and in the pre-Comics Code period before the Silver Age, the best bargains in comics were the 15-cent, 68- and 76-page issues of World’s Finest Comics. That was especially true after DC reduced the page counts of its 10-cent comics from 52 pages to either 44 or 36 pages late in 1951, except for Superman and Batman.
“Just imagine!” as DC used to say in house ad — a 68-page comic for 15 cents with 12-page Superman and Batman stories, a 10-page Green Arrow tale, and lots more. Even today, when it’s tough to find a 1948–54 issue of World’s Finest for less than $60 to $80 in “good,” this is one of the best bargains of comics from the era. DC did not publish ay iconic issues of World’s Finest between #32 (Jan.–Feb. 1948) and #74 (Jan.–Feb. 1955) — the last pre-Code issue — except for #71, but all these issues are still good buys. In fact, in my book, they’re well worth the price, when compared to what even non-iconic issues of Action, Adventure, and Detective cost from the same period.
World’s Finest #71 (July–Aug. 1954), the first team-up of Batman, Robin, and Superman in World’s Finest, is listed as a seven in the Gerber Photo-Journal’s scarcity rating. I’m not convinced it’s that scarce, but so many copies of #71 are locked away in collections, it’s definitely a tough issue to acquire at a decent price. (The $129 Overstreet “good” would be a bargain if you can find one.) It also seems that World’s Finest #s 66–70 and the 36-page #s 72–73 are difficult enough to locate that they warrant the six scarcity rating in the Photo-Journal.
There’s no doubt in my mind that earlier issues of World’s Finest are seen more often. Considering what a good buy all the 68- and 76-page issues originally were, it seems strange they aren’t more common. But then, five cents was quite a stretch in those days, especially for kids. Remember: 25-cent giants were definitely a tiny minority of all comics in the 1940s and ’50s. Dell produced more than 100 of them in the ’50s, beginning in 1949, and that may have been more than all the other companies combined. DC didn’t adopt the giant 25-cent format until 1960, and then with only a handful of comics for several years.
The Dell giants must have sold much better than World’s Finest did in the early 1950s, since the Dell specials now seem a whole lot more available. But do you remember the huge price resistance Dell faced in 1957–58, when it tried to sell some of its 36-page comics for 15 cents? I remember loving Dell comics at the time, yet I bought very few of those Dell 15-cent issues. Instead, I can remember looking for them in the nickel piles at the second-hand bookstores, since the second-hand stores did not differentiate on that nickel price despite the size of the comic book! A special treat was the “six comics for a quarter” price.
The last 76-page World’s Finest was #54 (Oct.–Nov. 1951); DC downsized World’s Finest by eight pages at the same time it was cutting back on the 52-pagers. Fortunately, that didn’t affect the length of the excellent Superman, Batman, and Green Arrow stories. Zatara’s last original appearance was in World’s Finest #51 (April–May 1951), making the magician one of the last of DC’s Golden Age survivors in 1950–51. The Boy Commandos ran through #41
(July–Aug. 1949) and was replaced by the Wyoming Kid in #s 42–64. That’s my only criticism of World’s Finest — Johnny Thunder in All-American Western and later All-Star Western, and the Trigger Twins in All-Star Western, were much better strips with far more interesting storylines than the Wyoming Kid. DC brought back its best historical character, Tomahawk, to replace the Wyoming Kid beginning in World’s Finest #65.
DC also tried some off-beat characters in World’s Finest, including a tugboat skipper named Full Steam Foley in #s 43–48 and Tom Sparks, Boy Inventor, in #s 49–58. DC gave Full Steam Foley a half-dozen 10-page stories; Tom Sparks merited only eight, although he was a far more interesting character. One of the great covers of the era introduced Tom Sparks on #49 (Dec. 1950–Jan. 1951) and showed the whiz kid with his robot playing chess, with Robin, Batman, and Superman looking on. The debut story was fun, as crack athlete/scientific genius Tom Sparks creates a machine to accurately call balls and strikes in baseball, then invents videos to break down techniques of track and field athletes. Tom breaks his leg pole vaulting, but he doesn’t miss any tests — he invents a 1950 version of the Internet, complete with his own “Web cast.” This story makes #49 one of the best issues in the series.
Tom Sparks may have been inspired by the original Tom Swift, whose series book novels debuted from 1910 to 1935. Or perhaps the Rick Bruit science-adventure series books, which started in 1947, contributed to the idea. At any rate, Tom Sparks was an innovative character in comics and pre-dated Tom Swift Junior, who first appeared in 1954. It would have been nice to see more than 10 stories of Tom Sparks, who never again appeared on a cover.
DC also used Captain Compass in #63 (from Detective Comics) and a nifty 12-page King Farraday story in #64, more than two years after his lamentably short run in Danger Trail ended. Like Tom Sparks, I wish there had been a lot more of King Farraday. In #65 (July–Aug. 1953), Superman recapped his origin in a special story, “The Confessions of Superman.”
Of course, issue #71 is one of the most important of the 1950s for DC, and thus a “must” for key-issue collectors. “Batman — Double for Superman,” a story all about secret identities and a frustrated Lois Lane, is plenty of fun and nicely written. There is a brief reference to the “many months” that have passed since Batman and Superman learned each other’s identities — it was actually two years prior, in Superman #76. Unfortunately, Green Arrow and Tomahawk were relegated to only six pages, each beginning with #71, in order to give the Superman/Batman team-up the full 12 pages. It is true that #72, featuring “Fort Crime,” and #73, featuring “Superman and Batman Swamis Inc.,” are hard to find. They aren’t especially good issues, but #74, the last pre-Code issue, features a great purple cover with a “super-signal” to rival the long-established “bat-signal.” This is one of the best DC covers of the 1950s.
Most of the 1945–54 covers are humorous. I especially like the heroes at a costume ball in #40; the three-seater bicycle for Robin, Batman, and Superman in #54; the three heroes selling competing newspapers in #63; the skunk cover in #68; and the shoeshine cover in #70. But you really can’t go wrong with a 68- or 76-page World’s Finest.
This is a guest article. The thoughts and opinions in this piece are those of their author and are not necessarily the thoughts of the Certified Collectibles Group.
