Days of Adventure

Adventure Comics # 134, November, 1948

2012-03-21T00:34:00.001-04:00

Another striking cover and yet another one that is just a copy of the interior splash. The real star of this issue os, for some bizarre reason, Cleveland Indians baseball pitcher Bob Feller! We first meet "Rapid Robert" on the inside front cover where we see that he appears as himself in the current issue of BOY COMMANDOS. Feller also stars in this issue's full-page Wheaties spotlight ad and finally turns up one more time at the back of the book in a Thom McCan ad--where one can get a "genuine facsimile" autograph!

After all the Mort Meskin stories that became more and more stylized, it's a bit of a shock to see this JOHNNY QUICK story by Charles Sultan. Sultan was a good, solid comics artist who had come through the Eisner-Iger Shop and later the Harry A Chesler Shop. He did quite a few well-done but unremarkable comics before becoming a paperback editor and publisher later on.

Adventure Comics # 133, October, 1948

2012-03-20T00:25:00.000-04:00

Another issue missing Sir Justin for unknown reasons and another issue where the cover is just the splash page retouched and recolored.

Recently we had "Lanterns" of various colors at DC. Here, in a precedent from decades earlier, we have different colored "Arrows."

Adventure Comics # 132, September, 1948

2012-03-19T00:33:00.000-04:00

A good solid issue with another fun Mortimer cover, Al Wenzel continues the interior art on the SUPERBOY story.

This SAM SPADE looks like it might possibly be the work of Lou Fine who adjusted his Eisner-inspired superhero style into a more realistic look when he got into advertising. Whoever drew it, it;s the best drawn thing in the issue.

Sir Butch becomes Sir Justin's sidekick here but GCD notes that some stories were printed out of sequence as we'd seen him before already.

National did a whole bunch of radio show comics during this period, also. much as they'd later do for TV series.

But in the end, it was Westerns that were becoming the biggest trend for DC.

Adventure Comics # 131, August, 1948

2012-03-18T00:02:00.001-04:00

Another fun cover but this one seems a bit of a cheat as it's just a slightly retouched and recolored version of the splash page, seen below.

Look who's back. Why he keeps disappearing in the first place, I have no idea.

The Bull's-Eye is back, GA's Joker variation.

And enough of this talk about great Meskin art. Let's see a whole story full of it!

Adventure Comics # 130, July, 1948

2012-03-17T00:25:00.000-04:00

Yet another great kids cover!

Captain Tootsie always seemed out of place in a DC book as his ads were drawn by C.C. Beck, artist on DC's biggest Superman rival, Captain Marvel.

Here's another fun "fish out of water" AQUAMAN tale!

The Freedom Train was a big attraction in the forties, traveling the country as a patriotic museum. There was a revival in the seventies called, I believe, the Liberty Train.

Adventure Comics # 129, June, 1948

2012-03-16T00:33:00.001-04:00

A fun cover from Al Plastino, who would be associated with the Superman Family for the next 25 years or so, masks a so-so issue with some oddly aged scans I wasn't able to color correct. (Thanks to Roger T., however, for providing better corrections!).

Adventure Comics # 128, May, 1948

2012-03-15T00:11:00.000-04:00

Another good, solid issue. Previously we had young Clark meeting cub reporter Perry White so it was probably inevitable that we see the teenage Lois Lane.

Another nicely drawn SAM SPADE ad page strip!

Before there was Bazooka Joe, there was Bazooka, the Atom Bubble Boy, seen here in another strip ad.

Adventure Comics # 127, April, 1948

2012-03-14T00:16:00.001-04:00

This is a fun issue all around, starting with an odd, fun cover by Al Wenzel. Just to throw the readers, though, the associated SUPERBOY story doesn't open the book, THE GREEN ARROW does! And with a stunning splash page.

This story illustrates the great problem once again with the concept of Superman as a boy. Even though that's emphasized more than usual in the logo of this story, there's a panel that shows dates...and they're recent dates, not dates from 15-20 years earlier.

Meskin magic again, here.

Adventure Comics # 126, March, 1948

2012-03-13T00:29:00.000-04:00

Win Mortimer makes his first appearance here as cover artist with a fun and clever scene. He becomes the major cover artist for several of the DC titles over the next decade or so and also does a number of PSA's.

More humorous filler again this issue to replace the temporarily missing SHINING KNIGHT. Also, more great Meskin work on JOHNNY QUICK!

Adventure Comics # 125, February, 1948

2012-03-12T00:24:00.001-04:00

Another February issue means another December sale date so there is yet another Santa Claus Superboy story. Other than that, a faorly flat issue until you get to the Johnny Quick tale with another great splash from Mort Meskin.

