[K1ngcat]

Hi People!

We're going back in time to the year of 1939 when mixed bag comics were fairly new and varied in quality. For your reading enjoyment please have a butcher's at these two lovelies...

Wonderworld Comics #7 Fox Features https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=60250

Top Notch Comics#1 Archie/MLJ Comics https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=22232

Consider, compare, and let me know what you make of the contents, I look forward to hearing your views.

All the best
K1ngcat

[The Australian Panther]

Well with Wonderworld comics we have a product of the Eisner and Iger shop, which gives us an opportunity to have an in-depth about that.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eisner_%26_Iger

Eisner & Iger was a comic book "packager" that produced comics on demand for publishers entering the new medium during the late-1930s and 1940s period fans and historians call the Golden Age of Comic Books. Many of comic books' most significant creators, including Jack Kirby, entered the field through its doors. 

And Top Notch is early MLJ - so we are still back at the beginning of the golden age and we can see where the modern US comic industry got started. And a couple of nice ones to read.   
Well done, Kingcat!

[Quirky Quokka]

Hi everyone - Just a few preliminary thoughts on the Wonderworld one.

1. The cover is like clickbait today in that it's scary images would grab the attention of some readers (and later the critics of comic books). It fits with the first story about 'The Flame', but the rest of the stories seem a lot milder. So kids who bought it hoping for a scary or suspenseful ride might have been disappointed with some of the other stories. Conversely, there may have been others who wouldn't pick it up because of that cover and then missed out on some other stories they might have liked. Probably always an issue when you have a diverse collection of comics in the same book. Maybe they were hoping to appeal to siblings of different ages? So if the teenage boy bought the comic, his sister and younger brother would also find things they liked?

2. I hadn't heard of 'Patty O'Day - Newsreel Reporter', so will have to check out more of her stories. It got me thinking about other girl reporters of this era. Lois Lane is the most famous of this and any other era. But I also came across a 1947 Brenda Starr girl reporter comic on this site (in the Ajax-Farrell group). In the Mad Hatter comic from last week, there was a reporter called Barbara Blake, though I guess she disappeared with the Mad Hatter after a few stories. There's Iris West, the reporter girlfriend of the Silver Age Flash, but I couldn't think of any other Golden Era ones. Does anyone know of any others? Among the career girls, having a role as a reporter would have put them in the thick of the action, so it was probably a good move.

3. No doubt this has been said somewhere on this site, but I also noticed there were a few educational features as well as comics (e.g., a short story, a page on wonders that are true, and a page on movie stars). I read somewhere that educational material was cheaper to post than comic books. So if a comic book included some educational features, it reduced the postage.

I haven't read the rest yet. but thought I'd start with those few comments. Any thoughts?

[The Australian Panther]

It got me thinking about other girl reporters of this era.

There were quite a few, being a reporter or a photographer were glamor jobs in that era. Unfortunately I can't remember any right now and a search did not turn up a site or a page dedicated to Female Reporters in Golden Age comics. Someone needs to compile one, i think! Might be a book in it!
Cheers! 

[K1ngcat]

It got me thinking about other girl reporters of this era.

There were quite a few, being a reporter or a photographer were glamor jobs in that era. Unfortunately I can't remember any right now and a search did not turn up a site or a page dedicated to Female Reporters in Golden Age comics. Someone needs to compile one, i think! Might be a book in it!
Cheers!

The Hangman's partner Thelma Gordon was also a reporter.  I  included a couple of issues in Reading Group #266.  The Tiger and The Ruby in #7  https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=22227 where she shanghais him into helping her chase down a story is fun.

[Robb_K]

Hi everyone - Just a few preliminary thoughts on the Wonderworld one.

1. The cover is like clickbait today in that it's scary images would grab the attention of some readers (and later the critics of comic books). It fits with the first story about 'The Flame', but the rest of the stories seem a lot milder. (1) So kids who bought it hoping for a scary or suspenseful ride might have been disappointed with some of the other stories. Conversely, there may have been others who wouldn't pick it up because of that cover and then missed out on some other stories they might have liked. Probably always an issue when you have a diverse collection of comics in the same book. (1) Maybe they were hoping to appeal to siblings of different ages? So if the teenage boy bought the comic, his sister and younger brother would also find things they liked?

