DC's other comics

2/17/2012

DC's Other Comics

Based on Will Murray's "DC's Tangled Roots" in Comic Book Marketplace #53 and "The Superhero... before Superman" in Comic Book Marketplace #51, with kibitzing from Robert Beerbohm, Michael Feldman and Jerry Bails. Magazines

In May 1932 Harry and Irwin Donenfeld acquired Pep. La Paree and Spicy Stories after the original publisher went bankrupt. The three titles were published by DM Publishing (Donenfeld's Magazines).

Pulps

Super

Frank Armer, former publisher of the above titles, soon began editing magazines for the Donenfelds, starting with Super Detective, which was originally published by Super Magazines.

March 1934 v1#1

to April 1935 v2#2 .

The comic strip Betty Blake appeared in some issues of this magazine.

April 1934

Culture

Donenfeld and Armer next combined their two favorite genres and started the Spicy line, from Culture Publishing, not that anybody could tell the difference.

According to Aldophe Barreaux, the owners of Trojan/Culture were Harry Donenfeld and Mike Estrow. Estrow would later own Leader News, a major "competitor" of Donenfeld's Independent News.

Spicy Detective Stories

v1#1 April 1934

to v16#5 December 1942

Jan 1935

Spicy Detective was the first to feature comic strips, with Sally the Sleuth who debuted in November 1934, drawn by Adolphe Barreaux.

Almost immediately the company registers trademarks for Snappy Detective and its companions, but never gets beyond producing a couple of ashacans to register the names with. They decided to stick with Spicy instead.

Snappy Detective Stories July 1934 v1#1 ashcan

Snappy Mystery Stories July 1934 v1#1 ashcan

Snappy Adventure Stories Julye 1934 v1#1 ashcan

Spicy Detective was spun off into a whole line of titles, covering the standard genres.

Spicy-Adventure Stories

November 1934 v1#2

to December 1942 v16#5

Spicy Mystery Stories

June 1935 v1#2

to December 1942 v13#1

Spicy Western Stories

November 19/36 v1#1

to December 1942 v10#3

April 1935

June 1935

November 1936

Diana Daw began in the November 1934 issue of Spicy Adventure with art by Max Plaisted.	Polly of the Plains by Joseph Sokoli (not Bill Everett) was the comic strip in Spicy Western

The Astounding Adventures of Olga Messmer, the Girl with the X-Ray Eyes by Watt Dell Lovett began in August 1937 in Spicy Mystery but was dropped in late 1938.	Vera Ray, a science fiction strip replaced her in 1940, also by Watt Dell.
	.

In 1939, Culture Publications severed ties with its former owners, but Donenfeld's wife Gussie was a partner in the new corporation, so the whole maneuver was likely a fake to protect the comic book line from guilt by association..

Merwil

Don Winslow of the Navy

April 1937 v1#1

to May 1937 v1#2

May 1937

Trojan

The Trojan line was originally supposed to be a tamer version of the Spicy line. But the addresses and editorial staff seem to have been the same, and according to Murray they freely reprinted each other's stories.
Lone Ranger Magazine April 1937 v1#1 to November 1937 v2#2	Private Detective Stories June 1937 v1#1 to December 1950 v23#2
April 1937	June 1937
Romantic Western January 1936 v1#1 to July 1939 v3#6	Romantic Detective February 1938 v1#1 to February 1939 v2#1
Jan 1936	February 1938
Candid Detective November 1938 v1#1 to March 1939 v1#3	Super-Detective October 1940 v1#1 to October 1950+
March 1939	October 1940
Dan Turner - Hollywood Detective January 1942 v1#1 to July 1943 v2#4	Hollywood Detective September 1943 v2#5 to October 1950 v10#5
January 1942	December 1943

Speed

In 1943, Culture disappeared and Trojan took over the Spicys, renaming them all Speed, with cleaned up covers to keep the Postal Service happy. All of these magazines bore the Speed bullet. To further disassociate the comics from the pulps, a new distributor, Leader News was set up to handle them.

Speed Adventure Stories January 1943 v1#1 to January 1946 v3#6	Speed Detective January 1943 v1#1 to December 1946 v5 #3	Speed Mystery January 1943 v1#1 to March 1946 v4#1	Speed Western Stories January 1943 v1#1 to January 1948
Jan 1943	Feb 1943	June 1945	January 1943

First Speed Issue 1943	First Speed Issue 1943	First Speed Issue 1943

Fighting Western

02/45

to 09/50

Six-Gun Western

March 1946

to December 1950

Blazing Western

02/47

10/46

By 1947, things started to fall apart as paper was getting harder to find. Trojan finally abandoned all their pulps in 1950 and Armer went into advertising. Under the editorship of Adolphe Barreaux Trojan went into comic book publishing.

Trojan's last pulps were digest sized repackagings of the same old stuff.

Pocket Detective Magazine Trojan

09/50 v 1#1

to 11/50 v1#2

Pocket Western Magazine Trojan

09/50 v1#1

to 11/50 v1#2

Crime Fiction Stories Trojan

12/50 v1#1

Arrow

An alternate publishing company, but I don't know what they were hiding, since the Speed bullet appears on all the covers.

Leading Love May 1945 to January 1947	Leading Western 04/45 to 09/50	Magic Love 11/45	Golden Love Tales 02/46 v1#1
9/46
	Western Love 12/45	Winning Love 5/45 to 11/46	Amour 03/46 v1#1 to ?/4?