Quality Comics was an American comic book publishing company which operated from 1937 to 1956 and was a creative, influential force in what historians and fans call the Golden Age of Comic Books .
21-436: Notable, long-running titles published by Quality include Blackhawk , Feature Comics , G.I. Combat , Heart Throbs , Military Comics / Modern Comics , Plastic Man , Police Comics , Smash Comics , and The Spirit . While most of their titles were published by a company named Comic Magazines , from 1940 onwards all publications bore a logo that included the word " Quality ". Notable creators associated with
42-430: A Western comic , changing its name to Crack Western . This format lasted 22 issues until #84 (May 1953), when the title changed again, to Jonesy . Jonesy published one issue with the old numbering system and then restarted (from #2), publishing until issue #8 (Oct. 1954), when it was cancelled for good. Following the demise of Crack Comics and later the publisher itself, many of Quality Comics' characters lapsed into
63-536: A foray into other genres such as war , humor , romance and horror , the company ceased operations with comics cover-dated December 1956. Many of Quality's character and title trademarks were sold to National Comics Publications (now DC Comics ), which chose to keep only four series running: Blackhawk , G.I. Combat , Heart Throbs (each for another 100 or more issues), and Robin Hood Tales (for 8 issues). There has been much confusion over whether
84-601: A large volume of evidence to the contrary. In 1939, Arnold and the owners of the Register & Tribune Syndicate's parent company, brothers John Cowles, Sr. and Gardner Cowles, Jr. , bought out the McNaught and Markey interests. Arnold became 50% owner of the newly formed Comic Magazines, Inc., the corporate entity that would publish the Quality Comics line. That year Quality released Smash Comics #1 (Aug. 1939),
105-476: A small number of original features. The original material came from various sources, including the company's in-house staff and/or freelancers (from the first issue) and the Eisner & Iger shop (from issue #3). A frequent point of confusion is whether and how comic packaging shop Harry "A" Chesler was involved with the company's early days. Several sources list Chesler as the publisher of Feature Funnies , but
126-737: The DC Multiverse : Earth-Quality and Earth-X . While Earth-Quality followed much the same history as the main Earths, Earth-X was radically different from most Earths, in that World War II continued there until 1973, enabling the Freedom Fighters to continue their fight against the Nazis. Crisis on Infinite Earths #11 established a new "Post-Crisis" continuity in which the Quality and other DC characters have instead always lived on
147-593: The Quality Romance Group, owned by Everett M. and Claire C. Arnold, with an office at 347 Madison Avenue, in New York City, published two titles as Arnold Publications, Inc., two titles as Comic Favorites, Inc., and 14 titles as Comic Magazines, Inc. By the mid-1950s, with television and paperback books drawing readers away from comic books in general and superheroes in particular, interest in Quality's characters had declined considerably. After
168-521: The Spider , Madame Fatal , Jane Arden , Molly the Model, and Red Torpedo . The title "crack" referred to "being at the top of one's form", like a "crack sharpshooter ". Notable contributors to Crack Comics included Alfred Andriola , George Brenner , Gill Fox , Jack Cole , Paul Gustavson , Klaus Nordling , and Art Pinajian . Quality Comics published 62 issues of Crack Comics from 1940 to 1949;
189-675: The Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below. Request from 172.68.168.226 via cp1108 cp1108, Varnish XID 215178768 Upstream caches: cp1108 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Thu, 28 Nov 2024 07:51:11 GMT Crack Comics Crack Comics is an anthology comic book series published by Quality Comics during the Golden Age of Comic Books . It featured such characters as The Clock , Black Condor , Captain Triumph , Alias
210-500: The book's pages. Beginning with issue #42 (May 1946) the title went back to a bimonthly schedule, which it maintained until its cancellation with issue #62 (during this time, the title also gradually reduced its page-count from 60 to 52 to 36). Brenner stayed on as editor almost to the end, leaving the post after issue #61 (July 1949). As comics readers' tastes changed in the years following World War II, Quality publisher Arnold responded. Starting with issue #63 (Nov. 1949), Crack became
231-426: The company included Jack Cole , Reed Crandall , Will Eisner , Lou Fine , Gill Fox , Paul Gustavson , Bob Powell , and Wally Wood . Quality Comics was founded by Everett M. "Busy" Arnold , a printer who saw the rapidly rising popularity of the comic book medium in the late 1930s. Deducing that Depression-era audiences wanted established quality and familiar comic strips for their hard-earned dimes, in 1937
