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Information about All American Publications

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The All-American logo, used during the 1945 split with National
All-American Publications is one of three American comic book companies that combined to form the modern-day DC Comics, one of the world's two largest comics publishers. Superheroes created for All-American include the original Atom, Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, and Wonder Woman, all in the 1940s' Golden Age of comic books.

Publishing history

Max Gaines, future founder of EC Comics, formed All-American Publications in 1938 after successfully seeking funding from Harry Donenfeld,[1] CEO of both National Allied Publications (publisher of Action Comics and other titles) and sister company Detective Comics (publisher of that namesake comic book). As Gerard Jones writes of Donenfeld's investment:
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All-American Comics #16 (July 1940), cover art by Sheldon Moldoff.
Harry had agreed on one condition: that [Gaines] take [Detective Comics partner] Jack Liebowitz on as his partner. ... Jack would be tempted to leave and form a competing company if there was nothing to hold him. And it may well have been a way for Harry to keep Gaines under control; since Jack was still drawing a salary and significant bonuses from Detective Comics and [self-distributorship] Independent News, he wouldn't let Gaines take off on his own or act against the interests of the other companies. ... Gaines became the principal and Jack Liebowitz the minority owner of All-American [Publications].[2]


While All-American, at 225 Lafayette Street in Manhattan, was physically separated from DC's office space uptown at 480 Lexington Avenue, it used the informal "DC" logo on most of its covers for distribution and marketing reasons. (The DC logo at the time was also used for National's unofficial branding, capitalizing on the success of Batman in Detective Comics.) In 1944, Gaines let Liebowitz buy him out, keeping only Picture Stories from the Bible as the foundation of his own new company, EC. "Liebowitz promptly orchestrated the merger of All-American and Detective Comics into National Comics.... Next he took charge of organizing National Comics, Independent News, and their affiliated firms into a single corporate entity, National Periodical Publications".[3]

Before that merger, Gaines had first rebranded All-American with its own logo, beginning with books cover-dated February 1945: All-Flash #17, Sensation Comics #38, Flash Comics #62, Green Lantern #14, Funny Stuff #3, and Mutt & Jeff [4] #16, and the following month's All-American Comics #64 and the hyphenless All Star Comics #24. When Liebowitz later merged his and Donenfeld's companies, the All-American titles first bore the DC logo once again (starting with December 1945's Sensation #48 and Flash Comics #68, continuing with All-American #70, All-Flash #21, Comic Cavalcade #13, Green Lantern #18, Funny Stuff #7, and Mutt & Jeff #20) before finally being fully absorbed by what was now National Periodical.

Creative legacy

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All-American's first superheroes began their run in Flash Comics #1 (Jan. 1940), cover art by Sheldon Moldoff.
During All-American's existence, much cross-promotion took place between the two editorially independent companies, so much so that the first iteration of the Justice Society of America, in All Star Comics #3 (Winter 1940/41), included in its roster the National characters Doctor Fate, Hour-Man (as it was then spelled), the Spectre, and the Sandman — creating comics' first intercompany crossover,[5] with characters interacting, although National's Sandman, Spectre and Hour-Man had previously appeared in solo adventures in All Star Comics #1 (Summer 1940).

With Gaines as editor, assisted by Sheldon Mayer, All-American Publications launched its flagship series All-American Comics with an April 1938 premiere. Like many comics of the time, All-American debuted with a mix of newspaper comic strips, reprinted in color, and a smattering of original, comic-strip-like features. Among the strips were three huge hits of the era:  Mutt and Jeff, by Al Smith ghosting for strip creator Bud Fisher; Skippy, by Percy Crosby; and Toonerville Folks by Fontaine Fox. New content included Scribbly, a semiautobiographical Mayer feature about a boy cartoonist. All-American Comics lasted 102 issues through October 1948.

Also debuting that month was Movie Comics ("A full movie show for 10 cents"), featuring simple adpatations of movies using painted movie stills, as well as cartoonist Ed Wheelan's popular Minute Movies comics. The first of its six issues through Aug. 1939 adapted no fewer than five films: Son of Frankenstein, Gunga Din, The Great Man Votes, Fisherman's Wharf, and Scouts to the Rescue.

The next two comics were Mutt & Jeff, which ran 103 issues from Summer 1939 - June 1958; and the company's superhero debut, Flash Comics #1 (Jan. 1940), which introduced the super-speedster title character, created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Harry Lampert, as well as the Golden Age Hawkman and future Hawkgirl, by Fox and artist Dennis Neville, and Johnny Thunder, by scripter John Wentworth and artist Stan Aschmeier, among other features.

