Air Fighters Comics was an omnibus series featuring a variety of aviator heroes. The series was renamed Airboy Comics with vol. 2, #11 (Dec. 1945), and ran 89 issues, through vol. 10, #4 (May 1953).

In the early issues, Biro wrote the scripts with Dave Wood and drew the covers, Al Camy was the initial story artist. He was followed by Tony DiPreta and, beginning with Air Fighters No. 10 (July 1943), Fred Kida, who would become closely associated with the series. Ernie Schroeder became the regular artist with Airboy Comics #vol. 5, No. 11 (Dec. 1948), through the end of the series’ run, with Dan Barry, Maurice Del Bourgo, Carmine Infantino, and others supplying an occasional story. The two consecutive series contained backup stories about other aviators, including Skywolf, Iron Ace, the Black Angel, the Bald Eagle, the Flying Dutchman, the Flying Fool, and the prototypical comic book swamp monster, the Heap. Airboy’s most frequently recurring supporting character was the German aviator Valkyrie, who fought on the side of the Axis but then defected to the Allies.

Taken from Wikipedia

Airboy debuted in Air Fighters Comics #2 (cover-date Nov. 1942), an omnibus series featuring a variety of aviator heroes. The series was renamed Airboy Comics with vol. 2, #11 (Dec. 1945), and ran 89 issues, through vol. 10, #4 (May 1953).

In the early issues, Biro wrote the scripts with Dave Wood and drew the covers, Al Camy was the initial story artist. He was followed by Tony DiPreta and, beginning with Air Fighters No. 10 (July 1943), Fred Kida, who would become closely associated with the series. Ernie Schroeder became the regular artist with Airboy Comics #vol. 5, No. 11 (Dec. 1948), through the end of the series’ run, with Dan Barry, Maurice Del Bourgo, Carmine Infantino, and others supplying an occasional story. The two consecutive series contained backup stories about other aviators, including Skywolf, Iron Ace, the Black Angel, the Bald Eagle, the Flying Dutchman, the Flying Fool, and the prototypical comic book swamp monster, the Heap. Airboy’s most frequently recurring supporting character was the German aviator Valkyrie, who fought on the side of the Axis but then defected to the Allies.

Hillman stopped publishing comics in 1953. Two issues were reprinted in 1973 and a trade paperback entitled Valkyrie!: From the Pages of Air Fighters and the Airboy was published in 1982 with five stories from Air Fighters Comics vol. 2, #s 2 and 7 and Airboy Comics vol. 2, #12, and vol. 3 #s 6 and 12.

Fictional Biography

Airboy was David (“Davy”) Nelson II, the son of an expert pilot and, despite his youth, a crack flyer himself. His friend, inventor and Franciscan friar Brother Francis Martier, had created a highly maneuverable prototype aircraft that flew by flapping its wings, like a bird. Martier, however, was killed while testing it, and Davy inherited both the plane and a uniform, which had apparently been in Martier’s family since the French Revolution. Davy soon christened himself “Airboy”, and in his seemingly sentient new plane, “Birdie”, helped the Allies during World War II.

Airboy confronted such weird antagonists as intelligent rats, the mysterious Misery – whose Airtomb imprisoned the souls of dead pilots – and his cleavage-baring Nazi nemesis, Valkyrie, a German aviator who later became his ally.

After the conclusion of World War II, David Nelson II continued to work as a freelance pilot and mercenary for a time, but he eventually retired from combat flying and stored Birdie in a barn outside his California estate. He had a son, whom he named David Nelson III, and founded an aircraft manufacturing company, through which he became very wealthy. In the mid-1980s, David Nelson II was assassinated by mercenaries from the South American nation of Bogantilla. When David Nelson III discovered that his father had been assassinated, he began to investigate the circumstances which had led up to his father’s death. He soon discovered his father’s mothballed plane and uniform and teamed up with a number of the surviving Air Fighters to face many of the same enemies as David Nelson II, as well as South American dictators, Soviets, pirates and corporate criminals.

— Taken from Wikipedia

The Dell Any Hardy comic series was based on the Andrew “Andy” Hardy character played by Mickey Rooney in a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer series of sixteen films from 1937 to 1946, and includes a final film released in 1958 in an unsuccessful attempt to continue the series.

Hardy and others were based on characters in the play Skidding by Aurania Rouverol. Early films in the series were about the Hardy family as a whole, but later entries focused on the character of Andy Hardy.

Rooney was the only member of the ensemble to appear in all 16 films. The Hardy films, which were enormously popular in their heyday, were sentimental comedies, celebrating ordinary American life.

About This Collection

This comic collection includes the issues 359, 447, and 515 from Dell’s 1942 Four Color Comics series and Issues 5 and 6 from Dell’s Andy hardy series. All illustrated by Al Hubbard.

Al Hubbard

Al Hubbard (1915-1984) was a Disney comics artist who did mostly Chip ‘n Dale, Scamp and Jiminy Cricket stories, but did various Donald Duck stories too – the very first Fethry Duck stories among them. Actually, Hubbard drew almost 60 stories with Donald’s wacky cousin. He was an animator for Disney from 1938 to 1941 and did some non-Disney comics (mostly funny animals comics) as well.

Hubbard has illustrated several comic adaptations of Disney films, such as ‘Jungle Book’, ‘The Lady and the Tramp’, ‘The Aristocats’ and ‘Peter Pan’.He ended his Disney comics career in 1979.