DC had pretty much decided that Western comics were to be the next big trend and they weren't 100% wrong. In the fifties, there were probably more than 500 individual Western comics titles published by dozens of different publishers.

Adventure Comics # 124, January, 1948

2012-03-11T00:42:00.000-05:00

Some nice looking splashes all around this time with The Green Arrow and Speedy once again facing their ersatz version of The Joker, Bull's-Eye. Best of all, however, is the Johnny Quick page, even if it is a bit muddy in the scan.

Adventure Comics # 123, December, 1947

2012-03-10T00:01:00.001-05:00

Another bad scan I'm afraid. According to GCD this issue was the first instance of Superboy using his microscopic vision. For some reason there is no SHINING KNIGHT story in this issue even though Sir Justin is back next time around. The space is filled with more filler one-pagers than usual.

The story below was the first JOHNNY QUICK story I ever saw, in a reprint from a FLASH ANNUAL in 1966. In fact, just because it is the first one I ever saw, below that is the whole thing from that very FLASH ANNUAL.

Adventure Comics # 122, November, 1947

2012-03-09T00:46:00.000-05:00

A good scan this time around and another cover that actually ties in with this issue's story.

Another example of DC's searching for a new trend, REAL FACT COMICS presented just that, although occasionally a piece such as the wildly fictionalized--to say nothing of self-promotional--THE TRUE STORY OF BATMAN AND ROBIN. Note that the ad namechecks them along with SUPERMAN and even WORLD'S FINEST!

Adventure Comics # 121, October, 1947

2012-03-08T00:34:00.000-05:00

A very eye-catching cover all around this ish. "Stamps! Coins! Autographs! Superboy collects them all." What, no comic books?

Looks like an original scan wasn't available for the Johnny Quick story for some reason so we get this version from a seventies reprint. Still, such a great Meskin splash.

Adventure Comics # 120, September, 1947

2012-03-07T00:15:00.001-05:00

The great Jack Burnley returns briefly to ADVENTURE with this cover.

Foreshadowing the seventies when DC office guys were known as junior woodchucks, here's another of the alphabet ads.

Clark kent's future boss, Perry White, appears here in his cub reporter days, presaging a rash of Superboy tales over the years in which he meets familiar faces in younger days.

Here's a fun and very atypical AQUAMAN story! He enrolls in college on land as "Mr. Waterman." Art by regular artist at the time, Louis Cazeneuve

A great ad for Howie Post's JIMMINY series!

Red Ryder's been on the back cover so much, one might almost consider him an ADVENTURE regular, also.

Adventure Comics # 119, August, 1947

2012-03-06T00:02:00.000-05:00

Unfortunately, another really bad scan for this issue so we'll just gloss over it. Too bad because there's a cute superboy meets girl story and the third appearance of Green Arrow's Joker-clone, Bull's-Eye. Some really good Meskin art on Johnny Quick, also.

These Sam Spade comics ads for Wildroot Cream Oil began appearing around this time in connection with the then-popular radio series starring Howard Duff. As Duff and Spade creator Dashiel Hammett became accused of being communists, the comics ads would be replaced by Al Capp's Fearless Fosdick and Charlie Wild, the radio clone of Spade that replaced the original to avoid a scandal.

Adventure Comics # 118, July, 1947

2012-03-05T00:29:00.001-05:00

Here's a fun Superboy tale dealing with the mid-forties radio quiz show craze. Of course, Superboy, as his subtitle has been reminding us for the last couple of issues now, presents "THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN WHEN HE WAS A BOY." This means that in this story Clark is about 14 years old, tops. The Man of Steel himself was said to be perpetually 29 years of age. Thus, this tale must logically take place some 15 years prior to the year in which this issue was actually published. That would place this 1947 tale in 1932. According to John Dunning's definitive book, ON THE AIR: THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF OLD TIME RADIO, the quiz show as we know it didn't exist until 1936 with the big craze arguably starting with 1939's POT O'GOLD. Ah, the joys of trying to keep Superboy from being anachronistic.

The villain in the GREEN ARROW story below has a cool costume and, one would think by this page, the same name as a later member of the Silver Age Flash's Rogue's Gallery, THe Weather Wizard. Throughout the story, though, he's referred to as The Storm King, instead.

Another puzzler. This full-page ad was not for a DC title nor even, as we've seen before, for a Prize Comics title. No, THE KILROYS was an ACG--American Comics Group--title. According to Wikipedia, ACG was partly owned by DC owner Harry Donenfeld's son-in-law---from 1948 on. This, however, was still mid-1947. So why the ad for the competition?,

Adventure Comics # 117, June 1947

2012-03-04T00:49:00.000-05:00

Horrid, faded scans this time around but nothing to write home about this issue anyway. For the record, here are the splashes.