2. I hadn't heard of 'Patty O'Day - Newsreel Reporter', so will have to check out more of her stories. It got me thinking about other girl reporters of this era. Lois Lane is the most famous of this and any other era. But I also came across a 1947 Brenda Starr girl reporter comic on this site (in the Ajax-Farrell group). In the Mad Hatter comic from last week, there was a reporter called Barbara Blake, though I guess she disappeared with the Mad Hatter after a few stories. There's Iris West, the reporter girlfriend of the Silver Age Flash, but I couldn't think of any other Golden Era ones. Does anyone know of any others? Among the career girls, having a role as a reporter would have put them in the thick of the action, so it was probably a good move.

3. No doubt this has been said somewhere on this site, but I also noticed there were a few educational features as well as comics (e.g., a short story, a page on wonders that are true, and a page on movie stars). I read somewhere that educational material was cheaper to post than comic books. (2) So if a comic book included some educational features, it reduced the postage.

I haven't read the rest yet. but thought I'd start with those few comments. Any thoughts?

(1) From 1935, when a few more than just "Famous Funnies" also entered the comic book production field and 1939 when comic books with mixed reprints of newspaper strips, and new, drawn just for comic books stories and other features dominated the comic book shelves, the comic book producers were trying to sell books that would appeal to ALL family members, who had shared the comics section of the Sunday newspaper with each other before comic book newspaper strip reprints started.  They could use feedback from these new comics to determine which individual features in these multi-genre publisher's showcase, were the most popular.  Then, they could publish spinoff quarterly or bi-monthly new titles featuring mostly those single, most popular characters.

Eastern Color Printing Co. started with "Famous Funnies". 

Western Publishing started with The Comics/The Funnies, later adding Super Comics and Crackajack Comics as hybrid reprints and new features.  Western soon also started later showcase titles including , "Four Color Comics", "Feature Comics" and "Large Feature Comics".

Jerry Eiger's (Iger's) and Will Eisner's Eisner-Iger Syndicate started "Jumbo Comics", which remained with Iger's Fiction House after their break-up). 

Chesler Publishing started with "Comics Pages" and "Star Comics", and "Funny Pages", all of which were soon sold to Centaur Publishing.

National Allied Publications, predecessor of D.C., started with New Fun Comics Magazine, which morphed into "More Fun Comics", and later added "New Comics" and "New Adventure Comics", and giants like Big All American Comic Book, New Book Of Comics, and The Big BookOf Fun Comics. 

United Features Syndicate started with "Tip Top Comics", and later added "Comics On Parade" and "Sparkler Comics" both featuring a range of different genres of their popular newspaper strips.

Every one of these mid-1930s pioneer publishers of the US comic book industry started publishing new, spinoff bi-monthly or quarterly titles based on one very popular new character or old, newspaper strip character by 1939 or 1940.  Some of them also published new single-genre "Showcase Titles", containing various different, old and new characters. 

For example, Eastern Color Printing (through its subsidiary Columbia Comic Corp.) started "Big Shot Comics, which was another multi-genre showcase title, and later started Mickey Finn, Sparky Watts, Dixie Dugan, Big Chief Wahoo and Skyman.

United Features later spun off "Fritzi Ritz", United Comics (all comedy series), and "The Captain and The Kids".

Western Publishing later started "Walt Disney's Comics & Stories", "Looney Tunes & Merrie Melodies(WB)"(spinning off "Bugs Bunny" and "Porky Pig", "Our Gang Comics"(spinning off "Tom & Jerry"), "The Funnies" was taken over production wise, by Walter Lantz", who changed it to "New Funnies", and used it for a showcase for his animation characters, with b-monthly spinoffs for "Andy Panda" and "Woody Woodpecker". And a new animal showcase title, Animal Comics, with much Walt Kelly work was started, from which the Pogo comic book series stemmed.  Dell also spun off "Popeye", and several non-comedy series from testing them in their "Four Color Comics" series.

