 1

Centaur Keen Detective Stories V. 2 # 6

Centaur Star Comics V. 2 # 5

Centaur Star Ranger Funnies V. 2 # 3

Dell Crackajack Funnies 12

Dell Large Feature 5

Dell Popular Comics 40

Dell Super Comics 13

Eastern Color Famous Funnies 59

Fiction House Jumbo 8

Fox Wonder 2

National Action 13

National Adventure Comics 39

National All-American 3

National Detective Comics 28

National More Fun Comics 44

National Movie Comics 3

National New York World's Fair 1939

National Superman 1

 

Visually, you'll notice 1 book that would jump out at you if you're working for National. The Wonder # 2 and the same happened when Wonder # 1 came out. Looking at it that way Wonder really stuck out and was an easy target for National to go after! Even National is slow at creating more super-hero. Batman is only a month old by then and the Sandman won't show up until the next month.

 

Fast forward another year and the genie is out of the bottle. Notice that in June 1939 National came out with Superman # 1. Now the other publishers see how successful Superman can be if he can carry Action and his own magazine. Upon this observation, they all rush in and by the following summer, they are into the first 6 months of their new characters. The explosion happened right after Christmas 1940 it seems. Here's the list of 46 on the stands in June 1940 and publishers had a lot of book under project reading for release for Fall 1940 that didn't make the cut here -

 

Ace Sure-Fire Comics 1

Centaur Amazing Adventure Funnies 1

Centaur Amazing Man 13

Centaur Amazing Mystery Funnies 21

Centaur Funny Pages 38

Centaur Keen Detective Stories 21

Dell Crackajack Funnies 24

Dell Four Color 6

Dell Large Feature 11

Dell Popular Comics 52

Dell Super Comics 25

Dell War Comics 2

Eastern Color Buck Rogers 3

Eastern Color Famous Funnies 71

Fawcett Master 3

Fawcett Nickel 3

Fawcett Slam Bang 4

Fawcett Whiz 5

Fiction House Fight 6

Fiction House Jumbo 16

Fiction House Jungle 6

Fiction House Planet 6

Fox Blue Beetle 2

Fox Fantastic 7

Fox Flame 1

Fox Green Mask 1

Fox Mystery Men 11

Fox Science Comics 5

Fox Weird Comics 3

Fox WonderWorld Comics 14

MLJ Blue Ribbon 4

MLJ Pep 5

MLJ Shield-Wizard 1

MLJ Top-Notch 6

MLJ Zip 5

National Action 25

National Adventure Comics 51

National All-American 15

National Batman 1

National Detective Comics 40

National Flash Comics 6

National More Fun Comics 56

National Superman 4

Timely Daring Mystery 5

Timely Marvel Mystery Comics 8

Timely Mystic 3

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Point Five

Point Five

Posted
Posted

Great thread!

 

Thanks Scrooge, those lists are quite intriguing. It's interesting that Fox and DC were actually tied for the top # of titles for this brief moment in 1940...even I wouldn't have guessed that. Though of course, DC was just getting started using & expanding its stable of heroes, while Fox had finished the Lou Fine covers & Eisner/Iger interiors and was already beginning to head south.

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Scrooge

Scrooge

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Posted
Great thread!

 

Thanks Scrooge, those lists are quite intriguing. It's interesting that Fox and DC were actually tied for the top # of titles for this brief moment in 1940...even I wouldn't have guessed that. Though of course, DC was just getting started using & expanding its stable of heroes, while Fox had finished the Lou Fine covers & Eisner/Iger interiors and was already beginning to head south.

 

Please note that Fox's presence in the list is somewhat over-stated because I elected to list their Summer issue in this lot. These are The Flame # 1 and Green Mask # 1. If I had decided to count them as later Fox would have lost a count of 2. MLJ's Shield-Wizard # 1 is also cover dated Summer.

