[ComicMike]

I have just "discovered" this series and am thrilled. I have looked at some of the comic books and have the impression, that only newspaper strips were printed here. If so, this would be another great treasure trove of newspaper comic strips. :-)

Link to the book: *** Link No Longer Exists: Popular Comics 001 ***

[crashryan]

When I was in college in the 1960s Popular Comics was almost the only place to find prime Caniff-Sickles Terry and the Pirates (1935-1939). I occasionally discovered old issues in the cheap-comics bins. A few years later Woody Gelman's Nostalgia Press produced a nice hardcover collection. Since then Terry has been reprinted over and over in much better editions. But those early treasure-hunting days were the most fun.

[movielover]

As Popular progressed, original work began to make an apperance

[ComicMike]

The CB+ departments "Newspaper Comic Strips" https://comicbookplus.com/?cid=6 and "Single And Small Run" https://comicbookplus.com/?cid=1956 are not only treasure chests, but also time machines. I could imagine, that these old comic strips are also very interesting for some journalism students.

My travel stations on CB+ so far: 1. Superheroes - 2. Anthropomorphic-funny Animals - 3. Old newspaper comics. Let's see where my journey will take me yet. 

[Robb_K]

If you are looking for similar collections of newspaper comic strips from the 1930s and 1940s, you should also look at Western Publishing's "The Funnies" and "King Comics", Eastern Printing's "Famous Funnies", United Features' "United Comics" and "Sparkler Comics", and Chesler's "The Funny Pages" and "Comic Pages", and Centaur Publishing's "Star Comics, and "Funny Picture Stories", and Fiction House's "Jumbo Comics" (also had a fair amount of new features).

[movielover]

King Comics was David McKay, not Western.

[Robb_K]

King Comics was David McKay, not Western. 

Yes, thanks for pointing that out.  I had caught that error while typing a sentence, but seconds later, forgot to change it.  Dell publishing Popeye, and several other King Features strip collections, made me make that assumption, years ago.  It's difficult to shed habits based on first impressions set in stone for years.

But, my mentioning the publishers was so Comikraut could find each comic book on this website, which lists the series by publisher.   David McKay is not a major category, and I couldn't find it among the "Small Press" or "Single Title Publishers". 

So, where can we find "King Comics"?  I've never seen a search function for this website - only the general Google "Custom Search" - which would seem to leave this website, and search on The Internet.

[crashryan]

I have gotten the impression that David McKay comics are still imprisoned by copyright. Either than or they're durned rare. I've looked all over for their comics with translations of "Saturno Contro la Terra" and "I Pirati del Cielo." Can't find them anywhere. I speculate that like Street & Smith comics, somebody still claims them. Can one of our copywrong eagles confirm or deny?

[The Australian Panther]

David McKay is not a major category, and I couldn't find it among the "Small Press" or "Single Title Publishers".

The David McKay titles are not PD. Not every publisher from the Golden Age is PD. Some have renewed their copyright, even tho their properties are not necessarily in use.
David McKay books reprinted a lot of King Comics Properties and as you will see many of these are still being published today.
https://comicvine.gamespot.com/king-comics/4050-32691/characters/
Another company that can't be found on CB+ - for the same reason is Street and Smith
Here is a list of their characters.
https://comicvine.gamespot.com/street-and-smith/4010-46/
As you will appreciate, in more modern times some of these characters have been licensed by other publishers, but they are still under copyright so the Golden Age versions are not PD.
Not sure what other Golden Age publishers are not PD.

[ComicMike]

Robb and all others here, thank you very much for the hints. I suspected early on, that my visit to CB+ would be a long-term affair, but now I'm very sure, that is it so.

[Robb_K]

David McKay is not a major category, and I couldn't find it among the "Small Press" or "Single Title Publishers".

The David McKay titles are not PD. Not every publisher from the Golden Age is PD. Some have renewed their copyright, even tho their properties are not necessarily in use.
David McKay books reprinted a lot of King Comics Properties and as you will see many of these are still being published today.
https://comicvine.gamespot.com/king-comics/4050-32691/characters/
Another company that can't be found on CB+ - for the same reason is Street and Smith
Here is a list of their characters.
https://comicvine.gamespot.com/street-and-smith/4010-46/
As you will appreciate, in more modern times some of these characters have been licensed by other publishers, but they are still under copyright so the Golden Age versions are not PD.
Not sure what other Golden Age publishers are not PD.

Thanks for pointing out that the David McKay titles are NOT PD.  Given that we have NO David McKay series title section, leads me to assume that like Street and Smith, ALL issues of ALL David McKay series are still under a blanket copyright. 

[Electricmastro]

I have gotten the impression that David McKay comics are still imprisoned by copyright. Either than or they're durned rare. I've looked all over for their comics with translations of "Saturno Contro la Terra" and "I Pirati del Cielo." Can't find them anywhere. I speculate that like Street & Smith comics, somebody still claims them. Can one of our copywrong eagles confirm or deny?

I presume the majority of the most frequently appearing features David McKay had in their comic books from the 30s to the 40s aren

[Andrew999]

David McKay is now owned by Bertelsmann, it seems - a company so huge one wonders if it is even aware that it holds the copyright on some 1940s comic books

[crashryan]

Yes, having followed the earlier links and seen the list of characters, I understood. A CB+ McKay comic would probably consist of a bunch of ads and three pages of filler.