Adventure Comics # 116, May, 1947

2012-03-03T00:51:00.000-05:00

Back to the more lighthearted covers for awhile.

And the more lighthearted stories as well.

Here's the return of the Jok....errr...The Bull's-Eye, to take revenge on Green Arrow and Speedy.

A nifty ad for the new TOMAHAWK feature. TOMAHAWK would eventually replace Robin as cover feature in STAR-SPANGLED and was even given his own title! Perhaps due to the fifties popularity of Disney's DAVY CROCKETT, the TOMAHAWK book had enough momentum to carry it up until 1970.

Adventure Comics # 115, April, 1947

2012-03-02T00:32:00.000-05:00

A tad more violent than the usual covers.

This issue, Superboy meets Jaguar Boy. Was DC using this as what they call a back door pilot? Jungle comics were starting to come in vogue with the ever-popular Tarzan and Sheena joined by Nyoka and soon many, many more. Maybe DC was looking for their own jungle character? If so, as far as I know, Jaguar Boy did not return.

Below is an ad for one of my personal favorite series from this period--Howie Post's JIMMINY AND THE MAGIC BOOK. He was in MORE FUN COMICS and later WORLD'S FINEST. Wish DC would do a paperback reprint of all the Jimminy stories.

Adventure Comics # 114, March, 1947

2012-03-01T00:43:00.000-05:00

Reversed for the splash panel, this fun Superboy cover goes to a clever story about a spelling contest.

LITTLE ARTHUR? Not the same as the later SUGAR & SPIKE character, this is a single page filler by Phil Berube, one of the great sports cartoonists, Berube started doing filler like this in 1945 and continued until about 1950.

"Quagga?" Man, they're really pushing this, aren't they?

After some stylish 2/3 splashes for he three above series, we return to the big wasted space GA logo for this one.

At least it has another weird villain--this one a sharp-nosed, bird-based criminal. It's beginning to look like the GREEN ARROW scripters are recycling old BATMAN stories in more ways than one.

Adventure Comics # 113, February, 1947

2012-02-29T00:09:00.000-05:00

A lovely holiday cover shows that this February-dated issue was actually on-sale in December.

The SUPERBOY Christmas story below was previously posted in its entirety last year on our Rondo-nominated FOUR COLOR SHADOWS blog and you can read it here.

Aquaman vs Merman,a fictional movie undersea hero who in at least one close-up vaguely resembles Timely's rival Sub-Mariner!

With BATMAN strips running in DETECTIVE, BATMAN and WORLD'S FINEST, Robin got his chance here with the start of a long-running solo series in STAR-SPANGLED COMICS. Well...it was supposed to be solo. After a while, even though the mostly Jim Mooney-drawn strip still kept the same title, Batman's appearances became more and more frequent.

Peter Porkchops would later be co-opted by Roy Thomas as one of his odder Golden Age revivals, this one in CAPTAIN CARROT AND HIS AMAZING ZOO CREW, co-created with Scott Shaw! Peter became the superhero, Pig Iron.

I'm sorry, what? Green Arrow and Speedy go up against a villain referred to as "The Clown Prince of Crime,"he has a white face, a pointed nose and a pointed chin, wild, oddly colored hair, and he's called...The Bull's Eye. Seriously??!! Does the Joker know about this fellow?

Adventure Comics # 112, January, 1947

2012-02-28T00:49:00.000-05:00

This issue's SUPERBOY tale is almost a long PSA of the type the Boy Of Steel would specialize in throughout the fifties, this one on traffic safety. Interesting to note that while he's drawn younger than he would be later, it's shown that his peers are receiving cars and motorcycles for doing well at school.

A miscolored Aquaman on the splash doesn't detract from this story that makes early use of television, still nowhere near a household item at the end of 1946 but clearly thought to be here to stay by that point.

Adventure Comics # 111, December, 1946

2012-02-27T00:23:00.000-05:00

Another fun Superboy cover and another solid, if unspectacular, issue with entertaining tales and art all around.

Okay, they were really stretching these alphabet ads by this point.

A better logo for The Green Arrow this issue.

A striking splash for Sir Justin.

Adventure Comics # 110, November, 1946

2012-02-26T00:22:00.001-05:00

The regular SUPERBOY artist inside at this point, still signed as Joe Shuster, is John Sikela, but this fun cover is by Stan Kaye as most have been recently.

The pointless blank space around the logo in this series continues to annoy me but George Papp's art is, if not spectacular, certainly as solid as any superhero cartooning of the period and more than most

JOHNNY QUICK still looks vaguely like it's by Meskin but that's because it's George "Inky" Roussos who worked much with Mort but also did his own penciling during that period, also. He could be very good or very bad--both as a penciler and an inker.

