New Fun #1 [February 1935], promoted as “The Big Comic Magazine,” was the first DC Comics publication. That 10" by 15" launch issue was 36 pages (including covers) and published by National Allied Publications, Inc. The president of the company was former career soldier and pulp magazine writer Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson and the editor was Lloyd Jacquet. The official name of the company changed to National Periodical Publications, but DC Comics was the name most knew it by and that name would become official in the 1970s.
In July, I wrote two blogs discussing the issue on a literal page-by-page basis. I got through the first 21 pages of the comic book before I was side-tracked by other work and the various miseries of our pandemic lives. If you want to read those earlier installments, you’ll find them here and here.
We return to this discussion with “Cap’n Erik” by Robert Weinstein. The Captain and his crew are leaving for Kilitook Island and hope to get underway without sinister competitor Butch Ramsey learning of their plans. Mention is made of seals, presumably the killing of seals, so I’m not rooting for either of these guys. Ramsey sends one of his men to wreck Erik’s ship and the sabotage is successful. Nevertheless, Cap’n Erik vows to get to the island before Ramsey.
Cap’n Erik would only appear in one more issue of New Fun. In the second issue, he has repaired his ship and discovered a stowaway. The lad has no family, so the Captain gives him a chance to earn a position on the crew. The youngster discovers Ramsey’s man trying to weakening the ship’s hull, but is knocked unconscious before he can report the looming disaster. For closure’s sake, I’m going to assume the following:
Cap’n Erik went down with his ship. The saboteur, realizing he was going to go down with the ship as well, soiled himself. Meanwhile, one of Erik’s men sabotaged Ramsey’s ship and the vessel also went down. The seals were not clubbed to death and lived long and happy lives. Don’t you love a satisfying ending?
Next is “Buckskin Jim” by unknown hands. Lambiek Comiclopedia says Tom Cooper drew the feature, but that information can not be found at the Grand Comics Database. The GCD has this synopsis:
Jim Kenyon, en route to California, arrives in New Orleans. Trying to catch up on foot with the departed wagon train, he hears cries for help and rescues a trapper from quicksand. Riding on the trapper's horse after the wagon train they are waylaid by Indians.
The young frontiersman had good fighting skills and was armed with a knife and a handgun. He appeared in New Fun #1-6 and the re-named More Fun #7-18. I thought this initial strip was well done for the era, but, like most popular entertainments of the era, its handling of the indiginous people was racist.
Pages 24-26 is filled with text articles and paid advertisements. The “Popular Science” column discusses streamline trains,and, in a rather odd add-on, magic tricks. “Stamps and Coins” offers some helpful information for new collectors. “Young Homemakers,” which indicates to me that New Fun was looking to attract female readers as well as males, discusses setting up a kitchen so that everything necessary to making a meal is near at hand.
The first ad in this section is for correspondence courses in the “big pay fields” of “electricity” and “radio, television, talking pictures.” The second page announces the advertiser will pay cash for old coins, bills and stamps, and offers an Illustrated Coin and Stamps Folder for four cents. That would be 76 cents in 2020 money. There’s also a small ad offering the chance to make $40 to $50 per week selling soap. You could get seven big bars for a quarter.
The final advertisement is from the Wilson Chem Co. They’d send you 12 beautiful art pictures with 12 boxes of White Cloverine Salve. The idea was to sell the boxes for a quarter each while giving an art picture with each purchase. Among the items offered if someone sold enough salve were Iver Johnson safety rifles, electric radios, guitars, banjos and a streamline wagon.
[NOTE: I would love to read article about people who took part in these sales programs, especially if they were successful doing so. I’ll share the stories in a future bloggy thing.]
The “After School” comic, featuring a pair of rough-and-tumble kids and the toddler “uncle” of one of them, was written and drawn by Tom McNamara. The strip would appear in a 1940s issue of Action Comics as well.
“After School” looks more professional than many of the strips in New Fun #1, which isn’t surprising when you look at McNamara’s long and varied career. He was a vaudevillian for a number of years. His “Us Boys” strip was syndicated from 1910 to 1928. He wrote scripts for and directed “Our Gang” shorts.
