Zip Comics was the name of an American anthology comic book series published by MLJ Magazines Inc. , more commonly known as MLJ Comics, for 47 issues between February 1940 and Summer 1944. It featured a number of adventure, humor and costumed hero stories throughout the series, including the first appearance of superhero "Steel Sterling" and the earliest appearances of the humor strip Wilbur , who later had his own long-running series for Archie Comics .
48-423: Zip Comics was published by MLJ Magazines Inc., the precursor to what would become the publisher Archie Comics. In common with MLJ's other three main anthology titles, Blue Ribbon Comics , Top-Notch Comics and Pep Comics , Zip Comics contained a mixture of superhero and costumed hero adventure, mystery, war, detective and fantasy strips. The series was edited by Harry Shorten . The feature story in every issue
96-599: A 'cowboy Cattle Detective' forced to become a masked outlaw doing good in secret after being framed for murder; and the masked gangbuster "Scarlet Avenger" (#1–17). These stories were accompanied in early issues by "Kalthar the Giant Man" 'King of the Jungle' (#1–9) by Lin Streeter and the adventurer "Mr Satan" (#1–9) an 'International Detective and Soldier of Fortune' . Both these stories were replaced from issue #10 by
144-471: A Blue Ribbon Comics checklist over various issues of the comic's run, and Bill Dubay , with art by Trevor Von Eeden and Alex Niño in issue #2 (Dec. 1983). An origin for Steel Sterling followed, in issue #3 (Dec. 1983), leading into a backup feature in another Archie title, The Shield . There were also two new stories of The Fly and Flygirl , featuring Jaguar , by writers Rich Buckler and Stan Timmons, with art by Trevor Von Eeden in #4 (Jan. 1984), and
192-464: A war feature drawn by Charles Biro , about a U.S. soldier stranded in France when World War II breaks out was in every issue but the first. As all comic books did through the early 1960s, to satisfy U.S. Postal Service requirements for magazine rates, Blue Ribbon Comics also contained text stories, sometimes about characters from the comics features, such as the titular cowboy Buck Stacey. With
240-455: A comic-book adaptation of Beowulf for DC Comics in 1975. He wrote some Batman comics before moving on to motion pictures. He initiated Stan Lee 's Just Imagine... and contributed short stories with renowned artists like John Severin , Gene Colan and Richard Corben to it. He wrote some The Spirit comics, before producing the feature film . With only some brief (foreword) writing and editing stints in between, Uslan scripted
288-746: A hands-on producer during the filming of Swamp Thing and The Return of Swamp Thing . In 1979, Uslan teamed with long-time Hollywood producer Benjamin Melniker to purchase the film rights to DC's Batman. As of 2024, he continues to own the rights, now with Melniker's estate following his death in 2018. Starting with Tim Burton 's 1989 film , the pair are credited as producers or executive producers on all Warner Bros. Batman and related films, including various direct-to-video feature-length animated films based on Batman: The Animated Series and The Batman , up to 2019's Batman: Hush . Uslan continues to be credited as executive producer on following films,
336-499: A two-part Fox story by Buckler and Timmons, with art by Dick Ayers and Tony DeZuniga , in #6–7 (March–April 1984). A revival of Black Hood by Gray Morrow took up issue #8 (May 1984). As well as revivals of MLJ/Archie inventory characters, volume two introduced the underwater adventures of "Agents of Atantis" in #9 (June 1984). On the letters page of issue #10 (July 1984), Buckler signaled another editorial change, to "more lighthearted stories", with more Simon/Kirby reprints from
384-525: A variety of Archie superheroes. Reprints including Joe Simon and Jack Kirby stories from Adventures of the Fly #1–2 (Aug–Sept. 1959), and Simon/Kirby Lancelot Strong: Shield stories primarily from The Double Life of Private Strong #1 (June 1959). However, the second volume largely comprised new stories of previous MLJ/Archie characters: a Mr. Justice origin story by writers Robin Snyder, who also provided
432-688: Is an American lawyer and film producer . Uslan has also dabbled in writing and teaching, he is known for being the first instructor to teach an accredited course on comic book folklore at any university. Uslan was born in Bayonne, New Jersey , and was an avid comic book collector from a very young age, owning a collection that included the second issue of Batman and the first Superman comic , among others. He grew up in Ocean Township, Monmouth County, New Jersey , and graduated from Ocean Township High School in 1969, by which time his collection filled
