Above: Justice No.9, April 1949. Marvel Comics. It's very rare that American comics feature a cover strip but this one did, summarizing one of the longer strips inside. As you can see, it's a very brutal cover too, with panel 1 showing an old man having his head kicked in. While I don't believe comics can inspire kids to imitate scenes (unless they're already so inclined) this is still an unpleasant cover.
Crime Fighters No.7, May 1949. Marvel experimented with this 'frame' design for some of the covers in 1949. It didn't last, but they'd do a similar trade dress for all their comics again in 1972.
Kid Colt Outlaw No.10, July 1950. Marvel Comics. One of Marvel's most popular Western heroes. The comic continued well into the 1970s although he never became Old Man Colt.
Dotty Dripple No.15, December 1950. Harvey Comics. Reprinting the newspaper strip by Buford Tune.
All-True Crime No.43, March 1951. Marvel Comics. After the success of Lev Gleason's Crime Does Not Pay, Marvel published numerous rival crime comics. Excellent artwork though!
Western Outlaws and Sheriffs No.66, April 1951. Marvel Comics. Combining the popular crime and Western themes into one comic.
Crime Cases No.6, July 1951. Yet another Marvel crime title. The cover design of this, with its verbose dialogue, is clearly intended to imitate Charles Biro's Crime Does Not Pay covers.
Mighty Mouse No.28, September 1951. St.John Publishing. Lest we forget that 'funny animal' comics were still big sellers in America in the Fifties!
Patsy Walker No.37, November 1951. Marvel Comics. Yes, it's one of Marvel's contributions to the popular teen humour/glamour market. Cover by Al Jaffee, later to find fame on Mad Magazine. Patsy Walker remained a popular Marvel character for years, later brought into superhero continuity as Hellcat!
Crime Can't Win No.8, December 1951. Marvel Comics. Yep, another Marvel crime comic. They were certainly flooding the market with these titles. I really like the bold logos of these golden age comics.
Man Comics No.12, February 1952. Marvel Comics. War, including the then-current one in Korea, swiftly became another area for American comics to exploit in the Fifties.
Dark Mysteries No.5, Feb-March 1952. Master Comics. The thriving comics genres of the Fifties were crime, westerns, war, funny animals, teen humour... and horror.
Wanted No.47, May 1952. Orbit Publications. Crime Does Not Pay... but crime comics certainly brought in the dough for publishers!
Another set of Golden Age classics soon! I hope you're enjoying this temporary tangent into pre-code American comics. Let me know what you think.
I an, Lew. I'm going to give my memories of the U. S. Comics later on this month on my blog.
ReplyDeleteGo for it Bruce!
ReplyDelete"Dotty Dripple" was a sort of low-rent version of "Blondie" - it was pitched at newspapers that either couldn't afford "Blondie" or had it snatched by a rival paper.
ReplyDeleteMarvel brought back the title "Justice" in the 80's for a comic in their 'new universe'.
ReplyDeleteLoving these covers, Lew!
The 1980s 'Justice' was just a way to retain copyright of a comic with that name I guess. No other similarity to the 1950s anthology comic.
ReplyDeleteNo, none at all, but those "PITT" comics were something, eh?
Delete