{"id":32318,"date":"2025-02-28T18:17:32","date_gmt":"2025-02-28T18:17:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=32318"},"modified":"2025-02-28T18:17:32","modified_gmt":"2025-02-28T18:17:32","slug":"famous-first-edition-c-63-new-fun-comics-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2025\/02\/28\/famous-first-edition-c-63-new-fun-comics-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Famous First Edition C-63: New Fun Comics #1"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nBy Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson<\/strong>, Charles Flanders<\/strong>, Lloyd Jacquet<\/strong>, Dick Loederer<\/strong>, Adolphe Barreaux<\/strong>, Adolph Shusterman<\/strong>, Joe Archibald<\/strong>, Lyman Anderson<\/strong>, Sheldon Hubert Stark<\/strong>, Lawrence Lariar<\/strong>, Henry Carl Kiefer<\/strong>, Bert Salg\/Bertram Nelson<\/strong>, Clem Gretta<\/strong>, Ken Fitch<\/strong>, Jack A. Warren<\/strong>, Bob Weinstein<\/strong>, Tom Cooper<\/strong>, Tom McNamara<\/strong>, John Lindermayer<\/strong> & various (DC Comics)
\nISBN: 978-1-7795-0119-6 (HB\/Digital edition)<\/p>\n

This book includes Discriminatory Content<\/strong> produced in less enlightened times.<\/em><\/p>\n

Times of hardship and sustained crisis often trigger moments of inspiration and innovation. That\u2019s no panacea for all the hardship that correspondingly accrues but every silver lining brings a crumb of comfort, no? Perhaps we\u2019ll see more clearly in four years\u2019 time…<\/em><\/p>\n

In 1933, at the height of the Great Depression, print salesman Max \u201cMC\u201d Gaines and editor Harry I. Wildenberg devised promotional premiums for stores to give away: cheaply made small booklets that reprinted some of the era\u2019s hugely popular newspaper strips. By adding a price sticker these freebies were transformed into a mass market fixture as seen in 1934\u2019s newsstand retail release Famous Funnies<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Monumental corporate megalith DC Comics began as National Allied Publications in 1935, another speculative venture conceived by controversial soldier-turned writer Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson. He had been writing military non-fiction and pulp adventure stories when he met Gaines and, fired up, took a shot that the new print vehicle had legs. Backing the belief invention with a shoestring venture, he set about mass-producing the print novelty dubbed comic books.<\/p>\n

Wheeler-Nicholson\u2019s bold plan was to sidestep large leasing fees charged for established newspaper strip reprints by filling his books with new material. Moreover, with popular strips in limited supply and\/or already optioned, his solution to create new characters in all new stories for an entertainment-hungry readership must have seemed a no-brainer.<\/p>\n

Cover-dated February 1935, and looking remarkably like any weekly comic anthology ever since, New Fun: The Big Comic Magazine<\/strong> #1 blended humour with action, intrigue and suspense, combining serialized adventure strips with prose fiction, and features. Tabloid sized, and largely scripted by \u201cThe Major\u201d, it was edited by Lloyd Jacquet (who would later helm many of DC\u2019s rapidly proliferating imitators and rivals) with pages filled by untried creators and lesser established cartoonist lights. Issue #6 launched the careers of Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster with adventurer Henri Duval<\/strong> and supernatural troubleshooter Doctor Occult<\/strong>. Hopefully we closet comics historians will see those collected for the curious one day….<\/p>\n