The Golden Age Green Lantern, from Batman writer Bill Finger and artist Martin Nodell, debuted in All-American Comics #16 (July 1940), followed by the original Atom, created by Bill O'Connor and penciler Ben Flinton, in All-American #19 (Nov. 1940). Wonder Woman was introduced in a nine-page story in All Star Comics #8 (Jan. 1942), the product of psychologist William Moulton Marston and Max Charles Gaines (under the pseudonym Charles Moulton), and drawn by artist Harry G. Peter.

Bibliography

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All-American Comics #1 (April 1939), launches All-American Publications. Skippy is on the Statue of Liberty's torch; Mutt and Jeff are pictured above her crown. Scribbly is at right above the text box, and two of the Toonerville Folks above him to the right. Cover art by Sheldon Mayer.
Titles begun under All-American Publications. Issues after the 1946 merger are National Periodical Publications / DC Comics.
:All-American Western  #103-126 (Nov. 1948 - June 1952) continues as
:All-American Men of War  #127-128, 2-117 (Sept-Nov. 1952, Jan. 1953 - Oct. 1966)
  • All-Flash Quarterly  #1-5 (Summer 1941 - Summer 1942) continues as
:All-Flash  #6-31 (Oct. 1942 - Jan. 1948)
:All Star Western  #58-119 (May 1951 - July 1961; hyphen added #108) revived as
:All-Star Western  #1-11 (Sept., 1970 - May 1972) and
:All Star Comics  #58-74 (Feb. 1976 - Oct. 1978; hyphen added #66)
:The Flash  #105-350 (March 1959 - Oct. 1985)
  • Funny Stuff  #1-79 (Summer 1944 - Aug. 1954)
  • Green Lantern  #1-38 (Fall 1941 - June 1949)
  • Movie Comics  #1-6 (April-Sept. 1939)
  • Mutt & Jeff  #1-103 (Summer 1939 - April 1958)
:Title and numbering continue under Dell Comics, followed by Harvey Comics
  • Picture Stories from the Bible: Old Testament Edition #1-4 (season n.a. 1942 - Fall 1943)
  • Picture Stories from the Bible: Complete Old Testament Edition #1 (month n.a. 1943)
  • Picture Stories from the Bible: New Testament Edition #1-2 (Oct. 1944 - April 1945)
  • Picture Stories from the Bible: Complete "Life of Christ" Edition #1 (month n.a. 1945)
:Title continues under EC Comics
:Sensation Mystery  #110-116 (July 1952 - Aug. 1953)

All-American characters

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Premiere issue of All Star Comics (Summer 1940), the anthology that would introduce the Justice Society of America two issues later. Note the National / DC characters the Sandman, the Spectre and Hour-Man.

Superhero/masked crimefighter

Adventurer/war

  • The Black Pirate
  • Gunner Godbee
  • Red, White and Blue (Red Dugan, Whitey Smith, Blooey Blue)

Funny-animal/other humor

Footnotes

1. ^ Jones, Gerard, Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book, by Gerard Jones (Basic Books, 2004) trade paperback ISBN 978-0-46-503656-1, p. 147
2. ^ Ibid., p. 164
3. ^ Ibid., p. 223
4. ^ The comic book, unlike the comic strip, spelled its title with an ampersand.
5. ^ National's top stars, Batman and Superman, would first cross over as "honorary" Justice Society members in All Star Comics #7 (Dec. 1941), making cameo appearances in the three-page introduction and four-page conclusion of the story "$1,000,000 for War Orphans".

References

Motto
"In God We Trust"   (since 1956)
"E Pluribus Unum"   ("From Many, One"; Latin, traditional)
Anthem
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A comic book is a magazine or book containing sequential art in the form of a narrative. Comic books are often called comics for short. Although the term implies otherwise, the subject matter in comic books is not necessarily humorous, and in fact it is often serious and
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DC Comics

Subsidiary of Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc.
Founded 1934, by Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson (as National Allied Publications)
Headquarters 1700 Broadway, New York City, New York

Key people Paul Levitz (President and Publisher)
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superhero (also known as a super hero) is fictional character "of unprecedented, physical prowess dedicated to acts of derring-do in the public interest.” [1]
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Al Pratt is a character in the DC Comics Universe, the original hero to fight crime as the Atom. He first appeared in All-American Comics #19 (Oct. 1940). He initially had no superpowers; instead, he was a diminutive college student and later a physicist who was
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Jay Garrick is a fictional character, a superhero in the DC Comics universe and the first to use the name Flash.

