All-American Comics Explained

Schedule:Monthly:
#1–49, #71–102
Eight times a year:
#50–66
Bi-monthly:
#67–70
Ongoing:y
Publisher:All-American Publications
Date:April 1939 – October 1948
Issues:102
Writers:Alfred Bester, Bill Finger, Sheldon Mayer, Bill O'Connor
Artists:Ben Flinton, Sheldon Mayer, Martin Nodell, Paul Reinman
Subcat:All-American Publications
Sort:All-American Comics

All-American Comics is a comics anthology and the flagship title of comic book publisher All-American Publications, one of the forerunners of DC Comics. It ran for 102 issues from 1939 to 1948. Characters created for the title, including Green Lantern, the Atom, the Red Tornado, Doctor Mid-Nite, and Sargon the Sorcerer, later became mainstays of the DC Comics line.

Publication history

All-American Comics published 102 issues from April 1939 to October 1948. The series was an anthology which included a mixture of new material and reprints of newspaper strips.[1] Sheldon Mayer's Scribbly was introduced in the first issue as was Hop Harrigan.[2] [3]

The Golden Age Green Lantern was introduced by artist/creator Martin Nodell in issue #16 (July 1940).[4] He continued in the title until #102 (Oct 1948).[5]

The Golden Age Atom debuted in #19 (October 1940)[6] [7] and Mayer created the original Red Tornado in #20 (November 1940).[8] [9]

Doctor Mid-Nite first appeared in #25 (April 1941),[10] [11] while Howard Purcell and John Wentworth introduced Sargon the Sorcerer in the following month's issue.[12]

Alfred Bester and Paul Reinman created the monstrous supervillain Solomon Grundy in #61 (October 1944).[13]

Other features included "Toonerville Folks",[14] "Mutt and Jeff",[15] and "Ripley's Believe It or Not!".

All-American Publications and all its titles were purchased by National Periodicals (DC Comics) in 1946. Responding to the demand for Western comics, All-American Comics changed title and format with #103 (November 1948) to All-American Western. The retitled series had Johnny Thunder as the lead feature.[16] It changed title and format again to All-American Men of War as of #127 (August–September 1952).

A May 1999 one-shot issue by writer Ron Marz and artist Eduardo Barreto was a part of the "Justice Society Returns" storyline.

Features

External links

Notes and References

  1. Book: Mitchell . Kurt . Thomas . Roy . American Comic Book Chronicles: 1940-1944 . 2019 . TwoMorrows Publishing . 978-1605490892 . 26.
  2. Book: Wallace, Daniel. Dolan. Hannah, ed.. 1930s. DC Comics Year By Year A Visual Chronicle. Dorling Kindersley. 2010. London, United Kingdom. 978-0-7566-6742-9. 24. Edited by Sheldon Mayer, the title contained newspaper reprints and puzzle pages alongside original material such as Mayer's own 'Scribbly'... The features 'Hop Harrigan' and 'Red, White, and Blue' also debuted in this issue..
  3. Web site: Hop Harrigan. Don. Markstein. 2005. Don Markstein's Toonopedia. https://archive.today/20240527172616/https://www.webcitation.org/6f3wXPT8I?url=http://www.toonopedia.com/harrigan.htm. 2024-05-27. live. Hop was introduced in All-American's first release, appropriately titled All-American Comics #1, which was dated April 1939..
  4. Wallace "1940s" in Dolan, p. 32: "Alan Scott underwent an unexpected career change into the costumed hero Green Lantern in a story by creator Martin Nodell (using the pseudonym 'Mart Dellon') and writer Bill Finger".
  5. Book: Benton . Mike . Superhero Comics of the Golden Age: The Illustrated History . 1992 . Taylor Publishing Company . Dallas . 0-87833-808-X . 1 April 2020 . 147.
  6. Wallace "1940s" in Dolan, p. 33: "Writer Bill O'Connor and artist Ben Flinton revealed the Atom in a short, six-page story, though the non-superpowered character soon went on to bigger things".
  7. Web site: The Atom. Don. Markstein. 2008. Don Markstein's Toonopedia. https://archive.today/20240528064758/https://www.webcitation.org/6uFKRVHzy?url=http://toonopedia.com/atom1.htm. 2024-05-28. live. The Atom debuted in DC's All-American Comics #19 (November 1940)..
  8. Wallace "1940s" in Dolan, p. 33: "The Red Tornado was the first outright super hero parody at DC, and she was also one of the company's first prominent female characters".
  9. Web site: The Red Tornado. Don. Markstein. 2009. Don Markstein's Toonopedia. https://archive.today/20240528010503/https://www.webcitation.org/6nNOVf01v?url=http://toonopedia.com/tornado1.htm. 2024-05-28. live. mdy-all.
  10. Wallace "1940s" in Dolan, p. 37: "April's All-American Comics #25 saw the costumed hero Doctor Mid-Nite make his first appearance".
  11. Web site: Dr. Mid-Nite. Don. Markstein. 2008. Don Markstein's Toonopedia. https://archive.today/20240527193800/https://www.webcitation.org/6gWiAayEt?url=http://toonopedia.com/mid-nite.htm. 2024-05-27. live. mdy-all.
  12. Web site: Sargon the Sorcerer. Don. Markstein. 2008. Don Markstein's Toonopedia. https://archive.today/20240525134844/https://www.webcitation.org/62hciRMST?url=http://www.toonopedia.com/sargon.htm. 2024-05-25. live. mdy-all.
  13. Wallace "1940s" in Dolan, p. 47: "Green Lantern faced a monstrous foe in All-American Comics #61. Solomon Grundy was a zombielike strongman...His origin, recounted in a story by writer Alfred Bester and artist Paul Reinman, involved the corpse of a murdered man".
  14. Web site: Toonerville Folks. Don. Markstein. 2007. Don Markstein's Toonopedia. https://archive.today/20240528064837/https://www.webcitation.org/6uFMpTe02?url=http://www.toonopedia.com/toonrvil.htm. 2024-05-28. live. Unlike most strips published through the 1930s and '40s, Toonerville never made it into Big Little Books or comic books (except some reprints in the back pages of early issues of DC's All-American Comics)..
  15. Web site: Mutt and Jeff. Don. Markstein. 2006. Don Markstein's Toonopedia. http://arquivo.pt/wayback/20091016111254/http://www.toonopedia.com/muttjeff.htm. 2009-10-16. live. [Mutt and Jeff] found a lasting berth in DC's All-American Comics, where, starting in the first issue, they were among several newspaper comics scattered among the non-reprinted features. 2017-10-16.
  16. Wallace "1940s" in Dolan, p. 59: "All-American Comics became All-American Western with this issue [#103], and Johnny Thunder leaped out from a backdrop of comic pages on the cover to announce the radical transition".

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