Daring Mystery Comics

Daring Mystery Comics
Daring Mystery Comics #8 (Jan. 1942). Left to right: Captain Daring, the Fin, the Thunderer, Citizen V, the Blue Diamond, and (inset) the Silver Scorpion. Cover art by Jack Kirby & Joe Simon.
Publication information
Publisher	Timely Comics
Schedule	bimonthly
Format	Ongoing series
Publication date	January 1940 - January 1942
Number of issues	8
Creative team
Writer(s)	Joe Simon, Bill Everett, Jack Kirby
Artist(s)	Carl Burgos, Bill Everett, Alex Schomburg, Joe Simon, Jack Kirby
Editor(s)	Martin Goodman

Daring Mystery Comics is an American comic-book series published by Timely Comics, a predecessor of Marvel Comics, during the 1930-1940s period fans and historians call the Golden Age of Comic Books. Primarily a superhero anthology, it ran eight issues from 1940 to 1942, and is notable for work by Carl Burgos, Bill Everett, Alex Schomburg, and the team of Joe Simon & Jack Kirby.

Daring Mystery Comics #8 (Jan. 1942) features the first appearance of the Golden Age superhero Citizen V, who decades later appears in flashback in the Marvel series Thunderbolts, where his family and the Citizen V identity play a major part. A small handful of other Daring Mystery superheroes have been revived or have made guest appearances in modern-day titles, such as the World War II-set flashback series The Invaders and the feature "Liberty Legion" in Marvel Premiere.

Publication history

Daring Mystery Comics came from publisher Martin Goodman's Timely Comics, which by the early 1960s would evolve into Marvel Comics. It was initially edited by Joe Simon, Timely's first editor, followed briefly by future Marvel chief Stan Lee very early in his career. As with other of the earliest Timely comics, most material came from Funnies Inc., one of the prominent comic-book "packagers" who produced complete, outsourced comics on demand for publishers entering the fledgling medium.

Following Daring Mystery Comics #1-8 (Jan. 1940 - Jan. 1942) and a publishing hiatus, the series' numbering continued under different titles.^[1] In a quirk of publishing involving U.S. Postal Service regulations and mailing costs, and a World War II, paper-supply-related moratorium on launching new series, publisher Goodman somehow continued the series numbering as both Daring Comics for four issues from 1944 to 1945,^[2][3] and as Comedy Comics for 26 issues from 1942-1946,^[4][5] both of which launched with an issue #9.

Characters

Daring Mystery Comics #6 (Sept. 1940), debut of the first 1940s Marvel Boy. Cover art by Jack Kirby & Joe Simon

An anthology with no regular star, the series included a number of obscure, mostly single-appearance features. The best known superheroes to debut in its pages were the Blue Diamond, by artist co-creator Ben Thompson; writer-artist Bill Everett's the Fin; and the Thunderer, created by writer John H. Compton and notable for artist co-creator Carl Burgos. All three heroes were introduced in issue #7 (April 1941). The comic's first five covers were by artist Alex Schomburg.^[1] In the 1970s, the Blue Diamond resurfaced in period stories in Marvel Premiere, as a member of the homefront World War II team the Liberty Legion. He also appeared in writer Paul Jenkins' 2011 miniseries All-Winners Squad: Band of Heroes (2011).^[6]

Other heroes included the Challenger, drawn by George Klein under the pseudonym Nick Karlton;^[1] artist co-creator Steve Dahlman's Dynaman; writer-artist Simon's Fiery Mask; the Laughing Mask, who became the Purple Mask, by writer Will Harr and artist Maurice Gutwirth; and the superheroine the Silver Scorpion, by artist co-creator Harry Sahle.^[1] Due to Golden Age comics work often going unsigned, comprehensive credits are difficult if not impossible to ascertain, and in many early cases, a feature's artist is also the uncredited writer.

The final three issues contained work by the commercially popular team of writer-inker Joe Simon and penciler and sometimes co-scripter Jack Kirby. They collaborated on the covers of #6 (July 1940) and #8 (Jan. 1942), the former of which also featured a 10-page Simon & Kirby story introducing the single-appearance superhero Marvel Boy (the first of several Marvel universe characters to take that name), and 10-page story starring the previously introduced Fiery Mask. Issue #7 (April 1941) contained an eight-page Simon & Kirby story introducing the obscure Captain Daring (taken over for the next and last issue by artist Frank Borth). One of the first superhero parodies — Stuporman, by writer-artist Harry Douglas — debuted in issue #6 (Sept. 1940).^[1]

Non-superhero features included "G-Man, Don Gorman", a single-issue cover character by unknown creators, though inked by future notable Dick Briefer; "Soldier of Fortune, John Steele" and "Monako the Master Magician" a.k.a. "Monako, Prince of Magic", both by artist co-creator Larry Antonette (under the pseudonym Dean Carr for "John Steele");^[7] "K-4 and the Sky Devils", by artist co-creator Jack Alderman; "Whirlwind Carter of the Interplanetary Secret Service", by artist co-creator Henry Fletcher^{[disambiguation needed ]}; the jungle-lord adventure "Trojak the Tiger Man", by artist co-creator Joe Simon using the byline Gregory Sykes; artist co-creator Ben Thompson's Western "Robin Hood of the Range", featuring the Texas Kid; and the college football star Flash Foster at Midwestern, by writer and artist Bob Wood.^[7][1]

Collected Editions

• Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age Daring Mystery Vol. 1 (collects Daring Mystery Comics #1-4)
• Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age Daring Mystery Vol. 2 (collects Daring Mystery Comics #5-8)

In other media

The Thunderer appeared in the "Seven Forgotten Warriors" episode of one of the Spider-Man animated television series.^{[citation needed]}

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Daring Mystery Comics at the Grand Comics Database
2. ^ Daring Comics at AtlasTales.com
3. ^ Daring Comics (1944-1945) at The Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators
4. ^ Comedy Comics at AtlasTales.com
5. ^ Comedy Comics at The Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators
6. ^ All-Winners Squad: Band of Heroes at the Grand Comics Database
7. ^ ^{a b} Daring Mystery Comics #1 at the Grand Comics Database

External links

• Daring Mystery Comics at the Comic Book DB

Further reading

• Steranko, Jim. The Steranko History of Comics 1 (Supergraphics, 1970, ISBN 0-517-50188-0)