422 MORE FUN COMICS
a medium with enormous literary potential, while also using his writing to celebrate
what makes comics powerful and unique—their ability to twist time and space
together.
Chris Murray
MORE FUN COMICS. Originally titled New Fun, More Fun Comics was the fi rst series
published by National Allied Publications, Inc., the fi rst of several companies that
would eventually merge into DC Comics. Its fi rst issue, cover dated February 1935,
is often considered the fi rst American comic of all-new material, although Dell’s
newspaper-ish 1929 series Th e Funnies arguably has a similar claim. National Allied
publisher Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson was inspired by Th e Funnies and British
weeklies, adopting the former’s tabloid size along with stiff er covers.
Th e book shrunk slightly and changed its title to More Fun with issue #7. With
issue #9 it joined National Allied’s other title, New Comics , in the now-standard
size and the word “Comics” was added to the cover (and in the indicia about a
year later). Both titles would be bought at auction by Detective Comics , Inc. after
Wheeler-Nicholson was forced into bankruptcy. He had already lost his share of the
purchasing company, originally a partnership between him and his printer. After-
wards, Nicholson was left only with a percentage ownership in his original title.
Notable early features include the debut of Superman creators Jerry Siegel and
Joe Shuster on two series in issue #6. “Henri Duval” was short-lived, but “Dr. Occult”
lasted 27 issues and is the oldest character still appearing in the DC universe. His run
included one storyline with the character in a caped costume as a trial run for the still
unpublished Superman. “Sandra of the Secret Service” was an unusual action feature
with a female lead. “Wing Brady,” the We s t e r n “Jack Woods,” and “Th e Magic Crystal of
History” were other long-running pre- superhero features. Another Siegel and Shuster
feature, “Calling All Cars” (later “Radio Squad”) ran for 80 issues, by far the longest of
the early features. All stories in this period began at no more than one page in length,
slowly growing as comic books diverged from newspaper strips. After DC purchased
the title, most existing features were cancelled or moved to Adventure Comics and
replaced by a new round of adventure and detective strips.
Superheroes, by then well-established in DC’s other anthologies, entered More Fun
in early 1940 with the Spectre and then Dr. Fate dominating the covers. By late 1941,
Johnny Quick, Green Arrow , and Aquaman had been added, and during the early war
years only one non-superhero feature remained. However, in 1943 the comedy feature
“Dover and Clover” (twin detectives) replaced “Radio Squad.” Dr. Fate and the Spectre
exited soon after, but Superboy, one of the last major superheroes, debuted in issue #101.
With issue #108, More Fun became the fi rst of DC’s anthologies to switch away
from superheroes, moving to an all-humor format. Th e superheroes moved to Adven-
ture Comics , with the comedic hero Genius Jones coming to More Fun in return. Th e
humorous adventure series “Jiminy and the Magic Book” was the last cover feature
to be added, but the new direction was ultimately unsuccessful. In keeping with its
