The History of Superhero Comic Books - part 1

                      By Jamie Coville

Before Super Heroes

Before there were Superhero comic books there were Funny Books.
People called them "funny" books because inside were reprints of
comic strips from newspapers, much like the Garfield or Calvin and
Hobbs strips you read today.

One of the first American funny books came over 100 years ago! In
1896 a book called The Yellow Kid came out. It was the first time
a comic strip was printed into a pulp magazine. This trend
continued when Dell Publishing put out the first issue of The
Funnies in 1910.  This book was published on a monthly basis. It
was a big tabloid- sized book that was distributed by the news
stands along with newspapers.

In 1933, the first true "comic" book came out. It was called
Funnies on Parade, and it appeared in the same 8" x 11" format
that comic books are printed in today. There were 10,000 copies
printed, all given away with coupons for Proctor & Gamble
products. The idea for this came from George Janosik, Harry
Wildenberg, and a salesman named M.C. Gaines. They got a contract
with the McNaught and McClure Syndicates to reprint some of their
comic strips. M.C. Gaines saw what a success these comics were,
and continued printing more comics. Famous Funnies: a Carnival of
Comics was the second M.C. Gaines comic book. Printed in 1933, it
was 64 pages with a 10 cent price. It was the first retail comic
that was distributed to the public. It was distributed only
through chain department stores. M.C. Gaines and Eastern Color
Printing worked together on creating it and got George Delacorte
of Dell Publishing to publish the book. After the first issue,
Dell Publishing (not seeing any profit) decided to stop publishing
the comic. Eastern Color Printing then decided to publish the book
themselves and got news stand distribution through the American
News Company.

In May 1934 (the comic was dated July), another first issue of
Famous Funnies appeared on the news stands. It featured four pages
each of several newspaper comic characters. After this issue,
Famous Funnies was produced twice a month and distributed through
news stands. It took several issues before Eastern Color saw any
profit.

Some of these stories did have somewhat ordinary heroes fighting
crime, such as Dick Tracy, and The Shadow. But despite what
wonderful gadgets they had, they were still 'ordinary' people.
Another pre-Superman comic strip hero of sorts is Popeye. He was
created by Elzie Segar and first appeared in a strip called
Thimble Theater in 1929. While he didn't go out and fight crime,
he did eat his spinach and displayed some 'above average' feats of
human strength while fighting his nemesis Bluto.

In February of 1935, New Fun Comics came out. The creator, Major
Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson decided that he didn't want to pay the
fees that the newspapers were charging for their old comic strip
reprints. So he got new comic material that wasn't being published
in the newspapers. National Allied Publications Inc. published New
Fun Comics in a much bigger 10" x 15" tabloid size. New Fun would
be the first comic book that a company later called "DC" would
publish.  It was the first comic book to contain advertisements.
By issue #6 New Fun would increase their comic books to 64 pages,
and in issue #6 was a team-up of two important people. Jerry
Siegel and Joe Schuster created a character known as Dr. Occult.
They later created Superman. Dr. Occult had an earlier appearance
under the name Dr. Mystic in The Comic Magazine, which came out in
1936.

This comic is the first American publishing of The Phantom, who is
now a world wide hero. The Phantom made his debut on February
17th, 1936 and he was the first costumed hero. He was created by
Lee Falk, who still today is working on his stories. The Phantom
was the kind of hero that despite his normal "human" capabilities,
fought crime with bravery and death defying stunts. Many future
heroes would follow his lead. Also in 1936 The Clock appeared in
Funny Pages #6. The Clock was a masked detective; this is the
first time a character used a mask to hide his face. Later on,
masks would be used in most costumes so the hero could disguise
his or her true identity.

In March 1937, Detective Comics #1 came out. This comic was the
first true DC comic book. This issue was the first production of
two companies that formed the DC company. Comic producer Major
Malcolm Wheeler wasn't making much money with his comic books (New
Fun being one of them). So Wheeler collaborated with his
printer/distributor Harry Donenfeld to produce this book. By 1938,
Donenfeld bought out Wheeler's books to become the sole owner.  DC
is the longest running comic book title ever. This is due to
another character who took over the title some time later...

The Golden Age of Superheroes

In June 1938, Action Comics #1 came out, featuring a man in a red
and blue costume lifting a car over his head! This was Superman,
the very first comic character to have powers far beyond a normal
human being. Sure, Flash Gordon and The Shadow were neat, but they
couldn't lift a car over their heads and throw it at someone! Nor
could they let bullets bounce off their chests, or run faster than
a train, or leap over tall buildings in a single bound. To say the
least, Superman was a fitting name. When Siegel and Shuster were
younger they tried pitching the Superman idea at newspapers and
comics. One of their earliest proposals was a cartoon character
called The Superman in 1933. They were constantly rejected, to the
point that artist Joe Shuster once tore up his Superman artwork
and stated that he'd redo the character properly if the time ever
came.  Today Superman is one of the 10 most recognized 'people' on
the face of the planet. He has been in several movies, cartoons
and TV series.

Detective Comics #27 hit the stands in May, 1939. In it we saw the
first appearance of Batman. While Superman was pure and clean,
Batman was grim and gritty. In this comic, the villain fell into a
vat of acid, which killed him. Not showing any remorse for causing
the death, Batman observed "A fitting end for his kind." Batman
was created by Bob Kane and has always remained in print. During a
time when superhero comics were not so popular, Batman survived by

focusing on his detective abilities, making his comic stories more
of a mystery series than a superhero book.

The reason Batman is so popular is because he is a compromise
between the two types of heroes. He didn't have superpowers, but
he did have an intellect, a costume, and neat gadgets that would
put him on par with the superheroes. Batman has been put on the
big and small screen several times in T.V series, movies, and
cartoons.  Also in May of 1939, Wonder Comics #1 came out. This
title's star hero was called Wonderman (no relation to the Marvel
character).  His powers were virtually identical to Superman's.
This got DC angry enough to file a copyright infringement case
against the publisher, Victor Fox. The case went to court and the
judge decided in DC's favor. There was a Wonder Comics #2, but no
Wonderman in it, and that would be the last of this title's run.

In the Summer of 1939, Superman continued to show his success.  He
was the very first hero to get a comic book fully devoted to
telling his adventures. Up until this point, all comic books had a
variety of characters and stories in them. Because of the success
of this title, other comic characters are also given a chance with
their own titles.

In 1939, A book called Motion Pictures Funnies Weekly came out and
in it would be Marvel Comics' first and longest running character,
Prince Namor the Sub-Mariner. Namor would appear in an 8-page
black and white story in the back of this comic. This same story
would be expanded a little and would reappear in Marvel Comics #1.
This Motion Pictures comic was supposed to be handed out free at
movie theaters along the east coast of the States. Most theater
chains turned down the book, so the amount of distribution is not
known.

@~More next issue





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