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#1732780270987252-435: The company's first comic book with exclusively new material. Initially buying features from Eisner & Iger , a prominent "packager" that produced comics on demand for publishers entering the new medium, Quality introduced such superheroes as Plastic Man and Kid Eternity , and non-superhero characters including the aviator hero Blackhawk . Quality also published comic-book reprints of Will Eisner 's " The Spirit ",
273-485: The decades, DC revived other Quality characters. Plastic Man has starred in several short-lived series starting in 1966, as well as a Saturday morning cartoon from 1979–1981. The character went on to become a member of the Justice League in the 1990s. According to DC canon, the Quality characters, before the 1985-1986 DC revamping event called Crisis on Infinite Earths , existed on two separate realities in
294-610: The enterprising Arnold formed the suitably titled Comic Favorites, Inc. (in collaboration with three newspaper syndicates : the McNaught Syndicate , the Frank J. Markey Syndicate , and Iowa's Register and Tribune Syndicate ). Comic Favorites, Inc.'s first publication was Feature Funnies , which began primarily with color reprints of hit strips from all three co-owning syndicates (including Joe Palooka , Mickey Finn , and Dixie Dugan [all three from McNaught]) alongside
315-460: The material in-house. The syndicated newspaper strip reprints " Jane Arden " and "Ned Brant" disappeared during this period, as well as such recurring features as " Black Condor ", "Don Q", and "Snappy". Cartoonist George Brenner became editor of Crack Comics with issue #31 (Oct. 1943) (Cronin having left the post in Feb. 1942), a few issues before Brenner's character The Clock stopped appearing in
336-499: The only primary source to mention Chesler is an interview with Arnold in which he describes purchasing content from the shop for Military Comics and Police Comics , neither of which began until 1941. An interview with Will Eisner quoted in The Quality Companion indicates that Arnold was not always an owner of Comic Favorites, Inc., but the authors of that reference were unable to find any corroborating evidence amidst
357-577: The original Quality Comics and/or the characters they published are in public domain . The original copyrights for Quality's publications have never been renewed by either Arnold or DC (as no such renewal is on file with the Library of Congress ), leaving those original stories in the public domain. The trademarks to the characters, and to the titles of the various comic book series, however, were sold to DC in late 1956, which has periodically published stories with them in order to keep their claims alive. Over
378-438: The publisher name "Quality Comic Group" was on the cover of Crack Comics #5 (Sept. 1940). With issue #26 (Nov. 1942), at the height of World War II , the title dropped down to a bi-monthly schedule due to wartime paper shortages; with issue #33 (Spring 1944) it became quarterly, also reducing its page-count to 60. It was around this time that publisher Arnold dropped Eisner & Iger as a "packager" and began producing much of
399-855: The seven-page lead feature in a weekly 16-page, tabloid -sized, newsprint comic book, known colloquially as "The Spirit Section", distributed through Sunday newspapers . The name Quality Comics debuted on the cover of Crack Comics #5 (Sept. 1940; see at right). "Seemingly never an official publishing title," the Connecticut Historical Society noted, "the Quality Comics Group is a trademarked name (presumably taking its name from Stamford's nickname of 'the Quality City') encompassing Comic Favorites Inc., E.M. Arnold Publications, Smash Comics, and any other imprints owned by Arnold". A 1954 federal document noted that
420-736: The single, unified DC Earth. New, successor versions of the characters Black Condor and The Ray were introduced in 1992. Both were recruited into the Justice League. The new Ray had his own 1994–1996 series and occasionally appears as a reserve Justice League member. Yet another version of the Ray was introduced in 2011. Some Quality Comics titles, including Blackhawk and Plastic Man , have been reprinted by DC, while lesser-known ones have been reprinted by AC Comics . Quality published comics from 1939 to 1956. Blackhawk (DC Comics) Too Many Requests If you report this error to
441-562: The title was temporarily revived in 2011, when the Next Issue Project published issue "#63". Crack Comics started off as a monthly anthology of 68 pages, often with as many as 15 features. At first edited by Ed Cronin, much of its material was originally "packaged" by the Eisner and Iger Studio . " The Clock ", as well as such newspaper strip reprints as " Rube Goldberg 's Side Show", " Jane Arden ", and "Ned Brant", moved over from Quality's Feature Comics . The first use of
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