Guardian Comics (Part II)

Guardian Comics (Part 2)

[For the complete history of Guardian Comics, start with the Guardian Comics post from May 31, 2009.]

Electri-Comics (April 1940 to October 1958; 223 issues);

Since her premiere in Best Comics #35 (December 1938), FULMI-NANCY THE ELECTRI-GAL proved to be one of the biggest hits ever produced by Guardian Comics. In fact, nearly any and every character in her supporting cast likewise proved popular with fans; thus Electri-Comics began as a showcase book solely for the ELECTRI-GAL and her growing family of fellow heroes and evil opponents. Set in the fictional Canadian city of Port Thunder, Nancy had many American, British, and Canadian relatives and friends, and her adventures took her across the world and the galaxy. (Nancy and the FULMINTRIO proved so inspirational that an energy-based alien race renamed their planet FULMINIA in her honor in Electri-Comics #158.) By the end of the series, creators had revealed many ancestors and descendants of the FULMINTRIO, making their power one of the most dominant forces of the universe across time. They even had multiversal duplicates, including Nancy’s evil twin FULMI-NASTY THE ELECTRIXEN™.

Characters/Features of Note: THE FULMENTOR™; FULMIN-ANDY THE ELECTRI-KID™; THE FULMI-KNIGHTS™; FULMI-NANCY THE ELECTRI-GAL™; THE FULMINTRIO™; LT. FULMINANT™; SIR FULMINUS, LORD OF LIGHTNING™; SPARKY THE FULMENTIGER™;

Fantasticomics (August 1938 to March 1955; 200 issues);

Like Blast Comics before it, Fantasticomics featured a cast that had already appeared and proven popular in Best Comics. Between 1938 and 1942, there was little difference between this book and Best Comics as a showcase of rotating ideas and characters. After December 1942, this book only supported Guardian’s most popular features and acted as a second book for the most popular characters from Best Comics, Electri-Comics, and Giant Comics.

Characters/Features of Note: BIG BEN TATE™; THE FULMENTOR™; FULMIN-ANDY THE ELECTRI-KID™; THE FULMI-KNIGHTS™; FULMI-NANCY THE ELECTRI-GAL™; THE FULMINTRIO™; GOLIATH GIRL™; THE HUMAN SWORD™; LT. FULMINANT™; THE MANTICORN™; SPARKY THE FULMENTIGER™;

Giant Comics (June 1943 to January 1955; 126 issues);

Since three of its principal characters all had the ability to grow to titanic size (BIG BEN TATE, CLIFF DOVER, and GOLIATH GIRL), Giant Comics was launched in 1943. The five prominent features in this book all began in Fantasticomics between 1940 and 1942 and remained relatively popular. Despite the title, Giant Comics never produced any other oversized successes (despite tries like TEN-FOOT TAYLOR, JEANNIE DJINNI, or POLLY BUNYAN). The book also proved the dumping ground for many forgettable third-stringers like DANGEROUS DANIEL, MAJOR MEGALITH, or SWORDIANE. Only FIREFIST and FLINT FAIRMOUNT proved to be heroes equal to their larger cousins and resulted in more than five appearances.

Characters/Features of Note: BIG BEN TATE™; CLIFF DOVER™; FIREFIST™; FLINT FAIRMOUNT™; GOLIATH GIRL™;

Rocket Comics (May 1946 to September 1958; 144 issues);

Another single-theme-comic, Rocket Comics was the science fiction dominated comic book for its entirety. While six of its continuing features were popular, at least one-third of each issue contained comic book adaptations of short stories culled from Science Thrills, Space Thrills, and other Bulwark pulp magazines.

Characters/Features of Note: COMET CORPS™; JACQUES ROCKET™; JANICE MARSHALL, UNDERCOVER MARTIAN™; MOON-BASE MAX™; REX RACER, 28TH CENTURY BOY™; STAR SOLDIERS™;

Savage Comics (March 1936 to June 1939; (Vol. 1; 40 issues);

Savage Comics (April 1949 to July 1955; (Vol. 2; 62 issues);

The strangest of Guardian Comics was this book focused on lost world exploration, jungle heroes, and the standard caveman-vs-dinosaur stories. Its early cancellation came more from paper shortages than a lack of interest. Even so, when it was revived in its second volume, the stories took on a more science fiction bent than before, focusing on Atlantis, time travel, and the exploits of DOC HUNTER more than jungle-trained heroes and heroines.

Characters/Features of Note: THE ATLANTISCROLLS™; CAVEMAN CARTER™; DOC HUNTER, EXPLORER™; NITA, JUNGLE QUEEN ™; TARA OF THE TROPICS™; TIME-TRAPPED TALES™; TOR-KAN THE JUNGLE LORD™;

Secret Comics (May 1943 to October 1958; 169 issues);

Like Giant Comics that premiered the following month, Secret Comics had a simple theme to match up popular characters that premiered in in Best Comics or Blast Comics. All the features and characters of Secret Comics were mystical or magical in nature. As the series continued, elements of horror also crept into the stories and characters, and many now-prominent horror and thriller writers and artists got their initial starts with Secret Comics.