480-750: Is the name of two American comic book anthology series, the first published by the Archie Comics predecessor MLJ Magazines Inc. , commonly known as MLJ Comics, from 1939 to 1942, during the Golden Age of Comic Books . The revival was the second comic published in the 1980s by Archie Comics under the Red Circle and Archie Adventure Series banners. Blue Ribbon Comics was also the title of an unrelated six-issue comic book series published in 1948–1949 by St. John Publications . The first series of Blue Ribbon Comics #1–22 (Nov. 1939 – March 1942)
528-604: The American Playhouse series on PBS , starring Vanessa Redgrave and dealing with the Salem Witch Trials ; the children's geography -teaching Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? game show ; and the subsequent Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego? animated series. Uslan created, co-produced, and wrote a few episodes of the 1980s cartoon Dinosaucers . Uslan and Melniker were also producers on
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#1732787730633576-538: The Green Falcon , a medieval adventurer whose feature was drawn by one of very few women then working in the comics, Ramone Patenaude (#4–15). Two long-running features were "Loop Logan, Air Ace", about an American pilot in WWII prior to U.S. involvement (#4–20), and "Ty-Gor, Son of the Jungle", drawn by Mort Meskin , about a jungle boy taken to America (#4–20). The first superhero introduced to Blue Ribbon Comics
624-559: The Harry "A" Chesler studio, wrote and drew a number of one off-humor strips in the first issue: "Hold That Line", "Ima Slooth", "Foxy Grandpa" and "King Kole's Kourt." Issue #2 (Dec. 1940) had his "Knight Off". He additionally provided two "Crime on the Run" strips, subtitled "True Stories of Crime", in #1 and #3, and "Devils of the Deep", a two-part adventure in #2–3. Will Eisner , future creator of
672-534: The Keanu Reeves -fronted Constantine and associate producers on Disney's National Treasure . He was hired to advise Genius Brands on the use of Stan Lee Universe IP in July 2020. In 2005, Uslan donated his 30,000 comic book collection to Indiana University's Lilly Library (rare books and manuscripts library), a collection which (according to his wife Nancy) "filled three rooms of their house." Uslan
720-596: The Spirit , produced a single humor strip, "Boodini the Great" in issue #1. By issue #4, however, MLJ replaced the humor strips with more adventure and crime stories, and introduced fantasy - adventure characters such as the mythological Hercules in modern-day America (#4–8); the Doc Savage -like Doc Strong by Sam Cooper, set on a desolate Earth 100 years in the future soon after World War II had ended (#4–12); and
768-666: The Web and the Jaguar. A "next-issue" box in #14 announced that a planned but ultimately unpublished issue #15 would feature a sword-and sorcery adventure, "The Cat Queen", featuring Catgirl by writer Paul Kupperberg and artist Pat Boyette . The series by then had been canceled, along with the rest of the Archie Adventure Comics" line. St. John Publications produced six issues of an umbrella series, Blue Ribbon comics, that featured highly disparate contents each issue. It
816-627: The science-fiction feature "Dan Hastings" (#1–2), crime , short humor fillers, and adventure tales such as, from issue #1, "Burk of the Briny" in #1 and Cliff Thorndyke's African adventure "Village of Missing Men". " Rang-a-Tang the Wonder Dog ", the tales of an intelligent dog in the Rin Tin Tin vein, written by Joe Blair and primarily drawn by Ed Smalle, was the only feature to appear in every issue. Another, "Corporal Collins, Infantryman",
864-455: The 2009 six-part story, Archie Marries Veronica . 2011 saw the publication of his autobiography, The Boy Who Loved Batman . Uslan then wrote the foreword to the 2012 Wiley & Sons book Batman and Psychology: A Dark and Stormy Knight , by Dr. Travis Langley. In 2021, it was announced that The Boy Who Loved Batman would be adapted into a Broadway play titled Darknights and Daydreams . Due to Uslan's prior work at DC Comics he became
912-605: The Black Witch", while "Zip's Hall of Fame" in most issues from #28–38 began with heroic stories of wartime American servicemen, but soon moved to the war exploits of a Russian female patriotic hero, Maria Baida , an Irishman fighting in China, Serbian guerrilla resistance leader Draza Mihailovic in issue #30, a 72-year-old female Serb Chetnik guerrilla fighter, Drina Cachalka in issue #34, and Russian military hero Marshal Timoshenko , although issue #33 (Jan. 1943) also contained
