DC Hero Who Used To Be A Big Deal Now Doesn't Seem That Big Anymore

[Jim Kelly]

Three big features from M.C. Gaines' All-American Comics group were: MUTT & JEFF; MOVIE COMICS; PICTURE STORIES FROM THE BIBLE.

One tends to think of All-American as the junior publisher--with Harry Donenfeld's Detective Comics/National Comics being the big boy. But Gaines was one of the pioneers of the comic book industry and probably had a lot of connections, which allowed him to score "Mutt & Jeff"--a hugely popular comic strip (first syndicated in 1907). Getting the rights to publish the strip in its own comic book must have been a major coup. And it continued to be published from 1939 through 1958 (ending at issue 103). But that wasn't the end of MUTT & JEFF--just the end of the National Comics license. Dell next picked it up (issues 104 - 115) and then Harvey Comics (issues 116 - 148) ending in 1965.

MOVIE COMICS only lasted for six issues in 1939, but it was an innovative idea which pointed the direction that comics would continue to follow, adapting motion pictures (and later television shows). This one used stills from the movies which were then air-brushed and corrected by Jack Adler. He was a genius at photography and production and would continue to work for D.C., long after All-American was absorbed into the company, until he retired in 1981. An unsung hero of the comic book industry. Some of the movies adapted in MOVIE COMICS were GUNGA DIN; SON OF FRANKENSTEIN; STAGECOACH; Gene Autry's MEXICALI ROSE; FOUR FEATHERS; THE OREGON TRAIL; CAPTAIN FURY; THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK.

Beginning in 1942, Gaines published PICTURE STORIES FROM THE BIBLE, another innovative idea that would have a long life in comic books. The first four issues of "Old Testament" stories were collected in a single volume. Followed by two "New Testament" issues that also got a collected edition. Individual stories were also packaged as colour inserts carried in newspapers. When Gaines sold his share of All-American to National (D.C.), he retained ownership of the Bible stories and published those again when he began his new company, Educational Comics, also known as Entertaining Comics or E.C.

[The Darknight Detective]

When Gaines sold his share of All-American to National (D.C.), he retained ownership of the Bible stories and published those again when he began his new company, Educational Comics, also known as Entertaining Comics or E.C.

The Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde of comics history.

[Digifiend]

No Wole is the second actor to play Steel in live action, I worded that badly.

Second to play John Henry Irons. There's a Steel on seasons 2-7 of Legends of Tomorrow, but he's based on Citizen Steel from the JSA.

My father was a big Rex fan and still talks fondly of him at age 80.

That Rex the Wonder Dog character sounds a lot like Black Bob from British comic The Dandy, who had the same nickname (he was billed as Black Bob, the Dandy Wonder Dog), and was another Lassie copy. He was published from the 1940s through to the 1980s. Your Dad would probably have enjoyed reading about Bob and his owner, Scottish shepherd Andrew Glenn.

[Jim Kelly]

Alfred E. Neuman as in MAD.

"But wait!" you might say, "Isn't MAD an E.C. Publication?" And you'd be right.

After M.C. Gaines died (in a tragic boating accident trying to save others), his son Bill took over the comic book company. In addition to the Educational Comics of his father (which were distributed in schools), William Gaines published Entertaining Comics of great quality in the horror, crime, science fiction and war genres--and the humour comics, MAD and PANIC.

When the government and then the Comics Code Authority made trouble for him, Bill abandoned the other comics and just published MAD as a black & white magazine. For some obscure reason, black & white magazines were not considered comic books that needed approval from the Authority.

Alfred E. Neuman's face if not his name actually predates MAD by some decades--first in advertisements for a 1894 play called "The New Boy." Later, he was given his catch-phrase, "What Me Worry?" in ads for dentistry.

Harvey Kurtzman saw the freckle-faced boy with the gap-tooth grin on a postcard pinned up on the bulletin board at the Ballantine Books office--and Alfred E. Neuman's face was put on the cover of Ballantine's THE MAD READER in 1954. The kid popped up in various issues of MAD, under different names, before he was finally made the magazine cover mascot and called Alfred E. Neuman in 1956.

