Comic Books History Part III

In this final issue of comic books history we begin with the year 1933.

In 1933, Detective Dan, Secret Op. 48 was the first comic, sold on the newsstands, with original material in it. It was written by Norman Marsh and published by Humor Publishers Corp. It had a 3 color cardboard cover and was done in black and white. It was 36 pages long, sold for 10 cents and was 10 by 13. The character was actually a Dick Tracy clone and today probably would have been sued for plagiarism. The comic didn't last very long.

In the 1930's free comics became popular mostly because of the depression. Nobody could afford to buy comics. Thousands of comics were given away for the sole purpose of advertising the products in them and to keep the presses running which would have been very costly to shut down and start back up again. Some of the most well known giveaways were Buck Rogers and Little Orphan Annie.

In 1933 a gentleman by the name of Harry Wildenberg came up with the idea of advertising the Gulf Oil Company through comic books and thus Gulf Comic Weekly was created on April 30th 1933. The entire comic was only 4 pages long and was 10 1/2 by 15. The comic was given away at Gulf gas stations. This comic series lasted until May 23, 1941.

Wildenberg also came up with an idea to do a full sized comic book which was called Funnies On Parade and came out in the spring of 1933. It was the first comic to use the standard 8 by 11 format that we use today. This comic was the start of the Eastern Color Group.

Famous Funnies was the second book done by ECG. It was printed in 1933, was 64 pages long and cost 10 cents. It was the first comic to be sold only through department stores.

In 1934 ECG and Dell Publishing formed a partnership and another issue of Famous Funnies was printed. It was 64 pages long and still sold for 10 cents. The comic lost lots of money and changes were made after, to reduce publishing costs including publishing just once a month instead of weekly.

It wasn't until 1936 that comic books really began to take off with the merging of The Chicago Tribune and Max Gaines. They created Popular Comics which included famous characters such as Dick Tracy, Terry & the Pirates, Gasoline Alley, Skippy, Mutt and Jeff, Tailspin Tommy, Little Orphan Annie and many more. Popular Comics lasted 145 issues and ended in 1948. This comic is what put Dell on the map and to this day they are one of the largest comic book publishers.

In 1936 another major player came along by the name of King Features. They created King Comics which featured some memorable characters such as Flash Gordon, Popeye, Mandrake the Magician, The Lone Ranger, The Phantom, Prince Valiant, Blondie and Little Lulu. King Comics lasted 159 issues until 195 2.

It was during this time that the last major player of the era, DC Comics was created. They featured some popular characters such as Mr. Mystic, Federal Agent and of course what would turn out to be the most popular comic of all time, Superman.

Yes, comics have had an amazing history. Today there are more titles than any one person could possibly keep up with. And to think it all started so humbly and so simply.

Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to Comic Books

Author:: Michael Russell
Keywords:: comic books,history
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