Joe Palooka

Joe Palooka is a good-natured, clean-cut heavyweight boxing champion whose comic-strip adventures — emphasizing sportsmanship and everyday American values — made the transition from newspaper strips to comic books with his appearance in Famous Funnies in 1934.

Few characters can claim roots stretching back to the Platinum Age, but Joe Palooka is exactly that kind of comics pioneer — debuting in Famous Funnies #3 in 1934, created by Philip Francis Nowlan and Rick Yager, and somehow still turning up in the catalog nearly eight decades later. Published primarily through Harvey, this enduring figure shares his pages with an impressive roster of classic comics icons — Dick Tracy, Charlie Chan, Little Max, and Humphrey Pennyworth among them — which tells you everything about the distinguished, old-school world he inhabits. With his own long-running series, a spinoff in Little Max Comics, and a collector-significant key issue to his name, Joe Palooka is a genuine artifact of comics history, the kind of character who reminds you just how deep and rich this medium's roots really go.