Superheroes Galore

QUESTION: When I was a kid, I read comic books all the time. I’d even sneak a flashlight under the covers and read them when I was supposed to be a asleep. But over the years I drifted away from them. Recently, I went to a comic book show with a friend just to accompany him, but once there I got hooked again. Now I think I’d like to collect them. Can you give me a brief history of comic books so I have an idea of what’s involved? 

ANSWER: Comic books are not only fun to collect but are affordable. While there are some that sell at auction for stratospheric sums, the majority can be bought for reasonable amounts. 

Less than two decades ago, blockbuster movies featuring a raging green hulk, a group of mutant humans, a spider, and a man blinded by radioactive waste spurred the resurgence in comic book collecting. And who can forget the comic book store frequented by the nerdy guys in the hit T.V. show The Big Bang Theory.

While interest in comic books featuring superhuman characters increased in the early 21st Century, their origin goes back much earlier.

American comic books trace their roots back to 1933 when a syndicated newspaper published part of its Sunday comic's page on 7 by 9-inch plates. Eastern Printing employees Max Gaines and Harry Wildenherg believed two such plates could fit a tabloid-size page, producing a 7 by l0-inch book when folded. The two took newspaper strips and reprinted them in a booklet titled Funnies On Parade, which the Proctor and Gamble Company used as a premium.

Gaines convinced Eastern executives he could sell similar comics to large advertising firms. Eastern then produced and distributed Famous Funnies and Century of Comics. Both were highly successful.

Surprised with the popularity of the giveaway comics, Caine believed he could sell them to kids if it were reasonably priced, so the company printed Famous Funnies Series One and sold it for 10 cents. The comic was an immediate sellout. It became the first monthly comic and continued to be published until 1955.

Early comic books featured nothing more than reprinted material. In 1935, New Fun became the first comic to break the "reprinted material" barrier by featuring the antics of Oswald the Rabbit.

The comic book industry took a gigantic leap forward in June 1938 when the first issue of Action Comics featured the amazing feats of Superman. Just as his flying abilities allowed him to leap tall buildings in a single bound, they also catapulted him to the top of the sales charts.

But it took five years before Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, who created Superman, to sell their character to National Periodicals Publications. They had tried to market Superman to every newspaper syndicate but were repeatedly rejected. Superman was the first of many superheroes to become part of the Golden Age of Comics.

Superman’s success gave birth to dozens of other superheroes, such as Batman, who first appeared in Detective Comics 27. Artist Bob Kane modeled Superman on drawings of Leonardo da Vinci's flying machines. Although Batman had no superpowers, he appealed to young readers: He was costumed, smart, and had a variety of neat gadgets at his disposal.

Batman received his own title in the spring of 1940 when Batman No. I appeared on newsstands. This issue also featured the first appearances of Catwoman and The Joker. Other main characters made their appearances in issues of Detective Cornics, which later became DC, before crossing over to the Batman title. Robin, the Boy Wonder, debuted in Detective Comics No. 38. The Penguin made his first appearance in Detective Comics No. 58. Robin made history in 1988 when fans voted to have him killed off.

In the fall of 1939, Timely Comics published Marvel Comics No. I, which contained the first appearances of The Human Torch. Eventually, Timely became Marvel Comics, who along with DC dominated the comic book publishing industry for decades.

Captain America, appearing in his own comic right from the beginning, made his debut in March 1941. Previously, all new characters appeared in another comic before being granted their own title. This way, publishers could judge reader reaction through comic book sales to see if the new character could stand on his own. Captain America began his career fighting Nazis months before America declared war.

In the spring of 1941, Wonder Woman appeared on newsstands, followed by Captain Marvel and The Green Lantern. By the end of the year, over 150 different comic titles appeared on the newsstands. 

World War II had a profound effect on comic books. Dell published the first war comic, appropriately titled War Comics No. I. Many superheroes rushed into the armed forces to battle the enemy, much as many young men did. Commando Yank, Major Victory, Jungle Jim, Spy Smasher and The Unknown Soldier all played hero to many teens on the home front.

The 1940s saw the creation of two teen idols—Archie Andrews and Katy Keene. After debuting in Pep Comics, Archie Andrews got his own comic title in 1942. Katy Keene made her first appearance in Wilbur Comics in 1945. Following appearances in three other comics, Pep gave the beauty queen her own title in 1950.

The end of World War II brought about the desire for change. Adventure writers were having problems developing new plots, while humor writers found it hard to be funny after a war that cost millions their lives. The comic book industry wasn’t any different. It needed to come up with new titles, categories, and formats if it was to survive.

The western comic was one of those new categories. In 1948, Hopalong Cassidy produced a huge hit for comic book publisher Fawcett. Other publishers scrambled to take advantage of the new category. All American Western, Annie Oakley, and The Two-Gun Kid all rode onto newsstands with the fury of a cornered desperado.

With the onset of the 1950s, comic book readership continued its downward trend. Even Superman began to falter. In an attempt to regain customers, several publishers turned to violence. William Gaines, the son of Max Gaines, left DC in the mid-1940s and formed Educational Comics. When Max died, his son inherited the Eastern Printing. William changed the name to Entertaining Comics (E.C.), launching several titles that caused serious controversy.

E.C. comics contained gruesome stories and gory covers. Crypt of Terror, The Haunt of Fear and The Vault of Horror. The extreme violence .eventually brought about the company's downfall. The only E..C. title that weathered the controversy was Tales Calculated to Drive You Mad No. 1, which later became Mad Magazine.

