3/7/05
DC's Other Comics

 
Based on Will Murray's "DC's Tangled Roots" in Comic Book Marketplace #53 and "The Superhero... before Superman"  in Comic Book Marketplace #51, with kibitzing from Robert Beerbohm, Michael Feldman and Jerry Bails.
    Magazines

In May 1932 Harry and Irwin Donenfeld acquired Pep. La Paree and Spicy Stories after the original publisher went bankrupt.  The three titles were published by DM Publishing (Donenfeld's Magazines).

 

Pulps

Super


Frank Armer, former publisher of the above titles, soon began editing magazines for the Donenfelds, starting with Super Detective, which was originally published by Super Magazines. 

 03/34 v1#1  to 04/35  v2#2 

The comic strip Betty Blake appeared in some issues of this magazine.
 
4/34

Culture

Donenfeld and Armer next combined their two favorite genres and started the Spicy line, from Culture Publishing, not that anybody could tell the difference. 

According to Aldophe Barreux, the owners of Trojan/Culture were Harry Donenfeld and Mike Estrow.  Estrow would later own Leader News, a major "competitor" of Donenfeld's Independent News.

Spicy Detective Stories     04/34 v1#1  to 12/42 v16#5 
 
1/35
Spicy Detective was the first to feature comic strips, with Sally the Sleuth who debuted in November 1934, drawn by Adolphe Barreaux.
Almost immediately the company registers trademarks for Snappy Detective and its companions, but never gets beyond producing a couple of ashacans to register the names with. They decided to stick with Spicy instead.
Snappy Detective Stories   07/34 v1#1 05/35 v1#2 ashcan
Snappy Mystery Stories    07/34 v1#1 ashcan
Snappy Adventure Stories    07/34 v1#1 ashcan
Spicy-Adventure Stories    011/34 v1#2 12/42 v16#5  Spicy Mystery Stories     06/35 v1#2 12/42 v13#1 Spicy Western Stories     11/36 v1#1 12/42 v10#3 
4/35
  6/35
11/36
Diana Daw began in the November 1934 issue of Spicy Adventure with art by Max Plaisted. Polly of the Plains by Jospeh Sokoli (not Bill Everett) was the comic strip in Spicy Western

The Astounding Adventures of Olga Messmer, the Girl with the X-Ray Eyes by Watt Dell Lovett began in August 1937 in Spicy Mystery but was dropped in late 1938.		 Vera Ray, a science fiction strip replaced her in 1940, also by Watt Dell.
.
In 1939, Culture Publications severed ties with its former owners, but Donenfeld's wife Gussie was a partner in the new corporation, so the whole maneuver was likely a fake to protect the comic book line from guilt by association..

Merwil

Don Winslow of the Navy   04-37 v1#1 to 05/37 v1#2 
5/37

Trojan

The Trojan line was orignally supposed to be a tamer version of the Spicy line.  But the addresses and editorial staff seem to have been the same, and according to Murray they freely reprinted each others stories.
Lone Ranger Magazine     04/37 v1#1 to 11/37 v2#2 Private Detective Stories  06/37 v1#1 to 12/50 v23#2
4/37
Romantic Western    01/36 v1#1 to 07/39 v3#6 Romantic Detective     02/38 v1#1  to 02/39 v2#1
Candid Detective   11/38 v1#1 03/39 v1#3 Super-Detective     10/40 v1#1 to  10/50+ 
3/39
10/40
Dan Turner - Hollywood Detective   01/42 v1#1 to 07/43 v2#4  Hollywood Detective    09/43 v2#5 to 10/50 v10#5
1/42
12/43

Speed


In 1943, Culture disappeared and Trojan took over the Spicys, renaming them all Speed, with cleaned up covers to keep the Postal Service happy.  All of these magazines bore the Speed bullet.  To further disassociate the comics from the pulps, a new distributor, Leader News was set up to handle them.

 
Speed Adventure Stories     01/43 v1#1 01/46 v3#6  Speed Detective             01/43 v1#1 12/46 v5 #3  Speed Mystery 
01/43 v1#1 03/46 v4#1		 Speed Western Stories     01/43 v1#1 01/48 

 
Fighting Western   02/45  09/50  Six-Gun Western   ?/46    ?/50  Blazing Western    02/47 
10/46
By 1947, things started to fall apart as paper was getting harder to find.  Trojan finally abandoned all their pulps in 1950 and Armer went into advertising.  Under the editorship of Adolphe Barreux Trojan went into comic book publishing.

Trojan's last pulps were digest sized repackagings of the same old stuff.

 
Pocket Detective Magazine Trojan  09/50 v 1#1 11/50 v1#2  Pocket Western Magazine Trojan  09/50 v1#1 11/50 v1#2 Crime Fiction Stories Trojan  12/50 v1#1 

Arrow


An alternate publishing company, but I don't know what they were hiding, since the Speed bullet appears on all the covers.

 
Leading Love   05/45- ?/4?  Leading Western 
04/45  09/50 
Magic Love    11/45		 Golden Love Tales 
 02/46 v1#1
9/46
Western Love  12/45  Winning Love  5/45 11/46 Amour   03/46 v1#1 ?/4? 

Ramer

Frank Armer published these by himself in the 20's, along with a bunch of nudie magazines.
Airplane Stories Ramer  03/29-5/31

 
6/29 
Complete Aviation Novel Magazine Ramer   04/29-10/29
5/29
Thrills  5/27-1/28
8/27
Zeppelin Stories Ramer Reviews  
04/29 v1#1  to 08/29 v1#4 
6/29
Bibliography