JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA
Golden Age
DC
Characters
(1935-1942)
New
Fun Comics #1-6 (Feb.–Oct. 1935)
More Fun Comics #7–127 (Jan. 1936–Nov. 1947)
Compiled by Jason Greenfield
Browse through all of DC Comics earliest characters, beginning with the company's first comic book titles. At the time of their initial publication, the company was listed as National Allied Publications in the indicia. Their first title was New Fun Comics #1 (February 1935, which became More Fun Comics with issue #7). This was the first publisher of comic books to fill each issue with entirely new strips.
The lists in this series of pages might exclude some humor characters, licensed newspaper characters, and some historical characters. To learn more, please visit various other sites (links below). Some characters's names provide a link to other information on this site.
» SEE ALSO: Golden Age DC Comics Characters, which focuses on Golden Age characters that are considered to be "costumed adventurers."
| Colored = masked or super-hero |
| Character | Appeared in Issues… | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| New Fun Comics (#1–6) | ||
| Buckskin Jim | #1-18 (Feb. 1935–Feb. 1937) | Frontiersman / western |
| Jack Woods | #1–35 (Feb. 1935–Sept. 1938) | Also in Adventure Comics. Late western set circa 1915 |
| Ivanhoe | #1–8, 10-27 (Feb. 1935–Dec. 1937) | Based on historical / literary character |
| Jack Andrews, all-american boy | #1–6 (Feb. 1935–Oct. 1935) | |
| 2023 Super Police | #1–14 (Feb. 1935–Oct. 1936) | Future science fiction |
| Don Drake on the Planet Saro | #1–6, 8–17 (Feb. 1935–Jan. 1935) | Aviator costumed Flash Gordon type |
| Sandra of the Secret Service | #1–35 (Feb. 1935–Sept. 1938) | |
| Barry O'Neill | #1–29, 35 (Feb. 1935–Sept. 1938) | Lasted til 1941 in Adventure. Adventurer type |
| Wing Brady | #1–9, 11-52 (Feb. 1935–Feb. 1940) | French Foreign Legionnaire / pilot |
| Bobby and Binks / "Magic Crystal of History" | #1–50 (Feb. 1935–Dec. 1939) | |
| Cap'n Erik | #1–2 (Feb. 1935–Mar. 1935) | |
| Midshipman Dewey | #2–3, 5–19 (Mar. 1935–Mar. 1937) | young boy sailor circa 1786 |
| Captain Grim | #3–19 (Apr. 1935–Mar. 1937) | Ship's Captain searching for missing crew |
| Brad Hardy | #3–6, 8–31 (Apr. 1935–May 1938) | Adventurer |
| Spike Spaulding | #3–6, 8–30 (Apr. 1935–Apr. 1938) | Kid |
| Bob Merritt | #5–25, 27–30 (Aug. 1935–Apr. 1938) | Gentleman adventurer / inventor |
| Henri Duval | #6–10 (Oct. 1935–May 1936) | By Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster; historical/3 musketeers era |
| Dr. Occult | #6–31 (Oct. 1935–June 1938) | First DC super-hero |
| …becomes More Fun Comics (#7-127) | ||
| Character | Appeared in Issues… | Notes |
| Radio Squad | #11–25, 27–50, 52–87 (July 1936–Jan 1943) | By Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster; police adventure, also in Flash #10, Oct. 1940 |
| The Three Musketeers | #11–36 (July 1936–Oct. 1938) | These literary characters (D'artagnion was based on a real person) would make occasional appearances over the years in the DCU; see Obscure Characters for more |
| Pirate Gold | #12–20, 22-30 (Aug. 1936–Apr. 1938) | Historical / pirates |
| Pep Morgan | #12–29 (Aug. 1936–Feb. 1938) & Action #1-42 (June 1938–Nov 1941) | College athlete. Appeared with Mr. America in Action #33 |
| Bradley Boys | #13–29 (Sept. 1936–Feb. 1938) | two young boys, Tom and Jack |
| Mark Marson of the Interplanetary Police | #15–31 (Nov 1936–May 1938) | Sci-fi à la Buck Rogers |
| Johnnie Law | #21–25, 28–44 (June 1937–June 1939) | Cop |
| Marty McCann | #23–25, 28 (Aug. 1937–Jan. 1938) | Navy boxing champion |
| Jack Wyatt | #27 (Dec. 1937) | Western |
| Buzz Brown | #30–31 (Apr. 1938–May 1938) | Schoolboy adventurer with friend |
| After Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster left More Fun to work on Superman, some of their features were canceled or slowly replaced. Their last issue was More Fun #32. | ||
| Red Logan | #31–37, 39, 40 (May 1938–Feb. 1939, Detective #38–43 (Apr. 1940–Sept. 1940) | Reporter |
| Buccaneer | #32–51, (June 1938–Jan. 1940) | Historical / pirates |
| Detective Sgt. Carey | #35–72 (Sept. 1938–Oct. 1942) | Previously in Adventure Comics |
| Masked Ranger | #36–41 (Oct. 1938–Mar. 1939) | Western |
| Gary Hawkes | #36–46 (Oct. 1938–Aug. 1939) | Pilot / Soldier of Fortune |
| Lt. Bob Neal | #36-63 (Oct. 1938–Jan. 1941) | Navy |
| Rex Darrel aka the Flying Fox | #37–38, 40–51 (Nov 1938–Jan. 1940) | Pilot |
| Sgt. O'Malley of the Redcoat Patrol | #39–42, 45-72 (Jan. 1939–Oct. 1941) | Canadian Mountie on the frontier |
| Biff Bronson | #43–67 (May 1939–May 1941) | |
| Bulldog Martin | #47–55, (Sept. 1939–June 1940) | Has invisibility powers |
| King Carter | #49–54 (Nov 1939–Apr. 1940) | |
| Kit Strong | #51 (Jan. 1940) | |
| The Spectre | #52-101 (1940-45) | Super-hero, JSA member |
| Captain Desmo | #53–72 (Mar. 1940–Oct. 1941) | Pilot |
| NOTE: After the Spectre's debut in #52, More Fun becomes dominated by super-heroes, with only a few new back-up characters | ||
| Dr. Fate | #55-98 (1940-44) | Super-hero, JSA member |
| Congo Bill | #56–67 (June 1940–May 1941) | |
| Lance Larkin | #64–70 (Feb. 1941–Aug. 1941) | |
| Clip Carson | #68–76 (June 1941–Feb. 1942) | |
Links and References
The most valuable information in this research came from these two sites:
- Grand Comics Database. The mother of all comics data projects, indispensable.
- Mike's Amazing World of DC Comics. Reprinting great reference data from all over.
These have good, hard information:
- Golden Age Who's Whose? A goldmine of a site, featuring lots of one-page scans of many obscure characters. Also has pages for Quality and Fawcett.
- Who was That Masked Man? A catch-all list of obscurities
Still more:
- An Earth-2 Timeline. Bare bones, but good research.
- Golden Age Heroes Directory. Great for obscure DC heroes.
- Independent Heroes from the U.S.A. Good general resource for many publishers.
- Lambiek Comiclopedia. This site is organized by artist, so it requires a bit of searching.
- Mystery Men Encyclopedia. No DC characters, but there are Fawcett and MLJ characters.