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tth2

tth2

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Posted
A year did diddly squat to the marketplace. Look at what was on the stands in June 1939 - I was able to find 21 books -

Fast forward another year and the genie is out of the bottle. Notice that in June 1939 National came out with Superman # 1. Now the other publishers see how successful Superman can be if he can carry Action and his own magazine. Upon this observation, they all rush in and by the following summer, they are into the first 6 months of their new characters. The explosion happened right after Christmas 1940 it seems. Here's the list of 46 on the stands in June 1940 and publishers had a lot of book under project reading for release for Fall 1940 that didn't make the cut here -

thumbsup2.gif Very interesting observations.

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tth2

tth2

Posted
Posted
a dime for a comic and a nickel for a milkshake...man, 1938 sounded like a grand era...

gator

 

Yep, except for what was happening in Europe and Asia...

And that Great Depression thingie. America was still financially hurting in 1938. It wasn't until it started cranking up the factories to provide England with weapons under the Lend-Lease Act that America started pulling out of the Depression.

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Theagenes

Theagenes

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Great stuff Scrooge! 893applaud-thumb.gif It took a little while to get the superhero ball rolling, apparently. Of course it was probably six months or so after Action 1 that even National realized that had a potential hit and put Supes back on the cover. Great observation about Wonder comics, as well.

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lou_fine

lou_fine

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This is great. Imagine yourself as an 11-year-old kid walking into the corner drugstore/soda fountain and seeing a rack of these things. What do you pick? You know who Tarzan is. You know who some of the comic strip characters are. Sharks are cool. Who's this guy with the funny suit beating a car against a rock? Man...

 

 

So here is something like what you might see. Which one do you spend your hard earned dime on? 893scratchchin-thumb.gif

 

 

rack03.jpg

 

Well, if I had a limited number of dimes here, my picks would have been in the following order:

 

1) New Adventure Comics

2) Detective Comics

3) Action Comics

4) One of the Centaur books, possibly Funny Pages

 

I guess it goes to show how nice the covers on the pre-hero DC books were. Interesting to note that there's only 3 action or adventure related covers while there's a total of 15 humour related covers.

 

Definitely goes to show you the impact that old Supes had on the industry by 1940.

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Theagenes

Theagenes

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I guess it goes to show how nice the covers on the pre-hero DC books were. Interesting to note that there's only 3 action or adventure related covers while there's a total of 15 humour related covers.

 

So here's a question -- does anyone know what the first non-funny comic cover was? Maybe one of the New Funs? Tip Top 3? Detective Picture Stories 1? Wow 2?

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Scrooge

Scrooge

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Posted

Definitely goes to show you the impact that old Supes had on the industry by 1940.

 

So here's a question -- does anyone know what the first non-funny comic cover was? Maybe one of the New Funs? Tip Top 3? Detective Picture Stories 1? Wow 2?

 

Good question. Before we tackle that, I have these books to add to my previous list:

 

In June 1939, on the stands was also Quality's Feature Comics 21.

 

In June 1940, on the stands were also:

 

Harvey Champion Comics 8

Novelty Press Blue Bolt V.1 # 1

Novelty Press Target V.1 # 5

Quality Crack Comics 2

Quality Feature Comics 33

Quality Smash Comics 11

Lev Gleason Silver Streak Comics 5

 

As mentioned earlier, for Quality for instance, we're missing by one month (July 1940) the first issues of both National Comics and Hit Comics. So we are at 53 IDed and by October we'd be getting closer to 80 I bet.

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Spider-Variant

Spider-Variant

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Posted

June 1938

 

Ace Comics 15

Action Comics 1

Circus the Comic Riot 1

Comics on Parade 2

The Comics 8

Crackajack Funnies 1

Detective Comics 16

Famous Funnies 47

Feature Book: Popeye 14

Feature Funnies 9

The Funnies 21

King Comics 27

More Fun Comics 32

New Adventure Comics 27

Popular Comics 29

Super Comics 2

Tip Top 26

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Crowzilla

Crowzilla

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Posted

So here's a question -- does anyone know what the first non-funny comic cover was? Maybe one of the New Funs? Tip Top 3? Detective Picture Stories 1? Wow 2?

 

Most people will say New Fun #3 (sci-fi cover), but I really don't see what was funny about the cowboy on the covers of #1 and #2.

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