Pocket-sized paperbacks collecting gags from MAD were hugely popular--always with MAD's mascot, Alfred E. Neuman on the cover.

While comic books were derided by teen-agers in my neighbourhood, they could not say a word against MAD. If you were caught reading BATMAN, you could be laughed out of the schoolyard--"That's just for kids!"--but a copy of MAD in your hand only won respect.

In 1961, Bill Gaines sold E.C. to Premier Industries. Independent News--part of National Periodical Publications (D.C.)--then bought E.C. from them. Kinney National Company then bought National Periodical Publications, including E.C, in 1967. And in 1969, Kinney bought Warner Bros.-Seven Arts.

The offices for E.C. and D.C. were in the same building, they shared the same staff, although Bill Gaines continued as the magazine's publisher until his death in 1992.

In the episode of THE SIMPSONS when they go to New York City and Bart visits the offices of MAD, totally in awe of his heroes--that captures perfectly the feeling that every kid had about those comic geniuses.

And the MAD brand was extended to the T.V. sketch comedy show, MAD.

But now? There's no ongoing MAD magazine. Just reprints??? When was the last time Alfred E. Neuman made an appearance? How did this happen?!!! I think this is the greatest failure of the Warner executives, to allow such a big brand to fall into obscurity. It's inexcusable. What gang of idiots is responsible for such incompetence?

[caj]

I guess you could say the entire Legion of Super Heroes but I'll say specifically Timber Wolf.

For years, he and Ayla were a major couple in the group. She broke up with him but he remained a major player on the team. In the last issues of Levitz's Legion, he was voted Deputy Leader of the team. Then he became a Furball in Giffen's book. But they tried to spin him off into his own book a couple of times.

One of my top 5 favorites in Legion history.

[The Darknight Detective]

Alfred E. Neuman as in MAD.

"But wait!" you might say, "Isn't MAD an E.C. Publication?" And you'd be right.

After M.C. Gaines died (in a tragic boating accident trying to save others), his son Bill took over the comic book company. In addition to the Educational Comics of his father (which were distributed in schools), William Gaines published Entertaining Comics of great quality in the horror, crime, science fiction and war genres--and the humour comics, MAD and PANIC.

When the government and then the Comics Code Authority made trouble for him, Bill abandoned the other comics and just published MAD as a black & white magazine. For some obscure reason, black & white magazines were not considered comic books that needed approval from the Authority.

Alfred E. Neuman's face if not his name actually predates MAD by some decades--first in advertisements for a 1894 play called "The New Boy." Later, he was given his catch-phrase, "What Me Worry?" in ads for dentistry.

Harvey Kurtzman saw the freckle-faced boy with the gap-tooth grin on a postcard pinned up on the bulletin board at the Ballantine Books office--and Alfred E. Neuman's face was put on the cover of Ballantine's THE MAD READER in 1954. The kid popped up in various issues of MAD, under different names, before he was finally made the magazine cover mascot and called Alfred E. Neuman in 1956.

Pocket-sized paperbacks collecting gags from MAD were hugely popular--always with MAD's mascot, Alfred E. Neuman on the cover.

When I was very little, I could remember seeing his face on a cover of Mad and having nightmares about him for a few months. There was something about that mug that disturbed me more than the Frankenstein Monster, Dracula, the Wolf Man, and the Mummy combined!

While comic books were derided by teen-agers in my neighbourhood, they could not say a word against MAD. If you were caught reading BATMAN, you could be laughed out of the schoolyard--"That's just for kids!"--but a copy of MAD in your hand only won respect.

It was that way when I was a kid growing up during the '70s, too, Jim. The only thing that would have been cooler than an issue of Mad would have been a copy of Playboy, though that would have been a little more difficult to circulate around a classroom.

[The Darknight Detective]

That Rex the Wonder Dog character sounds a lot like Black Bob from British comic The Dandy, who had the same nickname (he was billed as Black Bob, the Dandy Wonder Dog), and was another Lassie copy. He was published from the 1940s through to the 1980s. Your Dad would probably have enjoyed reading about Bob and his owner, Scottish shepherd Andrew Glenn.

