All-American Comics

All-American Comics was 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.

All-American Comics
Solomon Grundy's first appearance in All-American Comics #61 (Oct. 1944), art by Paul Reinman.
Publication information
PublisherAll-American Publications
ScheduleMonthly:
#1–49, #71–102
Eight times a year:
#50–66
Bimonthly
#67–70
FormatOngoing series
Publication dateApril 1939 – October 1948
No. of issues102
Creative team
Written byAlfred Bester, Bill Finger, Sheldon Mayer, Bill O'Connor
Artist(s)Ben Flinton, Sheldon Mayer, Martin Nodell, Paul Reinman
Editor(s)
List

Publication history

All-American Comics published 102 issues from April 1939 to October 1948.[1] The series was an anthology which included a mixture of new material and reprints of newspaper strips.[2] Sheldon Mayer's Scribbly was introduced in the first issue as was Hop Harrigan.[3][4]

The Golden Age Green Lantern was introduced by artist/creator Martin Nodell in issue #16 (July 1940).[5] He continued in the title until #102 (Oct 1948).[6]

The Golden Age Atom debuted in #19 (October 1940)[7][8] and Mayer created the original Red Tornado in #20 (November 1940).[9][10]

Doctor Mid-Nite first appeared in #25 (April 1941),[11][12] while Howard Purcell and John Wentworth introduced Sargon the Sorcerer in the following month's issue.[13]

Alfred Bester and Paul Reinman created the monstrous supervillain Solomon Grundy in #61 (October 1944).[14]

Other features included "Toonerville Folks",[15] "Mutt and Jeff",[16] 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.[17][18] It changed title and format again to All-American Men of War as of #127 (August–September 1952).[19]

A May 1999 one-shot issue by writer Ron Marz and artist Eduardo Barreto was a part of the "Justice Society Returns" storyline.[20]

Features

References
  1. All-American Comics at the Grand Comics Database
  2. Mitchell, Kurt; Thomas, Roy (2019). American Comic Book Chronicles: 1940-1944. TwoMorrows Publishing. p. 26. ISBN 978-1605490892.
  3. Wallace, Daniel; Dolan, Hannah, ed. (2010). "1930s". DC Comics Year By Year A Visual Chronicle. London, United Kingdom: Dorling Kindersley. p. 24. ISBN 978-0-7566-6742-9. 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. {{cite book}}: |first2= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  4. Markstein, Don (2005). "Hop Harrigan". Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on 2016-02-05. Hop was introduced in All-American's first release, appropriately titled All-American Comics #1, which was dated April 1939.
  5. 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".
  6. Benton, Mike (1992). Superhero Comics of the Golden Age: The Illustrated History. Dallas: Taylor Publishing Company. p. 147. ISBN 0-87833-808-X. Retrieved 1 April 2020.
  7. 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".
  8. Markstein, Don (2008). "The Atom". Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on 2017-10-16. The Atom debuted in DC's All-American Comics #19 (November 1940).
  9. 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".
  10. Markstein, Don (2009). "The Red Tornado". Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on January 9, 2017.
  11. Wallace "1940s" in Dolan, p. 37: "April's All-American Comics #25 saw the costumed hero Doctor Mid-Nite make his first appearance".
  12. Markstein, Don (2008). "Dr. Mid-Nite". Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on April 4, 2016.
  13. Markstein, Don (2008). "Sargon the Sorcerer". Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on October 25, 2011.
  14. 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".
  15. Markstein, Don (2007). "Toonerville Folks". Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on 2017-10-16. 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).
  16. Markstein, Don (2006). "Mutt and Jeff". Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on 2009-10-16. Retrieved 2017-10-16. [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
  17. 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".
  18. All-American Western at the Grand Comics Database
  19. All-American Men of War at the Grand Comics Database
  20. All-American Comics one-shot at the Grand Comics Database
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