He did quite a bit of work for other comic books. He wrote and drew short (generally one to five pages) humor strips for DC’s All Funny Comics, Batman, Boy Commandoes, Buzzy, Detective Comics, Leading Comics, Superman and World’s Finest. At Fawcett, his work appeared in America’s Greatest Comics, Bulletman, Captain Marvel Jr. Captain Midnight, Don Winslow of the Navy, Master Comics, Minute Man, Nutty Comics, Spy Smasher and Whiz Comics. From other comics publishers, his work appeared in Champ Comics, The Comics Magazine, Detective Picture Stories, Funny Picture Stories and Western Picture Stories.
There’s more to McNamara’s life and career, but, for that further information, I direct you to his 2011 “Ink-Slinger Profile” at the Stripper’s Guide.
[NOTE: I have a sort of personal connection to McNamara. He was a “bosom companion of Damon Runyon.” During my time working on staff at Marvel Comics in the 1970s, I lived in a hotel “penthouse” where Runyon had lived. It was across the street from the Brill Building, which, as per Wikipedia, was famous for housing music industry offices and studios where some of the most popular American songs were written. It was considered to have been the center of the American music industry that dominated the pop charts in the early 1960s. Though the hotel was far from the trendy address it had been, it was cool living in an apartment where Runyon had resided. According to the desk clerk, one of the writers of the musical Hair had also lived in my apartment, which came with a working player piano. No one could tell me which former tenant had left it there.]
We’ll do one more page today. Written and drawn by Dick Loederer, “Caveman Capers” is equal parts adventure, pre-history and humor. A family of cave people are huddled together in a dark cave. They are worried about Ur, a young man, who hasn’t yet returned to the cave. Fearful of encountering a dinosaur, the lad is almost struck by lightning. When he realizes a burning branch is providing heat and light, he runs back to the cave with it. As the family rejoices in these new sensations, the dinosaur pops his head in their cave.
Loederer did another strip and several illustrations in this first issue of New Fun, but “Caveman Capers” is my favorite comic strip in this debut outing with terrific art and writing. Though he also served as an editor and art director for the title, Loederer seems to have left the comics industry by the time the name of the comics was changed to More Fun. That’s too bad.
One more installment will wrap up my look at New Fun #1. Look for it sometime next week.
© 2020 Tony Isabella
In July, I wrote two blogs discussing the issue on a literal page-by-page basis. I got through the first 21 pages of the comic book before I was side-tracked by other work and the various miseries of our pandemic lives. If you want to read those earlier installments, you’ll find them here and here.
We return to this discussion with “Cap’n Erik” by Robert Weinstein. The Captain and his crew are leaving for Kilitook Island and hope to get underway without sinister competitor Butch Ramsey learning of their plans. Mention is made of seals, presumably the killing of seals, so I’m not rooting for either of these guys. Ramsey sends one of his men to wreck Erik’s ship and the sabotage is successful. Nevertheless, Cap’n Erik vows to get to the island before Ramsey.
Cap’n Erik would only appear in one more issue of New Fun. In the second issue, he has repaired his ship and discovered a stowaway. The lad has no family, so the Captain gives him a chance to earn a position on the crew. The youngster discovers Ramsey’s man trying to weakening the ship’s hull, but is knocked unconscious before he can report the looming disaster. For closure’s sake, I’m going to assume the following:
Cap’n Erik went down with his ship. The saboteur, realizing he was going to go down with the ship as well, soiled himself. Meanwhile, one of Erik’s men sabotaged Ramsey’s ship and the vessel also went down. The seals were not clubbed to death and lived long and happy lives. Don’t you love a satisfying ending?
Next is “Buckskin Jim” by unknown hands. Lambiek Comiclopedia says Tom Cooper drew the feature, but that information can not be found at the Grand Comics Database. The GCD has this synopsis:
Jim Kenyon, en route to California, arrives in New Orleans. Trying to catch up on foot with the departed wagon train, he hears cries for help and rescues a trapper from quicksand. Riding on the trapper's horse after the wagon train they are waylaid by Indians.
