Quality Comics
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Crack Comics #1 (May 1940), featured The Clock, introduced in 1936 as the first masked crime-fighter in American comic books. |
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Hit Comics #1 (July 1940), the first appearance of the Red Bee. |
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Doll Man on the cover of Feature Comics #77 (April 1944) |
There have been two
comic book publishing companies by the name
Quality Comics. The earlier was a
U.S.-based company that operated from
1939 to
1956 and was an influential creative force in the
Golden Age of comic books.
The U.S. company was started by
Everett M. "Busy" Arnold, a printer who saw the rapidly rising popularity of the comic book medium and decided to join the industry. He began by buying out the title
Feature Funnies and added new titles which became the basis of the company.
By the mid-1950s, interest in its stable of characters had declined considerably. After a foray into other genres such as war, humor and horror, the company ceased operations with comics cover-dated December 1956. Many of its properties were sold to National Periodical Publications (now
DC Comics) which chose to keep only a few titles running, such as
Blackhawk and
GI Combat.
Over the decades, DC revived other Quality characters, including
Plastic Man and a group of characters in the short-lived 1970s series
Freedom Fighters. Other than
Plastic Man, who has been a member of the
Justice League and has his own ongoing series, most of the stable are occasional supporting characters in the
DC Universe. For all intents and purposes, all characters from Quality Comics are now implicitly DC characters, although many have yet to actually be revived as such.
Some Quality Comics titles, including
Blackhawk and
Plastic Man, have been reprinted by DC, while lesser-known ones have been reprinted by
AC Comics.
*
Alias the Spider*
Black Condor*
Blackhawk*
Blue Tracer*
Bozo the Iron Man*
Captain Triumph*
The Clock*
Destiny*
Doll Man*
Espionage*
Firebrand*The
Human Bomb*
Invisible Hood*
Kid Eternity*
Lady Luck*
Magno*
Magno*
Manhunter*
Midnight*
Miss America*
Mouthpiece*
Neon the Unknown*
Phantom Lady*
Plastic Man*
Quicksilver (later DC's Max Mercury)
*
Raven I*
Ray*
Red Bee*
Red Torpedo*
Spider Widow*
Stormy Foster*
Torchy*
Uncle Sam*
Wonder BoyAll Humor Comics #1-17 (1946-1949)
The Barker #1-15 (1946-1949)
Blackhawk #9-157 (1944-1956; formerly
Uncle Sam Quarterly #1-8;
Blackhawk #158-273 subsequently published by
DC Comics, 1957-1983)
Bride's Romance #1-23 (1953-1956)
Broadway Romances #1-3 (1950)
Buccaneers #19-27 (1950-1951; formerly
Kid Eternity #1-18)
Buster Bear #1-10 (1953-1955)
Campus Loves #1-5 (1949-1950)
Candy #1-64 (1947-1956)
Crack Comics #1-62 (1940-1949;
Crack Western #63 onward)
*Crack Western
#63-84 (1949-1953; formerly Crack Comics
#1-62; Jonesy
#85 onward)
*Diary Loves
#2-31 (1949-1953; formerly Love Diary
#1; G.I. Sweethearts
#32 onward)
*Doll Man #1-47 (1941-1953)
*Exotic Romances
#22-38 (1955-1956; formerly True War Romances #1-21)
Exploits of Daniel Boone #1-6 (1955-?)
Feature Comics #21-144 (1939-1950; formerly
Feature Funnies #1-20, published by
Harry "A" Chesler, 1937-1939)
Flaming Love #1-6 (1949-1950)
Forbidden Love #1-4 (1950)
Gabby #11; issue numbering restarts, 2-9 (1953-1954; formerly
Ken Shannon)
G.I. Combat #1-43 (1952-1956; #44-281 subsequently published by
DC Comics, 1957-1987)
G.I. Sweethearts #32-45 (1953-1955; formerly
Diary Loves #2-31; #46 onward
Girls in Love)
Girls in Love #46-57 (1955-1956; formerly
G.I. Sweethearts #32-45)
Heart Throbs #1-46 (1949; #47-146 subsequently published by
DC Comics, 1957-1972; retitled
Love Stories, #147-152, 1972-1973)
Hit Comics #1-65 (1940-1950)
Hollywood Diary #1-5 (1949-1950)
Hollywood Secrets #1-6 (1949-1950)
Jonesy #85; issue numbering restarts, 2-8 (1953-1954; formerly
Crack Western #1-84)
Ken Shannon #1-10 (1951-1953;
Gabby #11 onward)
Kid Eternity #1-18 (1946-1949;
Buccaneers #19 onward)
Lady Luck #86-90 (1949-1950; formerly
Smash Comics #1-85)
Love Confessions #1-54 (1949-1956)
Love Diary #1 (1949;
Diary Loves #2 onward)
Love Letters #1-51 (1949-1956)
Love Scandals #1-5 (1950)
Love Secrets #32-56 (1953-1956)
Marmaduke Mouse #1-65 (1946-1956)
Military Comics #1-43 (1941-1945;
Modern Comics #44 onward)
Modern Comics #44-102 (1945-1950; previously
Military Comics #1-43)
National Comics #1-75 (1940-1949)
Plastic Man #1-64 (1943-1956)
Police Comics #1-127 (1941-1953)
Range Romances #1-5 (1949-1950)
Robin Hood Tales #1-6 (1956; #7-14 subsequently published by
DC Comics, 1957-1958)
Secret Loves #1-6 (1949-1950)
Smash Comics #1-85 (1939-1949;
Lady Luck #86 onward)
The Spirit #1-22 (1944-1950)
T-Man #1-38 (1951-1956)
Torchy 1-6 (1949-1950)
True War Romances #1-21 (1952-1955;
Exotic Romances #22 onward)
Uncle Sam Quarterly #1-8 (1941-1943;
Blackhawk #9 onward)
Untamed Love #1-5 (1950)
Web of Evil #1-21 (1952-1954)
Wedding Bells #1-19 (1954-1956)
Yanks in Battle #1-4 (1956)
*
Jack Cole*
Will Eisner*
Lou Fine*
Gill Fox*
Paul Gustavson*
Bob Powell*
Wally Wood*
Everett M. "Busy" Arnold*
Eisner & Iger*
Infinite Crisis* As new periodical titles were subject to an expensive registration fee by the postal service to receive a second-class mail permit, Golden Age comic book publishers frequently continued the numbering of old titles on new ones, hence one comic book title "becoming" another with completely unrelated content.
* Such renumbering occurred when the post office discovered a new title distributed under old numbering; the publisher was then forced to not only pay the registration fee, but also to list the correct issue number.
*
DC Comics*
AC Comics*
Hoohah!: "Kid Eternity: Billy Batson's Cousin?" By John Haines*
International Superheroes on Quality Comics
