New Comics # 11, December 1936

Well, we've come to the last issue of just plain NEW comics. Apparently that wasn't enough to sell the product anymore. One had to specialize. But that would start with the following issue. This was yet another holiday issue. (Note that the use of "Xmas" was not really all that recent.) It's also yet another issue where not much happens in our regular features so let's take a look at some choice panels from what's there.

The required Statement of Ownership appears in this issue and states that NEW COMICS, THE INTERNATIONAL PICTURE STORY MAGAZINE is a publication of Nicholson Publishing.

The most interesting thing this issue, though, is a full page ad for the brand spanking new title---DETECTIVE COMICS cover-featuring Sax Rohmer's Fu Manchu. That would change. Note that even then Jerry Siegel was getting no respect as his name is misspelled. They got Creig Flessel's oft-misspelled name correct but they messed up Jerry's!

 Lionel Trains were a major part of Christmas for countless Americans in the 20th Century so it's fitting that this ad---one of the first interior ads to appear in NEW COMICS, was in this Christmas number.

 Hey, DALE DARING is back in color again but more interesting is that she's now credited to Alex Lovy. Lovy would soon be an animator for Walter Lantz cartoons. He would make the rest of his career in animation in fact, working for Hanna-Barbera as well as being the man behind the last ditch efforts of Warner Brothers cartoon division in the late sixties. Yes, he created Cool Cat and Merlin the Magic Mouse.

Both with Steve's profile and Ralph's outfit, Siegel and Shuster's FEDERAL MEN was here looking quite a bit like DICK TRACY.

Next issue: NEW ADVENTURE!

New Comics # 10, November, 1936

Nothing much new this time outside of a couple of previously unseen but also undistinguished strips, RED and HARDLUCK HARRY. So let's take a look at a sampling of the widely varying art styles this series has settled into over the preceding year.

For a look at all four pages of this issue's exciting sci-fi themed installment of FEDERAL MEN, check out our sister blog, FOUR COLOR SHADOWS!

New Comics # 9, October, 1936

 By issue 9 here, we've settled into a routine with some good art, some bad art, some not particularly distinguished features and a few that are head and shoulders above the rest. That word "adventure" has been on the cover for several issues now and was getting closer and closer to becoming much more prominent.

FEDERAL MEN continues as the obvious standout in overall story and art with Siegel and Shuster getting more and more creative with each issue. This issue we move solidly into science-fiction territory with invisible empires and giant robots with death ray eyes. SUPERMAN was getting closer.

Interesting to note that DALE DARING, ever the mystery girl, is missing all together. Not much else worth noting about this issue.

New Comics # 8, September, 1936

I just noticed we actually lost a bunch of pages starting with issue five. With this issue we also lose the editorial. On the other hand, CAPTAIN JIM OF THE TEXAS RANGERS picks up a  couple extra pages to start us out this time around. As exciting westerns go, it really doesn't help much.

We still have two ages each of  DON COYOTE, OL' OZ BOPP and CAPTAIN QUICK. Then there's good ol' DALE DARING. Still no clue who she is and she only gets a single line this time in her own story.

KING ARTHUR is followed by THE BLOOD PEARLS, with writing actually credited to Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, the publisher himself! At least for a little while longer. Some really nice art by "PAD" for all four pages of this tale of intrigue.

The movie pages offer a nice but not entirely accurate history of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, crediting Walter Lantz as his creator and conveniently forgetting that, in fact, Oswald was originally Disney's pre-mouse star!

Notably missing this time around are the many other text pages of previous issues. The magic tricks are still there but that's pretty much it. The rest of the issue is rounded out with more of the regular strips, both funny and adventurous, with many of them meandering and feeling more and more like filler as the reader works his way up to the obviously superior FEDERAL MEN at then end of each issue.

New Comics # 7, August 1936

 For the third issue in a row now, that word appears on the cover. "Adventure." It won't be long now...

That said, for the first time I don't believe there are any new strips this time out. They seem to have finally settled on a roster of certain strips that presumably got favorable fan mail. FEDERAL MEN actually gets four pages this time out for a particularly violent but well-drawn story.

This issue's editorial is missing, replaced instead by the greeting supposedly from "the artists." Note that the reader's eyesight continues to be of major concern.

The Odin-looking guy, seen below, appears in the current installment of DALE DARING as a mysterious figure. No more mysterious than Dale herself, of course, as we continue to get zero info as to who she is in the first place!

This is a caricature of Katherine Hepburn as seen on this month's film review page. Although apparently not deemed flattering, it looks quite a bit like similar ones later seen in Warner Brothers cartoons and from the pen of the great caricaturist Hirschfeld!

Note that comics are educational as this one was actually teaching Spanish numbers in counting.

 Okay, I said nothing new. JUNGLETOWN is new but in a format similar to the previous BUGVILLE.

From FEDERAL MEN. Our hero has been undercover as part of a masked invasion squad. "At the last second, Steve steps aside and mows down the entire squad." Yeesh! Hi, kiiiiids!