D.C. Comics changed "New Adventure Comics" to "Adventure Comics", and added "Detective Comics", "Superman", "Batman" and many other action-adventure-based titles, as well as those from other genres.  They also started a few cartoon-based funny animal showcase catch-all titles, "Comic Cavalcade"(which had started as a superhero/action-based showcase title), "Leading Comics"-same as "Comics Cavalcade", changed to funny animal as "Leading Screen Comics", and later spun off "Fox & Crow", Funny Folks, "Funny Stuff", and "Animal Antics" (all drawn by Sangor Studio animators).

Fiction House started "Fight Comics", "Jungle Comics", "Planet Comics", "Rangers Comics", and "The Spirit" reprinted Eisner's syndicated newspaper comics section, while "Sheena, Queen of The Jungle" spun off from "Jumbo Comics"

Soon, during 1939-41, newer comic book companies were also joining that field, and often starting with multi-genre showcase titles:  Like Arnold/Quality Publications, with "National Comics", "Feature Funnies/Feature Comics", "Smash Comics", and "Hit Comics", leading later to single genre titles, like "All Humor", "GI Combat", "Doll Man", and Funny Animal, and Romance comics.

"Prize Comics" started out as multi-Genre, as did "Crown Comics".

Whereas, Fawcett seemed  to start out in comic books, right away with single-genre titles (Action/Superhero, Military, Western, Comedy, Funny Animal, Romance, Jungle), and not use multi-genre showcase titles, at all, despite their 1940 start.

(2) True.  Monthly, bi-Monthly and Quarterly titles would qualify for the lower, bulk, 2nd class Book postage rate, IF they had "educational material" in them (which meant from 1940-1952(?) (or 1953), at least 2 pages of text, and/or at least one non-fiction text story or information page.  Starting around 1954, it seems that the text page minimum was reduced to one single page.

[Quirky Quokka]

It got me thinking about other girl reporters of this era.

There were quite a few, being a reporter or a photographer were glamor jobs in that era. Unfortunately I can't remember any right now and a search did not turn up a site or a page dedicated to Female Reporters in Golden Age comics. Someone needs to compile one, i think! Might be a book in it!
Cheers!

Great idea. I'm not sure I'll have enough for a book, but I'll start compiling a list. There might be an article in it.

[Quirky Quokka]

The Hangman's partner Thelma Gordon was also a reporter.  I  included a couple of issues in Reading Group #266.  The Tiger and The Ruby in #7  https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=22227 where she shanghais him into helping her chase down a story is fun.

Thank you for that. I've started a list and have added that link so I can have a look. Thanks for the tip.

[Quirky Quokka]

(1) From 1935, when a few more than just "Famous Funnies" also entered the comic book production field and 1939 when comic books with mixed reprints of newspaper strips, and new, drawn just for comic books stories and other features dominated the comic book shelves, the comic book producers were trying to sell books that would appeal to ALL family members, who had shared the comics section of the Sunday newspaper with each other before comic book newspaper strip reprints started.  They could use feedback from these new comics to determine which individual features in these multi-genre publisher's showcase, were the most popular.  Then, they could publish spinoff quarterly or bi-monthly new titles featuring mostly those single, most popular characters.


(2) True.  Monthly, bi-Monthly and Quarterly titles would qualify for the lower, bulk, 2nd class Book postage rate, IF they had "educational material" in them (which meant from 1940-1952(?) (or 1953), at least 2 pages of text, and/or at least one non-fiction text story or information page.  Starting around 1954, it seems that the text page minimum was reduced to one single page.

Thank you for all of that great info about compilations. At this early stage, I guess they were trying out a lot of new things to see which ideas went well.

I first came across the educational component in an archive volume of early Superman comics I own. They had a number of two-page short stories and the occasional non-fiction page where they would give facts about someone, like a famous sportsperson. As well as saving on postage, it was probably a good idea that provided more variety. Though the funniest example I've seen was in a facsimile edition of a 1960 Justice League Comic I own. The Justice League were battling 'Starro' who looked like a starfish, so they included an educational page on different types of starfish. That was probably stretching it a bit, but it was indeed a tie-in. I'll have to keep an eye out for other educational features.

[The Australian Panther]

I'm not sure I'll have enough for a book, but I'll start compiling a list. There might be an article in it. 

