Adventure Comics # 32, November, 1938

Okay, this is it! No longer NEW or NEW ADVENTURE, the next nearly 40+ years and nearly 500 issues will be just plain ADVENTURE! Other than that, however, we're still a few issues away from the first big change. Note the ad below, though, highlighting the masked CRIMSON AVENGER, a pulp-inspired hero already appearing in DETECTIVE COMICS. This, of course, was a harbinger of things to come.

In this issue, the serious strips far outnumber the humorous ones. The former include:

BARRY O'NEILL, TOM BRENT, FEDERAL MEN, DALE DARING, CAPTAIN DESMO, TOD HUNTER, THE GOLDEN DRAGON, RUSTY & HIS PALS and ANCHORS AWEIGH, most taking up 3-4 pages. Many were still in two colors or black and white.

Long before the Comics Code, these stories would occasionally get quite violent!

 Even the humorous stories could be violent!

Masks, hoods and villains with colorful names were becoming the norm in the stories even though many of them were still the evil Orientals at this stage.

This was the one new strip this time around. Meanwhile, OL' OZ BOPP which has appeared for quite a run, finishes with this issue. 

New Adventure Comics # 31, October, 1938

Okay, here we are at the final issue in this second incarnation of our magazine. Not that you should expect any major transitions beyond the title just yet. Note that ACTION and DETECTIVE are being touted in the ad below but MORE FUN is no longer pictured.

 Yet another new humor strip, DOT AND DANNY has kind of an animated strip feel and is credited to "Romer." It's pretty but goes a long way for a gag that it telegraphs way too soon.

 Little by little, the strips are taking on more and more of that "comic book" feel as seen in the panels below. With ACTION all the way up to issue five already could it be the influence of SUPERMAN? FEDERAL MEN continues apace in this issue also but looks more and more like I'm seeing some Wayne Boring in the art so I'd say Shuster had set up his studio already.

 Apparently they were looking for new artists?

New Adventure Comics # 30, September, 1938

Flessel shows once again that he really was pretty good at drawing water that actually looks wet. Sounds simple but a lot of comics artists always seemed to have trouble with that.

 Bob Kane's JEST A MINUTE continued the artist's pages of single panel cartoons as well as RUSTY AND HIS PALS.

 The above is NOT Batman. In fact, this is a Tom Hickey illustration of a prisoner kept masked in his cell. This would, however, be around the time that Bob Kane might have been starting to think about a new masked hero character for DETECTIVE COMICS.

Sheldon Moldoff had two pages of sports-realted cartoons in this issue, this one actually presenting batting tips.

New Adventure Comics # 29, August, 1938

 Okay, we seem to be coasting a bit now. New stuff this time around includes Bob Kane's CANDID COMIC CAMERA and his RUSTY AND HIS PALS continues to be an issue highlight, particularly if one doesn't care for all the Caniff rip-offs in the art for other strips!

 Above we see yet another bald villain from Siegel and Shuster. In case you didn't know, when we first meet Lex Luthor in the SUPERMAN strip, he, in fact, has red hair. He isn't bald at all. This is, however, the second bald villain in FEDERAL MEN in as many issues.

 Dragon Lady anyone?

New Adventure Comics # 28, July, 1938

 Flessel continues his string of winning covers but Sullivan otherwise continues to experiment with new strips. FEDERAL MEN and RUSTY AND HIS PALS remain as artistic highlights which, considering all the flack Bob Kane has taken about not drawing much --or any some say!--of his own credited work over the years after he became successful says a lot.

 Proof that nobody at DC really had a clue about Superman in the beginning is this ad showing ACTION COMICS # 2. Neither the cover nor the ad mentions what presumably was the reason most readers might have picked up issue 2 after meeting the Man of Steel in issue 1.

Above, Jerry and Joe introduce this bald villain into FEDERAL MEN this month.  The Junior Federal Men Club at least CLAIMED to have topped 10,000 members by this point!