Charlton Comics obtained the rights to the Blue Beetle and reprinted some stories in its anthology titles and in a four-issue Blue Beetle reprint series numbered 18–21.

In 1964, during the Silver Age of comics, Charlton revised the character for a new Blue Beetle series. Charlton’s new Blue Beetle retained the original’s name (adding a second “t”), but none of his powers or origin, making him a different character. This Beetle was archaeologist Dan Garrett, who obtained a number of superhuman powers (including super strength and vision, flight, and the ability to generate energy blasts) from a mystical scarab he found during a dig in Egypt, where it had been used to imprison an evil mummified Pharaoh. He would transform into the Blue Beetle by saying the words “Kaji Dha!” This version, by writer Joe Gill and artist Tony Tallarico, was played at least initially for camp, with stories like “The Giant Mummy Who was Not Dead”. The Charlton Dan Garrett version of the Blue Beetle ran only until 1966 before his replacement debuted.

The Charlton version of Dan Garrett was spotlighted in the second issue of DC’s 1980s Secret Origins series, in which his origin was retold along with that of Ted Kord. Subsequent appearances by Dan Garrett (in flashback stories) include guest spots or cameos in Infinity, Inc., Captain Atom, JLA: Year One, and Legends of the DC Universe.

The character briefly returned in DC Comics’ first run of Blue Beetle, resurrected by his mystical scarab to battle against his successor. He can also be seen in various flashback stories. His 1940s incarnation is briefly glimpsed in DC’s 1993 limited series The Golden Age.

— Taken from Wikipedia

In 1950, Magazine Enterprises began publishing Bobby Benson’s B-Bar-B Riders, a comic book adaptation of the radio program. As time went on, the Lemonade Kid and Ghost Rider were incorporated into the storylines.

Fawcett published Captain Midnight from Sept. 1942 to Sept 1948. Otto Binder was one of the writers on the comic book. The Fawcett character bore little resemblance to the radio character, and only the character Ichabod Mudd appeared regularly in the comic as the sidekick Sgt. Twilight.

Captain Midnight in the comic wore a skintight scarlet suit and used an array of gizmos like Doctor Mid-Nite which released clouds of blinding darkness, the infra-red “Doom-Beam Torch” which he used to burn his emblem into walls and unlucky villains, and a “Gliderchute” (similar to the flying Wingsuit) attached to the sides of his costume.

In his Captain Albright secret identity he was a genius-level inventor like Edison. He had a secret laboratory in the desert.

The Fawcett Captain Midnight series was reprinted in England by L. Miller & Son in 40 issues in 1950–1953.

— Taken from Wikipedia

Captain Science, aka Gordon Dane, was a sci-fi hero in the vein of Buck Rogers who fought all manner of outer space villains including flying saucers, monster gods, alien spawn, and even domestic traitors.

He has the help of his young assistant Rip Gary and Luana. His enemies also included the Cat Men of Phobos, the Space Pirates of Lenthus IV, the Deadly Dwarfs of Deimos, the Martian Slavers, and the Insidious Doctor Khartoum.

— Taken from pdsh.fandom.com

Six issues of a “Captain Video” comic book were published by Fawcett Comics in 1951. The rival space adventure programs Tom Corbett and Space Patrol shortly thereafter had their own comic books as well. Some of these comics were used as the basis for a British TV Annual, a hardcover collection produced in time for Christmas, which also made the claim that man would venture into space in 1970 and would reach the moon by 2000.

Captain Video and His Video Rangers is an American science fiction television series that aired on the DuMont Television Network and was the first series of its genre on American television.

The series aired between June 27, 1949, and April 1, 1955, originally on Monday through Saturday at 7 p.m. ET, and then Monday through Friday at 7 p.m. ET. A separate 30-minute spinoff series called The Secret Files of Captain Video, aired Saturday mornings, alternating with Tom Corbett, Space Cadet, from September 5, 1953, to May 29, 1954, a total of 20 episodes.

Researcher Alan Morton estimates there were a total of 1,537 episodes (counting the 20 Saturday morning episodes), although few of them exist after the destruction of the original broadcasts, which was commonplace at that time. Sponsors included Post Cereals, Skippy Peanut Butter, DuMont-brand television sets, and Power House candy bars. Premiums sold via the show included a flying saucer ring, a “secret seal” ring, cast photos, electronic goggles, a “secret ray gun”, a rocket ship key chain, decoders, membership cards, and a set of 12 plastic spacemen.

— Taken from Wikipedia

Charlie Chan is a fictional Honolulu police detective created by author Earl Derr Biggers for a series of mystery novels. Biggers loosely based Chan on Hawaiian detective Chang Apana. The benevolent and heroic Chan was conceived of as an alternative to Yellow Peril stereotypes and villains like Fu Manchu. Many stories feature Chan traveling the world beyond Hawaii as he investigates mysteries and solves crimes.

Chan first appeared in Biggers’ novels and then was featured in a number of media. Over four dozen films featuring Charlie Chan were made, beginning in 1926. The character, featured only as a supporting character, was first portrayed by East Asian actors, and the films met with little success. In 1931, for the first film centering on Chan, Charlie Chan Carries On, the Fox Film Corporation cast Swedish actor Warner Oland; the film became popular, and Fox went on to produce fifteen more Chan films with Oland in the title role. After Oland’s death, American actor Sidney Toler was cast as Chan; Toler made twenty-two Chan films, first for Fox and then for Monogram Studios. After Toler’s death, six films were made, starring Roland Winters.