A good place to start would be to establish context. Being a Reporter - not called a 'Journalist' then?- seems to
have been one of the first acceptable professions for a woman - along with 'Secretary'. So when did that happen? And what role did female reporters play in the stories? Memory says, since reporters, in fiction, are looking for stories, they were at times at the centre of the action. There were also female reporters in movies.  You've got me thinking!
Spiderman, in the 60's, had a romance with Betty Brant on the Daily Bugle.         

[Robb_K]

(1) From 1935, when a few more than just "Famous Funnies" also entered the comic book production field and 1939 when comic books with mixed reprints of newspaper strips, and new, drawn just for comic books stories and other features dominated the comic book shelves, the comic book producers were trying to sell books that would appeal to ALL family members, who had shared the comics section of the Sunday newspaper with each other before comic book newspaper strip reprints started.  They could use feedback from these new comics to determine which individual features in these multi-genre publisher's showcase, were the most popular.  Then, they could publish spinoff quarterly or bi-monthly new titles featuring mostly those single, most popular characters.


(2) True.  Monthly, bi-Monthly and Quarterly titles would qualify for the lower, bulk, 2nd class Book postage rate, IF they had "educational material" in them (which meant from 1940-1952(?) (or 1953), at least 2 pages of text, and/or at least one non-fiction text story or information page.  Starting around 1954, it seems that the text page minimum was reduced to one single page.

Thank you for all of that great info about compilations. At this early stage, I guess they were trying out a lot of new things to see which ideas went well.

I first came across the educational component in an archive volume of early Superman comics I own. They had a number of two-page short stories and the occasional non-fiction page where they would give facts about someone, like a famous sportsperson. As well as saving on postage, it was probably a good idea that provided more variety. Though the funniest example I've seen was in a facsimile edition of a 1960 Justice League Comic I own. The Justice League were battling 'Starro' who looked like a starfish, so they included an educational page on different types of starfish. That was probably stretching it a bit, but it was indeed a tie-in. I'll have to keep an eye out for other educational features.

True, but I think there was another important factor, as well, in addition to getting the 2nd class postage permit.  The text stories and, especially, the history and science information pages, helped parents, who, otherwise might, or would surely, be skeptical about whether or not these comic books were "worthwhile reading" for their young and early teenage children.  This was especially important for the younger kids, who may or may not have had their own money to purchase them, and depended upon their strict parents to buy them.  Those 2 to 4 pages of "literature", could provide "reading practise" and/or historical or science fact learning, that just mike kick the book over the tenuous line of "minimum acceptable redeeming value" for the buying parent.  And, for the older child, who had a newspaper delivery route, or mowed neighbours' lawns for spending money, or earned a meagre allowance for doing chores at home, and bought his or her own comic books, they could show their parents the so-called redeeming value pages to prove they were NOT wasting their money on "worthless drivel".  I grew up during the 1940s and 1950s, (in Canada, and The Netherlands, and a bit, later in USA, and you can believe me that parents were a LOT more strict with their kids than they have been over the last 60+ years. (probably just as true for The UK and Australia, I'd wager).

[Robb_K]

I'm not sure I'll have enough for a book, but I'll start compiling a list. There might be an article in it. 

A good place to start would be to establish context. Being a Reporter - not called a 'Journalist' then?- seems to have been one of the first acceptable professions for a woman - along with 'Secretary'. So when did that happen? And what role did female reporters play in the stories? Memory says, since reporters, in fiction, are looking for stories, they were at times at the centre of the action. There were also female reporters in movies.  You've got me thinking!
Spiderman, in the 60's, had a romance with Betty Brant on the Daily Bugle.   

There had been, for a long time, women's careers such as schoolteacher, nurse, cook, housemaid, and the like before the 1940s.  But, during World War I women had taken many jobs that men left to fight as soldiers, and at the start of World War II, that became much more of a factor, with USA mobilising much more fully.  Women were getting much higher pay than ever for their work, and being seen to take on much more responsibility, and succeed in doing so.  However, even given that, I don't remember ANY female reporters who reported "HARD News" during the 1940s and 1950s.  There were, of course, women reporting on Fashion events, State/Provincial, Regional, and City Fairs, High Societal events, and some cultural events, and perhaps they were just starting to get into high class Music and Literature Reviews (but that was only begrudgingly given up as they had almost completely dominated by men).