Despite initially tepid sales, the Major persevered, launching New Comics<\/strong> as 1935 closed. The anthology was renamed New Adventure Comics<\/strong>, before settling on Adventure Comics<\/strong> with #32 in 1938. The company was struggling when Wheeler-Nicholson\u2019s main creditors -printer Harry Donenfeld and accountant Jack L. Liebowitz – moved in, taking more active roles in the running of the enterprise. Within two years the commercially unseasoned Wheeler-Nicholson had been forced out by his more adept business partners, just as Wheeler-Nicholson\u2019s final inspiration neared its debut. Detective Comics<\/strong> was a themed anthology of crime thrillers, and when it launched (cover-dated March 1937) it was the hit the company needed. Its success signalled closure of National Allied and birth of Detective Comics Incorporated. Eventually his company grew into monolithic DC <\/strong>(D<\/strong>etective C<\/strong>omics, get it?) Comics<\/strong>. Surviving a myriad of changes and temporary shifts of identity and aims, it\u2019s still with us – albeit primarily as a vehicle for the breakthrough character who debuted in #27 (May 1939). The Major was retained until 1938. Donenfeld and Liebowitz\u2019s acumen ensured the viability of comic books and their editor Vin Sullivan inadvertently changed the direction of history when he commissioned something entirely new and unconventional by Seigel & Shuster for upcoming release Action Comics<\/strong> #1…<\/p>\n

Supplemented by a wealth of ancillary articles and essays, the spark of this particular publishing revolutions is re-presented in full facsimile mode after introductory essay \u2018The Start of Something Big\u2019<\/em> by the legendary Dr Jerry G. Bails, fully supported by \u2018A Second Introduction – This One by Roy Thomas\u2019<\/em> and a reproduction of a rare insert letter from Lloyd Jaquet that came with some of the earliest copies printed…<\/p>\n

Looking remarkably similar in format to any British weekly anthology from the 1930s to the 1970s, the comic had its first feature playing across the cover as Lyman Anderson depicted cowboy Jack Woods imperilled by a rascally bushwhacker.<\/p>\n

Edited by Lloyd Jaquet, the inner front cover declaimed \u2018New Fun Hello Everybody: Here\u2019s the New Magazine You\u2019ve Been Waiting For!\u2019<\/em> before Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson & Charles Flanders debuted \u2018Sandra of the Secret Service\u2019<\/em>; an elegant socialite in over her head…
\n\"\"
\nThe first six single page strips all came with an inbuilt star attraction. As Oswald the Lucky Rabbit<\/strong> an animated lepine tyke had hit cinema screens in 1927, courtesy of bright young men Walt Disney & Ub Iwerks. A year later the creators had been kicked out by Universal Pictures and got revenge by inventing Mickey Mouse<\/strong>. Oswald soldiered on under lesser hands until 1938 and enjoyed a strip of his own. Each 3-panel Oswald The Rabbit \u201ctopper\u201d ran under New Fun<\/strong>\u2019s new stuff, forming a sequence about ice skating and probably crafted by Al Stahl, John Lindermayer & Sheldon Hubert Stark.<\/p>\n

Teen dating dilemmas plagued \u2018Jigger and Ginger\u2019<\/em> by Adolph \u201cSchus\u201d Shusterman and PI \u2018Barry O\u2019Neill\u2019<\/em> (by Lawrence Lariar) faced Tong-&-Triad terrors before Adolphe Barreaux exposed Bobby & Binks to \u2018The Magic Crystal of History\u2019<\/em> and dumped the inquisitive kids in \u201c4000 BC\u201d, even as deKerosett (Henry Carl Kiefer) blended aviation and Foreign Legion licks in \u2018Wing Brady – Soldier of Fortune\u2019<\/em>.
\n\"\"
\nOswald bowed out underneath the first instalment of \u2018Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott\u2019<\/em> courtesy of Wheeler-Nicholson & Flanders before Bert (Salg aka Bertram Nelson) enjoyed some judicial japery with \u2018Judge Perkins\u2019<\/em> before big sky sci fi kicked off in the Flash Gordon manner thanks to \u2018Don Drake on the Planet Saro\u2019<\/em> \u201cpresented\u201d by Clem Gretta (Joseph Clemens Gretter & Ken Fitch) prior to Jack A. Warren introducing comedy cowpuncher \u2018Loco Luke in \u201cNope He Didn\u2019t Get His Man\u201d\u2019<\/em> and Wheeler-Nicholson & Flanders – as \u201cRoger Furlong\u201d – switch to illuminated prose to probe the mystery of \u2018Spook Ranch\u2019<\/em>. It goes without saying, I hope, that many of these groundbreaking yarns are initial chapters of serials so don\u2019t get too invested in what going on…<\/p>\n

