Guardian Comics (Part I)

Guardian Comics started in 1936 Toronto, Ontario solely as a medium that collected and republished comic strips in book form, like most early comic books. Terry Zuller, Guardian’s editor in chief, wanted to oversee a creative stable like the one he’d once marshaled on American pulps like Scarab Stories. Zuller commissioned six writers and artists to adapt six stories of his from the pulps and he interspersed these 6- to 8-page stories among the comic strip reprints. Two months later, he had the same twelve creators produce new material to suit the themes of his four 1936 comics—Arrow Comics (American & Candian historical adventures, mainly exploration or Wild Westerns), Best Comics (British heroes & legends, Robin Hood), Savage Comics (jungle heroes & world exploration), and Wondrous Comics (fantasy tales & comics adaptations of faerie tales).

By 1937, Zuller’s gambit had paid off and his “new story comics” were a hit. Guardian Comics was running full swing with an editorial staff and numerous Bulwark Publications’ authors trying their hands at writing for “the funny-books.” Zuller’s assistant E.C. Buckner worked to keep everyone on schedule, while Terry Zuller recruited well-known pulp artists to create comic book covers or interior art. Thus, for at least the years 1937 through 1940, Guardian Comics had pulp-style painted art on its covers, though Bulwark Publications ended that practice in a cost-saving measure. Until his dying day (all too soon in 1950), Zuller believed the change came as “my comics outsold Knight’s down at BC!” While both Zuller and Charles Knight worked for Bulwark Publications, their rivalry and one-upsmanship led to brisk comics sales in both Canada and the States.

Guardian Comics launched twelve books between February 1936 and March 1949, seven of them lasting until 1958 when the Bulwark Publishing parent corporation closed the Canadian company’s doors. Guardian Comics stood out in fans’ minds because their books carried larger stories per issue (twelve to sixteen pages as opposed to a standard six or eight page story). When they began, Guardian books had five stories per issue split among three different features. By the time they truly hit their stride in 1943, Guardian Comics rotated secondary characters in one story each while lead features got three stories per issue (or sometimes one long story in three parts).

More than two-thirds of the Guardian Comics characters and trademarks became new entities in the Silver Age Bulwark Comics lines. Like the older Golden Age BC properties, all were extensively re-imagined, only their names staying the same. Many of the properties even became villains, due to the overabundance of heroes from the combined Bulwark and Guardian lines. For example, Guardian Comics’ AIRBURN™ was a heroic paratrooper who gained fire-based powers after drifting through a glowing cloud on D-Day; in the Silver Age, Bulwark Comics’ AIRBURN (with similar powers) was the primary aide-de-camp of BRIGADIER BLACK™ in the ECHELON OF EVIL™. The ECHELON contained seven misanthropic ex-soldiers exposed to and altered by experimental weaponry, and they were a primary foe of the revamped G.U.A.R.D.™

In 1977, Guardian reemerged as part of the modern age Bulwark publishing pantheon, though this time as its subsidiary game company. Famous most for their BULWARKS & BASILISKS™ fantasy role-playing game, Guardian produced a wide variety of board, card, and role-playing games over the next few decades. The closest Guardian Games came to relaunching its comics was in having their CAPES & COWLS™ heroic role-playing game include comics art with each adventure or sourcebook. Before his death in 1994, E.C. Bruckner managed to write and produce a Guardian Comics book that highlighted the worlds of GC and gave the fans a great look back at a short-lived but creative publisher.

Arrow Comics (February 1936 to October 1943 (Vol. 1; 92 issues));

Arrow Comics (March 1951 to July 1958 (Vol. 2; 68 issues));

This was Terry Zuller’s favorite book due to his yen for historical adventures, especially those of the Wild West and the Canadian frontier. This comic, more than any other, provided solid, well-researched history lessons for comics readers of the Golden Age (in its “Bulls-eye on History” and “Wanted!” features). Another benchmark for this book was its use of Native Americans in non-stereotypical ways; RED ROBINSON was the mixed-race son of a Native woman and a Caucasian mountain man, and THOMAS TWO-EAGLES was a Harvard-trained lawyer fighting for justice for his people.