The Silver Age of comics began in 1956 with the publication of Showcase No. 4, featuring the adventures of the fastest man alive—The Flash. This character had the same name and same powers as his golden age counterpart, but the stories were completely different.

Marvel comics introduce a superhero team in November 1961 with Fantastic Four No. I. The title's main characters obtained their super powers when their spacecraft traveled though a cosmic storm. 

The most recognized Marvel superhero, Spider Man, first scurried across the pages of Amazing Fantasy 15 in August 1962. Peter Parker, aka Spider Man, was a geeky high school student who attained the traits of an arachnoid when a radioactive spider bit him. In March 1963, Spider-Man received his own title when The Amazing Spider-Man No. 1 hit the newsstands.

But even some of Spider-Man stories were controversial. In the early 1970s, a Spider-Man one showcased the harmful effects of drugs. Two years later, The Amazing Spider Man #121 jolted the comic book world with the murder of Spider Man's girlfriend.  Marvel's next superhero, The Incredible Hulk, was the result of exposure to radiation. The Incredible Hulk No. 1 burst onto newsstands featuring the exploits of Dr. Bruce Banner.

The 1970s arrived with the birth of Conan the Barbarian, The Swamp Thing, and The Micronauts. Major publishers reprinted the most valuable comic titles from the past. Several of these, including Action Comics I, were stripped of their covers and sold as the real thing. 

Learn more about Marvel Comics by reading "Marvelous Superheroes" in #TheAntiquesAlmanac.

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Let the Action Begin

QUESTION: When I was a kid, my friends and I used to sit on the porch and read comic books. We especially loved those featuring the Super Heroes, such as Superman, Batman, and Aquaman. Naturally, we were thrilled when the first comic book action heroes came out. We all had a selection of them from a company called Mego. I had the biggest collection. Recently, while moving, I came across several boxes of these action figures. My interests have moved on to other things—now I have my own kids—but I’d like to know more about them and how this phenomenon got started.

ANSWER: You aren’t the only one. There are thousands of men out there reliving their childhood through these action figures. Only now they collect them and must have them “mint-in-the-box.” While collecting these action figures has been popular since they appeared in the 1970s, it’s only through the T.V. hit show “Big Bang Theory” that their popularity has risen to the stratosphere. And these little playthings aren’t only popular with “nerds.”

The Mego Corporation was a toy company founded in 1954. Originally known as a purveyor of dime store toys, the company shifted direction in 1971 and became famous for producing licensed action figures, including its long-running "World's Greatest Super Heroes" line.

D. David Abrams and Madeline Abrams founded Mego Corporation in 1954. Originally, they imported dime-store toys until advertising costs forced them to switch directions. In 1971, their son, Martin, became company president, and, as often is the case, the younger generation had other ideas.  Under Martin’s leadership, Mego began producing action figures with interchangeable bodies. He kept costs low by mass-producing generic bodies from which an endless assortment of figures could be created using different heads and costumes.

In 1972 Mego secured the licenses to create toys for both DC and Marvel Comics. The popularity of this line of 8-inch figures which it called "The World's Greatest Super Heroes," created the standard action figure scale for the 1970s. The line featured both superhero and villain action figures, including Batman and Robin, Superman, and Aquaman. Early on, the company released the figures in a solid box, but fans soon began tearing the boxes open to see the figures inside, so Mego changed the design to a box with a window that showed the figure. It produced the line from 197s to 1983.

The company began to purchase the licensing rights of films, T.V. shows, and comic books, enabling it to produce action figure lines for Planet of the Apes and Star Trek: The Original Series.

In 1976, Martin Abrams made a deal with Japanese toy manufacturer Takara to bring their popular lucite 3-inch fully articulated “Microman” figures to the U.S. under the name "Micronauts." This lead to even more licenses to hit shows like Buck Rogers in the 25th Century and hit films like Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

To reduce costs, Mego began producing a line of smaller plastic action toys called “Comic Action Heroes” in 1975. These had costumes modeled onto the figure, eliminating the cost of creating them. In 1979, the company re-released the line under a new name, “Pocket Action Heroes.”

The Star Trek line was by far Mego’s biggest success. The first wave of figures included Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty and a Klingon, soon joined by Uhura, later followed by a Star Trek Bridge playset with a “transporter” room—a revolving platform that allowed kids to simulate the dematerializing of the characters.

The second and third series of figures featured alien adversaries the Keeper, Neptunian, the half-black, half-white Cheron, the Gorn, Talos, the Mugato, and Trek baddies Andorian and Romulan in outfits that approximated what they wore on show. A second playset, Mission To Gamma VI, featured a dragon-like temple and four small alien primitives.

Although Mego produced action figures for such T.V. shows as Happy Days, the Waltons, and The Flinstones, their sci-fi figures were their biggest sellers. The company based another figure line on the animated series Flash Gordon which included Flash, Dale Arden, Dr. Zarkov, and Ming the Merciless.

Even the robot dog, K-9, and villains like Cyberman and Giant Robot from the long-running BBC series Doctor Who came alive in Mego action figures.

Although Mego produced thousands of action figures, their value continues to rise because the company went bankrupt and closed its doors in 1983. And with increased demand, especially for mint-in-box figures, comes higher prices in today’s collectibles market.