In Spring of 1945 the first issue of Real Screen Funnies hit the stands. This comic was published by DC and featured a variety of licensed cartoon features. They were in Columbia Studios cartoons, done by the Screen Gems animation studio. The lead feature of the book was The Fox and the Crow. Those cartoons were directed by Bob Wickersham and he would also do the early comics. He worked on them under the Ben Sangor shop called Editorial Art Service. In 1948 James (Jim) F. Davis (no relation to Garfield creator) would take over working directly for DC. He then continued to work on The Fox and Crow for 20 years! He was very consistent, came up with fresh stories and kept them popular long after the cartoons went off the air. The stories were often about the Crow trying to con something out of the Fox and often getting it. Real Screen Funnies changed to Real Screen Comics with the 2nd issue. It went 128 issues then changed it's name again to TV Screen Cartoons with issue #129. The series would go until 1961 and end with issue #138. The Fox and Crow got their own title in 1951 and it went until 1968, ending with issue #108. Then the title would renamed for a back up feature that grew in popularity. It was called Stanley and his Monster, but only continued until issue #112.

          Marvel again tapped into the female audience with Millie the Model in 1945. Millie the Model #1 was written by Stan Lee and female artist Ruth Atkinson. While Ruth only worked on the first issue of Millie, she and Stan would collaborate on another popular title called Patsy Walker. Millie was another working women series. During a time when there were still some women in the workplace Millie was there to give inspiration to them all. An added bonus was that Millie could be shown in hairstyles and fashion ideas submitted by readers. She also appealed to males that like looking at "good girl" art. This comic would spin off to other titles like Date with Millie and go through several name changes. But the original Millie comic went 28 years and 207 issues. It was cancelled in 1973. Patsy Walker was another very successful title starting in the summer of 1945 and ending in 1965 (124 issues). Like Millie, Patsy also branched out into other books. Patsy gained a friend/enemy named Hedy and the two of them got their own title in 1952. Patsy Walker was also re-made into a superhero named Hellcat many years after her romance comics days were over. This title along with Millie would be would be two of Marvel Comics longest lasting Humor/Romance comics.

Did You Know? - Stan Lee said out of all the comics series he has written over the years, Millie was his favourite.

          In June of 1945 Little Lulu would make her first appearance in comic books. She was created by Marjorie Henderson Buell for the Saturday Evening Post in 1935 and used in single panel cartoons. She was a smart, strong willed little girl who often pitted her wits against the neighbourhood boys and their "No Girls Allowed" clubhouse. Her popularity grew and the character went into comic strips, cartoons, commercials and with Dell’s Four Color Comics #74, comic books. The comics were done by John Stanley and Irving Tripp. Stanley would write and layout the comic stories while Tripp would finish the art. The two made a great team and produced some of the best all age’s comic books ever. Lulu would get her own series in 1948 and it would last until 1984 ending with issue 268. Western Printing and Lithography (who got the licensing rights for Dell to use) also bought the Little Lulu character outright from Marjorie in 1971, then removed her name from the comic shortly afterwards.

          Charlie Max Gaines would sell his All American Comics imprint to DC comics in 1945. He would then start up his own company called Educational Comics or EC for short. Max was big believer in using comic books to educate and put out four titles to do so. The titles were called Picture Stories from the Bible (1942), Picture Stories from American History (1946), Picture Stories from World History and Picture Stories from Science (both spring 1947). When Max Gaines sold his All American books to DC, the Bible and American History were two that he kept and moved over to EC Comics. He would also collect these books into what would today be called (in the comic industry) trade paper backs or graphic novels. These comics would sell millions over time and he donated some of the profits to religious groups. The company would do more comics aimed at children and change it's name to Entertaining Comics. But before the company could pick up much steam, Max Gaines died in a boating accident on August 20th, 1947. His son, 25 year old William (Bill) Gaines was studying to become a high school chemist teacher. At his mothers urging, he dropped out of school and took over the company. Bill Gaines would radically change the company's output and the industry along with it.

          In March, 1946 DC Comics published Real Facts Comics #1. This comic came out because Editor Jack Schiff liked to educate kids using comic books. He hired top notch artists like Joe Simon and Jack Kirby to draw the tales. Despite this, the comic didn't sell that well and was canceled in 1949 after 21 bimonthly issues. This didn't end the idea of educating kids through comic books. Because of requests from schools and a desire to keep a good public image DC comics put a single public service page in 30 different titles and used the superheroes to help get the message across. DC Comics also did this to help counter the negative criticism that comic books were starting to receive.

<-- Last Page

Next Page -->