But, I think that the new way of looking at women's capabilities for adequately handling war industry manufacturing jobs that sometimes included lower-level management positions gave more hope that women's roles in other industries would expand and reach higher-level positions.  And THAT was used by comic book publishers to try to get female readers to also buy their new comic book publications.  A very conscientious, young, female wannabe reporter, who was fashion, or cooking reporter/advisor, or was the newspaper's Gossip columnist, begging her editor for the chance to report on a REAL (Hard News) story, was the plot of so many 1940s US films I could be listing them "till the cows come home", and I can remember a few late 1940s and early 1950s UK films with that plot, as well.

[K1ngcat]

Though the funniest example I've seen was in a facsimile edition of a 1960 Justice League Comic I own. The Justice League were battling 'Starro' who looked like a starfish, so they included an educational page on different types of starfish.

Going off on a tangent, I still remember the JLA comic you mentioned, and Starro the Conqueror has recently been resuscitated as the villain in James Gunn's movie The Suicide Squad. That's not a recommendation for the movie, just an observation! 

[Quirky Quokka]

Though the funniest example I've seen was in a facsimile edition of a 1960 Justice League Comic I own. The Justice League were battling 'Starro' who looked like a starfish, so they included an educational page on different types of starfish.

Going off on a tangent, I still remember the JLA comic you mentioned, and Starro the Conqueror has recently been resuscitated as the villain in James Gunn's movie The Suicide Squad. That's not a recommendation for the movie, just an observation! 

Starro was certainly a bizarre villain. I'm not sure I'll be rushing off to see that movie - LOL But I did like seeing all of the Justice League in action.

[Quirky Quokka]

I'm not sure I'll have enough for a book, but I'll start compiling a list. There might be an article in it. 

A good place to start would be to establish context. Being a Reporter - not called a 'Journalist' then?- seems to
have been one of the first acceptable professions for a woman - along with 'Secretary'. So when did that happen? And what role did female reporters play in the stories? Memory says, since reporters, in fiction, are looking for stories, they were at times at the centre of the action. There were also female reporters in movies.  You've got me thinking!
Spiderman, in the 60's, had a romance with Betty Brant on the Daily Bugle.         

Thanks for that. I read a 1960s Spider-man comic recently that included Betty Brant. I did a quick google search earlier, and found a newspaper reporter called Jane Arden who was in newspaper strips from 1928, so she predates Lois Lane by 10 years. There are some of her comics in Feature Comics (under Quality Comics) from about Issue 21 on this site, but haven't had a chance to have a thorough look yet. Also thought of Vicki Vale from the Batman comics who started in late 40s, but I don't know a lot about her. This list could end up longer than I think! And yes, context is important. I have the Lois Lane 80th anniversary celebration book, and the articles included with it talk about how Lois changed depending on what was happening at the times. A very interesting read.

[Quirky Quokka]

I'm not sure I'll have enough for a book, but I'll start compiling a list. There might be an article in it. 

A good place to start would be to establish context. Being a Reporter - not called a 'Journalist' then?- seems to have been one of the first acceptable professions for a woman - along with 'Secretary'. So when did that happen? And what role did female reporters play in the stories? Memory says, since reporters, in fiction, are looking for stories, they were at times at the centre of the action. There were also female reporters in movies.  You've got me thinking!
Spiderman, in the 60's, had a romance with Betty Brant on the Daily Bugle.   

There had been, for a long time, women's careers such as schoolteacher, nurse, cook, housemaid, and the like before the 1940s.  But, during World War I women had taken many jobs that men left to fight as soldiers, and at the start of World War II, that became much more of a factor, with USA mobilising much more fully.  Women were getting much higher pay than ever for their work, and being seen to take on much more responsibility, and succeed in doing so.  However, even given that, I don't remember ANY female reporters who reported "HARD News" during the 1940s and 1950s.  There were, of course, women reporting on Fashion events, State/Provincial, Regional, and City Fairs, High Societal events, and some cultural events, and perhaps they were just starting to get into high class Music and Literature Reviews (but that was only begrudgingly given up as they had almost completely dominated by men).

