When Street & Smith got around to releasing its first comic book in January 1940, the four-color industry was six years old. Started by the Eastern Color Printing Company in 1934 and strengthened by Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson in the next year, the comic book market exploded following the introduction of Superman in 1938 and Batman in 1939. Although its iconic pulp heroes–Doc Savage and The Shadow–helped to inspire the creation of these superheroes, the pulp magazine powerhouse waited to join the fledgling industry. Although it would never become a leader of the industry–producing only 351 issues of comic books–the Street & Smith four-color line would create some of best-selling books of the Golden Age of comics, racking up nearly three million issues a month in 1943.
PulpFest 2015 will mark the 75th anniversary of Street & Smith comic books on Thursday, August 13th with a multimedia presentation showcasing work by Walter Gibson, Theodore Sturgeon, Jack and Otto Binder, Edd Cartier, Bob Powell, George Tuska and Joe Maneely from some of the rarest comic book issues of the Golden Age of Comics. Panelists Will Murray, Tony Isabella and Michelle Nolan will join moderator Anthony Tollin to celebrate the 1940 comic book debuts of The Shadow, Doc Savage, Nick Carter, Bill Barnes, The Avenger, Iron Munro, Carrie Cashin and The Whisperer.
The panel will also discuss the 1942 Bill Barnes comic story that predicted the U-235 atomic bombing of Japan, the most successful sports comic book of all time–TRUE SPORT PICTURE STORIES–and original Street & Smith comic book features including Blackstone: Super Magician, Supersnipe, Red Dragon, Ajax the Sun Man, Hooded Wasp and the adventures of Little Nemo in Slumberland by Otto Binder and Robert Windsor McCay.
Tony Isabella is an American comic-book writer, editor, artist and critic, best known as the creator and writer of DC Comics’ first major African-American superhero, Black Lightning; and the co-creator of Marvel’s Misty Knight and Tigra. He is the author of 1000 COMIC BOOKS YOU MUST READ, a history of the American comic book industry wrapped around commentaries of more than a thousand comic books from 1938 to present. The first in a series of memoirs of sorts will be published later this year. His latest views and reviews can be found at the nigh-daily “Tony Isabella’s Bloggy Thing.”
Will Murray is a noted scholar of American popular culture, having written hundreds of essays on the pulps, comic books, motion pictures, and more. He is the author of “The All-New Wild Adventures of Doc Savage” and co-editor to Sanctum Books’ very successful pulp reprint series.
Michelle Nolan has been a newspaper and magazine feature writer for fifty years. She has written more than five hundred comics-related features for magazines such as COMIC BOOK MARKETPLACE, COMICS BUYER’S GUIDE, ALTER EGO, and COMIC BOOK ARTIST.
Anthony Tollin is an authority on comics, pulps, and old-time radio. A former colorist and assistant production manager for DC Comics, he is the editor-publisher of Sanctum Books, responsible for hundreds of authorized reprints of Street & Smith’s Avenger, Doc Savage, Nick Carter, The Shadow, and The Whisperer. Winner of the 2011 Munsey Award, Anthony will soon be publishing a deluxe hardcover edition reprinting the entire two-year run of The Shadow newspaper comic strip.
“75 Years of Street & Smith Comics” will take place on the second floor of the Hyatt-Regency hotel in beautiful downtown Columbus, Ohio, beginning at 9:20 PM on August 13th. Register for “Summer’s Great Pulp Con” to be sure to be first to the spinner rack by clicking here.
(Street & Smith entered the comic book market in January 1940 by publishing an anthology title called SHADOW COMICS. In addition to the title character, the book also featured such pulp favorites as Doc Savage, Bill Barnes, Iron Munro, and Carrie Cashin. Dime novel stalwarts Frank Merriwell, Nick Carter, and Diamond Dick also appeared in the issue. The front cover art, created by George Rozen, originally appeared on the November 15, 1932 issue of THE SHADOW MAGAZINE, illustrating Walter B. Gibson’s novel, “Dead Men Live.” SHADOW COMICS would run for a total of 101 issues. It was cancelled in 1949 when Street & Smith pulled the plug on all of its pulps and comic books.)