960-517: The College of Arts and Sciences challenged the nature of Uslan's course, but gave his approval. Uslan's course, by then-titled "The Comic Book in Society," thus became "the first accredited course on the serious study of comic books." Uslan won fame for his comic book class by anonymously calling a local newspaper reporter and complaining about the course. TV crews filmed the first five meetings of
1008-722: The Flame-Breather , originally a supporting character seen in Steel Sterling tales in Pep Comics , was given his own feature by writer Blair and artist Paul Reinman (#13–19). The patriotically themed Captain Flag , created by Blair and artist Lin Streeter in #16 (Sept. 1941), completed the Blue Ribbon Comics superhero cluster. Mr. Justice was the cover feature from his debut in #9 (Feb. 1941), then shared
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#17327877306331056-638: The Woodpecker" (not the same as the better-known Woody Woodpecker character), "Senor Banana" a comic strip with a continuing storyline, and country folk "The Applejacks", together with text stories of both "Ginger" and "The Applejacks". From then on until the end of the series only one other non-humor strip ran in Zip Comics , orphan Rueben Rueben, "Red Rube", a superhero who could call on the powers of his ancestors (who were all called Reuben Reuben) by saying 'Hey Rube' , and who replaced Steel Sterling as
1104-517: The beginning of the series, Steel has a girlfriend named Dora; after a while, he acquires comic-relief sidekicks named Clancy and Looney. Steel Sterling was supported by a number of other long-running series, the war adventure "War Eagles, the Devil's Flying Twins" (#1–27) by Ed Smalle, concerning two young American airmen who join the Royal Air Force to continue a feud with a German pilot who
1152-415: The course any longer," Uslan took it over and changed it into one that took "an academic approach to the comics, divided into its history, folklore, art, sociology, psychology, and literary/educational value. Looking at their stages of relevancy and fantasy, the many aspects of censorship, their effects on other media, penciling and inking styles, their psychological implications, current and future trends, and
1200-575: The course, by then called "The Comic Book in America ," including John Chancellor 's NBC News . Intending to invite different speakers each semester, Uslan found that Denny O'Neil was voted for by the class so often that he became the regular invitee. Uslan notes that Bob Rozakis was among those passed over in favor of O'Neil. Press coverage led to Uslan being invited to lecture at a number of colleges and high schools, as well as participate in talk shows on radio and TV. His first television appearance
1248-476: The cover with Captain Flag from #16–18, and took over from #19 (Dec. 1941) until the end of the title's run. Blue Ribbon Comics #21 (Feb. 1942) introduced a new direction, advertising on the cover 'new sensational true life features' , with an inside-front cover editorial explaining the title would now mix superhero and adventure stories with real-life tales: 'Just as many thrills, just as much red-blooded reading pleasure' . The last two issues had features on
1296-509: The early 1960s Adventures of the Fly , followed by a reprint in issue #11 (August 1984) of a Black Hood story from Archie Superhero Special Digest Magazine #2 (Aug. 1979), originally written for the unpublished Black Hood #1. The story had already been reprinted in JC Comics #1 (1981). John Carbonaro appears to have bought the work from Archie to publish in JC, then paid Archie to reprint
1344-546: The exception of a reprinted Little Nemo newspaper comic strip story by Winsor McCay in #1, all stories in the comic were new. Reader participation was encouraged; in issue #3 (Jan. 1940) MLJ offered $ 5 for the prize letter of the month and $ 1 for 10 runners-up, and issue #4 (June 1940) introduced the Rang-a-Tang Club , boasting its own registered veterinarian to answer questions on dog health and training. Future Plastic Man creator Jack Cole , then working for
1392-652: The fantasy fairy tale "Dicky in the Magic Forest" (#10–26) by Lin Golden and "Red Reagan of the Homicide Squad" (#10–19). In the early Zip Comics there was only one humor strip, "Mugsy" by Kim Platt (#1-#6), about a dog who always ended up back in the pet shop window because of his escapades. From issue #18 (September 1941) a new strip, "Wilbur", replaced the "Scarlet Avenger". Published four months before MLJ's most successful character, " Archie Andrews ", Wilbur