Note that here, almost to 1947, less than ten years after Superman's ACTION COMICS debut, only 3 of the comics featured in this ad are superhero comics. The costumed heroes we associate with the Golden Age of Comics certainly weren't yet gone...but they had already faded tremendously here as well as at all the other publishing companies.

Adventure Comics # 109, October, 1946

2012-02-25T00:51:00.001-05:00

There are a number of self-promotional ads in this issue as DC apparently does as much as possible to get new readers in the wake of falling sales. LEADING COMICS, once the home of THE SEVEN SOLDIERS OF VICTORY, has now been taken over by funny animals.

Very stylized but delightful art on a fun JOHNNY QUICK story this issue, as seen below.

Adventure Comics # 108, September, 1946

2012-02-24T03:11:00.000-05:00

An unusual cover that literally could have been used as a safety poster.

Note below that the indicia--that thing at the bottom of the page with information on what you're reading and who published it--is now on the bottom of the first page rather than the bottom of the inside front cover. Eventually, this would become industry standard for decades but at this point, it must have seemed a little odd to any readers who actually noticed it.

Here's a lovely splash for Johnny Quick with artist Mort Meskin seemingly having great fun on this character.

Early attempts at branding in the post-war world. More comics than ever covering more subjects than ever and yet no one really seemed to have much of an identity...so DC decided they would. Note the presence of BOY COMMANDOS, said to have actually outsold SUPERMAN for a time.

Adventure Comics # 107, August, 1946

2012-02-23T00:10:00.000-05:00

Interesting how this cover scan makes it look like the scene is taking place at night but the GCD cover below shows it to be, in fact, broad daylight.

Mort Meskin's art was getting surprisingly stylized at this still early phase. He was also doing VIGILANTE in ACTION COMICS.

Much more traditional was the art on this exciting and fun SHINING KNIGHT story guest-starring Merlin the Magician.

Adventure Comics # 106, July, 1946

2012-02-22T00:59:00.000-05:00

This cover reminds us that Superboy is, in fact, Superman as a boy. This means that if the adult Superman is, as was often stated by DC in later years, perpetually 29 years old, then these early tales of him at about 10 must be taking place in the mid-1920's! This, of course, would lead to plenty of anachronisms over the years, perhaps the most obvious being the infamous attempt at cashing in on the success of the sixties film, BONNIE & CLYDE by having teenage Clark and Lana meet the notorious bank robber killers. Since they died in 1934, this would have made the then-current Superman nearly fifty!

Adventure Comics # 105, June, 1946

2012-02-21T00:52:00.000-05:00

Not very good scans for this issue and some pretty bland splashes already, especially Aquaman's. We do get what I believe is the first appearance of artist George Papp on what will become his signature characters, Green Arrow and Speedy. His first appearance in ADVENTURE anyway.

Adventure Comics # 104, May, 1946

2012-02-20T00:04:00.000-05:00

The Superboy covers would be symbolic and fun like this for some time.

Along with RC and Quickie for Royal Crown Cola, Pepsi also had a long-running cartoon ad starring Pepsi the Pepsi Cola Cop!

Here's Johnny reciting his magic formula math problem as drawn by Mort Meskin.

Here we have the comic filler DAFFY & DOODLE--no relation to DOVER & CLOVER who were now headlining in MORE FUN.

Adventure Comics # 103, April, 1946

2012-02-19T00:16:00.000-05:00

Here we are at the start of a new era. Surprise readers! Not a word in advance nor even any info in the issues themselves. Just...change. Note that the title goes monthly again, too! DC attempted to consolidate its humor strips and its hero strips separately. Logically, MORE FUN COMICS seemed the place to install the funny folks while ADVENTURE seemed perfect for the heroes.

Thus, SUPERBOY, a relatively recent addition to MORE FUN who hadn't even been cover featured, took the lead here. Credited to Siegel and Shuster but not by them. (At least I don't think so. GCD lists Don Cameron as writer but says Shuster drew it. The cover looks it but the insides sure don't look like his work to me) In fact, they were soon to lose that credit after their initial lawsuit against DC. Here's the first ADVENTURE Superboy tale. In these early issues, he's much younger than the "classic era" version to come.

Mort Meskin on Johnny Quick, a variation on THE FLASH that always rather reminded me of Plastic Man in his relationship with his chubby sidekick. Quick's magic formula? 3X2(9YZ)4A

The Volto ad strip remained from the old days, too!

Aquaman was a latecomer to the ranks of the DC superheroes and, along with fellow ADVENTURE crimefighter Green Arrow, he would continue straight into the Silver Age under the radar compared to the better-know Batman, Superman and Wonder zWoman who are oft-cited as the sole characters to do so. At this point Louis Cazaneuve was on the art chores.