But, I think that the new way of looking at women's capabilities for adequately handling war industry manufacturing jobs that sometimes included lower-level management positions gave more hope that women's roles in other industries would expand and reach higher-level positions.  And THAT was used by comic book publishers to try to get female readers to also buy their new comic book publications.  A very conscientious, young, female wannabe reporter, who was fashion, or cooking reporter/advisor, or was the newspaper's Gossip columnist, begging her editor for the chance to report on a REAL (Hard News) story, was the plot of so many 1940s US films I could be listing them "till the cows come home", and I can remember a few late 1940s and early 1950s UK films with that plot, as well.

Yes, good points there. Lois Lane was probably doing hard-nosed news stories long before actual female reporters were given the same opportunity, or at least the same opportunity on a regular basis. Though with so many men away during the war, I wonder how many women might have filled in on some of those bigger stories and then had to return to the fashion pages when the men returned? Perhaps there were more opportunities for reporting different kinds of stories in magazines rather than newspapers.

[Quirky Quokka]

(1) From 1935, when a few more than just "Famous Funnies" also entered the comic book production field and 1939 when comic books with mixed reprints of newspaper strips, and new, drawn just for comic books stories and other features dominated the comic book shelves, the comic book producers were trying to sell books that would appeal to ALL family members, who had shared the comics section of the Sunday newspaper with each other before comic book newspaper strip reprints started.  They could use feedback from these new comics to determine which individual features in these multi-genre publisher's showcase, were the most popular.  Then, they could publish spinoff quarterly or bi-monthly new titles featuring mostly those single, most popular characters.


(2) True.  Monthly, bi-Monthly and Quarterly titles would qualify for the lower, bulk, 2nd class Book postage rate, IF they had "educational material" in them (which meant from 1940-1952(?) (or 1953), at least 2 pages of text, and/or at least one non-fiction text story or information page.  Starting around 1954, it seems that the text page minimum was reduced to one single page.

Thank you for all of that great info about compilations. At this early stage, I guess they were trying out a lot of new things to see which ideas went well.

I first came across the educational component in an archive volume of early Superman comics I own. They had a number of two-page short stories and the occasional non-fiction page where they would give facts about someone, like a famous sportsperson. As well as saving on postage, it was probably a good idea that provided more variety. Though the funniest example I've seen was in a facsimile edition of a 1960 Justice League Comic I own. The Justice League were battling 'Starro' who looked like a starfish, so they included an educational page on different types of starfish. That was probably stretching it a bit, but it was indeed a tie-in. I'll have to keep an eye out for other educational features.

True, but I think there was another important factor, as well, in addition to getting the 2nd class postage permit.  The text stories and, especially, the history and science information pages, helped parents, who, otherwise might, or would surely, be skeptical about whether or not these comic books were "worthwhile reading" for their young and early teenage children.  This was especially important for the younger kids, who may or may not have had their own money to purchase them, and depended upon their strict parents to buy them.  Those 2 to 4 pages of "literature", could provide "reading practise" and/or historical or science fact learning, that just mike kick the book over the tenuous line of "minimum acceptable redeeming value" for the buying parent.  And, for the older child, who had a newspaper delivery route, or mowed neighbours' lawns for spending money, or earned a meagre allowance for doing chores at home, and bought his or her own comic books, they could show their parents the so-called redeeming value pages to prove they were NOT wasting their money on "worthless drivel".  I grew up during the 1940s and 1950s, (in Canada, and The Netherlands, and a bit, later in USA, and you can believe me that parents were a LOT more strict with their kids than they have been over the last 60+ years. (probably just as true for The UK and Australia, I'd wager).

Yes, I think you're right there, and was probably even more critical in the lead-up to Wertham's 'Seduction of the Innocent' and the Comics Code. I'm a child of the 60s, so I'm not sure how parents would have viewed comic books here in that era. By the time I was looking at comics, my local stores had lots of Disney, Looney Tunes, Hanna-Barbera and Archie; or they're probably the ones I noticed. No doubt there were ones aimed at boys as well. But yes, parents were still strict about what their children read. One of my older cousins gave me a whole stack of her old pop music magazines, and my Mum burned them all after I asked her what one of the words meant - LOL - I would have only been about 8 or 9 at the time. Now I prefer Golden Age and Silver Age comics.