Most likely he would have. In fact, it sounds pretty good to me, too.

[Jim Kelly]

When I was very little, I could remember seeing his face on a cover of Mad and having nightmares about him for a few months. There was something about that mug that disturbed me more than the Frankenstein Monster, Dracula, the Wolf Man, and the Mummy combined!

I can appreciate that. There were lots of things like that when I was a kid, that shouldn't have been frightening yet were to me, which gave me bad nightmares.

In the Wikipedia article on Alfred E. Neuman, there's a quote from Al Feldstein, former editor of MAD--

I decided that I wanted to have this visual logo as the image of Mad, the same way that corporations had the Jolly Green Giant and the dog barking [sic] at the gramophone for RCA. This kid was the perfect example of what I wanted. So I put an ad in The New York Times that said, "National magazine wants portrait artist for special project". In walked this little old guy in his sixties named Norman Mingo, and he said, "What national magazine is this?" I said "Mad," and he said, "Goodbye." I told him to wait, and I dragged out all these examples and postcards of this idiot kid, and I said, "I want a definitive portrait of this kid. I don't want him to look like an idiot – I want him to be loveable and have an intelligence behind his eyes. But I want him to have this devil-may-care attitude, someone who can maintain a sense of humor while the world is collapsing around him." I adapted and used that portrait, and that was the beginning.

I found that interesting that Feldstein wanted the character to have some warmth.

Alfred E. Neuman makes me think of the Farkle Family from LAUGH-IN. I'd be rolling on the floor with laughter whenever they had the Farkle Family on that show. It probably wasn't as funny as I remember--but it was so silly, it made our whole family howl with laughter.

[DABellWrites]

Challengers of the Unknown, was one of DC's top titles well into the 1970s.

Blue Beetle, was given his own film serial. Making Captain Marvel, Batman, and Superman as the only superheroes with their own film serials.

Millie the Model, Marvel's longest running female-led title. It span from Timely comics to Marvel comics.

Marvel's second longest female character is Spider-girl 1998-2008.

The many war, westerns, gag, and teen comics DC and Marvel published.

Okay, I'm cheating with having Marvel titles on a DC Comics post.

[DABellWrites]

If folks mean the SUPERGIRL title from 1996 to 2003 (seven years, 81 issues), that's hardly a long run compared to other titles (and other female led titles) that have had much longer runs. And since Seraph is the name of the Israeli super-hero created for the Global Guardians, I'd hate to see that name go to someone else, although granted the Global Guardians have fallen off the map.

For a female-led superhero title, 81 issues is actually good. Wonder Woman is still the longest female-led superhero title, and will be for years to come. Marvel's longest running female-led superhero comic is still Spider-Girl. I don't count Captain Marvel many #1s.

This is true. Back in the day, THE COMIC READER would list which comics were top sellers in direct sales shops (as opposed to mass market sales) and it seemed like THE WARLORD was always in the top ten, along with a bunch of Marvel titles.

However, they did revive WARLORD after One Year Later. But it was so different from the Mike Grell original and not in a good way. It was put out of its misery after ten issues.

I don't know what the creative rights are on that. It seems like Mike Grell should own a piece of it. He created Travis Morgan just around the time when creative rights were becoming a thing. The AQUAMAN movie (which made over a billion dollars) kind of referenced Skartaris. And if they had gone ahead with more spin-off movies, I could see the Warlord as being introduced that way. Why they lost interest in doing more with Aquaman is one of those great mysteries--do I need to repeat myself--it made over a billion dollars!

It made a billion dollars when there wasn't anything at the movie theaters, and it was a stupid fun movie. Bumblebee, Mary Poppins Returns, and Spider-Man Into The Spider-verse. Those were the big blockbusters for December 2018. I can understand why WB didn't go gung-ho on Aquaman, he's not really a hot property to do that and WB doesn't have that Marvel clout.

[Jim Kelly]

Challengers of the Unknown, was one of DC's top titles well into the 1970s.