Readers and movie-goers of America initially greeted Chan warmly, seeing him as an attractive character who is portrayed as intelligent, heroic, benevolent and honorable in contrast to the racist depictions of evil or conniving Asians which often dominated Hollywood and national media in the early 20th Century. However, in later decades critics increasingly took a more ambivalent view of the character, finding that despite his good qualities, Chan also reinforces condescending Asian stereotypes such as an alleged incapacity to speak idiomatic English and a tradition-bound and subservient nature. Many also now find it objectionable that the role was played on screen by Caucasian actors in yellowface. Due in large part to this reappraisal of the character, no Charlie Chan film has been produced since 1981.

The character has also been featured in several radio programs, two television shows, and comics.

— Taken from Wikipedia‘

There is some exceptional artwork by Jack Kirby in the Early issues.

Artists on this title include Ruth Atkinson, Phil Berube, Jerry Fasano, Dave Tendler, & Jimmy Thompson

When Tarka murdered his rival in love for Zira’s affections, he committed the first felony on Mars in 50 years. He was brought, along with Zira to face a court but before a sentence was pronounced he begs to make up for their deeds by fighting evil on Earth. The Martian government accepts the offer and branded his arm and sentenced him to exile. Together with his fellow criminal Zira, they were sent to Earth to rid it of crime. If they failed, then they would be destroyed–and so would Earth. Tarka took on the identity of Alan Wheeler, an FBI agent, with Zira as his secretary. They battled enemies such as the Black Hoods using futuristic weapons and their “disc-craft.” Sometimes they were called upon by Mars to battle interstellar criminals as well, such as the Uralian Pirates.

–Taken from pdsh.fandom.com

Comic from New Zealand & Australia. The contents of the comics are always printed in a landscape orientation. The cover may alternate between both portrait and landscape. Only the cover is printed in color the rest of the comic is printed with black and white inks only.

Jetta was a teenager living in a high-tech 21st century. During high school, she was pursued romantically by her loyal friend, Arky. She could be a bit feisty and got into lots of wacky misadventures.

Taken from Public Domain Super Heroes

Johnny Dynamite is a comic book private detective character created by writer Ken Fitch and artist Pete Morisi. Johnny Dynamite appeared in 1953’s Dynamite #3-9 published by Comic Media and in Johnny Dynamite #10-12 published by Charlton Comics. He also appeared in Charlton’s Foreign Intrigues #13-15.

Judomaster is the name given to three fictional superheroes published by DC Comics. The first Judomaster debuted in Special War Series #4 (November 1965) published by Charlton Comics, and was created by Joe Gill and Frank McLaughlin.

Judomaster’s secret identity was Hadley “Rip” Jagger, a sergeant in World War II in the United States Army. He rescued the daughter of a Pacific island chief and in return was taught the martial art of judo. He had a kid sidekick named Tiger. In the Nightshade backup series in Captain Atom, an adult Tiger was Nightshade’s martial arts instructor.

Judomaster’s title lasted from #89 to #98, from June, 1966 to December, 1967. (It was a retitling of Gunmaster, which was itself a retitling of Six-Gun Heroes).

Along with most Charlton super hero characters, the rights to Judomaster were sold to DC Comics. In post-Crisis continuity, Judomaster was said to be a member of the All-Star Squadron, DC’s team of superheroes during World War II, although he has never appeared in an actual published story as a member of said team. His kid sidekick, Tiger, would later become the villain Avatar in the L.A.W. mini-series published by DC Comics, which re-teamed the Charlton characters that had been acquired by DC. In the same series it is shown Judomaster has lived for some time in the fictional city of Nanda Parbat. As time passes in a different manner there, Judomaster has retained a younger form. Since the mini-series, Judomaster has only appeared a few times.

Sometime in his life he had a son named Thomas Jagger.

Judomaster was killed when he took part in the giant battle of Metropolis in Infinite Crisis #7, during which the supervillain Bane broke his back.

–– Taken from IMDB

Lars of Mars was a law enforcement agent of the Supreme Council, the ruling body of Mars. When the Supreme Council learned that a hydrogen bomb was successfully tested on Earth, it became alarmed. The hydrogen bombs were used in a devastating war between Mars and Venus millions of years ago, and the Council was worried that humanity would start the war anew once it enters space. They decided to send Lars to Earth a peacekeeping agent who would stop any possibility to interstellar war by fighting against “forces of evil” that would seek the disrupt the peace.

When he arrived on Earth, Lars witnessed a woman being attacked by two robots, but after attacking them he discovered they were merely actors. June Conway, the TV producer, assumed that Lars was a wanna-be actor who chose a particularly creative way to audition for a lead row in her TV show – the Man from Mars. Lars decided to play along, figuring that it would be a great cover for his real mission.

From that point on, he worked as a lead actor and fought the “forces of evil” in his spare time. That included criminals, Soviet agents and other people who wished to cause harm. He was aided by the Interplanetary Intelligence Department – the Martian intelligence agency that monitored other planets throughout the Solar System.

Powers and Abilites

Lars was an athletic man skilled in many edged weapons and firearms. Like other Martians, he had strong lungs that allowed him to survive without oxygen for several minutes. Lars had telepathic abilities, which he used to hypnotize Jun and seek out a person he wanted to help. However, it is not clear if those abilities are common to all Martians or if it was something that only Lars could do.

