Atomic Age Comics

 

 

NOTE:

The following was a letter to the Comics Buyers Guide, and though it’s not really an article it covers some of the high points of the ‘lost age’ of comic books, between 1946 and 1957

 

Dear Editor

 

As much as i liked Mr Silver Age’s comments on the demarcations between

the golden and silver ages of comics, I think they’re a little fuzzier

once you look at them.

 

Even though I think a second sub age actually began in 1946 and is best

exemplified by the revamped Fox comics of that period, with a content

again directed towards adults, as the pre war comics had been, while the

1942 - 1946 war era comics were directed more towards children,  for the

purposes of this letter I’ll agree on 1949 as the end of the golden age.

 

But as Mr Silver Age defines the beginnings of the silver age, he makes

a mistake in identifying its origins only in the products of

Marvel/Atlas and DC comics, yet during the first half of the 1950s there

was a lot of newsstand activity elsewhere

 

1950 saw the last hero issue of Daredevil, but the title continued till

1956.  Capt Marvel,  Capt Marvel Jr and Whiz lasted till late 1953, and

the Marvel Family till 1954.  Fiction Houses’venerable golden age

titles such as Jungle and Jumbo lasted till 1953 - 4.  Quality comics’

Dollman ran till 1953 and Plastic man till 1956, as did Blackhawk before

being taken over by DC in 1957

 

As for new hero titles in the 1950s, Marvel’s Marvel Boy began in

December of 1950 and ran two issues.  1951 and 1952 saw a lot of space

action, with Captain Science, Jet, Space Detective and Farrell’s

Rocketman.  I know these aren’t ‘real’ hero books to some, and i know

the slippery slope you get on trying to make a distinction between these

books and Atlas’ Speed Carter Spaceman or Fox’s Rocketship X, or even

the long running Planet Comics (1940 - 1953), but they should be

mentioned as DC’s 1951 Captain Comet is sometimes considered an early

silver age book, and no one would consider the classic Adam Strange

series to be outside the norm for silver age hero books. Also in 1952

was a new Spirit series by FIction House. 

 

1953 saw St. John’s Rocketman reprints (actually rewritten stories from

Chesler Studios’ art of the previous decade) in the title Zip Jet.  Late

1953 is where things heat up, with December of that year ushering in

Atlas’ revamping of Young Men 24 featuring the Human Torch, Captain

America and Submariner.  During the next 9 months Atlas would not only

produce 5 hero issues of Young Men, but turn Men’s Adventures into a

companion book, and relaunch Torch, Cap and Subby in their own books,

all lasting 3 issues, with Sub Mariner running till late 1955.  Also

debuting in Dec 1953 was Simon & Kirby’s (and Meskin’s)  Capt 3 -D,

arguably the first new hero created in the 1950s.

 

Late 1954 saw Charlton reprinting the Fox Blue Beetle in two issues of

Space Adventures before giving him 4 issues of his own book the next

year, with new material beginning in the 3rd issue.  Farrell gave us #1

issues of Black Cobra, Phantom Lady, and Flame, mixing new material from

the Iger Studio with reprint material . Also released in Nov 1954 was

Capt Flash #1, another contender for first silver age title

 

Early 1955 produced two more titles from Farrell:  Samson, and

Wonderboy, both again, containing mixed new and reprinted material.

Magazine Enterprises offered The Avenger (the first new hero to begin a

title with code approval) and Strongman, and Mainlaine hit the stands

with Simon and Kirby’s Fighting American.  Harvey published Simon and

Kirby Stuntman reprints in Thrills of Tomorrow, and Black Cat reprints

in that heroine’s title. 

 

All of this is well before John Jonzz’ beginnings in Detective 225,

dated November 1955.  Between then, and the September 1956 cover dated

Showcase 4 with the first silver age Flash story we have two issues of

Charlton’s Nature Boy, one issue of Tales of the Mysterious Traveler,

and October 1956 gave us Atlas’ Yellow Claw #1, which would’ve been in

preparation before Showcase 4 was distributed.

