{"id":34047,"date":"2025-10-24T08:00:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T08:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=34047"},"modified":"2025-10-16T15:13:57","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T15:13:57","slug":"all-star-comics-archives-volume-0-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2025\/10\/24\/all-star-comics-archives-volume-0-2\/","title":{"rendered":"All Star Comics Archives volume 0"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nBy Gardner Fox<\/strong>, Jerry Siegel<\/strong>, Ken Fitch<\/strong>, Bill Finger<\/strong>, John B. Wentworth<\/strong>, Sheldon Moldoff<\/strong>, Sheldon Mayer<\/strong>, Albert & Joseph Sulman<\/strong>, Creig Flessel<\/strong>, Jon L. Blummer<\/strong>, Martin Nodell<\/strong>, E.E. Hibbard<\/strong>, Chad Grothkopf<\/strong>, Stan Aschmeier<\/strong>, Bernard Baily<\/strong>, Howard Purcell<\/strong>, William Smith <\/strong>& various (DC Comics)
\nISBN: 978-1-4012-0791-X (HB)<\/p>\n

Win\u2019s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Golden Moments for All\u2026 9\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

I will never stop saying it: the creation of the Justice Society of America<\/strong> in 1941 utterly changed the shape of the budding comicbook industry. However, before that team of All-Stars could unite, they had to become popular enough to qualify, and this slim yet superb hardcover sampler gathers a selection of individual exploits featuring many of the soon-to-be beloved champions who would populate the original big team and guarantee their immortality long after the Golden Age of American Comics ended.<\/p>\n

Following the runaway successes of Superman <\/strong>and Batman<\/strong>, both National Comics and its wholly separate-but-equal publishing partner All-American Comics were looking for the next big thing in funnybooks whilst frantically concentrating on getting anthology packages into the hands of the hungry readership. Thus All Star Comics<\/strong>: conceived as a joint venture to give the characters already in their stables an extra push towards winning an elusive but lucrative solo title.<\/p>\n

As scrupulously detailed in Roy Thomas\u2019s history-packed Foreword<\/em>, characters from Flash Comics<\/strong>, Adventure Comics<\/strong>, More Fun Comics<\/strong> and All-American Comics<\/strong> were bundled into the new (anthological) quarterly with \u2018A Message from the Editors\u2019<\/em> requesting readers vote on the most popular, and even offering free copies of forthcoming issues as prizes\/bribes for participating…<\/p>\n

The merits of the project would never be proved: rather than a runaway favourite graduating to their own starring vehicle, something different evolved. For the third issue, prolific scripter Gardner Fox apparently had the smart idea of linking the solo stories through a framing sequence as the heroes got together for dinner and a chat about their most recent cases. With the simple idea that Mystery Men hung around together, history was made and from #4 the heroes would regularly unite to battle a shared foe…<\/p>\n

This slim sublime hardcover tome collects the stories from the first two All Star Comics<\/strong> (cover-dates Summer and Fall 1940) and opens with a tale of a fantastic winged warrior…<\/p>\n

Although perhaps one of DC\u2019s most resilient and certainly their most visually iconic character, iterations of Hawkman <\/strong>have always struggled to find enough of an audience to sustain a solo title.<\/p>\n

From his beginnings as one of the B-features in Flash Comics<\/strong>, Carter Hall<\/em> soared through assorted engaging, exciting but always short-lived reconfigurations. Over decades from ancient hero to re-imagined alien space-cop and post-Crisis on Infinite Earths<\/strong> freedom fighter, or the seemingly desperate but highly readable mashing together of all previous iterations into the reincarnating immortal berserker-warrior of today, the Pinioned Paladin has performed exemplary service without ever really making it to the big time.<\/p>\n