Sir Justin--the unlikely choice to be last man standing from teh glory days of ADVENTURE but here he is...and here he'll stay for now, with great heights yet to come!

GA and Speedy were basically Batman and Robin with arrows for years and it's virtually impossible to reconcile this version of the Emerald Archer with the later, bleeding heart, neo-Socialist, hot-headed, bearded version of the character.

Meanwhile, Genius Jones was being welcomed to the pages of MORE FUN right on the cover. He would settle in there for a comfortable fit for the remainder of his career.

Adventure Comics # 102, February/March, 1946

2012-02-18T00:27:00.000-05:00

It really wasn't fair to the readers in those days. There were no fanzines, no websites, not even any kind of real marketing/networking within fan clubs. No one who bought this issue would have had any way of knowing that it would mark the last issue of ADVENTURE as they had come to know it. We start with a pretty good pseudo-Kirby cover with Sandman and Sandy, complete with Starman up in his usual corner spot...both for the last time.

GCD attributes this last Golden Age Sandman tale to Gil Kane and Marvin Stein. It's a pretty good one compared to what we've seen in recent issues so we're presenting the whole thing here.

And here's the splash for the final STARMAN adventure, again with Gershwin at the artistic helm.

Next issue THIS is the only guy who'll still be here! Who'da thunk it!?

With the war over and the servicemen returning home, the market for superheroes was perceived as thinning drastically if not dying out completely. Below is an ad from this issue for two new DC titles--a non-fiction title and a funny animal title. Like other companies, DC was looking for the next big thing by this point.

This was hardly the end of GENIUS JONES, however, as his semi-hero antics were simply about to move to the pages of MORE FUN COMICS...while that title's heroes moved in here and settled for a long run! Check back tomorrow to meet them!

This guy didn't stand a chance with the war over.

Adventure Comics # 101, December/January, 1945

2012-02-17T00:46:00.001-05:00

GCD says this issue's SANDMAN, his penultimate Golden Age appearance, is drawn by Gil Kane.

A rip-off of Jimmy Hatlo's popular THEY'LL DO IT EVERY TIME feature, KAFLOPPOS was also in MORE FUN COMICS at this same time.

An interesting new educational filler, not listed on GCD at all.

Adventure Comics # 100, October/November, 1945

2012-02-16T00:35:00.001-05:00

Here we are at issue # 100. Unlike in later years, there was no special celebration. Just more of teh same we've had recently. A weird Sandman cover, though!

Adventure Comics # 99, August/September, 1945

2012-02-15T00:10:00.000-05:00

Most likely this issue was on the stands in early June of 1945. The war in Europe was technically over but the struggle against the Japanese continued. The birth of the atomic age was just around the corner at Hiroshima. Big changes were coming. Big changes were coming for ADVENTURE COMICS, also. In fact, only two of these strips would survive past the next couple of issues and then only one of them would remain in this title...and I'd bet it's NOT one you'd suspect!

Adventure Comics # 98, June/July, 1945

2012-02-14T02:33:00.001-05:00

Perhaps the worst issue yet as far as art and story entertainment value go. SANDMAN in particular is not easy to navigate this time around.

GENIUS JONES again comes up with the best art but that's not saying much in this crowd.

Interesting to note yet another ad aimed quite literally at boys...

...is followed up in this case by a full-page ad aimed--in spite of that "It's gay" line--at girls! Someone at least seemed to realize that girls read superhero comic books, too!

Adventure Comics # 97, April-May, 1945

2012-02-13T00:35:00.000-05:00

A fairly exciting cover but another less than exciting issue. The lack of backgrounds seems to be spreading to other strips from STARMAN.

A few days from Valentines Day, however, here's Pen Shumaker's version of the Simon and Kirby Sandman and Sandy in NO CURTAINS FOR CUPID which would have been on the stands for Valentines Day in 1945.

VOLTO ads, seen above, were often better drawn (here by Al Plastino channeling Caniff I believe) than the comics they graced for years.

Adventure Comics # 96, February/March, 1945

2012-02-12T00:19:00.000-05:00

VE Day was just around the corner and the sales bonanza that all comic books were having with the soldiers would soon be a casualty of the war. If DC wasn't already looking at revitalizing ADVENTURE, they would soon. Certainly they continued to coast with some lackluster stories and art here--along with lots of wartime propaganda including the plug for the 6th War Loan right atop the cover!

Someone at DC may have sensed that superheroes were on their way out. Why else would BUZZY come along? Maybe DC had watched MLJ throw all their support behind ARCHIE and drop their superhero comics but DC had Superman and Batman, not second stringers like The Shield and Black Hood. So obviously, they weren't about to drop their cash cows...but why not have something in place for afterwards. Just in case.

