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
New
Fun Comics
Below is a list of all DC Comics characters, beginning with the company's very first books. At the time of their publication, the company was called National Allied Publications. Their first book was New Fun Comics #1 (February 1935, which became More Fun Comics with issue #7).
Together with New Comics/Adventure, these two series showcased the most new characters of any National or All American comic. (All American was National's "sister company"; its first book was All-American Comics #1, 1939.)
This list generally excludes humor characters, licensed newspaper characters, and some purely historical characters. These pages makes no attempt to chronicle these characters' adventures. To learn more, please visit various other sites (links below). Some characters's names provide a link to other information on this site.
Secondary
Wartime Heroes, which focuses on Golden Age characters
that are considered to be
"costumed adventurers."
| Character | Appeared in Issues… | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Buckskin Jim | #1-18 (Feb. 1935–Feb. 1937) | Frontiersman / Western. Set between 1800–1860? Speculative |
| Jack Woods | #1–35 (Feb. 1935–Sept. 1938) | Also in Adventure Comics. Late western set circa 1915 |
| Ivanhoe | #1–8, 10-27 (Feb. 1935–Dec. 1937) | Based on historical / literary character |
| Jack Andrews, all-american boy | #1–6 (Feb. 1935–Oct. 1935) | |
| 2023 Super Police | #1–14 (Feb. 1935–Oct. 1936) | Future sci-fi |
| Don Drake on the Planet Saro | #1–6, 8–17 (Feb. 1935–Jan. 1935) | Aviator costumed Flash Gordon type |
| Sandra of the Secret Service | #1–35 (Feb. 1935–Sept. 1938) | |
| Barry O'Neill | #1–29, 35 (Feb. 1935–Sept. 1938) | Lasted til 1941 in Adventure. Adventurer type |
| Wing Brady | #1–9, 11-52 (Feb. 1935–Feb. 1940) | French Foreign Legionnaire / pilot |
| Bobby and Binks / "Magic Crystal of History" | #1–50 (Feb. 1935–Dec. 1939) | |
| Cap'n Erik | #1–2 (Feb. 1935–Mar. 1935) | |
| Midshipman Dewey | #2–3, 5–19 (Mar. 1935–Mar. 1937) | young boy sailor circa 1786 |
| Captain Grim | #3–19 (Apr. 1935–Mar. 1937) | Ship's Captain searching for missing crew |
| Brad Hardy | #3–6, 8–31 (Apr. 1935–May 1938) | Adventurer |
| Spike Spaulding | #3–6, 8–30 (Apr. 1935–Apr. 1938) | Kid |
| Bob Merritt | #5–25, 27–30 (Aug. 1935–Apr. 1938) | Gentleman adventurer / inventor |
| Henri Duval | #6–10 (Oct. 1935–May 1936) | Historical –3 musketeers era |
| Dr. Occult | #6–31 (Oct. 1935–June 1938) | First significant DC character |
| becomes More Fun Comics (#7) | ||
| Character | Appeared in Issues… | Notes |
| Radio Squad | #11–25, 27–50, 52–87 (July 1936–Jan 1943) | Cops, also in Flash 10, Oct. 1940 |
| The Three Musketeers | #11–36 (July 1936–Oct. 1938) | These literary characters (D'artagnion was based on a real person) would make occasional appearances over the years in the DCU; see Obscure Characters for more |
| Pirate Gold | #12–20, 22-30 (Aug. 1936–Apr. 1938) | Historical / pirates |
| Pep Morgan | #12–29 (Aug. 1936–Feb. 1938) & Action #1-42 (June 1938–Nov 1941) | College athlete. Appeared with Mr. America in Action #33 |
| Bradley Boys | #13–29 (Sept. 1936–Feb. 1938) | two young boys, Tom and Jack |
| Mark Marson | #15–31 (Nov 1936–May 1938) | Sci-fi, Future? |
| Johnnie Law | #21–25, 28–44 (June 1937–June 1939) | Cop |
| Marty McCann | #23–25, 28 (Aug. 1937–Jan. 1938) | Navy boxing champion |
| Jack Wyatt | #27 (Dec. 1937) | Western |
| Buzz Brown | #30–31 (Apr. 1938–May 1938) | Schoolboy adventurer with friend |
| After Siegel and Schuster left More Fun to work on their Man of Steel, most of their old features died and were slowly replaced. Their last issue was More Fun #32. | ||
| Red Logan | #31–37, 39, 40 (May 1938–Feb. 1939 + Detective #38–43 (Apr. 1940–Sept. 1940) | Reporter |
| Buccaneer | #32–51, (June 1938–Jan. 1940) | Historical / pirates |
| Detective Sgt. Carey | #35–-72 (Sept. 1938–Oct. 1942) | Previously in Adventure Comics |
| Masked Ranger | #36–41 (Oct. 1938–Mar. 1939) | Western |
| Gary Hawkes | #36–46 (Oct. 1938–Aug. 1939) | Pilot / Soldier of Fortune |
| Lt. Bob Neal | #36-63 (Oct. 1938–Jan. 1941) | Navy |
| Rex Darrel (Flying Fox) | #37–38, 40–51 (Nov 1938–Jan. 1940) | Pilot |
| Sgt. O'Malley of the Redcoat Patrol | #39–42, 45-72 (Jan. 1939–Oct. 1941) | Contemporary? |
| Biff Bronson | #43–67 (May 1939–May 1941) | |
| Bulldog Martin | #47–55, (Sept. 1939–June 1940) | Has invisibility powers |
| King Carter | #49–54 (Nov 1939–Apr. 1940) | |
| Kit Strong | #51 (Jan. 1940) | |
| The Spectre | #52-101 (1940-45) | |
| Captain Desmo | #53–72 (Mar. 1940–Oct. 1941) | Pilot |
| NOTE: After the Spectre's debut in #52, More Fun becomes dominated by super-heroes, with only a few new back-up characters | ||
| Dr. Fate | #55-98 (1940-44) | |
| Congo Bill | #56–67 (June 1940–May 1941) | |
| Lance Larkin | #64–70 (Feb. 1941–Aug. 1941) | |
| Clip Carson | #68–76 (June 1941–Feb. 1942) | |
Continue to New Comics (Adventure)...
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.