1440-514: The film and television industry. The classes he instructs ( Live from L.A.: Pros Make Movies , and Business of Production Motion Pictures ) involve bringing people who have worked "in the trenches everyday in Hollywood" to speak to students on the realities of the film industry. Uslan attempted his first comics writing in 1975 at DC Comics ' version of The Shadow and publishing competitor Charlton Comics ' Charlton Bullseye . He also wrote
1488-517: The film industry by sending off over 300 résumés, Uslan "developed a course idea for the Experimental Curriculum program at IU". Uslan recalls that Roger Stern "has been teaching a one-hour credit experimental course on comic book history and art," while he (Uslan) was "having fun with an I.U. Free University course on 'The Comic Book Hero'." Stern and Uslan discovered they shared interests, and when Stern "couldn't stand teaching
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1536-488: The final issue, the talking-animal feature "Dinky", starring Dinky Duck . In the 2000s came two issues of a fan publication, Blue Ribbon Fanzine (Nov. 2005 & March 2006), published by Mike Bromberg and dedicated to Blue Ribbon Comics . These reprinted selected Mr. Justice, Captain Flag and Fox stories from the 1940s MLJ Blue Ribbon Comics that were then in the public domain . Michael Uslan Michael E. Uslan ( / ˈ j uː s l ən / ; born June 2, 1951)
1584-452: The garage of his home with 30,000 comic books. A fan of the darkness inherent in the Batman comics, he was dismayed by the campy portrayal of the character in the '60s television series , which was at the height of its popularity during Uslan's teen years. While still an undergraduate and a graduate at the same time at Indiana University School of Law – Bloomington , attempting to break into
1632-432: The imprint, initially directed at the "direct-sales market" of comic-book stores, repositioned to newsstand distribution and changed the imprint name to Archie Adventure Series , which Archie Comics had used for its superhero line in the 1960s. Concurrently, the printing format changed from glossy Baxter paper to standard comics print. Blue Ribbon Comics vol. 2 published a combination of new and reprinted work featuring
1680-513: The latest being 2022's The Batman , 2024's Joker: Folie à Deux , and the animated Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths trilogy. In addition to the Swamp Thing films, Uslan and Melniker were also credited as executive producers on the '90s live-action Swamp Thing TV series and Swamp Thing animated series, and 2008's The Spirit film, among others. Additional credits include Three Sovereigns for Sarah (1985), part of
1728-647: The life of Galileo , Leonardo da Vinci , and Beethoven , and a tale about malaria in Cuba . Incongruously, MLJ also introduced a short horror story feature, "Tales from the Witches Cauldron" (#20–22) at this time. Despite the change of direction, Blue Ribbon Comics ended with issue #22 (March 1942). The second series to carry the Blue Ribbon Comics name was initially published by the Archie Comics imprint Red Circle Comics. It ran for 14 issues cover-dated November 1983 to December 1984. After four issues,
1776-474: The only "Zip's Hall of Shame", about German S.S. Obergruppenfuhrer Reinhard Heydrich . Eventually, as part of MLJs change in editorial policy from superheroes towards humor comics, although "Steel Sterling" retained his place in Zip Comics , in issue #35 (March 1943) "Wilbur" was joined by teen humor strip "Ginger", and in the following issues MLJ replaced the other costumed heroes with further humor content, such as funny-animal characters "Chimpy", "Woody
1824-566: The role of comics in school systems." Uslan intended that his course on comics gives students the full three hours of college credit, on a par with "history, physics, or chemistry." In order to be eligible to teach the course as an undergraduate, Uslan found a sponsor in Henry Glassie , a professor in the Department of Folklore , who saw superheroes as the logical descendant to Norse , Egyptian and Greek mythology . The Dean of
