16 ALL-AMERICAN COMICS
Elsewhere, Talbot draws upon a dizzying array of visual sources, including pop
culture ephemera, photographs, newspapers clippings, and fi ne art, to create the digital
collages that compose most of his book. In fact, these pages display one of the book’s
main themes, which it shares with Sunderland’s riverside sculpture project, according to
crime writer Chaz Brenchley’s description of the art installation: “Th e project’s all about
tying past and present together, linking what’s new with what was here before.” As
Talbot’s words and images unite in a single vision reminiscent of Carroll and illustrator
John Tenniel’s Alice books, he shows the many ways in which Sunderland’s history and
its present state, as well as his book and the history of comics, are interconnected.
Selected Bibliography: Flanagan, Steve. “Review: Alice in Sunderland. ” Gad , Sir! Comics!
April 7, 2007. http://gadsircomics.blogspot.com/2007/04/review-alice-in- sunderland-
part-1.html; Gravett, Paul. “Bryan Talbot: An Artistic Wonder from Wearside.” Paul
Gravett.com. http://www.paulgravett.com/articles/098_talbot/098_talbot.htm.
Michael W. Hancock
ALL-AMERICAN COMICS. All-American Comics was the primary title published origi-
nally by All-American Publications beginning in 1939. All-American Publications was
a partnership between Max Gaines, who was largely responsible for creating the comic
book in the mid-1930s while working for Eastern Color Printing; and Jack Liebowitz,
who was part-owner of National Periodical Publications (later DC Comics ) with
Harry Donnenfeld. Liebowitz partnered with Gaines because he was frustrated with
Donnenfeld’s unwillingness to expand the number of published titles at National.
Liebowitz and Gaines were successful enough in their publishing ventures that they
were eventually bought out by National in 1946. All-American Comics continued to
be issued by National, with some changes in title and content, until 1966. Gaines,
after ending his partnership with Liebowitz, founded his own comic book publishing
company, EC Comics. Despite the fact that All-American Publications was a separate
corporate entity from National, characters from National made routine appearances
in All-American titles, and vice-versa. All-American seldom displayed publishing indica
on its front cover, and occasionally displayed National’s DC- Superman Comics logo
prior to 1946.
All-American Comics introduced several superhero characters that are now con-
sidered mainstays of the DC Comics roster, such as Green Lantern , the Atom,
Dr. Mid-Nite, and many others, including Red Tornado, a parody superhero, which
was unusual for the time. Other titles by All-American Publications included All-Star
Comics and Sensation Comics , and featured the characters Wo n d e r Wo m a n , the Flash ,
Sandman , Spectre, and the earliest adventures of the Justice Society of America. At
this point in comic book publishing, it was relatively uncommon for an entire title to be
named for and starring a specifi c character, thus a feature character was used to attract
interest in anthology titles, which would also feature work by other artists and writers,
and starred other characters.