Characters/Features of Note: THE BRAVES FOUR™; COACHWHIP HAMMOND™; THE HANGING JUDGE™; JIM ADAMS, SHARPSHOOTER™; MIKE HARRIGAN, BOUNTY HUNTER™; RED ROBINSON™; SECRET SHAMAN™; TALL TRAILS™; THOMAS TWO-EAGLES™; THE TRAIL-BLAZERS™; WILD WEST TRAIL TALES™;

Best Comics (February 1936 to October 1958; 273 issues);

This was Guardian Comics’ premiere book and the initial forum for every lead feature from 1936 in 1940; thus, the characters listed below are only those featured prominently in this book after June 1940. Zuller’s editorial fiat made Best Comics the showcase for chiefly British characters and stories. Its early features on Robin Hood and the Knights of the Round Table remain in people’s minds due to the early work of later-famous creators like Marshall Ranheart, Richard West, and Clive Horrach. By late 1940, newer British superhumans (including Australian, Indian, and Canadian subjects) took over the book for the majority of its run. More characters first saw print through this comic than any other, though only DOC DRAGON, the HUMAN SWORD, KID SPITFIRE, and the MANTICORN proved to be long-term crowd-pleasers (and featured in Fantasticomics as well).

Characters/Features of Note: CORPORAL KANGAROO™; DOC DRAGON™; THE FOUR FAKIRS™; GIRISH™; THE HUMAN SWORD™; KID SPITFIRE™; THE MANTICORN™; THE THAMESERPENT™;

Blast Comics (August 1937 to January 1949; 81 issues);

The first comic after Guardian’s initial four-book launch, Blast Comics featured the six most popular heroes out of the previous year’s Best Comics, including BOB BLAST, after whom the title was named. Ironically, Bob got ejected from his own book by 1946 when team features grew in prominence. By 1949, the editors decided to cancel the mildly-selling book in favor of a new book focusing on more popular characters.

Characters/Features of Note: BOB BLAST™; DONNELLA™; DRUID DAWES™; THE EVERGLADIATOR™; HUMANTA™; SIR FALCON & PEREGRINE™; SUB-MARIE™; THE WIDOW & VEIL™;

Clash Comics (March 1949 to August 1958; 114 issues);

This book replaced Blast Comics in Guardian’s lineup. From #1 until its 114th issue, Clash Comics had the same structure—four features (noted below) of 14 pages each with a 2-4 filler story or special backup. While popular, these nine heroes were always considered second-tier characters (compared to the leads of Electri-Comics and Fantasticomics) until they were all revived in new ways in the Silver Age.

Characters/Features of Note: BLITZ BROTHERS ™; SIR FALCON & PEREGRINE™; THE TRINITEAM™; THE WIDOW & VEIL™;

To Be Continued

May 31, 2009 Tags: AIRBURN, Arrow Comics, Australian, Best Comics, Blast Comics, BLITZ BROTHERS, BLITZCRAIG, BOB BLAST, BRIGADEMONS, BRIGADIER BLACK, British, Bulls-Eye on History, Bulwark Publications, BULWARKS & BASILISKS, Canadian, CAPES & COWLS, Charles Knight, Clash Comics, Clive Horrach, COACHWHIP HAMMOND, comic books, comic strips, CORPORAL KANGAROO, DOC DRAGON, DONNELLA, DRUID DAWES, E.C. Buckner, ECHELON OF EVIL, Electri-Comics, exploration, faerie tales, Fantasticomics, G.U.A.R.D., Genre-Fantasy Fiction, GIRISH, Golden Age, Guardian Comics, Harvard, historical adventures, HUMANTA, Indian, Jim Adams Sharpshooter, jungle, KID SPITFIRE, Knights of the Round Table, Marshall Ranheart, Mike Harrigan Bounty Hunter, Native Americans, Ontario, pulps Scarab Stories, RED ROBINSON, Richard West, Robin Hood, Savage Comics, SECRET SHAMAN, Silver Age, SIR FALCON & PEREGRINE, SUB-MARIE, superhumans, TALL TRAILS, Terry Zuller, THE BRAVES FOUR, THE EVERGLADIATOR, THE FOUR FAKIRS, THE HANGING JUDGE, THE HUMAN SWORD, THE MANTICORN, THE THAMESERPENT, THE TRAIL-BLAZERS, THE TRINITEAM, THE WIDOW & VEIL, THOMAS TWO-EAGLES, Toronto, Wanted!, Wild West, WILD WEST TRAIL TALES, Wondrous Comics Posted in: Genre-Adventure Fiction, Genre-Battle Fiction, Genre-Children's Fiction, Genre-Fantasy Fiction, Genre-Frontier Fiction, Genre-Heroic Fiction, Genre-Horror/Weird Fiction, Medium-Comics/Graphic Novels, Medium-Magazines & Pulps, Medium-Role-Playing Games, World-Bulwark Pulps, World-Golden Age Comics, World-Silver Age Comics, World-Vanguard