Action Comics
:Action Comics
should not be confused with Action,
the controversial British comic of the 1970s. |
Action Comics #1 (June 1938), the debut of Superman. Cover art by Joe Shuster. |
Action Comics is the
comic book series that
introduced Superman, the first major
superhero character as the term is popularly defined. The publisher was originally known as
Detective Comics, Inc., and later as National Comics and as
National Periodical Publications, before taking on its current name of
DC Comics, a subsidiary of
Time Warner.
Superman
Jerry Siegel and
Joe Shuster saw their creation, Superman, launched in
Action Comics #1 in June 1938. Siegel and Shuster had tried for years to find a publisher for their Superman character (originally conceived as a newspaper strip) without success. The writer and artist had worked on several features for National Periodical Publications' other titles (
Slam Bradley in
Detective Comics, for example) and were asked to contribute a feature for National's newest publication. They submitted Superman for consideration, and after re-pasting the sample newspaper strips they had prepared into comic book page format, National decided to make Superman the cover feature of their new magazine. The dynamic "Man of Tomorrow" was an instant hit, and he permanently changed the medium of
comic books and
comic strips by formalizing a new fantasy subgenre.
Action Comics was soon followed by the
Superman comic book series in 1939, along with a wealth of other comics starring numerous costumed superheroes.
As of 2006,
Action Comics is still in publication, surpassing 800 issues. This makes it the second-highest-number American comic book series, after
Dell Comics'
Four Color.
Hiatus
Action Comics is the second-longest running
DC Comics series after
Detective Comics; however, it cannot claim to have had an uninterrupted run, as it went on hiatus for three months twice, once in 1986 (when the regular Superman books were suspended during the publication of
John Byrne's The Man of Steel six-issue
limited series, and again in 1992 (when the Superman books went on a 3-month hiatus following the "
Death of Superman" and "Funeral for a Friend" stories). In 1988, DC Comics tried unsuccessfully to return the format of the comic to an anthology and publish it on a weekly basis, but it returned to a monthly format less than a year later. (However, the temporary increased frequency of issues allowed
Action to surpass the older
Detective Comics in the number of individual issues published.) Another departure from a strict monthly schedule were the giant-size
Supergirl reprint issues of the 1960s (published as a 13th issue annually).
Early Anthology
Originally,
Action Comics was an anthology title featuring a number of other stories in addition to the Superman story.
Zatara, a magician, was one of the other characters who had their own stories in early issues. (
Zatanna, a heroine introduced in the 1960s, is Zatara's daughter.) There was also the hero Tex Thompson, who eventually became Mr. America and later the
Americommando.
Vigilante also enjoyed a lengthy run in this series. Sometimes stories of a more humorous nature were included, such as those of
Hayfoot Henry, a policeman who talked in rhyme. Gradually the size of the issues was decreased as the publisher was reluctant to raise the cover price from the original 10 cents, so there were fewer stories. For a while,
Congo Bill and
Tommy Tomorrow were the two features in addition to Superman (Congo Bill eventually gained the ability to swap bodies with a gorilla and his strip was renamed
Congorilla), but soon after the introduction of
Supergirl in issue #252 (May 1959) the non-Superman-related strips were crowded out of
Action altogether. Since then, it has generally been an all-Superman comic, though other backup stories, such as
The Human Target occasionally appear.
Action Comics Weekly
For a bit less than a year in 1988-1989, the publication frequency was changed to weekly and the title became
Action Comics Weekly; this change lasted from issue #601 to issue #642. During this time, Superman appeared only in a two page story per issue; however, he was still the only character to appear in every issue of the run.
To boost the profile of
Action Comics Weekly, prior to its launch DC cancelled its ongoing
Green Lantern title
Green Lantern Corps and made Green Lantern and his adventures exclusive to
Action Comics Weekly. The move was largely a failure, as many fans felt the
Action Comics Weekly stories were of extremely poor quality. Green Lantern was soon moved out of the title and relaunched with a new series in 1989.
The rest of these issues featured rotating serialized stories of other, mostly minor, DC heroes, as try-outs that led to their own limited series. Characters with featured stories in the run included
Black Canary,
Blackhawk,
Catwoman,
Deadman,
Nightwing,
Phantom Lady (Dee Tyler),
Phantom Stranger,
Secret Six,
Speedy, and
Wild Dog.
Action Comics #687 through 689 were part of
The Reign of the Supermen storyline, which won the 1993
Comics Buyer's Guide Fan Award for Favorite Comic Book Story that year.
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DC Comics official site*
Online exhibit of selected Action Comics from the University of Florida collection
