Action Comics #63
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeAction Comics #63 is a textbook wartime Golden Age anthology: its Jack Burnley cover — a striking Pacific-theater war image later reproduced in Fantagraphics' 2017 survey of World War II comics — anchors a 60-page issue that serves as a time capsule of DC's rotating stable of characters at the height of the war. Most historically, it marks the final published adventure of the Three Aces, ending a run that had occupied the title since its earliest years. The issue also carries one of the earliest appearances of Captain Tootsie and his sidekick Rollo, the Tootsie Roll advertising mascots drawn in the C. C. Beck studio style, illustrating how mid-war comics routinely blended branded advertorial strips into their regular page count — a production practice that would fade quickly after the war.
In "When Stars Collide!", Clark Kent’s mind goes blank after witnessing a cosmic collision, leaving him vulnerable to a clever con artist who convinces him he’s the notorious criminal Muscles Moony. Posing as Superman, he’s drawn into a gang war—unaware of his true identity or the truth behind the stars. Written by Don C. Cameron and illustrated by Ira Yarbrough, with a cover by Jack Burnley, this 1943 classic blends sci-fi wonder with a mind-bending twist.
In "When Stars Collide!", Clark Kent's memory fades after witnessing a cosmic collision, leaving him vulnerable to a clever con artist who convinces him he’s the notorious Muscles Moony. Forced to battle a rival gang in Superman’s guise, the Man of Steel must navigate a world where his own identity has been rewritten—before the truth comes crashing back.
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The credited editorial masthead lists Whitney Ellsworth (appearing in the indicia as 'F. W. Ellsworth'), but the Grand Comics Database identifies Jack Schiff as the issue's actual working editor — a split common to DC's wartime operation, where credited editors often functioned as overseers while hands-on editors handled day-to-day production. The Superman lead story, 'When Stars Collide,' was scripted by Don Cameron but published under Jerry Siegel's name, and drawn by Ira Yarbrough under the Joe Shuster studio byline — a ghost-work arrangement that DC maintained across multiple issues during this period to preserve the franchise names while Siegel was in the Army. The issue's cover was created by Jack Burnley, whose wartime imagery was selected decades later for the Fantagraphics anthology Take That, Adolf! (2017).
Trivia · 7 facts
- Cover art is a Japanese war image by Jack Burnley, later reprinted in the Fantagraphics collection Take That, Adolf!: The Fighting Comic Books of the Second World War (2017).
- Lead story 'When Stars Collide': script by Don Cameron (published under Jerry Siegel's name), art by Ira Yarbrough (published under the Joe Shuster studio byline) — the Superman amnesia plot involves cosmic radiation from a stellar collision causing Superman to briefly believe he is a criminal named 'Muscles Moony.'
- The Superman story 'When Stars Collide' was later reprinted in Superman: The Action Comics Archives Vol. 4 (DC).
- This issue is the final appearance of the Three Aces (Fog Fortune, Gunner Bill, and Whistler Will), ending their run in Action Comics with the story 'Leatherneck Luck,' scripted by Gardner Fox.
- The Vigilante story 'Dummy, Dummy & Dummy, Inc.' features the villain the Dummy; scripted by Don Cameron with pencils by Mort Meskin (credited as Mort Morton Jr.).
- Captain Tootsie and his sidekick Rollo appear in the one-page advertorial strip 'Captain Tootsie Battles Monster Man!' — Captain Tootsie was a Tootsie Roll promotional character created by C. C. Beck and Pete Costanza, with Rollo being one of his Secret Legion kid companions.
- Actual editor was Jack Schiff, though Whitney Ellsworth was the credited editor of record on the indicia.
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Reprinted in Superman in Action Comics #1 (1993), Superman: The Action Comics Archives #4 (2005), Superman: Cover to Cover #[nn] (2006), Superman: The War Years 1938-1945 #[nn] (2015), Superman: The Golden Age Omnibus #3 (2017), Take That, Adolf!: The Fighting Comic Books of the Second World War #[nn] (2017)
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