[Electricmastro]

Yes, having followed the earlier links and seen the list of characters, I understood. A CB+ McKay comic would probably consist of a bunch of ads and three pages of filler.

Yeah, perhaps if one looked hard enough, one may eventually come to realize a few David McKay features are public domain, similar to how there are hundreds of still reasonably large United Feature Syndicate books on CB+ even with the non-PD material edited out, and of course Dell has much public domain material despite a big focus of their being the non-PD Donald Duck and such. That said though, editing down David McKay books would probably result in so little material that it probably would be too much of a hassle for most people to even want to bother with.

[Electricmastro]

Thanks for pointing out that the David McKay titles are NOT PD.  Given that we have NO David McKay series title section, leads me to assume that like Street and Smith, ALL issues of ALL David McKay series are still under a blanket copyright.

What I

[The Australian Panther]

Very Good list. Thanks for doing it.
1/ PreMarvel was Atlas comics. So Atlas comics are not PD. Not sure where that leaves the 70's new Atlas Comics company. Presumably at some stage they will be PD, because they were a separate entity.

As well as certain comics Jack Kirby worked on such as Boy's Ranch 

Well, that is a mystery to me. I don't know why that would be so. That was a Harvey title and we do have Stuntman here, as well as quite a number of books Kirby did for Harvey, but we don't have 'Fighting American' I think that one has been renewed at least once.

Marvel comics, aside from their Miss Fury reprint

   
The Miss Fury we have, is a different imprint, not a Marvel comic.
Also Dick Tracy is not PD, although there are some early Dick Tracy in the Dell Anthologies.
Street and Smith includes The Shadow and Doc Savage and other pulp characters.
MacKay includes King which includes The Phantom, Mandrake, Prince Valiant.
Also Warner Brothers, so Bugs Bunny and his ilk.
I think Hanna-Barbera characters mostly date from the 60's on, so not PD.
Also not PD - Joe Palooka, Krazy Kat - The original, Milton Caniff's work. [Steve Canyon]
So a lot of the really good stuff that they are still making money out of.
But it's complicated and when it comes down to indivdual titles, gives you a headache.
Example - There is one Dick Tracy title in the Harvey books.But that book doesn't have any work by Chester Gould.
Gives me immense respect for Mark and those who have to make the decisions. 

and my favorite, Max Fleischer's Betty Boop 
About whom,

here is the true story of Betty Boop
https://www.littlethings.com/real-betty-boop-baby-esther

Cheers!   

[Robb_K]

Very Good list. Thanks for doing it.
1/ PreMarvel was Atlas comics. So Atlas comics are not PD. Not sure where that leaves the 70's new Atlas Comics company. Presumably at some stage they will be PD, because they were a separate entity.

As well as certain comics Jack Kirby worked on such as Boy's Ranch 

Well, that is a mystery to me. I don't know why that would be so. That was a Harvey title and we do have Stuntman here, as well as quite a number of books Kirby did for Harvey, but we don't have 'Fighting American' I think that one has been renewed at least once.

Marvel comics, aside from their Miss Fury reprint

   
The Miss Fury we have, is a different imprint, not a Marvel comic.
Also Dick Tracy is not PD, although there are some early Dick Tracy in the Dell Anthologies.
Street and Smith includes The Shadow and Doc Savage and other pulp characters.
MacKay includes King which includes The Phantom, Mandrake, Prince Valiant.
Also Warner Brothers, so Bugs Bunny and his ilk.
I think Hanna-Barbera characters mostly date from the 60's on, so not PD.
Also not PD - Joe Palooka, Krazy Kat - The original, Milton Caniff's work. [Steve Canyon]
So a lot of the really good stuff that they are still making money out of.
But it's complicated and when it comes down to indivdual titles, gives you a headache.
Example - There is one Dick Tracy title in the Harvey books.But that book doesn't have any work by Chester Gould.
Gives me immense respect for Mark and those who have to make the decisions. 

and my favorite, Max Fleischer's Betty Boop 
About whom,

here is the true story of Betty Boop
https://www.littlethings.com/real-betty-boop-baby-esther

Cheers!

I only have Marvel-related funny animal and cartoony human character comics, but from what I've seen, it seems that they started as "Timely Comics" from 1939, and their funny animal titles ran to about 1947 or 1948.  The new books then, 1948 or 1949 started using The "Marvel Comics" imprint. They ran to about 1951 or 1952.  Then they started using the "Atlas Comics" imprint until about 1961 or 1962.  I think there was some overlap time (1 to 1,5 years on different titles at each changeover time.   So, the Marvel imprint had 2 different runs.

[Electricmastro]

Well, that is a mystery to me. I don't know why that would be so. That was a Harvey title and we do have Stuntman here, as well as quite a number of books Kirby did for Harvey, but we don't have 'Fighting American' I think that one has been renewed at least once.

Presumably because Jack Kirby and his king status have been praised and repeated so much that publishers started catching on that they could make money reprinting his older comics, such as how some select issues of Black Magic from the early 50s aren

[SuperScrounge]

Not sure where that leaves the 70's new Atlas Comics company.

A lot of people refer to them as Atlas/Seaboard to differentiate from Atlas/Marvel.

In 2011 there was an attempted revival of some of Atlas/Seaboard's titles at Ardden Entertainment.