STARMAN still featured some exquisite Gershwin character art but very sparse backgrounds.

Even Daisy had adopted war tie-ins for its ever-popular gun toys.

Adventure Comics # 95, December/January, 1944-45

2012-02-11T00:11:00.000-05:00

More propaganda and another nice cover that sure looks like Kirby's work.

BUZZY was DC's first response to ARCHIE (before BINKY). Although he was originally drawn in an extremely stylized fashion (as per the cover below), he'd eventually get a more realistic look and last for more than a decade.

Adventure Comics # 94, October/November, 1944

2012-02-10T00:19:00.001-05:00

Looks like another Kirby cover to me. Not sure why they continued listing S&K on the SANDMAN stories long after it was obvious they weren't doing them (although they were still being ghosted in something akin to their style)..

Shining KNight and Starman are the only two legit superheroes left besides Sandman.

Adventure Comics # 93, August/September, 1944

2012-02-09T00:09:00.000-05:00

I'm willing to go out on a limb here and say that this striking cover really is Kirby! The story inside, however, is just as clearly not. NOte more wartime support for the 5th War Loan.

HANDY ANDY would later resurface as a legitimate non-fiction feature in ADVENTURE.

Here's a fun Genius Jones adventure with a radio setting.

The strip below, JOE JAM, is the first black and white strip to appear here in several years.

RC and Quickie would appear in ads for Royal Crown Cola for several years and they were more often than not better drawn than comics they were in!

Adventure Comics # 92, June/July, 1944

2012-02-08T00:37:00.001-05:00

Here we have an absolutely striking cover that may or may not be by Simon and Kirby as signed. They had done some work far in advance for all of their titles. I'm leaning toward not, myself...but still a great cover!

Note on the inside cover ad that DC now had way too many titles to boast of their "Big Six."

This is the first of several SANDMAN stories by one Pen Shumaker who would pretty much finish out the character's Golden Age run and then move over to Archie.

Here's another particularly good art job by Emil Gershwin, once again channeling Jack Burnley's great early stories.

Adventure Comics # 91, April-May, 1944

2012-02-07T00:19:00.000-05:00

What can you say about an issue whose highlight is a one page BATMAN AND ROBIN propaganda PSA by Jerry Robinson?

By this point S&K were in the military. GCD credits this, a reasonably good attempt at aping their style, to future comics superstar Gil Kane.

This is said to be Jim Mooney art on MANHUNTER. Mooney would become a fixture at DC for many years but also did quite a bit of art for Marvel.

Supposedly there's a MILE GIBBS, GUERILLA story here, also, but my scan doesn't have it. I know you're all upset. What we do see here is, I believe, the earliest example of the classic and oft-parodied Charles Atlas ad to appear in this title.

Adventure Comics # 90, February/March, 1944

2012-02-06T00:15:00.001-05:00

Artistically at least, this issue is a step back up from recent ones, starting with this fun cover with (presumably) Jack Kirby himself drawing Wes and Sandy!

Stan Kaye's literal splash for GENIUS JONES is a gem!

Mort Meskin is back on STARMAN and our hero smiles with the knowledge.

A little "headlight" action here, unusual at DC, in a splash that looks like it would have been more at home at Quality!

And again, despite the ongoing legal battle between DC and Fawcett over CC Beck's CAPTAIN MARVEL, here's Beck with his other Captain, Tootsie!

Adventure Comics # 89, December/January, 1943

2012-02-05T00:16:00.000-05:00

A bit of a lackluster cover signifies another issue of same.

Wheaties ads with wartime themes were as ubiquitous as those with sports figures for the duration.

Adventure Comics # 88, October/November, 1943

2012-02-04T00:18:00.001-05:00

Not much to say here as the title continues to coast during this period with fairly standard tales, SANDMAN being the only one to generally rise above mediocrity.

Adventure Comics # 87, August/September, 1943

2012-02-03T00:06:00.000-05:00

Anther good S&K cover and another good S&K SANDMAN story highlight yet another otherwise dull issue. Nothing bad...but nothing particularly good either. JACK POTTS, seen below, is another new single page filler.

CAPTAIN TOOTSIE on the back cover was a long-running comic strip ad for Tootsie Roll products, ironically created by the folks behind Fawcett's Captain Marvel, Superman's biggest rival.

Adventure Comics # 86, June/July 1943

2012-02-02T02:55:00.000-05:00

June/July? Apparently we're now a bi-monthly. Another striking S&K propaganda cover but it masks a fairly substandard issue.

The Big Six is not only now the Big Eight but there's another ad further down for the OTHER eight titles DC was putting out!

Adventure Comics # 85, April, 1943

2012-02-01T00:17:00.000-05:00

Another S&K cover that actually matches the story, in this case up to and including the circle on the splash page.