Lars’ suit included a rocket pack, telescopic goggles, microphones that could pick up sounds thousands of kilometers away and a two-way communicator that allowed him to receive alerts from his superiors and intercept Earth-based radio signals. The rocket pack allowed him to accelerate up to the speed of light. Once he reached that speed, he could jump into an alternate dimension and use the “space warp” as a shortcut. Lars used a “power-ray” gun that had multiple settings. In essence, it could function as a heat ray, a freezing ray and a tractor beam. The heat ray’s power could be adjusted – it could be mild enough to shoot weapons out of his opponents’ hands and powerful enough to blow up an enormous factory with a single blast.

In addition to his suit, Lars used Martian equipment which somehow wound up in his penthouse. This included a two-way video and radio communicator and a device that amplified his telepathic abilities.

— Taken from pdsh.fandom.com

One shot comic by Magazine Enterprises to promote the kids drink Inapak similar to Ovaltine and Cocomalt. Illustrated by Bob Powell.

The Many Ghosts of Doctor Graves was an American supernatural-anthology comic book published by Charlton Comics, often featuring stories by writer-artist Steve Ditko. The eponymous Dr. M. T. Graves was a fictional character who hosted the stories in each issue of this title, and very occasionally took part in a tale.

Sister titles, with many of the same creators, particularly Ditko, were the Charlton anthologies Ghost Manor (with host Mr. Bones) and its successor, Ghostly Haunts (with host Winnie the Witch); Ghostly Tales (with host Mr. L. Dedd, later I. M. Dedd); and Haunted (with hosts Impy and then Baron Weirwulf).

The series won the 1967 Alley Award for Best Fantasy/SF/Supernatural Title.

Publication history

Following his introduction as Dr. M. T. Graves in Charlton Comics’ Ghostly Tales #55 (cover-dated May 1966) in the three-page story “The Ghost Fighter” by writer-artist Ernie Bache, the character went on to host his own anthology title, The Many Ghosts of Doctor Graves. The series ran 72 issues (May 1967 – May 1982), generally published bimonthly. Following issue #60 (Jan. 1977), the title went on hiatus for seven months until issue #61 (Aug. 1977) before being canceled with #65 (May 1978). Charlton revived the title three years later with #66 (May 1981) before canceling it once more six issues later.

The Many Ghosts of Doctor Graves #54 (Dec. 1973). The cover art is among the earliest professional works of John Byrne.
Three additional issues consisting solely of reprints, and titled simply Dr. Graves, were published as issues #73-75 (Sept. 1985 – Jan. 1986).

Among the artists whose work appeared were Steve Ditko, following his falling-out with Marvel Comics; newcomer Jim Aparo, later to be one of Batman’s signature artists; regular Charlton talents including Vince Alascia, Pat Boyette, Pete Morisi, Rocke Mastroserio, and Charles Nicholas; and such others as Rich Larson, Don Newton and Tom Sutton. The cover of issue #54 (Dec. 1975) marks one of the earliest professional works of John Byrne.

Writers on the title included Ditko, Steve Skeates, Mike Pellowski, and the prolific, generally uncredited staff writer Joe Gill.

– Taken from Wikipedia

Pencilier Ross Andru first teamed with inker Mike Esposito in 1949 for the publisher Fiction House, but this is unconfirmed at the Grand Comics Database. The team’s first confirmed collaboration was on the six-page “Wylie’s Wild Horses” in Hillman Periodicals’ Western Fighters vol. 2, #12 (Nov. 1950), signaling the start of a four-decade collaboration.

They quickly founded their own comics-book company, the name of which is variously rendered as MR Publications, after the initial of their first names; Mr. Publications, after the company’s sole series, the whimsical adventure comic Mister Universe, which ran five issues (July 1951 – April 1952); or the hybrid MR. Publications. The two also co-founded Mikeross Publications in 1953, which through 1954 produced one issue each of the 3D romance comics 3-D Love and 3-D Romance, two issues of the romance comic Heart and Soul, and three issues of the satiric humor comic Get Lost.

Take Wikipedia

Peacemaker is the name of a series of superheroes originally owned by Charlton Comics and later acquired by DC Comics. The original Peacemaker first appeared in Fightin’ 5 #40 (November 1966) and was created by writer Joe Gill and artist Pat Boyette.

PUBLICATION HISTORY
The Peacemaker first appeared as a backup series in Charlton Comics’ espionage-team title Fightin’ 5 #40 (November 1966). When that series was canceled with issue #41, the Peacemaker received his own title that lasted five issues cover-dated March to November 1967, with Fightin’ 5 as a backup series. Some of penciler-inker Pat Boyette’s artwork for a projected sixth issue later appeared online.

Following Charlton Comics’ demise in the mid-1980s, DC Comics acquired The Peacemaker and released a four-issue mini-series (January–April 1988).

FICTIONAL CHARACTER BIOGRAPHY
The Peacemaker is Christopher Smith, a pacifist diplomat so committed to peace that he was willing to use force as a superhero to advance the cause. He uses an array of special non-lethal weapons, and also founds the Pax Institute. Most of the villains he goes up against are dictators and warlords.

Smith later learns that his peace-through-violence efforts were the result of a serious mental illness brought on by the shame of having a Nazi death camp commandant for a father. He believes his father’s spirit haunts him continually and criticizes his every move, even as he tries to live down his past.

