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QUALITY COMICS. Founded by Everett M. “Busy” Arnold, Quality Comics was an

American comic book publishing company from 1939 to 1956. Before Quality, Arnold
helped Bill Cook and John Mahon publish their Centaur line of original comic books.
Seeing them struggle, Arnold began publishing Centaur publications fi lled with
reprinted comic strips like Joe Palooka and Mickey Finn , beginning with Featured Fun-
nies #1 (1937). Later renamed Featured Comics (1939), the series became the fi rst of
Arnold’s Quality Comics. It and Arnold’s second book, Smash Comics , featured original
material. Centaur properties that carried over into Quality Comics included American
comic books’ fi rst masked hero, the Clock.
Noting the comic book market’s success, Register and Tribune Syndicate sales
manager Henry Martin feared that newspaper strips might lose readers to them, and
arranged for Arnold to print a tabloid-sized comic book supplement for newspapers.
Th e Spirit debuted in 1940 as one of the insert’s three titles, all created and jointly
owned by Will Eisner. Quality Comics became known for quality art, much of it
purchased from the Eisner-Iger workshop. Eisner creations for Arnold’s comic book
line included Doll Man ( Feature Comics #27, 1939), Uncle Sam ( National Comics #1,
1940), Black Condor ( Crack Comics #1, 1940), and the Blackhawks ( Military Com-
ics #1, 1941). Eisner typically introduced these creations and then turned each over
to other artists and writers to carry on. Chuck Cuidera’s scripts with Reed Crandall
and Bob Powell’s art would popularize the Blackhawk tales. Lou Fine illustrated Uncle
Sam and Black Condor in Crack Comics , before becoming best known for illustrating
Hit Comics covers and, despite using the house pseudonym E. Lectron, working on the
Ray in Smash Comics. By 1942, when other comic book publishers relied heavily on
in-house or freelance talent, Quality continued purchasing content from independent