Here's a fun SHINING KNIGHT story speaking unexpected cameos--in a way--from the Big 3--Superman, Batman and Robin, as drawn by Louis Cazeneueve.

Note the last panel in which we're told to check out next month's issue of MORE FUN for another Sir Justin adventure. Apparently a mistake, THE SHINING KNIGHT continued to appear here in ADVENTURE and never had a series in MORE FUN.

Adventure Comics # 84, March, 1943

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A classic, attention-getting cover if ever there was one. This issue is marred however by the fact that HOURMAN's time ran out in the previous month.

Apparently DC felt the need to deal with the war effort more directly than they had been to date so MiIKE GIBBS, GUERRILLA replaced Tick-Tock Tyler and Thorndyke starting this issue with a fairly standard spy series with okay art by Irving Tirman.

EXTRA DC Comics Rack, 1939

2012-01-30T16:02:00.000-05:00

Seen on eBay. Thanks to C. Yoe for the tip!

Adventure Comics # 83, February, 1943

2012-01-30T00:47:00.001-05:00

Toldja! There's Stan Kaye's GENIUS JONES inset again on an otherwise impressive Kirby/Simon cover with a weird looking antagonist!

The last half page of the below SANDMAN strip are taken up with this truly odd ad for BOY COMMANDOS!

Emil Gershwin arrives with even more above-average art for STARMAN. It's like DC wanted to uphold that tradition.

Okay, now they're advertising PRIZE and also HEADLINE COMICS! Neither of these was published by DC!

Here's a whole episode of Pierce Rice's rather pedestrian version of MANHUNTER.

Adventure Comics # 82, January, 1943

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More WWII propaganda from Simon & Kirby's Sandman and Sandy in spite of the top of cover blurb which highlights this issue's Christmas tale! Not e also the almost intrusive panel plugging Genius Jones. You'll see it again soon.

Other than the famous and well-done Santa Claus tale above, the rest of this issue is fairly predestrian. Nothing bad...but nothing all that exciting either.

Seen in the inside back cover below is the reason that Joe and Jack had to give up MANHUNTER.

Adventure Comics # 81, December, 1942

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With so many irons in the fire for Simon & Kirby--along with DC's insistence that the duo stockpile a year's worth of stories for their various series on the assumption they would be, like so many young men, drafted--it was probably inevitable that something had to go. In this case that something was MANHUNTER.

SANDMAN now had the cover as well as the lead spot and it was decided that that is the strip on which the pair would concentrate here while continuing to do BOY COMMANDOS and THE NEWSBOY LEGION for other DC titles.

MANHUNTER wasn't the only title losing its main creative force this issue. STARMAN lost the beautiful illustrative art of Jack Burnley. The good news is that, at least briefly, it was replaced with the differently impressive work of Mort Meskin and George Roussos (as Mort Morton, Jr and "Inky" Roussos).

MANHUNTER's new artist beginning here was Pierce Rice, a hit or miss artist who worked in various styles at various companies in thee forties.

YIKES!!

Interesting to note in the back cover ad below the prominent placement of MUTT & JEFF!

Adventure Comics # 80, November, 1942

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Simon and Kirby are now getting cover hype, proving, if there was any need, their status as the first true superstars of comic books.

No idea what happened to the Federal Men Club when that strip finally vanished but the Jnior JSA took up the slack over in ALL STAR COMICS, complete with secret codes.

The SANDMAN features finally dislodges STARMAN from the book's top spot.

This issue's HOURMAN (finally in one single word) is a fun one featuring Rex Tyler out of uniform (although still saddled with Thorndyke). Look for the ADVENTURE COMICS in-joke.

Adventure Comics # 79, October, 1942

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In this instance, this striking cover is a redrawn version of the MANHUNTER splash seen at the end of the book. Although the exact same image, there are major differences all around. Both, in fact, look more to me to be mostly the work of Simon as opposed to Kirby.

Starman still gets the lead spot, however.

Bernard Baily continues to impress with his experimentation...in spite of Thorndyke!

The propaganda continues as the final panels of various strips become essentially plugs for Bonds and stamps. See another from Sandman below!

Adventure Comics # 78, September, 1942

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Here's a vintage WWII propaganda cover akin to the all-star superhero covers Timely always had. Manhunter teams with Sandman and Sandy to fight the Axis.

This issue Starman teams with a persistent young lad in what appears to be a story setting him up to be Starboy or some such but nothing ever comes of it and he's never seen again.

Not sure why I didn't notice this before but one of DC's Advisory Board members was a Dr. Robert Thorndike...and Minute Man Martin was replaced as Hourman's young sidekick by...Thorndyke! Coincidence?

