#More Fun Comics

[alternateworldcomics]

More Fun Comics # 77, 1942

[dcbinges]

The "Big Six" from Flash Comics #15 (1941)

[smashedpages]

Today in 1941, More Fun Comics #73 launched a new feature -- Aquaman by Mort Weisinger and Paul Norris! The King of Atlantis has gone on to star in multiple series and miniseries, with several different looks over the years!

[chernobog13]

MORE FUN COMICS (vol. 1) #70 (August, 1941). Cover by Howard Sherman.

Doctor Fate has had enough of this guy's malarkey!

[browsethestacks]

Remember When... Kids Read Comics

[cgbcomics]

[ufonaut]

After two-fisted detective Jim Corrigan was murdered by gangsters, a voice from beyond charged him to return to Earth and punish the guilty in the eerie guise of... The Spectre!

Jim Corrigan in Bizarro World (2005) #1

(Chris Duffy, Craig Thompson)

[fancyfade]

therapist: brunette, clean-shaven ollie can't hurt you, he isn't real

brunette clean shaven ollie:

more fun comics #73

[inhousearchive]

House-ad for the ‘big six’ National Comics/All-American Comics titles from April 1941.

[cantsayidont]

Although it appears unlikely to happen in my lifetime, I would also like it if DC reprinted the Golden Age Doctor Fate stories, in particular the earliest installments by Gardner Fox and Howard Sherman, which have a weird pulp horror vibe, enhanced by the unusual lettering style, with its elongated "E"s. The page above is actually from Fate's chapter in the first JSA story in ALL-STAR COMICS #3 (Winter 1940), but it's the same artist and gives a sense of the flavor.

This mood was unfortunately short-lived, lasting only through Fate's appearances in MORE FUN COMICS #55–71 and ALL-STAR COMICS #1 –7 in 1940–1941. With MORE FUN #72 and ALL-STAR #8, the bottom half of his helmet was sawed off, his powers were scaled down, and the macabre mystical stuff was quickly excised, leaving Dr. Fate a pretty ordinary superhero. He stuck around through 1944 and MORE FUN #98, but the thrill was gone, and was not restored until the character was revived in the 1960s.

Frustratingly, DC has previously remastered and reprinted the entire run of Dr. Fate's Golden Age solo strip: The MORE FUN COMICS strip was collected in its entirety in the GOLDEN AGE DOCTOR FATE ARCHIVES back in 2007, and all of Fate's appearances in ALL-STAR COMICS (including the two pre-JSA issues) are included in the ALL-STAR ARCHIVES volumes. Unfortunately, the GOLDEN AGE DOCTOR FATE ARCHIVES was expensive and very rare even when new, and both it and, lamentably, the ALL-STAR ARCHIVES have been out of print now for more than 15 years. DC certainly could either repackage and reissue those collections, or release a collection with just the spookier early material, but they probably won't. A pity.

[dailyjsa]

House ad from All-Star Comics #2

[alternateworldcomics]

You're right, it's not.

[dcbinges]

Ad for "The Spectre" by Jerry Siegel and Bernard Baily from Action comics #21 (1940)

[smashedpages]

Today in 1944, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster answered the question, "What was Superman like before he grew up?" Superboy debuted in the pages of More Fun Comics #101 in a story by Superman co-creators Siegel and Shuster.

[chernobog13]

MORE FUN COMICS #56 (June, 1940). Cover by Howard Sherman.

The nefarious Wotan tries to incinerate his arch-nemesis, Doctor Fate, while holding Inza Cramer hostage.

[browsethestacks]

Remember When.. Mirrors Were Fun?