Blue Beetle, was given his own film serial. Making Captain Marvel, Batman, and Superman as the only superheroes with their own film serials.

Millie the Model, Marvel's longest running female-led title. It span from Timely comics to Marvel comics.

Marvel's second longest female character is Spider-girl 1998-2008.

The many war, westerns, gag, and teen comics DC and Marvel published.

Okay, I'm cheating with having Marvel titles on a DC Comics post.

There have been attempts to revive the Challengers. I'd like to see them try again.

Technically, the Blue Beetle that got his own serial and his own radio show is not the one that Charlton had the rights to, when they sold their Blue Beetles to the Distinguished Competition.

Millie was created by Ruth Atkinson--one of the few women working in comics at the time (but many more than we're given to know as women often worked in obscurity, while men took all the credit). Ruth Atkinson also co-created Patsy Walker. They were both in the teen humour genre (but I'm not sure that Millie stayed a teen-ager)--Dan DeCarlo, Stan Goldberg and Henry Scarpelli, who all later worked for Archie, worked on those Marvel ladies. Millie does show up for Reed and Sue's wedding in FANTASTIC FOUR ANNUAL 3 (1965), along with Patsy and her friend, Hedy Wolfe.

Patsy, of course, was able to transition to the super-hero genre for the sake of her survival, as Hellcat (but not one of Lt. Hunter's Hellcats). Millie could never get the hang of the super-hero thing; however, she does keep popping up for guest star roles every so often.

It's sad that the big two are so confined to super-hero comics that they have no room for their other genres--and every character has to get a costume and a codename or else sit at home waiting for the phone to ring.

[DrNewGod]

Challengers of the Unknown...The many war, westerns, gag, and teen comics...

Yeah, the Challs were big stars that took a long time to fade. It was a short step between them and Kirby's Fantastic Four run.

Jonah Hex and Sgt. Rock were also very prominent.

[The Darknight Detective]

I can appreciate that. There were lots of things like that when I was a kid, that shouldn't have been frightening yet were to me, which gave me bad nightmares.

Fortunately, I got over my aversion to Alfred by the time I started reading the magazine by elementary school.

In the Wikipedia article on Alfred E. Neuman, there's a quote from Al Feldstein, former editor of MAD--



I found that interesting that Feldstein wanted the character to have some warmth.

Alfred E. Neuman makes me think of the Farkle Family from LAUGH-IN. I'd be rolling on the floor with laughter whenever they had the Farkle Family on that show. It probably wasn't as funny as I remember--but it was so silly, it made our whole family howl with laughter.

Sounds like Feldstein knew what he was talking about. As for the Farkle Family, I don't recall them at all (and I can remember watching Laugh-In as far back as the late '60s). I need to see if there is a clip
on the Internet that might jar my memory.

EDIT: Heh. I just saw a clip with the Farkles and Greer Garson. Yes, I do remember them now. Guess the name meant nothing to me at the time.

[Jim Kelly]

EDIT: Heh. I just saw a clip with the Farkles and Greer Garson. Yes, I do remember them now. Guess the name meant nothing to me at the time.

The name "Farkle" was got me giggling. Hearing them say it was half the fun. On LAUGH-IN, a lot of it was just funny sounding words that would set me off. Flying Fickle Finger of Fate Award. Funk and Wagnall's. You Bet Your Bippy. Sock It To Me. Say good-night Dick. I'm sure there was more sophisticated humour, but that would have gone over my head.

[The Darknight Detective]

The name "Farkle" was got me giggling. Hearing them say it was half the fun. On LAUGH-IN, a lot of it was just funny sounding words that would set me off. Flying Fickle Finger of Fate Award. Funk and Wagnall's. You Bet Your Bippy. Sock It To Me. Say good-night Dick. I'm sure there was more sophisticated humour, but that would have gone over my head.

My favorites were "Very interesting!" and Ruth Buzzi beating Arte Johnson over the head with her pocketbook. That always made me laugh.

When you're a preschooler, sophisticated humor is a bore-and-a-half.