Created by Gardner Fox & Dennis Neville, he premiered in Flash Comics<\/strong> #1 (cover-dated January 1940, but on sale from 20th<\/sup> November 1939) and stayed there, growing in quality and prestige until the title died, with the most celebrated artists to have drawn the Winged Wonder being Sheldon Moldoff and Joe Kubert, whilst a young Robert Kanigher was justly proud of his later run as writer. For over a decade, with his partner Hawkgirl\/Hawkwoman<\/strong>, the gladiatorial mystery-man countered uncanny and fantastic arcane threats, battled modern crime and opposed tyranny with weapons of the past before vanishing with the bulk of costumed heroes as the 1950s began.<\/p>\n

His last appearance was in All Star Comics<\/strong> #57 (1951) as leader of the Justice Society of America<\/strong>, before the husband-&-wife hellions were revived and re-imagined nine years later as Katar Hol<\/em> and Shayera Thal<\/em> of planet Thanagar by Julie Schwartz\u2019s crack creative team Gardner Fox, Joe Kubert & Murphy Anderson. Their long career, numerous revamps and perpetual retcons ended during the 1994 Zero Hour<\/strong> crisis, but they\u2019ve reincarnated and returned a few times since then too…<\/p>\n

Here Fox & Sheldon Moldoff offered the eldritch saga of \u2018Sorcerer Trygg\u2019<\/em>, wherein the still-bachelor hero travels to the mountains of Wales to crush a callous capitalist making zombies to work the mines he had stolen from his nephew and niece.<\/p>\n

The Sandman<\/strong> premiered in either Adventure Comics<\/strong> #40 July 1939 (two months after Batman debuted in Detective Comics<\/strong> #27) or possibly two weeks earlier in New York World\u2019s Fair Comics 1939<\/strong>, depending on which distribution records you choose to believe. He was originated and illustrated by multi-talented all-rounder Bert Christman with the assistance of rising scripting star Gardner F. Fox…<\/p>\n

Head utterly obscured by a gas-mask and slouch hat; caped, business-suited millionaire adventurer Wesley Dodds<\/em> was cut from the radio drama\/pulp fiction mystery-man mould that had made The Shadow<\/strong>, Green Hornet<\/strong>, Black Bat<\/strong> and so many others household names and monster hits of early mass-entertainment and periodical publication. Wielding a sleeping-gas gun and haunting the night hunt killers, crooks and spies, he was eventually accompanied by plucky paramour Dian Belmont<\/em>, before gradually losing the readers\u2019 interest. His fortunes revived when Joe Simon & Jack Kirby took over the feature, but here, in his salad days, Fox & Chad Grothkopf spectacularly pit him against \u2018The Twin Thieves\u2019<\/em> baffling and bamboozling the hapless cops with their murderous jewel capers…<\/p>\n

Gary Concord, the Ultra-Man<\/em> premiered in All-American Comics<\/strong> #8 (cover-dated November 1939) the son of a 20th<\/sup>\u00a0century scientist awoken from suspended animation in 2174AD and blessed with incredible physical abilities. His son inherited these attributes and became guardian of a troubled future and official High Moderator of the United States of North America<\/em>…<\/p>\n

Created by Jon L. Blummer working as \u201cDon Shelby\u201d the Buck Rogers<\/strong>-inspired serial ran until A-AC<\/strong> #19 and is represented here with a then-topical threat in \u2018The European War of 2240\u2019 <\/em>wherein conflict orchestrated in a foreign zone allows a scurrilous third party nation to attempt seizure of neutral America\u2019s Uranium mines. Naturally, bombastic politico Ultra-Man quickly scotches the scheme and restored peace and prosperity to the world…<\/p>\n

Devised, created and written by Fox and first drawn by Harry Lampert, Jay Garrick <\/em>debuted as the very first Monarch of Motion in Flash Comics<\/strong> #1 and quickly – how else? – became a veritable sensation. He was the first AA character to win a solo title, mere months after All-Star Comics<\/strong> #3 hit the newsstands.<\/p>\n

