I wrote about More Fun Comics #73 recently, the issue that gave DC both Aquaman and Green Arrow, and what stuck with me afterward was the book itself. Eight features crammed between two covers for a dime, and the two characters who'd still be famous 85 years later sat at stories five and six.
That was normal back then, and almost none of DC's biggest names launched in a book with their own name on it. They were strips, one of eight or ten features in an anthology, and most of those titles are gone now.
I checked every debut I could pin down. Nine of them, roughly in order, and who got the cover each time.
Cover dates and on-sale dates are different things, and for most Golden Age books the only "on-sale" date anybody has comes from a U.S. Copyright Office filing rather than a newsstand. I've shared where the Grand Comics Database gives a day from that filing. If I couldn't find a source, I left it out.
1. Superman, Action Comics #1, cover-dated June 1938
This one was by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. Superman got the cover, the famous one where he's smashing a green sedan against a rock, and he shared the issue with ten other features, including Zatara and a strip called Sticky-Mitt Stimson. Wikipedia's account notes that editor Vin Sullivan reportedly worried the cover was too unbelievable to run.
It might be the most reprinted cover in American comics.
About that April 18th, 1938 date you've seen everywhere: it's a copyright registration date. CBR went through it and concluded the real newsstand date is unknown, but probably early May.
2. Batman, Detective Comics #27, cover-dated May 1939
It went on sale March 30th, 1939, the date DC itself uses for Batman's anniversary and the publication date in the issue's U.S. Copyright Office filing. Six pages, "The Case of the Chemical Syndicate," and he was on the cover swinging on a rope with a criminal in a headlock. Nine other strips filled out the issue, including Slam Bradley and a Fu Manchu adaptation.
The byline in 1939 read Bob Kane and nothing else.
Bill Finger, who wrote it, got no credit until DC reached a deal with his family in September 2015. Modern printings read "Batman created by Bob Kane with Bill Finger," and the first comics to carry that line came out in October 2015.
Seventy-six years!
3. The Spectre, More Fun Comics #52, cover-dated February 1940
This was Siegel again, this time with Bernard Baily on art. Ten pages, and his origin carries over into #53. He got the cover and kept it for most of the run.
4. Doctor Fate, More Fun Comics #55, cover-dated May 1940
This issue was by Gardner Fox and Howard Sherman. Six interior pages with Inza and Wotan in them. The cover was Bernard Baily's, and the character on it was the Spectre.
Fate didn't get his own origin until #67, more than a year later.
5. The Flash and Hawkman, Flash Comics #1, cover-dated January 1940
That issue put two future Justice Society founders in one book, both written by Gardner Fox, with Harry Lampert drawing Jay Garrick and Dennis Neville drawing Carter Hall. Jay took the cover and Hawkman ran as a back-up, with Johnny Thunder and the Whip filling out six features in all.
6. Alan Scott, the first Green Lantern, All-American Comics #16, cover-dated July 1940
Martin Nodell drew the strip, sometimes signing as Mart Dellon, and Bill Finger wrote it uncredited, because Golden Age stories usually were. Sheldon Moldoff put him on the cover in costume, so this is one where the new guy led.
Who was he sharing the book with? Hop Harrigan, Scribbly, Red White and Blue, Popsicle Pete, and a character named Gary Concord the Ultra-Man.
Alan Scott is the one DC still publishes.
7. Johnny Quick, More Fun Comics #71, cover-dated September 1941
This issue was written by Mort Weisinger. Doctor Fate had the cover by then, with Johnny sharing the issue alongside the Spectre, Radio Squad, Clip Carson and Captain Desmo.
8. Wonder Woman, All Star Comics #8, cover-dated December 1941/January 1942
William Moulton Marston wrote her as Charles Moulton, with H.G. Peter on art and no credit for it.
She arrived as an eight-page insert at the back, put there to test whether readers wanted more of her. The cover belonged to the Justice Society. Readers did want more, so she got the lead feature and the cover of Sensation Comics #1 the following month.
The most famous female superhero ever created started as a test insert in the back of somebody else's book!
9. Aquaman, Green Arrow and Speedy, More Fun Comics #73, cover-dated November 1941
Weisinger wrote both debut stories, with Paul Norris drawing Aquaman and George Papp drawing Green Arrow. GCD dates the on-sale to September 19th, 1941, and says plainly that the day comes from the copyright filing. September 1941 is the safe version, and the 19th is GCD's call.
Fate was on the cover again, third time in this list.
Three characters who are still getting movies and TV shows, all of them interior strips in a book headlined by a magician in a gold helmet!
Fast forward fifteen years. DC had built a book just for auditioning new characters. Showcase existed to see who sold, and the try-out got the cover on purpose. Barry Allen led #4 in 1956 under a cover reading "Presenting The Flash!" and Hal Jordan followed in #22 in 1959.
Kara Zor-El debuted in Action Comics #252, cover-dated May 1959, by Otto Binder and Al Plastino, and she got the whole cover. DC had floated the idea a year earlier in Superman #123, where Jimmy Olsen wishes a "Super-Girl" into existence and she's wished back out again. When the real one arrived, she led the book!
Want to read the actual pages? Superman: The Golden Age Omnibus Vol. 1 collects Action Comics #1 through #31, and Green Arrow: A Celebration of 75 Years reprints "Case of the Namesake Murders", the More Fun Comics #73 Green Arrow debut. And for Aquaman, Aquaman: A Celebration of 75 Years opens with "The Submarine Strikes," his 1941 debut from that same issue!
If DC ran an eight-feature anthology today for a few bucks, would you buy it? Have you ever tracked any of these down? Original or reprint?
Sound off in the comments below!
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