[K1ngcat]

One of my older cousins gave me a whole stack of her old pop music magazines, and my Mum burned them all after I asked her what one of the words meant - LOL - I would have only been about 8 or 9 at the time. Now I prefer Golden Age and Silver Age comics.

Geez, QQ, that's harsh. Makes me curious to know what that word was! My parents were both teachers but they seemed oblivious to the fact that I was (unwittingly) reading pre-code comics thanks to 50s reprints of 40s material. The worst my Mum ever did was to insist that I "share" my comics. That's six issues of original Lee & Kirby X-Men I'll never get back!

[The Australian Panther]

Quite a few points there I'd like to respond to.

One of my older cousins gave me a whole stack of her old pop music magazines, and my Mum burned them all after I asked her what one of the words meant - LOL - I would have only been about 8 or 9 at the time. 

I can fully understand your mum's reaction. A lot of the success of RocknRoll audience in the 60's came from a female audience and magazines were created - and there were quite a lot of them and they were quite popular - full of photographs designed to appeal to females - believe me, for girls older than 9  years old, it worked.

The Justice League were battling 'Starro' who looked like a starfish, 

Starro was a Gardner Fox creation. Fox had a second career as a writer of Science Fiction stories.
Grant Morrison [I think it was he] when he revived the Justice League - still some of his best work - saw the potential, revived Starro and used the creature to good effect. Starro has been used a number of times since, but the emphasis is on the mind-controlling aspect and the unpleasantness of having a giant starfish glued to your face.

Also thought of Vicki Vale from the Batman comics who started in late 40s, but I don't know a lot about her.   

   
Vicki Vale was the featured love interest in the Michael Keaton Batman movie.
All you'd need to know about Viki Vale.
https://batman.fandom.com/wiki/Vicki_Vale
RE Superman, the adult Lana Lang has at times - we are talking about 80 years of Superman stories - also been a reporter, although she was a TV news anchor. 
https://www.supermansupersite.com/lana.html

After Clark and Lana graduated from high school, Lana went to college, and eventually became a television reporter for Metropolis TV station WMET-TV. As an adult, Lana became a rival to Lois Lane for Superman's affection in various 1960s stories, often appearing in the title Superman's Girlfriend, Lois Lane.
During the 1970s and early 1980s, Lana became an anchorwoman for WGBS-TV's evening news in Metropolis, as a co-anchor to Clark Kent. 

Cheers! 

[Quirky Quokka]

One of my older cousins gave me a whole stack of her old pop music magazines, and my Mum burned them all after I asked her what one of the words meant - LOL - I would have only been about 8 or 9 at the time. Now I prefer Golden Age and Silver Age comics.

Geez, QQ, that's harsh. Makes me curious to know what that word was! My parents were both teachers but they seemed oblivious to the fact that I was (unwittingly) reading pre-code comics thanks to 50s reprints of 40s material. The worst my Mum ever did was to insist that I "share" my comics. That's six issues of original Lee & Kirby X-Men I'll never get back!

My Mum usually wouldn't be that extreme. It was a fairly edgy pop music magazine called Go-Set and they had a columnist who used some choice words. Probably suitable for my cousin who was 9 years older than me, but not for an 8-year old.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go-Set

[Quirky Quokka]

Quite a few points there I'd like to respond to.

I can fully understand your mum's reaction. A lot of the success of RocknRoll audience in the 60's came from a female audience and magazines were created - and there were quite a lot of them and they were quite popular - full of photographs designed to appeal to females - believe me, for girls older than 9  years old, it worked.

The Justice League were battling 'Starro' who looked like a starfish, 

Starro was a Gardner Fox creation. Fox had a second career as a writer of Science Fiction stories.
Grant Morrison [I think it was he] when he revived the Justice League - still some of his best work - saw the potential, revived Starro and used the creature to good effect. Starro has been used a number of times since, but the emphasis is on the mind-controlling aspect and the unpleasantness of having a giant starfish glued to your face.

Also thought of Vicki Vale from the Batman comics who started in late 40s, but I don't know a lot about her.   