The Fastest Man Alive wowed readers in anthologies Flash Comics<\/strong>, Comics Cavalcade<\/strong> and All Star<\/strong> as well as All-Flash Quarterly<\/strong> for just over a decade before changing tastes benched him and most other Mystery Man heroes in the early1950s. His invention as a single power superhero triggered a new trend in the burgeoning action-adventure funnybook marketplace, and his particular riff was replicated many times at various companies as myriad Fast Furies sprang up. Then, he paused and only after over half a decade of interchangeable cops, robbers, horrors, cowboys and cosmic invaders, the concept of human rockets and superheroes in general was spectacularly revived in 1956 by Julie Schwartz in Showcase<\/strong> #4 when police scientist Barry Allen<\/em> became the second hero to run with the concept.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been non-stop ever since…<\/p>\n

Here Garrick speedily solves \u2018The Murder of Widow Jones\u2019<\/em> (by Fox and signature illustrator Everett E. Hibbard) in the time it takes the cops to simply report that a crime has been committed…<\/p>\n

The Spectre<\/strong> is one of the oldest characters in DC\u2019s vast pantheon, created by Jerry Siegel & Bernard Baily in 1940 and debuting with a 2-part origin epic in More Fun Comics<\/strong> #52-53.<\/p>\n

Initially the Ghostly Guardian reigned supreme in the title, in flamboyant and eerily eccentric supernatural thrillers, but gradually he slipped from popularity as firstly Dr. Fate<\/strong> and successively Johnny Quick<\/strong>, Aquaman<\/strong>, Green Arrow<\/strong> and finally Superboy<\/strong> turned up to steal the show. By the time of his last appearance, the Spectre had been reduced to a foil for his own comedic sidekick Percival Popp, the Super-Cop<\/em>…<\/p>\n

The Astral Avenger was Jim Corrigan<\/em>, a hard-bitten police detective who was about to marry rich heiress Clarice Winston<\/em> when they were abducted by mobster Gat Benson<\/em>. Stuffed into a barrel of cement and pitched off a pier, Corrigan died and went to his eternal reward. Almost.<\/p>\n

Rather than finding Paradise and peace, Corrigan\u2019s spirit was accosted by a glowing light and disembodied voice which, over his strident protests, ordered him to return to Earth to fight crime and evil until all vestiges of them were gone. Just like Siegel\u2019s other iconic creation, the Dark Man suffered from a basic design flaw: he was just too darn powerful. Unlike the vigorously vital and earthy early Superman, however, the arcane agent of justice was already dead, so he couldn\u2019t be logically or dramatically be imperilled.<\/p>\n

Of course in those far-off early days that wasn\u2019t nearly as important as sheer spectacle: grabbing a reader\u2019s utter attention and keeping it stoked to a fantastic fever pitch. This the Grim Ghost could do with ease and always-increasing intensity. In \u2018The Tenement Fires\u2019<\/em> Siegel & Baily pulled out all the stops for a sinister struggle against merciless arsonists with the Ethereal Avenger recruiting recently murdered victims to help dispense final judgement…<\/p>\n

Although we think of the Golden Age as a superhero wonderland, the true guiding principle was variety. Almost every comic book also offered a range of genre features from slapstick comedy to prose thrillers to he-man adventure on its four-colour pages, and More Fun Comics<\/strong> had its fair share of straight adventurers like freelance troubleshooter Biff Bronson<\/em>, who debuted in #43 (May 1939) with sidekick Dan Druff<\/em> for a near 30-issue run thrashing thugs, crushing crooks and exposing espionage. He last appeared in #67. Here the special agent exposes scurvy spy \u2018The Great Remembo\u2019<\/em> in a smart thriller deftly detailed by brothers Albert & Joseph Sulman.<\/p>\n

At this time all comic books featured a prose story, and in All Star<\/strong> #1 Publisher Max Gaines\u2019 niece Evelyn contributed a fanciful science fiction romp entitled \u2018Exile to Jupiter\u2019<\/em> that wasn\u2019t up to much but was graced with illustrations by the wonderful Sheldon Mayer. Then the comics sagas resumed with The Hour-Man<\/strong> stepping in to combat \u2018The Forest Fires\u2019<\/em> in a moody drama by Ken Fitch & Bernard Baily. He\u2019d started strongly in Adventure Comics<\/strong> #48 (March 1940) but slowly ran down until he faded away in #83, February 1943. \u2018Tick-Tock Tyler, the Hour-Man\u2019<\/em> began by offering his unique services through classified ads to any person in need. Chemist Rex Tyler<\/em> had invented a drug he called Miraclo<\/em> which super-energised him for 60 minutes at a time and here he helped beleaguered loggers enduring sabotage and murder…<\/p>\n