The one-off SAM THE INVENTOR strip shows just how accepted visual racial stereotypes still were at this point. Underneath it, the first ad for WONDER WOMAN.

Kirby and Simon seemed at a loss sometimes as to exactly what their MANHUNTER was supposed to look like. Here we see a couple of obvious instances of Paul Kirk in a red mask with, for some reason, a blue face. The rest of the story, however, features his usual full blue face which, since his ears are colored normally, one presumes to be some sort of mask, also.

Note the amazing gift to "COMIC" readers!

Adventure Comics # 77, August, 1942

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Apparently DC had received some mail on MANHUNTER as the cover toplines it with "A HIT!" That said, it might confuse some new readers since this is, of course, Sandman on the cover.

A classic STARMAN splash, reprinted in the seventies by DC and still looking very impactful today.

Another innovative but weird looking opening for HOURMAN, now permanently saddled with Thorndyke as his sidekick.

Last issue saw the last of SREVE CONRAD. Rather than giving him a cape and some powers, he was replaced by GENIUS JONES, a fun kids' superhero strip initially drawn by Stan Kaye. It would appear ultimately in a number of DC titles over the next few years. Here's the complete first appearance. According to Wikipedia, this was written by future sci-fi legend Alfred Bester.

The prolific Simon and Kirby team take the last panel of SANDMAN to plug yet another new series from them, BOY COMMANDOS. Starting in DETECTIVE, that series will eventually become their most popular DC feature and run also in WORLD'S FINEST as well as in its own magazine, continuing in the S&K style long after their departure from the strip and the company.

Adventure Comics # 76, July, 1942

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Note the little Superman blurb for Defense stamps. It was still early in the war. Soon enough, DC would be basing whole covers around Defense Stamps and War Bond drives!

Not normally known as an artistic innovator, Bernard Baily here presents a very clever splash page.

PRIZE COMICS. Again.

Adventure Comics # 75, June, 1942

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Here's a rare to date instance of the cover actually reflecting an interior story. In this case, that story is one of S &K's most justifiably famous SANDMAN tales in which our hero and sidekick Sandy meet a variation of a character that Jack Kirby will be associated with in later years: Thor.

Already the JSA are being drafted and turning into the Justice Battalion for the duration...supposedly.

Green Arrow wasn't brand new here but this is the first of not one but two ads in this issue touting him as a big deal...something he would, in reality, have to wait another two and a half decades to become.

WHAT TH...!!?? Now, "Thorndyke, The Minute Man has his own logo!

Here's the whole SANDMAN tale with Thor. Kirby's fascination with the Norse Gods would lead to him using the Thunder God in the fifties at DC in a one-off fantasy story before turning him into a superhero in the early sixties.

Adventure Comics # 74, May, 1942

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Starman still holds the top spot but, as beautiful as it was, the more exciting Simon and Kirby style was quickly taking over.

What happened to Minute Man Martin? Now we have Thorndyke, previously the comic relief kid, as a silly, costumed sidekick!

Here we go with another Henry Boltinoff character who would pop up often over the years.

A nice full page splash on this issue's STEVE CONRAD strip.

Help! Seriously--PRIZE COMICS?? WHY?

Here we have the classic--well, I always thought it was kinda stupid actually--blue, full-face mask.

Adventure Comics # 73, April, 1942

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We ran this cover, its original art and a recently recolored version by Mort Todd a while back. Now let's see what's on the inside. As you can see, MANHUNTER in his new Simon and Kirby outfit (I swear, it's the SAME guy!) At this point, he doesn't have the blue face mask he'll have later. In fact, I'm not sure they had decided what his mask was supposed to look like as you'll see below.

Seriously---yet another PRIZE COMICS ad in DC Comics. Surely someone knows what this cross-promotion was all about.

After the neat, clean art of the previous issues on the PAUL KIRK, MANHUNTER strip, this messy but vibrant art must have come as a shock to regular readers. Note that the character here is called "Rick Nelson" and not "Paul Kirk" but that would soon enough change back. From panel to panel, the mask seems drawn differently or left out all together, sometimes leaving the colorist to color all or part of the character's face red even if there was no visible indication of a mask at all.

After his recent absence, Minute-Man Martin returns to share this adventure of HOURMAN. Speaking of sidekicks, after the last panel of this strip, seen below, was a plug for Mr. America's new sidekick in ACTION COMICS, Fatman! Fatman resembles the (in)famous Ma Hunkel version of Red Tornado.

CLANCY THE COP was yet another Henry Boltinoff character that would continue in single-pagers for the next three decades or so.

With MANHUNTER, Simon and Kirby now have two major strips in ADVENTURE. FEDERAL MEN's Steve Carson has been missing all together since issue 70 and Steve Conrad's days were numbered.