   
Vicki Vale was the featured love interest in the Michael Keaton Batman movie.
All you'd need to know about Viki Vale.
https://batman.fandom.com/wiki/Vicki_Vale
RE Superman, the adult Lana Lang has at times - we are talking about 80 years of Superman stories - also been a reporter, although she was a TV news anchor. 
https://www.supermansupersite.com/lana.html

After Clark and Lana graduated from high school, Lana went to college, and eventually became a television reporter for Metropolis TV station WMET-TV. As an adult, Lana became a rival to Lois Lane for Superman's affection in various 1960s stories, often appearing in the title Superman's Girlfriend, Lois Lane.
During the 1970s and early 1980s, Lana became an anchorwoman for WGBS-TV's evening news in Metropolis, as a co-anchor to Clark Kent. 

Cheers!

The magazine was Go-Set, so you're probably familiar with that. A bit more like 'Rolling Stone' so probably not really aimed at younger kids. The Tiger Beat pop type magazines of the time were a bit more family friendly.

Thanks for the extra info about Starro - the mind-controlling aspect is interesting. I just had trouble with them chasing a giant cosmic starfish in that 1960s comic. LOL - And thanks for the extra info about Vicki Vale and Lana Lang. Will make a note to look up those sites.

[Captain Audio]

My youngest niece was about eight when a boy at school called her a faggot. She asked my mom what the word meant and mom didn't know either so they looked it up in the dictionary. My neice, who was very skinny at the time, began crying when she found she had been called a bundle of sticks.

[Quirky Quokka]

My youngest niece was about eight when a boy at school called her a faggot. She asked my mom what the word meant and mom didn't know either so they looked it up in the dictionary. My niece, who was very skinny at the time, began crying when she found she had been called a bundle of sticks.

Oh dear. It's interesting how language changes over time and words and phrases take on different meanings. That would be an interesting study in itself to see what terms used in these classic comics would be considered politically incorrect today. I'm sure those kinds of studies have been done. Always interesting to see how the original readers would have viewed them.

[Quirky Quokka]

I've read most of the Top Notch comic and have a couple of comments.

On the second last page before the ads, they have a blurb about how the comic came to be and what they hope to achieve. They say they didn't rush in, but did a lot of thinking about what readers would like and this is the result. Their vision is 'streamlined fiction, stepped up to meet today's fast pace of living'. If they thought it was fast-paced in 1939, I wonder what they'd think now? But the comics do fit with that action-based style. It's worth reading that page for some insights into their process.

They mention that they're still learning [re how to do comics], and one thing I noticed was that the narration boxes for the comics were often at the bottom of the panel, and sometimes this made the reading confusing. For example, there were times when I read the dialogue and then the box at the bottom, as you would usually do, but found that the narration box was really meant to come first. So I guess at this stage, a lot of writers, illustrators and publishers were still getting the hang of how to put it all together. Though Superman comics I've read from that same era didn't have that problem.

Also there were a lot of educational features - A fact page about boxing and another about sport; a page of interesting facts (in which Hong Kong was still British); a four-page pulp fiction short story with illustrations; a puzzle page; and a true crime comic that showed how forensic techniques were used to catch a real counterfeiter. My favourite part of that story was the bit where they show you how to forge a signature. I'm not sure that's what they wanted kids to learn from a story, but I bet some tried it out.

And a piece of pub quiz trivia -- On the page about boxers, it mentioned that one of them had fought Max Baer. My first thought was that he was the fellow who played Jethro in The Beverley Hillbillies, but I knew the fellow in the comic book would be too old. So I looked him up and discovered that Max Baer Snr was indeed a boxer, and his son Max Baer Jnr was indeed Jethro in The Beverley Hillbillies. I'm sure that piece of info will come in handy one day! 

All in all, I think they probably achieved their aim. This would have been quite an exciting and fun comic for kids at the time. Thanks for selecting it.

What do others think?

[K1ngcat]

My youngest niece was about eight when a boy at school called her a faggot. She asked my mom what the word meant and mom didn't know either so they looked it up in the dictionary. My neice, who was very skinny at the time, began crying when she found she had been called a bundle of sticks.

That's sad. Do you think she'd have been any happier knowing she'd been named after a British meatball made from pork and offal?