The first issue closed with long-lived, much-loved, light-hearted military strip Red, White and Blue<\/strong> by Jerry Siegel & William Smith. Marine Sergeant Red Dugan<\/em>, Whitey Smith<\/em> of the US Army and Naval Rating Blooey Blue<\/em> were good friends who frequently worked for military intelligence service G-2 whilst saving trouble magnet Doris West<\/em> from her own dangerously inquisitive nature. The series began in All-American Comics<\/strong> #1 (April 1939): running there and in sundry other titles like World\u2019s Finest Comics <\/strong>until 1946, with the trio turning up all over the world solving the USA\u2019s problems.<\/p>\n

Here they find themselves despatched to Alaska to find a missing G-2 agent, only to discover Doris already there exposing a slow infiltration by sneaky \u201cAsiatics\u201d of an ostensibly neutral nation in \u2018The Volcano Invasion\u2019<\/em>.<\/p>\n

All Star Comics<\/strong> #2 immediately follows with Hawkman (by Fox & Moldoff) fighting an Aztec cult in America and the jungles of Mexico, desperately seeking to rescue the latest kidnapped \u2018Sacrifice for Yum-Chac\u2019<\/em>…<\/p>\n

Green Lantern<\/strong> then debuts in \u2018The Robot Men\u2019 <\/em>by Bill Finger & Martin Nodell. In fact, the Emerald Gladiator was first seen All-American Comics<\/strong> #16 (July 1940 and practically simultaneously with this All Star<\/strong> appearance), devised by up-&-coming cartoonist Nodell and fully fleshed out by Finger in the same way he had with Bob Kane\u2019s Batman.<\/p>\n

Green Lantern was another sensation, becoming AA\u2019s second smash hit six months after The Flash and preceding by 18 months the unprecedented success of Amazing Amazon Wonder Woman<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Engineer Alan Scott<\/em> survived the sabotage and destruction of a passenger-packed train due only to the intervention of a battered old railway lantern. Bathed in its eerie verdant glow, he was regaled by a mysterious green voice with the legend of how a meteor fell in ancient China and spoke to the people: predicting Death, Life and Power. Instructing Scott to fashion a ring from its metal and draw a charge of power from the lantern every 24 hours, the ancient artefact urged the engineer to use his formidable willpower to end all evil – a mission Scott eagerly embraced. The ring made him immune to all minerals and metals, and enabled him to fly and pass through solid matter amongst many other miracles, but was powerless against certain organic materials such as wood or rubber which could penetrate his jade defences and cause him mortal harm…<\/p>\n

He won his own solo title within a year of his launch and feature-starred in many anthologies like Comics Cavalcade<\/strong> for just over a decade, before he too blinked out in the early1950s, having first suffered the humiliating fate of being edged out of his own comic book by his pet, Streak the Wonder Dog<\/em>…<\/p>\n

In this issue, however, he was at his mightiest and most impressive, battling a nationwide invasion of men turned into shambling monster slaves by an enemy spy…<\/p>\n

Siegel & Baily then expose The Spectre to \u2018The Curse of Kulak\u2019<\/em>, wherein an antediluvian sorcerer returns to punish mankind for desecrating his tomb: inundating the world with a plague of murderous hatred, after which The Sandman\u2019s second stint delivers a spooky science thriller by Fox & Creig Flessel with the Man of Mystery tracking down a killer using a deadly radioactive weapon – \u2018The Glowing Globe\u2019<\/em> – to terrorise and rob.<\/p>\n

