Volume Three, Number Twenty

EVERYTHING'S SUPERHEROES:

A

Historical Overview

of the

MLJ Magazines/Archie Comic Publications

Superhero Lines!

Part Ten

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Even though Archie Comic Publications/Radio Comics had launched "The Adventures of Young Dr. Masters" and "The Shadow" in 1964, the Archie Adventure Series line was dying a slow painful death. As mentioned in the previous installment, according to Rick Goldwater, son of one of MLJ Magazines' founders, John Goldwater, the main reason for the poor sales of the line was strictly distribution difficulties; a somewhat doubtful possibility as Archie Adventure Series was distributed by the same company that distributed Archie Comic Publications' Archie Series line which could be found just about everywhere in those days. Most comics fans and historians put the blame on the poor quality of the material, but a few people point the finger at the name of the line itself: ARCHIE Adventure Series.

While the Archie titles were big sellers in the 1960s-and are still quite successful today-they were and still are targeted at a certain type of readership. Also too anything with the name "Archie" on it signified good, wholesome fun. While there's nothing wrong with that, some comics readers were looking for something more challenging, something like, well, what was being given to them by Marvel and to a lesser extent DC/National and Gold Key (with Dr. Solar, Turok and other titles). And while the Archie Adventure Series titles weren't along the same lines as the Archie Series titles the mere mention of the name "Archie" on the cover was a turn-off to the very readers who might well have ordinarily bought "The Shadow" and "Adventures of The Fly" (though chances are they would have only bought one issue of "The Shadow"). Today's fans are a bit more sophisticated, but back in the 1960s Archie meant wholesomeness, and even in 1964 readers wanted their superheroes to have a bit of an edge.

Thus, the line was failing and by 1964 the Archie Adventure Series' flagship title, "Adventures of The Fly" was reduced to being published semi-annually. After issue #30 (October 1964) it vanished completely. But before it was canceled, the title-and the line-made one more attempt at reviving a long forgotten MLJ Magazines character; or in this case more of a revitalization.

In the Fly Girl story that appeared in "Adventures of The Fly" #30, The Fly's partner met up with The Comet. This was not though the same, brutal Comet who had appeared in the early issues of Pep Comics, but rather the ruler of a distant planet called Altron who had come to Earth to convince Fly Girl to be his bride. Even his powers and costume were different with this Comet wearing a rainbow-striped helmet and an extremely gaudy looking outfit. His powers included flight-which he was able to accomplish thanks to his "rainbow helmet"-and the ability to shoot ray beams from his gloves. The story, as with previous stories that had been appearing in "Adventures of The Fly", was fairly pedestrian. But what Fly-fans -and there were some including myself at the time-were totally unaware of was that this Comet was actually a harbinger of things to come in 1965. But that's a story for next month when we talk about Fly Man, Mighty Comics Group and The Mighty Crusaders. See you then.

-------------------------------------

That's all for this time out. Don't forget to check out The Groovy Agent's excellent blog on 1970s comics at http://diversionsofthegroovykind.blogspot.com, and feel free to comment on what you've read so far in E-Dispatches From The Great White North at its blogsite http://dispatchesfromthegreatwhitenorth.blogspot.com .

Volume Three, Number Eleven

EVERYTHING'S SUPERHEROES:

A Historical Overview of the

MLJ Magazines/Archie Comic Publications

Superhero Lines

Part Three

-------------------------------------------------------

ON THE ROAD TO SUCCESS: Cover-dated January 1940 "Pep Comics", MLJ Magazines' third anthology, was the company's most successful and innovative anthology. Not only did Pep run for a total of 411 issues (the final one cover-dated March, 1987) but it was also where comics' first patriotic hero debuted, where the first comics hero died in the line of duty and where the comics character that the publisher eventually renamed itself after first appeared.

The cover feature for Pep during its early days beginning with its first issue was "The Shield". Appearing in the first sixty-five issues of "Pep Comics" he was the last superhero to be published by MLJ Magazines/Archie Comic Publications during the 1940s.

America's first patriotic superhero, FBI agent Joe Higgins used his scientific knowledge to give himself super-strength, enable him to leap great distances and to develop a costume that was flame proof and protected him from physical harm. It's worth noting that when comics' more successful patriotic superhero, "Captain America", debuted some eighteen months later, MLJ Magazines sued its publisher, referred today as Timely Comics, not because of its copying Shield's patriotic costumed hero motif but rather because Cap's rectangular shield resembled the front part of the costume of "The Shield". Thanks though to previous association between MLJ's Louis Silberkleit and Timely's publisher Martin Goodman a legal battle was averted when "Captain America" creators Joe Simon and Jack Kirby agreed to make Cap's shield round in shape. In the long run this actually worked out for the better for the "Captain America" series as artists could now have Cap using the shield as a throwing disc resulting in more dynamic fight scenes.

As well as appearing in Pep "The Shield" also appeared in "Shield-Wizard Comics", "Jackpot Comics" and other titles. Shield's final appearance was "Pep Comics" #65 in late 1947. While some have speculated that if the "Shield" series hadn't been elbowed out of Pep by Archie Andrews it would have lasted longer more knowledgeable fans have expressed serious doubts on this matter as the more popular "Captain America" only lasted two additional years.

A less successful but no less innovative superhero who also debuted in "Pep Comics" #1 was "The Comet". The victim of a scientific accident "The Comet", aka John Dickering, terrorized criminals for the first seventeen issues of that title. The artistic creation of Jack Cole (better known as the creator of "Plastic Man"), "The Comet" used his disolvo-vision and power of flight to battle evil and injustice.

According to many comics historians "The Comet" was probably the most violent superhero comic of the 1940s. While "The Batman" and others were known to have tossed criminals off roof tops and other violent acts "The Comet" would gleefully slaughter dozens of villains a story with his disolvo-vision, turning them to protoplasmic mush. But as the saying goes, "He who lives by the sword, dies by the sword", and such was the fate of "The Comet" who met his end in a hail of bullets in "Pep Comics" #17. This though was not the end of the violence by any means as brother, Bob Dickering, adopted the non-super powered identity of "The Hangman" and went on a murderous rampage of his own; first to avenge his brother's death and then to deal out justice in the tradition of "The Comet".

"The Hangman" was far more successful than its predecessor, due in part to the artwork of Bob Fujitani. "The Hangman" appeared in "Pep Comics" #s 17-47 along with "Special Comics" #1 and "Hangman Comics" #s2 to 8.

With "The Shield", "The Comet", "The Hangman" and later "Archie" getting the readers' attention other series that appeared in Pep didn't stand much of a chance. Some of them are though worth noting including "The Press Guardian" (called "The Falcon" in Pep #1 he was a costumed hero who fault for freedom of the press ), "Fireball", "Captain Commando" (a costumed hero who fought against the Nazis behind enemy lines) and the sultry "Madame Satan". So after Archie Andrews debuted in "Pep Comics" #22 superheroes began to gradually disappear from that and other titles with "The Shield" being the last.

--------------------------------

NEXT: The original "Man of Steel" !