Becoming a particularly deadly vigilante who would kill at the slightest notice, he begins to believe that the ghosts of the people he killed, or who were killed in his vicinity, are collected inside his helmet and can offer him advice and commentary. For a time, the Peacemaker serves as a U.S. government agent under the auspices of Checkmate, a special-forces unit, hunting down terrorists until his own behavior becomes too extreme. He eventually crashes a helicopter to destroy tanks controlled by the supervillain Eclipso and is reported dead.

His soul shows up in the realm of Purgatory in the Day of Judgment series. A team of heroes has shown up to recruit the soul of Hal Jordan. The guardians of Purgatory do not like this and Peacemaker, along with other dead vigilantes, rally and provide enough of a distraction so the group can return to Earth.

Peacemaker later appears in the Doomsday Clock series, partaking in the battle on Mars against Dr. Manhattan.

— Taken from Wikipedia

Joe Simon, Jack Kirby, Bob Powell, Al Williamson, and Sol Brodsky, all worked on these books.

Private eye Sam Hill was a “hard-boiled, wise-cracking sleuth” who was assisted by his tough as nails and reliable secretary Roxie. Sam also worked with police detective, Lt. Dugan. However, unlike his trusting relationship with Roxie, Dugan and Hill had a mutual distrust for each other. Sam Hill was also known for his unique white streak in his otherwise black hair.

–Taken from Public Domain Superheroes

Sarge Steel is a detective/spy character published by Charlton Comics during the 1960s. As he was published during the time of Charlton’s Action Heroes line of superheroes, and had loose ties to some, he is sometimes included with that group. He was purchased by DC Comics along with the other “Action Heroes”.

Sarge (short for “Sargent,” as in “Sargent Shriver”) Steel has a mechanical left hand. As Dick Giordano stated in the editorial page of L.A.W. #4 he was created by Pat Masulli, and later written and drawn by Joe Gill and artist Dick Giordano. Other artists, including the team of Bill Montes and Ernie Bache, would later take over.

Publication history
Sarge Steel first appeared in his own title, Sarge Steel #1 (Dec, 1964). His title would last until #8, at which point it was retitled Secret Agent (Gold Key Comics also published a comic with the same title in 1967 based upon the television series, Danger Man), and cancelled with #10 (October, 1967). After that, his series continued in Judomaster #91-98 (the stories in #91-96 fit in the year-long hiatus between issues #9 & #10, as all his stories are listed as ‘File #xxx’). Sarge also appeared in short spots on self-defense in Fightin’ 5 #34 and 37 and in the Sentinels stories in Peter Cannon, Thunderbolt #57 and 58 as their CIA contact.

Fictional character biography
Sarge was originally a hardboiled private eye (in fact, in the book The Fine Art of Murder, Max Allan Collins notes that Steel was the first fictional private eye to be a Vietnam veteran), who somehow also got involved in “spy cases,” and became, by ‘”Sarge Steel #6, a “special agent.”

Sarge Steel’s enemies included characters like The Lynx, Ivan Crunch, Smiling Skull (a Nazi villain who fought Judomaster during World War II), Werner Von Wess, Mr. Ize, and others.

Taken from Wikipedia

The Skyman is a fictional comic book superhero that appeared stories during the Golden Age of Comic Books. Created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Ogden Whitney, the character first appeared in the Columbia Comics omnibus title Big Shot Comics #1 (May 1940). He is unrelated to the DC Comics character.

The Skyman was Allan Turner, who was raised by his uncle to become “outstanding in mind and body.” A brilliant scientist, he had no superpowers but did have a flying wing-shaped airplane, dubbed the Wing, that flew by the power of Earth’s magnetic poles. With this and money inherited from his late uncle’s will, he fought crime. In 1944, he acquired an “Icarus-Cape”, a huge pair of wings which allowed him to fly without an airplane. His love interest was detective Fawn Carroll.

According to Jess Nevins’ Encyclopedia of Golden Age Superheroes, “Skyman fights ordinary criminals, saboteurs, mad scientists, cursed idols, Soviet scientists, Emma the Spy Queen, the Gremlin, and Nazis on the moon.”

Publication history

The Skyman was created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Ogden Whitney in the Columbia Comics omnibus title Big Shot Comics #1 (May 1940). After appearing in the first eight issues of Big Shot, the character was spun off into his own series, in which one issue each appeared in 1941, 1942, 1947, and 1948. The Skyman went on to appear in virtually every issue of Big Shot through issue #101 (May 1949). That comic itself lasted only three more issues. The Skyman additionally appeared in a story in Sparky Watts #1 (1942).

New Media Publishing reprinted a Skyman story in the unnumbered one-shot Golden Age of Comics Special (Summer 1982). A.C.E. Comics’ Return of the Skyman #1 (Sept. 1987) reprinted his origin from The Skyman #1 (1941) and published a new story written by Mort Todd with art by Spider-Man co-creator Steve Ditko. Original artist Ogden Whitney penciled and inked a new cover based on his cover for The Skyman #1 from 1941. AC Comics ran reprints in Golden-Age Men of Mystery #7 and 23 (May 1998 and 2000), Golden-Age Treasury #2 (2003), and Men of Mystery Comics #66 (July 2007). He was among the large ensemble of public domain characters appearing in Dynamite Entertainment’s Project Superpowers #0 and #3 (Jan. and May 2008), and Project Superpowers: Chapter Two #2, 5–6, with featured status in Project Superpowers: Chapter Two: Prelude and issues #7 and 10 (cumulatively Oct. 2008 – June 2010). Skyman is scheduled to appear in the Bounty Hunter series from Capture Comics.