 

And this is just the hero books.  the mid 1950s gave us a wide array of

cop, western, scifi, fantasy, jungle, romance, teen, juvinile, movie/tv

and humor books as well.  Many publishers like Lev Gleason and Ace

continued publishing new material and old packagers like Al Fago tried

their hands at publishing, as did new companies.  The first IW reprints

were issued in 1958.

 

Mr Silver Age dismisses this time by saying nothing stuck, nothing

brought the public back again, and indeed, the majority of these books

lasted 3 or 5 issues, but during the 3 years before the accepted start

of the silver age (Showcase 4) there was more new hero material in more

titles by more publishers than during the 3 years following the official

start.  17 titles by 6 publishers, not counting DC, Fawcett, or

Quality.  If this isn’t part of the Silver Age, what is it?

 

Even if you dismiss the majority:  Rocketman, Marvel Boy, Capt America,

Submariner, Human torch, Phantom Lady, Flame, Wonderboy, Black Cobra,

Samson and Blue Beetle as being reworkings of earlier characters, even

though they contained new material as early as late 1953, you still have

a group of new characters created specifically for those times, and

looking back they retain the character of those times.  The new material

created for those characters is easily discernable from the reprints of

a decade earlier.  The story themes are different,  they are for a

different audience and the art is, for the most part, different.  The

differences between a 1947 and a 1954 Blue Beetle or Phantom Lady are as

great as those between a 1947 and 1954 Superman, Batman, or Blackhawk.

 

Captain 3-D is dismissed as a gimmick book, but nonetheless, itﾕs new

action hero material dated Dec 1953 and by Simon and Kirby to boot.

Capt Flash #1 is dated Nov 1954, and has a look (lovely Mike Sekowski

art) and story that are easily recognisible as silver age, as does Feb

1955’s Avenger 1 with scripts by Gardner Fox and art by Bob Powell.  If

that isn’t silver age i don’t know what is.  Ditto the new S&K material

in April 1955’s Fighting American #1.  The art and story are much more

like their obviously silver age Harvey work of later that decade or

their Fly for Archie than their Captain America of only a little more

than a decade previous.  Even Charlton’s Nature Boy #1 of March 1956 is

clearly a silver age comic released a full half year before Showcase 4,

and #3, the last issue was published February 1957.

 

Mr Silver Age understands that these names, Platinum, Golden, Silver,

Bronze, Tinfoil ages are given in hindsight.  Nobody ever said in 1938

‘OK, we got Superman, now it’s the golden age!’ and the golden age didn’t

end in 1946, even though it started to end at that time, and a wave of

books was cancelled or changed contents from hero to humor.  The golden

age didn’t really end in 1949 even though there was another wave of

cancelations.  As I’ve shown, there were many golden age heroes and

adventure titles that lasted well into the 1950s and many golden age

heroes were reworked during that time, and it was during that time that

the first silver age books began to appear. 

 

The ‘lost decade’ of the 1950s turns out to have been pretty interesting

upon closer inspection.  It’s here that you can see the last of the dull

Neanderthals of the golden age coexist with their more clever cro magnon

cousins of the silver age.  If you look at the Simon and Kirby Fighting

Americans and Captain 3-D next to the Simon packaged Harvey fantasy

books, and Archie Fly and Shield, some of which Kirby is a collaborator

on, next to the solo Kirby on Yellow Claw, Green Arrow and Challengers

of the Unknown, and then the Lee and Kirby monster stuff or early

Fantastic Four, they form an interesting whole.  In no way are Capt 3 D

and Fighting American any less sophisticated than their later

counterparts.

 

The best of the 1950s esoteric material contains a handful of classics

that still read  well today.  Marvel reprinted many of the Yellow Claw

stories in the late 1960s, as well as some of the 1950s Cap, Torch and

Subby stories in Fantasy Masterpieces.  Fighting American was released

in hardback. Bill Black is reprinting the very fine Capt Flash and

Avenger series.  Alfred Harvey reprinted some of Bob Powell’s Man in

Black stories several years ago.

 

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