SHERLOCK HOLMES in Comics 0

[Dogsupreme]

SHERLOCK HOLMES in Comics

I am a big Sherlock Holmes fan but I also love comics. Can anyone tell me what was the very first SHERLOCK HOLMES appearance in comics anywhere? I am thinking 4 color because TARZAN and LONE RANGER appear there but I am unsure.

[N e r V]

I think it might be Hit Comics #29 from 1943.

He shows up to help the kid in a story. That issue is available to read here:

 

http://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=19586

 

 

[Dogsupreme]

Thanks for the heads up. I read the comic and it is interesting. I wonder if this is his first but it sure is a good candidate.

[BB-Gun]

The Classic Comics story was originally published in July 1944 but it was a complete story and not just a cameo.

Edited April 27, 2017 by BB-Gun

[Dogsupreme]

Cool! However, the HIT COMICS #29 does predate by 1 year. Could this be considered his first on a cover?

 

[BB-Gun]

Classic Comics can't be the first cover because Sherlock is on the cover of Hit 29.  I just thought it would be good to mention that an entire story with Sherlock playing the leading role was published in Classic Comics 21.  The Hound story was published soon after.

[BB-Gun]

[BB-Gun]

From Dec. 18 1942

[Dogsupreme]

37 minutes ago, BB-Gun said:

Classic Comics can't be the first cover because Sherlock is on the cover of Hit 29.  I just thought it would be good to mention that an entire story with Sherlock playing the leading role was published in Classic Comics 21.  The Hound story was published soon after.

Oh you are right. I did not see the head shot with the pipe. Thanks for pointing that out! The artist drew a modern deer cape I think and that is what threw me off but the pipe should have been a dead giveaway.

[BB-Gun]

On ‎4‎/‎27‎/‎2017 at 3:51 PM, BB-Gun said:

From Dec. 18 1942

Captain Marvel Jr. 2 predates Hit 29.  I don't think it mentions the detective's name but everything else is there. 

Edited April 29, 2017 by BB-Gun

[N e r V]

I actually started looking this up after this thread and several sites including the DC wiki and Comic Vine list Hit comics #29 as his first intro. into comics.

However as you can see he does appear to be in the slightly earlier Captain Marvel Jr. issue.

I'm going to venture a guess and say they may be thinking the character was clearly rolled out in name including a cover appearance in Hit comics where as in CM Jr. #2 it's a character "like" Sherlock Holmes. Was it him, a swipe or whatever is up to you. I'm going to have to read it again to see why they wouldn't have just called him by name in that issue? If you are after his first "appearances" I think I'd want all of them anyway.

So unless another earlier book rolls out I'd go with this.

Thanks for the thread I learned something new too thanks to it and BB-Gun.

Edited April 29, 2017 by N e r V

[Sqeggs]

On 4/29/2017 at 1:54 PM, N e r V said:

I actually started looking this up after this thread and several sites including the DC wiki and Comic Vine list Hit comics #29 as his first intro. into comics.

However as you can see he does appear to be in the slightly earlier Captain Marvel Jr. issue.

I'm going to venture a guess and say they may be thinking the character was clearly rolled out in name including a cover appearance in Hit comics where as in CM Jr. #2 it's a character "like" Sherlock Holmes. Was it him, a swipe or whatever is up to you. I'm going to have to read it again to see why they wouldn't have just called him by name in that issue? If you are after his first "appearances" I think I'd want all of them anyway.

So unless another earlier book rolls out I'd go with this.

Thanks for the thread I learned something new too thanks to it and BB-Gun.

Might have been a (possibly excessive) concern over copyright issues.  I think that his first stories would have been in the public domain by then, but later stories would not have been.  There was actually a significant U.S. court case in the past couple of years ruling against the Doyle estate, which had been making extensive copyright claims.  They had managed to squeeze payments out of the producers of recent movies and television shows featuring Sherlock.

Then there were also the popular Basil Rathbone movies of the time.  It's possible that portraying an image of Sherlock too close to the movie image might have been held to infringe copyright.  This has come up with respect to Oz characters.  The original Wizard of Oz books are in the public domain, but the way the characters are shown in the 1939 MGM movie is still legally protected.  You can use Dorothy or the Wicked Witch or the Tin Man, but you can't show them exactly as they were shown in the movie.

Of course, none of this may have anything to do with why Fawcett didn't use the name in Cap Jr. 2. 

[OtherEric]

You may be very right on the copyright issue.  Back then, copyright in the US was 28 years with one 28 year extension allowed, without much regard for the rules in other countries.  Sherlock first appeared in 1887, so copyright would be clear in 1943, if I understand the rules back then.  So dropping the name for the 1942 story makes a LOT of sense.

Now I'm wondering what the first use of Oz in the comics was.  I know there were reprints of the newspaper strip adaption of the novels in early issues of THE FUNNIES, but I'm curious when the earliest original material showed.

 

[Electricmastro]

Surprisingly, Sherlock Holmes hasn’t had many comic strips and comic books focusing on him. The earliest self-titled Sherlock Holmes comic book I can find is by Charlton.