Fictional character biography

The Flash

Jason Peter Garrick[1]
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Alan Scott is a fictional character, a superhero from the DC Comics universe and the first superhero to bear the name Green Lantern.

Publication history


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    Wonder Woman is a fictional DC Comics superheroine created by William Moulton Marston. Two strong women, his wife Elizabeth Holloway Marston and Olive Byrne, a mutual lover,[1] served as exemplars for the character and greatly influenced her creation.
    ..... Click the link for more information.
    Golden Age of Comic Books was a period in the history of American comic books, generally thought as lasting from the 1930s until the mid-1950s during which comic books enjoyed a surge of popularity, the archetype of the superhero was created and defined, and many of the most famous
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    Max Gaines

    Birth name Maxwell Ginsburg or Maxwell Ginzberg
    Born
    New York, New York
    Died July 20 1947
    Lake Placid, New York

    Area(s) Publisher

    Maxwell Charles Gaines[1] a.k.a. M.C. Gaines, a.k.a.
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    Entertaining Comics, more commonly known as EC Comics, was an American publisher of comic books specializing in crime fiction, horror fiction, satire, military fiction and science fiction from the 1940s through the 1950s, until censorship pressures prompted it to concentrate
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    Harry Donenfeld (1893-1965), was an American publisher who is known primarily for being the owner of National Allied Publications, which famously distributed Detective Comics and Action Comics, the originator publications for the superhero characters Batman and Superman.
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    Action Comics is the comic book series that introduced Superman, the first major superhero character as the term is popularly defined. The publisher was originally known as Detective Comics, Inc.
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    Detective Comics is an American comic book published monthly by DC Comics since 1937, best-known for introducing the iconic fictional character Batman. It is, along with Action Comics
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    Sensation Comics is the title of a comic book series published by DC Comics that ran for 109 issues between 1942 and 1952. For most of its run, the lead feature was Wonder Woman. Other series that appeared were the Black Pirate, the Gay Ghost, Mr.
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    Mutt and Jeff is an American newspaper comic strip that ran from November 15, 1907 to 1982. It was created by Bud Fisher, though for most of its run (1932-1980), it was taken over by a former assistant, cartoonist Al Smith, when Fisher retired, shortly before his death.
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    All-American Comics was the flagship title of comic book publisher All-American Publications. It ran for 102 issues from April 1939 to October 1948, at which time it was renamed All-American Western.
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    All Star Comics is a 1940s comic book series from All-American Publications, one of the early companies that merged with National Periodical Publications to form the modern-day DC Comics.
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    The Justice Society of America, or JSA, is a DC Comics superhero group, the first team of superheroes in comic book history. Conceived by editor Sheldon Mayer and writer Gardner Fox, the JSA first appeared in All Star Comics #3 (Winter 1940).
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    All Star Comics is a 1940s comic book series from All-American Publications, one of the early companies that merged with National Periodical Publications to form the modern-day DC Comics.
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    Dr. Fate (vol.
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    Spectre is a fictional cosmic entity and superhero who has appeared in numerous comic books published by DC Comics. The character first appeared in a next issue ad in More Fun Comics
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    The Sandman, alias Wesley Dodds, is a fictional masked crimefighter in the DC Comics universe. The first of several DC characters to bear the name, he was created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Bert Christman.
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    Sheldon Mayer

    Born March 1 1917(1917--)

    Died November 21 1991 (aged 74)

    Nationality American
    Area(s) Writer, Penciller, Editor

    Notable works
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    All-American Comics was the flagship title of comic book publisher All-American Publications. It ran for 102 issues from April 1939 to October 1948, at which time it was renamed All-American Western.
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    comic strip is a drawing or sequence of drawings that tells a story. Written and drawn by a cartoonist, such strips are published on a recurring basis (usually daily or weekly) in newspapers and on the Internet.
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    Mutt and Jeff is an American newspaper comic strip that ran from November 15, 1907 to 1982. It was created by Bud Fisher, though for most of its run (1932-1980), it was taken over by a former assistant, cartoonist Al Smith, when Fisher retired, shortly before his death.
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