Dark Horse Comics released the Sky-Man One-Shot in November 2014, featuring their own version of the character: Sergeant Eric Reid.

— Taken from wikipedia

Smash Comics is the title of an American Golden Age comic book anthology series, published by Quality Comics for 85 issues between 1939 and 1949. It became the series Lady Luck for #86-90 (Dec 1949 – Aug 1950).

Smash Comics starred a variety of superheroes and other crimefighters, including the Ray (cover feature on #15, 17, 19, 21, 23, 25, 27), Midnight (cover feature from #28-85), the Invisible Hood, Magno, The Jester, Black X (cover feature on several issues), and the robot Bozo the Iron Man (cover feature on #8, 10, 12, 14, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26). Reprints of the four-page crimefighter feature “Lady Luck”, originally published in the Sunday-newspaper insert colloquially called “The Spirit Section”, also appeared.

The title was used again in 1999 as a part of the DC Comics crossover story arc “Justice Society Returns”.

At the behest of Quality publisher Everett “Busy” Arnold, Jack Cole later created his own satiric, Spirit-style hero, Midnight, for Smash Comics No. 18 (Jan. 1941). Midnight, the alter ego of radio announcer Dave Clark, wore a similar fedora hat and domino mask. During Eisner’s World War II military service, Cole and Lou Fine were the primary Spirit ghost artists; their stories were reprinted in DC Comics’ hardcover collections The Spirit Archives Vols. 5 to 9 (2001–2003), spanning July 1942 – Dec. 1944. In addition, Cole continued to draw one and two-page filler pieces, sometimes under the pseudonym Ralph Johns, and a memorable autobiographical appearance in “Inki,” which appeared in Crack Comics #34.

Son of Vulcan is the name of two comic book characters, one created by Charlton Comics in 1965, the other by DC Comics in August 2005. Son of Vulcan was one of the characters DC Comics purchased from defunct Charlton Comics in 1983.

Charlton Comics
Son of Vulcan first appeared in Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds # 46 (May 1965), retitled Son of Vulcan with issue # 49, and was created by writer Pat Masulli and artist Bill Fraccio. Charlton staff writer Joe Gill would write most of his stories. Predating the Charlton “Action Heroes” line, Son of Vulcan is not properly part of that group. His final Charlton story, “The Second Trojan War” in Son of Vulcan # 50 (Jan. 1966, the last issue, after which the title became Peter Cannon, Thunderbolt for another ten issues), was the first professional work of writer and future Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Roy Thomas, with the previous issue having seen the character being given a new and more ornate costume designed by a young, cover-credited Dave Cockrum.

History
The original Charlton character was Johnny Mann, a scrawny but courageous reporter for an international news syndicate who had lost a leg while serving during the Korean War. Covering a bloody civil war on the Mediterranean island of Cyprete, he complained aloud while standing in the ruins of an ancient temple that the gods play with men’s lives while leaving them defenseless against the forces of war and crime.

Taking offense, the Roman gods transported him to Mount Olympus where he was put on trial before Jupiter, all-powerful king of the gods, for his impudence. The war god Mars argued for his immediate destruction, but Vulcan, lame-legged god of fire and forge, spoke up in his defense, and Venus, goddess of love, agreed with Vulcan. In the end, bonding with the orphaned newsman over their similar disabilities, Vulcan agreed to adopt Johnny and share with him god-like powers that would help him fight injustice in the mortal world.

By calling on Vulcan’s aid, Johnny would transform into a superhuman demigod, whole again and mightily muscled and clad in indestructible Roman-style armor and shield with the power to summon both fire and powerful ancient weapons from his adopted father’s forge. However, it was the judgment of Jupiter that his powers could be removed from him at any time if the gods ever decided he was unworthy of them. Mars often plots against him to make him lose favor with Jupiter or destroy him and was exiled from Olympus for this.

As the Son of Vulcan, Johnny had several adventures where he battled both a jealous Mars and the Asian arch-criminal Dr. Kong (the so-called “meanest man alive” who resembled a cross between Fu Manchu and Dracula) but remained a little-known hero.

–Taken from Wikipedia

Space Adventures (sometimes cover-titled Science Fiction Space Adventures, Space Adventures Presents Rocky Jones and other variations for particular issues) was an American science-fiction anthology comic book series published sporadically by Charlton Comics from 1952 to 1979. Its initial iteration included some of the earliest work of industry notables Steve Ditko, Dick Giordano, and Tony Tallarico, and at least one story by EC Comics mainstay Bernard Krigstein.

In 1960, a second iteration introduced the superhero Captain Atom by writer Joe Gill and artist Ditko, shortly prior to Ditko’s co-creation of Spider-Man for Marvel Comics.