1872-855: The star on the cover from his first issue, most in a humorous style instead of the war/adventure scenarios of the earlier Steel Sterling Zip Comics covers. The series ended with issue #47, and has not been revived since. However, in August 2009 Michael Uslan announced that five one-off comics reviving the Archie-as-superhero 'Pureheart' concept would be released in 2010, one of those titles being Zip Comics . A short-lived U.K. underground comix imprint cOZmic Comics , published by H.Bunch Associates Publications, issued an unrelated 36-page Zip Comics in 1973, featuring mainly strips by British cartoonist Edward Barker and some early Dave Gibbons artwork. Blue Ribbon Comics Blue Ribbon Comics
1920-602: The tale in Archie/Red Circle Comics. Characters from other publishing companies were featured in the following issues: First came Tower Comics ' T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents in #12 (Sept. 1984), with art by Steve Ditko on a back-up story starring NoMan , one of the Agents. Martin L. Greim 's company-hopping Thunderbunny starred in #13 (Oct. 1984), in a story also featuring Archie Comics' Mighty Crusaders superhero team. The last issue, #14 (Nov. 1984), teamed
1968-419: Was a 64-page anthology comic published by MLJ Magazines Inc., commonly known as MLJ Comics, the precursor to what would become the publisher Archie Comics . Issues #9–18 and #22 were cover-titled Blue Ribbon Mystery Comics . The series was edited by Harry Shorten . The first title published by MLJ, Blue Ribbon Comics initially ran a mixture of content, in the manner of most early comic books. These included
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2016-592: Was alongside writers Steve Englehart and Gerry Conway . It also led to phone calls from Stan Lee , and eventually to a job offer from DC Comics . Uslan wrote a textbook dealing with his course, The Comic Book in America (Indiana University, 1971). At Indiana University , Uslan is a Professor of Practice. In 2014, Uslan began instructing as a Professor of Practice at Indiana University , and has been implementing experiential learning in media school courses to better prepare students for their potential careers in
2064-462: Was also a teen humor strip that outlasted his home title, graduating to his own long-running series in 1944 after appearing for the rest of the Zip Comics run. He was soon joined by two other costumed heroes, "Black Jack" (#20–35) who replaced Red Reagan, and, replacing "Nevada Jones", "The Web" (#27–38) who was also the subject of text stories in most issues he featured in. Three issues during this period contained one-off supernatural tales, "Stories of
2112-721: Was in the two-issue feature " Bob Phantom , the Scourge of the Underground" (#2–3), with early work by artist Irv Novick . Bob Phantom moved to Pep Comics and was shortly followed by the Fox (#4–22), a costumed adventure hero created by writer Joe Blair and artist Irwin Hasen who would return during the 1960s in several Archie comics series. Next was Mr. Justice (#9–22), a ghostly superhero also created by writer Blair although mainly scripted by Charles Biro with artist Sam Cooper. Inferno
2160-404: Was published from late 1948 to mid-1949, with only issue #4–5 given cover dates (June & Aug. 1949) but postal indicia given as February to August 1949. The series starred the movie studio Terry Toons ' talking animal characters Heckle and Jeckle in issues #1 & 3; the romance -themed Diary Secrets in issues #2, 4 & 5 (the last two fully titled Teen-Age Diary Secrets ), and, in
2208-439: Was the honorary speaker at the 2006 Indiana University commencement ceremonies, held on May 6, 2006. Uslan was the honorary speaker at the 2012 Westfield State University commencement ceremonies, held on May 19, 2012. With his co-executive producers, Uslan won a 1995 Daytime Emmy for Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego? , and he was also awarded an Independent Spirit Award at the 2005 Garden State Film Festival . In 2011, he
2256-451: Was the superhero Steel Sterling, drawn by Irv Novick and originally written by Abner Sundell and Charles Biro ; later issues were written by Joe Blair. Steel is a chemist who dunks himself into a chemically-treated cauldron of bubbling molten steel, hardening his body and making him "the Man of Steel", a sobriquet not adopted for DC Comics ' Superman until some years after this series ended. At
2304-737: Was their fencing adversary; "Captain Valor" 'the hard-bitten adventurer' by Mort Meskin (#1–26), who 'resigns his commission in the U.S. Marine Corps to seek adventure, because the Marines are no longer exciting enough for him' and heads for the Far East; the costumed crime-fighting magician "Zambini the Miracle Man" – (#1–35), called "The Miracle Man, Zambini the Magician" in issue #1 only, by Ed Wexler, "Nevada Jones, Quick Trigger Man" (#1–25),
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