Characters/Features of Note: DONNELLA™; DRUID THE DRACADIAN™; DAWES™; HANDORR THE SORCERER™; M.P. OF MAGIC™; THE SHANGRI-LADY™; TRANCE TAMMETT™; THE TUNDRAGON™; THE UNDERNAUTS™;

Victory Comics (February 1941 to August 1952; 131 issues);

Victory Comics was never a great homefront sales hit for Guardian Comics, although an overseas distribution deal made this one of the easiest books for Allied troops to find and read. Quite simply, this was the patriotic war comic book from Guardian Comics (to answer demands by its owners, Bulwark Publishing). Every feature in this comic had direct links to World War II (or, sometimes, World War I). Due to the nature of the book, the subhuman depictions of Japanese, Italian, or German foes (especially in the AIRBURN and STEEL STAG strips) are far from politically correct today. While it featured many powered heroes, this book (and Arrow Comics) had more stories with normal human characters and stories than the other comics.

Characters/Features of Note: AIRBURN™; BLITZCRAIG™; BLITZ BAILEY™; COLONEL LIBERTY & THE REBELS™; ECHO COMPANY™; FRONTLINE FRANK™; PRIVATE BRACE OF DANGER COMPANY™; THE STEEL STAG™; THE TERROR TANK™;

Wondrous Comics (March 1936 to November 1940; (Vol. 1; 57 issues);

Wondrous Comics (August 1947 to October 1958; (Vol. 2; 135 issues);

Often a random fantasy or faerie tale book with pages retelling classic faerie stories, the first volume of this comic focused on the Lang and Grimm fairy tales or tall tales of other cultures including 1,001 Arabian Nights. Cancelled during the war, Wondrous Comics came back with a focus on WISHLAND™ and its inhabitants and environs. These were overseen by the Ventesch family that controlled the WISHLAND copyrights but were not solely written by them. In fact, this comic was the source of most expansions and changes to the WISHLAND properties until D.J. Ventesch’s books in the 1980’s.

Characters/Features of Note: BARNEY THE CLOCKWORKER™; CARBUNCLE CARMICHAEL™; FOE OF FIGMENTS™; IN THE GLASSTLE OF GLORA™; THE LANDS BEYONDREAMS™; THE MATHESON FAMILY™; NEIGHBORS OF WISHLAND™; TALES OF WISHLAND™; TONY THE IRON-PONY™; THE WHYLAND GUARD™;

June 2, 2009 Tags: 28TH CENTURY BOY, AIRBURN, aliens, American, Andrew Lang, Arabian Nights, Arrow Comics, Atlantis, BARNEY THE CLOCKWORKER, Best Comics, BIG BEN TATE, Blast Comics, BLITZ BAILEY, BLITZCRAIG, British, Brothers Grimm, Bulwark pulps, Canadian, CARBUNCLE CARMICHAEL, caveman, CAVEMAN CARTER, CLIFF DOVER, COLONEL LIBERTY & THE REBELS, COMET CORPS, DANGEROUS DANIEL, DAWES, dinosaur, DOC HUNTER, DOC HUNTER EXPLORER, DONNELLA, DRUID THE DRACADIAN, ECHO COMPANY, Electri-Comics, ELECTRI-GAL, ELECTRI-KID, evil twin, faerie tale, Fantasticomics, FIREFIST, FLINT FAIRMOUNT, FOE OF FIGMENTS, FRONTLINE FRANK, FULMI-NANCY, FULMI-NANCY THE ELECTRI-GAL, FULMI-NASTY THE ELECTRIXEN, FULMIN-ANDY THE ELECTRI-KID, FULMINIA, FULMINTRIO, Genre-Fantasy Fiction, Genre-Horror/Weird Fiction, German, Giant Comics, GOLIATH GIRL, Guardian Comics, HANDORR THE SORCERER, IN THE GLASSTLE OF GLORA, Italian, JACQUES ROCKET, JANICE MARSHALL, JANICE MARSHALL UNDERCOVER MARTIAN, Japanese, JEANNIE DJINNI, jungle, JUNGLE QUEEN, LORD OF LIGHTNING, lost world, LT. FULMINANT, M.P. OF MAGIC, Magic, MAJOR MEGALITH, MOON-BASE MAX, mysticism, NEIGHBORS OF WISHLAND, NITA, POLLY BUNYAN, Port Thunder, PRIVATE BRACE OF DANGER COMPANY, REX RACER, REX RACER 28TH CENTURY BOY, Rocket Comics, Savage Comics, science fiction, Science Thrills, Secret Comics, SIR FULMINUS, SIR FULMINUS LORD OF LIGHTNING, Space Thrills, SPARKY THE FULMENTIGER, STAR-SOLDIERS, STEEL STAG, SWORDIANE, TALES OF WISHLAND, TARA OF THE TROPICS, TEN-FOOT TAYLOR, THE ATLANTISCROLLS, THE FULMENTOR, THE FULMI-KNIGHTS, THE FULMINTRIO, THE HUMAN SWORD, THE LANDS BEYONDREAMS, THE MANTICORN, THE MATHESON FAMILY, THE SHANGRI-LADY, THE STEEL STAG, THE TERROR TANK, THE TUNDRAGON, THE UNDERNAUTS, THE WHYLAND GUARD, thriller, time travel, TIME-TRAPPED TALES, TONY THE IRON-PONY, TOR-KAN THE JUNGLE LORD, TRANCE TAMMETT, UNDERCOVER MARTIAN, Ventesch WISHLAND. D.J. Ventesch, Victory Comics, war, Wondrous Comics, World War I, World War II 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, Genre-Science Fiction, Medium-Comics/Graphic Novels, Medium-Magazines & Pulps, Medium-Role-Playing Games, World-Golden Age Comics, World-Silver Age Comics, World-Vanguard, World-Wishland