The young frontiersman had good fighting skills and was armed with a knife and a handgun. He appeared in New Fun #1-6 and the re-named More Fun #7-18. I thought this initial strip was well done for the era, but, like most popular entertainments of the era, its handling of the indiginous people was racist.
Pages 24-26 is filled with text articles and paid advertisements. The “Popular Science” column discusses streamline trains,and, in a rather odd add-on, magic tricks. “Stamps and Coins” offers some helpful information for new collectors. “Young Homemakers,” which indicates to me that New Fun was looking to attract female readers as well as males, discusses setting up a kitchen so that everything necessary to making a meal is near at hand.
The first ad in this section is for correspondence courses in the “big pay fields” of “electricity” and “radio, television, talking pictures.” The second page announces the advertiser will pay cash for old coins, bills and stamps, and offers an Illustrated Coin and Stamps Folder for four cents. That would be 76 cents in 2020 money. There’s also a small ad offering the chance to make $40 to $50 per week selling soap. You could get seven big bars for a quarter.
The final advertisement is from the Wilson Chem Co. They’d send you 12 beautiful art pictures with 12 boxes of White Cloverine Salve. The idea was to sell the boxes for a quarter each while giving an art picture with each purchase. Among the items offered if someone sold enough salve were Iver Johnson safety rifles, electric radios, guitars, banjos and a streamline wagon.
[NOTE: I would love to read article about people who took part in these sales programs, especially if they were successful doing so. I’ll share the stories in a future bloggy thing.]
The “After School” comic, featuring a pair of rough-and-tumble kids and the toddler “uncle” of one of them, was written and drawn by Tom McNamara. The strip would appear in a 1940s issue of Action Comics as well.
“After School” looks more professional than many of the strips in New Fun #1, which isn’t surprising when you look at McNamara’s long and varied career. He was a vaudevillian for a number of years. His “Us Boys” strip was syndicated from 1910 to 1928. He wrote scripts for and directed “Our Gang” shorts.
He did quite a bit of work for other comic books. He wrote and drew short (generally one to five pages) humor strips for DC’s All Funny Comics, Batman, Boy Commandoes, Buzzy, Detective Comics, Leading Comics, Superman and World’s Finest. At Fawcett, his work appeared in America’s Greatest Comics, Bulletman, Captain Marvel Jr. Captain Midnight, Don Winslow of the Navy, Master Comics, Minute Man, Nutty Comics, Spy Smasher and Whiz Comics. From other comics publishers, his work appeared in Champ Comics, The Comics Magazine, Detective Picture Stories, Funny Picture Stories and Western Picture Stories.
There’s more to McNamara’s life and career, but, for that further information, I direct you to his 2011 “Ink-Slinger Profile” at the Stripper’s Guide.
[NOTE: I have a sort of personal connection to McNamara. He was a “bosom companion of Damon Runyon.” During my time working on staff at Marvel Comics in the 1970s, I lived in a hotel “penthouse” where Runyon had lived. It was across the street from the Brill Building, which, as per Wikipedia, was famous for housing music industry offices and studios where some of the most popular American songs were written. It was considered to have been the center of the American music industry that dominated the pop charts in the early 1960s. Though the hotel was far from the trendy address it had been, it was cool living in an apartment where Runyon had resided. According to the desk clerk, one of the writers of the musical Hair had also lived in my apartment, which came with a working player piano. No one could tell me which former tenant had left it there.]
Loederer did another strip and several illustrations in this first issue of New Fun, but “Caveman Capers” is my favorite comic strip in this debut outing with terrific art and writing. Though he also served as an editor and art director for the title, Loederer seems to have left the comics industry by the time the name of the comics was changed to More Fun. That’s too bad.
One more installment will wrap up my look at New Fun #1. Look for it sometime next week.
© 2020 Tony Isabella
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