First Series

Space Adventures, a science-fiction anthology comic book from the Derby, Connecticut-based Charlton Comics, was initially published for 21 issues (cover-dated July 1952 – Aug. 1956). Issues #9-12 (Winter 1954 – Aug. 1954) were cover-titled Science Fiction Space Adventures. The following two issues were cover-billed Space Adventures Presents The Blue Beetle, and featured reprints of the defunct publisher Fox Comics’ superhero, from 1939. Issues 15-18 (March-Sept. 1955) carried the rubric Space Adventures Presents Rocky Jones, and featured that children’s television character in licensed TV spin-off stories. These were primarily illustrated by penciler Ted Galindo and inked by, variously, Dick Giordano, Ray Osrin, or Galindo himself. Giordano penciled at least one “Rocky Jones” story, “Gravity-Plus”, inked by Jon D’Agostino, in issue 18. Issues 19 and 21 reverted to Space Adventures, interspersed with another licensed tie-in, Space Adventures Presents First Trip to the Moon — a retitled reprint of writer Otto Binder, penciler Dick Rockwell and inker Sam Burlockoff’s adaptation of the movie Destination Moon, from Fawcett Comics’ 1950 one-shot of that name.

Space Adventures #10-11 (Spring-June 1954) contained two of Steve Ditko’s first half-dozen comic-book covers. Issue 16 (May 1955) features a six-page story, “Jealousy on Kano”, by artist Bernard Krigstein, one of EC Comics’ acclaimed creators in one of his small handful of non-EC stories during that publisher’s 1954-55 heyday.

Second Series

The numbering for Space Adventures was taken over by the Charlton war comics series War at Sea, which ran from #22-42 (cover-dated Nov. 1957 – June 1961). Space Adventures began again with issue 23, skipping the number 22, after taking over the numbering of the Charlton version of the former Fawcett series Nyoka the Jungle Girl.

This second series ran 37 issues (#23-59, May 1958 – Nov. 1964). The first issue only was cover-titled Space Adventures Presents Space Trip to the Moon and contained a second reprinting of Fawcett’s 1950s movie adaptation Destination Moon, this time with the first page deleted. Subsequent issues showcased much work by artist Steve Ditko, and at least one story by EC Comics veteran John Severin, as well as by such Charlton Comics regulars as Vince Alascia, Rocke Mastroserio, Charles Nicholas, and Sal Trapani.

Writer Joe Gill and artist Ditko introduced the space-age superhero Captain Atom in a nine-page story in issue 33 (March 1960). The character starred through issue #42 (Oct. 1961), except for skipping #41, with all stories drawn by Ditko except for two of the three in that final issue. The character would return later in the decade, and eventually be sold to DC Comics after Charlton’s 1980s bankruptcy; a version continues as a DC superhero as of 2010.

Space Adventures, which had continued all through the superhero’s run to include anthological science-fiction stories, reverted to all-anthology for issues 43-59 (Dec. 1961 – Nov. 1964) — all without Ditko, who by now freelanced exclusively for at Marvel Comics, where from 1956 he had become an established presence on that company’s science fiction/fantasy comics, and would, in 1963, co-create the popular superhero Spider-Man.

–Taken From Wikipedia

Wealthy socialite Rod Hathway and his secretary Dot Kenny, become the Avenger and Teena, interplanetary crime fighters.

For most these issues Joe Orlando and Wally Wood go back and forth between pencils and inks.

A comic book tie-in, Space Patrol, published by Ziff-Davis in 1952, ran two issues. It featured cover paintings by Norman Saunders and Clarence Doore. Bernard Krigstein illustrated the scripts by Phil Evans. The comics retail for about $1,000 each today in high grade condition.

Unlike Tom Corbett, Space Cadet, Space Patrol was never featured in a daily or Sunday newspaper comic strip, nor was there a series of juvenile novels recounting Space Patrol adventures.

The Spirit is a fictional masked crimefighter created by cartoonist Will Eisner. He first appeared June 2, 1940, as the main feature of a 16-page, tabloid-sized, newsprint comic book insert distributed in the Sunday edition of Register and Tribune Syndicate newspapers; it was ultimately carried by 20 Sunday newspapers, with a combined circulation of five million copies during the 1940s. “The Spirit Section”, as the insert was popularly known, continued until October 5, 1952. It generally included two other four-page strips (initially Mr. Mystic and Lady Luck), plus filler material. Eisner was the editor, but also wrote and drew most entries—after the first few months, he had the uncredited assistance of writer Jules Feiffer and artists Jack Cole and Wally Wood, though Eisner’s singular vision for the strip was a unifying factor.

The Spirit chronicles the adventures of a masked vigilante who fights crime with the blessing of the city’s police commissioner Dolan, an old friend. Despite the Spirit’s origin as detective Denny Colt, his real identity was virtually unmentioned again, and for all intents and purposes he was simply “the Spirit”. The stories are presented in a wide variety of styles, from straightforward crime drama and noir to lighthearted adventure, from mystery and horror to comedy and love stories, often with hybrid elements that twisted genre and reader expectations.

From the 1960s to 1980s, a handful of new Eisner Spirit stories appeared in Harvey Comics and elsewhere, and Warren Publishing and Kitchen Sink Press variously reprinted the newspaper feature in black-and-white comics magazines and in color comic books. In the 1990s and 2000s, Kitchen Sink Press and DC Comics also published new Spirit stories by other writers and artists.

In 2011, IGN ranked The Spirit 21st in the Top 100 Comic Book Heroes of all time.

— Taken from Wikipedia

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents is a fictional team of superheroes that appeared in comic books originally published by Tower Comics in the 1960s. They were an arm of the United Nations and were notable for their depiction of the heroes as everyday people whose heroic careers were merely their day jobs. The series was also notable for featuring some of the better artists of the day, such as Wally Wood. The team first appeared in T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #1 (cover-dated Nov. 1965). The name is an acronym for “The Higher United Nations Defense Enforcement Reserves“.