Joe Archibald taps into the varsity sports scene with comedic basketball titan \u2018Scrub Hardy\u2019<\/em> whereas Lyman Anderson plays deadly serious with the other, lesser kind of football in \u2018Jack Andrews All-American Boy\u2019<\/em> prior to the opening of a section of ads and features. Sandy beach-based bodybuilding revelations precede a prose vignette on \u2018Bathysphere – A Martian Dream\u2019<\/em> and segue into Joe Archibald\u2019s \u2018Sports\u2019 <\/em>review, a heads-up of what\u2019s \u2018On the Radio\u2019<\/em> and \u2018In the Movies\u2019<\/em> whilst the secrets of \u2018Model Aircraft\u2019<\/em> and \u2018Aviation\u2019<\/em> lead to \u2018How to Build a Model of Hendrik Hudson\u2019s \u201cHalf Moon\u201d\u2019<\/em> …<\/p>\n

Comic treats are topped up with Bob Weinstein\u2019s maritime drama \u2018Cap\u2019n Erik\u2019 <\/em>and Tom Cooper taps into frontier history with \u2018Buckskin Jim the Trail Blazer\u2019<\/em> prior to learning and hobby craft taking over again with \u2018Popular Science\u2019<\/em>, \u2018Stamps and Coins\u2019<\/em>, and something for the little ladies…\u2018Young Homemakers\u2019.<\/em>
\n\"\"
\nTom McNamara heralds another bunch of comics with kiddie caper \u2018After School\u2019<\/em> and anonymous \u2018Cavemen Capers\u2019 <\/em>take us to Barreaux\u2019s \u2018Fun Films 1st<\/sup> Episode: Tad Among the Pirates\u2019<\/em> a faux cinema tale inviting readers to grab scissors and make their own stories, before New Fun\u2019s art director Dick Loederer joins the fun with elfin romp \u2018Bubby and Beevil\u2019<\/em> and provides an untitled bottom strip to literally support a stylish penguin fantasy \u2018Pelion and Ossa\u2019<\/em> by John Lindermayer. Closing the interior amazement is another \u201cClem Gretta\u201d wonder – \u20182023 Super-Police\u2019<\/em> – leaving ads \u2018New easy way to learn aviation\u2019 <\/em>and a full colour enticement for the \u2018Tom Mix\u2019<\/em> Ralston Zyp Gun (you absolutely WILL shoot your eye out!) to close the beginning of it all…<\/p>\n

Fully supported by detailed biography \u2018The Major Who Made Comics\u2019 <\/em>by granddaughter Nicky Wheeler-Nicholson and comprehensive listing \u2018New Fun #1 – the Contributors\u2019<\/em> plus reprint series overview \u2018A Tabloid Tradition Continued\u2019<\/em> and even more memorabilia bits, this is a historical artefact no serious comics fan should be without.
\nFamous First Edition: New Fun #1, C-63 Compilation and all new material \u00a9 2020 DC Comics. \u00a9 1935 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved. Biographical Essays \u00a9 2019 Nicky Wheeler-Nicholson.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, Charles Flanders, Lloyd Jacquet, Dick Loederer, Adolphe Barreaux, Adolph Shusterman, Joe Archibald, Lyman Anderson, Sheldon Hubert Stark, Lawrence Lariar, Henry Carl Kiefer, Bert Salg\/Bertram Nelson, Clem Gretta, Ken Fitch, Jack A. Warren, Bob Weinstein, Tom Cooper, Tom McNamara, John Lindermayer & various (DC Comics) ISBN: 978-1-7795-0119-6 (HB\/Digital edition) This book includes Discriminatory … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Famous First Edition C-63: New Fun Comics #1”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[109,191,280,324,119,97,124,225,127,296,107,210,169,93,99],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-how-to-books","category-adventure","category-animal-antics","category-aviator-strips","category-comicsacademic","category-kids-all-ages","category-licensed-product","category-mystery","category-nostalgia","category-school-stories","category-science-fiction","category-sport","category-spy-stories","category-war-stories","category-westerns"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-8pg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32318"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32318\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32323,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32318\/revisions\/32323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}