1940’s

There really is only one major event to consider from the 1940’s, World War II. While the War itself was a terrible thing, it had a few positive affects on the comic book industry. One of the biggest short-term effects was the need for reading material for the troops stationed overseas. Nearly 30% of reading material sent to deployed soldiers were comic books. The soldiers looked forward to the diversion and escapism of comics and the quality of the material was never as important as the connection to home that troops felt from reading these stories.

Another important effect that had longer lasting ramifications was the paper drives during the war. Paper was in high demand since everything from explosives and flares to the boxes used to transport supplies required paper. Almost any paper, such as old newsprint, was needed for the war effort, and comic books were not exempted. The collection and subsequent destruction of so many comics had an astonishing long-term effect on the collector’s market. Just think, without the paper drives during the war the number of Golden Age books available to the collectors market today could be staggering. For example, Action Comics (the most valuable comic at $2.1 million at recent auction) is incredibly rare with estimates of less than 100 copies remaining. Out of those 100, only six copies are registered that list as ‘fair’ or better condition (to put that in perspective, the original print run was about 200,000). How many would exist today if not for the paper drives? The available quantity of Golden Age books would be incalculably higher than what it is today and the collecting industry would be a very different looking animal indeed.

Other than the political effects of the war, the 1940’s saw the creation of a great many characters, the most popular of which at the time was Captain Marvel. Regularly outselling Superman was what ultimately doomed the ‘Big Red Cheese”, as he was affectionately called, to relative obscurity. Copyright infringement lawsuits lasting years ultimately killed the character and Fawcett Publications, his publisher at the time. It wasn’t until the 1960’s when DC Comics, the winner of the lawsuits, bought Fawcett and the re-published him as SHAZAM (meanwhile, Marvel Comics had created and trademarked the name Captain Marvel as a new character). SHAZAM enjoyed some popularity but he has never been as interesting to mainstream fans as he was as the original Captain Marvel. As another odd effect felt because of the lawsuit between Fawcett and DC (finally settled in 1953) was that since Captain Marvel was gone from comics there were voids in books needing to be filled. This included his British books, which were usually reprinting of older tales printed for Great Britain. The void created by Captain Marvel’s disappearance was filled by a just barely disguised copycat called Marvelman. Marvelman became Miracleman but is now Marvelman again and we might one day see his adventures continued. The legal battle created by the DC/Fawcett issue created the Marvelman legal battles, and comics readers are still feeling the effects today.

The character from the 1940’s with the longest-lasting effect would have to be another captain, Captain America. While a reasonable hit in the war years, Cap’s popularity began to fade and his adventures stopped entirely in 1949. After a few awful attempts at revival in the 50’s it seemed that the character was dead. When Marvel decided to bring the character back as a member of the Avengers in 1964, Cap’s popularity was assured and he is a major factor in Marvel’s continuing success today.