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents was a bimonthly comic book published by Tower Comics. It ran for 20 issues (Nov. 1965 – Nov. 1969), plus two short-lived spin-off series starring the most popular super agents (Dynamo and NoMan). To launch the project, Wally Wood huddled with scripter Len Brown (and possibly Larry Ivie) on a superhero concept Brown had described to Wood a year earlier. Brown recalled, “Wally had remembered my concept and asked me to write a 12-page origin story. I submitted a Captain Thunderbolt story in which he fought a villain named Dynamo.”[citation needed] With a few changes by Wood and a title obviously inspired by the success of the spy-fi television series The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and the then-current James Bond film Thunderball, the series got underway. Tower Comics went out of business in 1969, and the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents went into limbo.

Taken from Wikipedia

Terry and the Pirates was an action-adventure comic strip created by cartoonist Milton Caniff, which originally ran from October 22, 1934 to February 25, 1973. Captain Joseph Patterson, editor for the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate, had admired Caniff’s work on the children’s adventure strip Dickie Dare and hired him to create the new adventure strip, providing Caniff with the title and locale. The Dragon Lady leads the evil pirates; conflict with the pirates was diminished in priority when World War II started.

The strip was read by 31 million newspaper subscribers between 1934 and 1946. In 1946, Caniff won the first Cartoonist of the Year Award from the National Cartoonists Society for his work on Terry and the Pirates.

Publication history

The daily strip began October 22, 1934, and the Sunday color pages began December 9, 1934. Initially, the storylines of the daily strips and Sunday pages were different, but on August 26, 1936, they merged into a single storyline.

Although Terry and the Pirates had made Caniff famous, the strip was owned by the syndicate, which was not uncommon at the time. Seeking creative control of his own work, Caniff left the strip in 1946, his last Terry strip being published on December 29. The following year, with the Field Syndicate, he launched Steve Canyon, an action-adventure strip that Caniff retained ownership of, which ran until shortly after his death in 1988.

After Caniff’s departure, Terry and the Pirates became a “zombie strip” and was assigned to Associated Press artist George Wunder. Wunder drew highly detailed panels, but some critics, notably Maurice Horn, claimed that it was sometimes difficult to tell one character from another and that his work lacked Caniff’s essential humor. Nevertheless, Wunder kept the strip going for another 27 years until its discontinuation on February 25, 1973, by which time Terry had become a full-grown man and reached the rank of Colonel.

St. John Publications published the first Three Stooges comics in 1949 with 2 issues, then again in 1953–54 with 7 issues. The comics were created by Norman Mauer and comic book legend Joe Kubert. Mauer was married to Joan Howard, the daughter of the comedy team’s Moe Howard on June 29, 1947. In 1949, he produced two Three Stooges comic book issues for Jubilee, based on the short films the team was making for Columbia Pictures. In 1953, Maurer created the first 3-D comics, Three-Dimension Comics featuring Mighty Mouse, with his brother, Leonard Maurer, and Joe Kubert. Two three-dimensional Stooge comics were also issued in 1953. He returned to the Stooges in comic form in 1972 with Gold Key Comics’ The Little Stooges, which ran for seven issues over the next two years.

Taken from Wikipedia

Tom Corbett is the main character in a series of Tom Corbett—Space Cadet stories that were depicted in television, radio, books, comic books, comic strips, and other media in the 1950s.

The stories followed the adventures of Corbett, Astro, and Roger Manning (originally; later, T.J. Thistle), cadets at the Space Academy as they train to become members of the Solar Guard. The action takes place at the Academy in classrooms and bunkrooms, aboard their training ship the rocket cruiser Polaris, and on alien worlds, both within the solar system and in orbit around nearby stars.

The original Tom Corbett series was published by Dell Comics beginning in their 4-Color series. The 4-Color series was used to try out new story lines on the public to obtain feedback. If successful the series would be spun off to form its own title. Tom Corbett won his own title after three tryout issues. As the popularity of the television series waned, Dell stopped producing the comic book and the series was then taken up and produced by Prize Comics.

There were a small number of Tom Corbett comic books in Manga style published in the 1990s by Eternity Comics, but these are regarded as non-canonical by Corbett fans.

— Taken from Wikipedia

In May, 1947, Arthur Bernhard’s Magazine Village company, a one title publisher, released True Crime Comics, designed and edited by Jack Cole. The first issue (#2) featured Cole’s “Murder, Morphine, and Me”, the story of a young female drug addict who became involved with gangsters. The story would become one of the most controversial of the period and samples of the art, including a panel from a dream sequence in which the heroine has her eye held open and threatened with a hypodermic needle, would be used in articles and books (like Geoffrey Wagner’s Parade of Pleasure) about the pernicious influence and obscene imagery of crime comics.

In the late 1940s, the comic book industry became the target of mounting public criticism for their content and their potentially harmful effects on children. In some communities, children piled their comic books in schoolyards and set them ablaze after being egged-on by moralizing parents, teachers, and clergymen.

In 1948, John Mason Brown of the Saturday Review of Literature described comics as the “marijuana of the nursery; the bane of the bassinet; the horror of the house; the curse of kids, and a threat to the future.” The same year, after two articles by Dr. Fredric Wertham put comic books through the wringer, an industry trade group, the Association of Comics Magazine Publishers (ACMP) was formed but proved ineffective.

Taken from Wikipedia