All-American Publications

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, [Jones, Gerard, "Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book", by Gerard Jones (Basic Books, 2004) trade paperback auto isbn|0|4|6|5|0|3|6|5|6|0-46-503656, p. 147] 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:

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 1946, 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". [Ibid., p. 223]

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" [The comic book, unlike the comic strip, spelled its title with an ampersand.] #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

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, [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".] 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 adaptations 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

"Titles begun under All-American Publications. Issues after the 1946 merger are National Periodical Publications / DC Comics."

*"All-American Comics" #1-102 (April 1939 - Oct. 1948) continues as::"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 Comics" #1-57 (Summer 1940 - March 1951) continues as::"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)
* "Comic Cavalcade #1-63 (Winter 1942/43 - Summer 1954)
* "Flash Comics" #1-104 (Jan. 1940 - Feb. 1949) continues as::"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 Comics" #1-109 (Jan. 1942 - June 1952) continues as::"Sensation Mystery" #110-116 (July 1952 - Aug. 1953)
*"Wonder Woman" #1-329 (Summer 1942 - Feb. 1986)

All-American characters

uperhero/masked crimefighter

* The Atom
* Doctor Mid-Nite
* The Flash
* The Gay Ghost
* Green Lantern
* Hawkman and Hawkgirl
* Hop Harrigan
* Little Boy Blue and the Blue Boys
* Mr. Terrific
* Sargon the Sorcerer
* Johnny Thunder
* Gary Concord, the Ultra-Man
* The Whip ("El Castigo")
* Wildcat
* Wonder Woman

Adventurer/war

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

Funny-animal/other humor

* Bulldog Drumhead
* The Red Tornado
* Scribbly

Footnotes

References

* [http://www.geocities.com/sm_scribbly/ Sheldon Mayer: Writer, artist, cartoonist, editor and more] (fan site)
* [http://www.toonopedia.com/all-amer.htm Don Markstein's Toonpedia: All-American Publications] , [http://www.toonopedia.com/dc.htm DC Comics] , and [http://www.toonopedia.com/jsa.htm The Justice Society of America]
* [http://www.comics.org The Grand Comics Database]
* [http://www.hyperborea.org/flash/series-history.html#ga History of the Flash] (fan site)
* [http://goodcomics.blogspot.com/2005/06/comic-book-urban-legends-revealed-5.html Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed #5: "All-Star Comics" #3 was an inter-company crossover"]
* [http://www.supermanartists.comics.org/dchistory/dchistory-1.htm DC Comics Timeline]