Siegel & William Smith\u2019s \u2018Invisible Ink Gas\u2019<\/em> pits Red, White & Blue against spies with a diabolical scheme for stealing Army documents whilst Johnny Thunderbolt<\/em>\u2019s All Star<\/strong> debut adds even more light-hearted shenanigans to the mix as the imbecilic genie-wielder becomes guardian of \u2018The Darling Apartment\u2019<\/em> (John B. Wentworth & Stan Aschmeier).<\/p>\n

Johnny Thunder<\/strong> – as he eventually became – was an honest, well-meaning, courageous soul who was also a grade \u201cA\u201d idiot. However, what he lacked in smarts he made up for with sheer luck, unfailing pluck and unwitting control of an irresistible magic force. The feature always played for action-packed laughs but there was no getting away from it: Johnny was a simpleton in control of an ultimate weapon…<\/p>\n

Decades before, the infant seventh son of a seventh son had been abducted by priests from mystic island Badhnisia<\/em> and raised as the long-foretold controller of a fantastic magical weapon. This was done by voicing the eldritch command \u201cCei-U\u201d – which sounds to western ears awfully like \u201csay, you\u201d…<\/p>\n

Each month Johnny would look for gainful employment, stumble into a crime or crisis and his voluble temperament would result in an inexplicable unnatural phenomenon that would solve the problem but leave him no better off. It was a winning theme that lasted until 1947 – by which time the Force had resolved into a wisecracking thunderbolt-shaped genie – and Johnny was ousted from his own strip by sultry new crimebuster Black Canary<\/strong>…<\/p>\n

For now, though, back in America and seeking his fortune, Johnny spent lots of time trying to impress his girlfriend Daisy Darling<\/em>\u2019s dad. In this episode the irate property magnate is experiencing difficulties with a new building he\u2019s erecting and Johnny decides to tackle head-on mobsters holding up production. After Evelyn Gaines text vignette \u2018The Invisible Star\u2019<\/em>, Hour-Man crushes murderous charlatan \u2018Dr. Morte, Spiritualist\u2019<\/em> (Fitch & Baily) before the Flash closes out this stunning show in fine form, foiling thugs who kidnap an entire publishing company, by becoming \u2018The One-Man Newspaper\u2019<\/em> in a fast, furious, funny thriller from Fox & Hibbard.<\/p>\n

With the entire Justice Society canon collected in eleven dedicated Archive Editions, this particularly impressive afterthought completed the resurrection of the rare and eccentric material which revolutionised comic books. Hopefully the new DC Finest<\/strong> reprint line will revive and reinvigorate the readers\u2019 taste for these relics. These early adventures might not be to every modern fan\u2019s taste but they certainly stand as an impressive and joyous introduction to the fantastic worlds and exploits of the World\u2019s First Superheroes. If you have a love of the way things were, a hankering for simpler times remarkable for less complicated adventures of bold days and dark nights, this is another glorious collection you\u2019ll cherish forever…
\n\u00a9 1940, 2006 DC Comics, Inc. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n

Speaking of Dark Nights, today in 1915 Bob Kane<\/strong> was born. Whatever happened to him?<\/p>\n

Ten years later, Al Feldstein <\/strong>entered the world. By the time he left it again he\u2019d been Editor of Mad Magazine<\/strong> for 28 years after co-scripting and drawing the EC comics revolution, as seen in collections like Child of Tomorrow and Other Stories<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Gardner Fox, Jerry Siegel, Ken Fitch, Bill Finger, John B. Wentworth, Sheldon Moldoff, Sheldon Mayer, Albert & Joseph Sulman, Creig Flessel, Jon L. Blummer, Martin Nodell, E.E. Hibbard, Chad Grothkopf, Stan Aschmeier, Bernard Baily, Howard Purcell, William Smith & various (DC Comics) ISBN: 978-1-4012-0791-X (HB) Win\u2019s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Golden Moments for All\u2026 9\/10 … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “All Star Comics Archives volume 0”<\/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":[191,91,82,151,68],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventure","category-flash","category-green-lantern","category-sandman","category-the-spectre"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-8R9","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34047","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=34047"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34048,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34047\/revisions\/34048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}