JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA
| TABLE OF CONTENTS |
|---|
New Fun Comics (1935)
New Comics (1935)
Detective Comics (1937)
Action Comics (1938)
All-American Comics (1939) |
Obscure Golden Age DC Characters
(1935-1942)
Compiled by Jason Greenfield
No DC title holds more significance than Action Comics. Not only did it's premier issue feature the debut of Superman, but the title has been in continuous publication since 1938—the second longest running comic book in history (after Detecitve).
Unlike other books, Action has featured the same character throughout
its entire run as well. Because of Superman's popularity, comparitavely
few supporting features were introduced in the pages of this book.
| Character | Appeared in Issues… | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Superman | #1-present (June 1938–) | |
| Zatara | #1-138, 141 (June 1938–Nov. 1949) | |
| Mr. America aka the Americommando | #1-74 (June 1938–July 1944) | |
| Pep Morgan | #1-41 or 42 (June 1938–Oct. or Nov. 1941) | College athlete also in More Fun. |
| Chuck Dawson | #1-22 (June 1938–Mar. 1940) | Western |
| The Adventures of Marco Polo | #1-17 (June 1938–Oct. 1939) | historical circa late 13th century. |
| Scoop Scanlon | #1-13 (June 1938–June 1939) | Reporter. |
| Bret Coleman | #1-2 (June 1938–July 1938) | text story called South Sea Strategy. |
| Inspector Donald and Bobby | #2, 4 (July 1938–Sept. 1938) | |
| Bad Bill | #4 (Sept. 1938) | |
| Clip Carson | #14-36 (July 1939–May 1941) | Soldier of Fortune. Also in More Fun. |
| The Three Aces | #18-63 (Nov. 1939–Aug. 1943) | Fog Fortune, Gunner Bill and Whistler Will were a team. |
| Black Pirate | #23-36, 38-42 (Apr. 1940–Nov. 1941) | Historical–transfers over to Sensation Comics Jan. 1942. Jon Valor was a pirate in the 16th century serving Elizabeth I but later stories had him marry and his son grow to manhood by which time he served King Charles I so that takes his timeline to at least the 1620's. |
| Congo Bill | #37-92, 94-261 (June 1941–Feb. 1960) | Jungle adventurer. Much later becomes Congorilla. Previously appeared in More Fun |
| The Vigilante | #42-198 (Nov. 1941–Nov. 1954) • Detective Comics #140 • Leading Comics #1-14 | |
| Steve Carter–G Man | #124 (Sept. 1948) | |
| Tommy Tomorrow | #127-196, 199-251 (Dec. 1948–Apr. 1959) | |
| Joanie Swift | #196 (Jan. 1954) |
102 issues (April 1939–Oct. 1948)
All-American
Comics was the first title published by National "sister company,"
of the same name (sans hyphen). In essence, DC's co-owner, Max Gaines
was unable to convince his partner, xx to expand DC's production. Gaines
then went into partnership with xx to form All American Comics. The
two companies shared a printer and much of the same staff.
Among the features in All-American Comics were several licenced or newspaper reprint characters such as Bobby Thatcher and Ben Webster, who were slightly more prominent at the time. The characters from "Adventures into the Unknown" originated from a book adaption that may not be in the public domain.
All-American was most famous for its mystery men such as Green Lantern, the Atom, Dr Mid-Nite, Red Tornado and Sargon the Sorceror as well as a later run of the Black Pirate. When the title changed to All-American Western with #103-126 (Oct. 1948–July 1952), it retired the heroes and introduced Foley of the Fighting Fifth and the more famous cowboy, Johnny Thunder. Later still, when it became All-American Men of War (1952) it debuted Native American WWII pilot Johnny Cloud.
| Character | Appeared in Issues… | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Hop Harrigan | #1-99 (Apr. 1939–Jul 1938) • also Comic Cavalcade #3-9, 11-26 (June 1943-May 1948) • Green Lantern #1-11 • All-Flash #1-15 (text) • World's Finest #4, 5 | Pilot adventurer. |
| Red, White and Blue | #1-69, 71 (Apr. 1939–Mar. 1936) • also Comic Cavalcade #1, 2, 5-7 (Dec. 1942–Sept. 1945) • World's Finest #1-7 | |
| Scribbly & the Red Tornado (Ma Hunkel) | #1-59 (April 1939–July 1944) | A mostly cartoony strip, now best known for Ma Hunkel, who first appeared in #3 (June 1939), and became the Red Tornado in #20 (October 1940) |
| Adventures into the Unknown | #1-25 (Apr. 1939–Apr. 1941) | Sci-fi starring college students Alan Kaine (the brains) and Ted Dolliver (the brawn) |
| Wiley of West Point | #1-12 (Apr. 1939–March 1940) | Army cadet |
| Spot Savage | #1-6 (Apr. 1939–Sept. 1939) | Reporter |
| Jimmy Stone | #2-35, 38-61 (May 1939–Jan. 1945) | Text feature |
| Gary Concord, Ultra Man | #8-19 (Nov. 1939–Oct. 1940) | Sci-fi, future alternate earth |
| Green Lantern | #16-102 (July 1940–Oct. 1948) | |
| The Atom | #19-72 (Oct. 1940–Apr. 1946) • Flash Comics #80-104 | |
| Dr. Mid-Nite | #25-102 (April 1941–Oct. 1948) | |
| Sargon the Sorceror | #26-50, 70 (May 1941–June 1943) • Comic Cavalcade #3-16 • Green Lantern #37 | |
| Phil Hackett | #36-37 (Mar. 1942-Apr. 1942) |
Links and References
The most valuable information in this research came from these two sites:
- Grand Comics Database. The mother of all comics data projects, indispensable.
- Mike's Amazing World of DC Comics. Reprinting great reference data from all over.
These have good, hard information:
- Golden Age Who's Whose? A goldmine of a site, featuring lots of one-page scans of many obscure characters. Also has pages for Quality and Fawcett.
- Who was That Masked Man? A catch-all list of obscurities
Still more:
- An Earth-2 Timeline. Bare bones, but good research.
- Golden Age Heroes Directory. Great for obscure DC heroes.
- Independent Heroes from the U.S.A. Good general resource for many publishers.
- Lambiek Comiclopedia. This site is organized by artist, so it requires a bit of searching.
- Mystery Men Encyclopedia. No DC characters, but there are Fawcett and MLJ characters.