All-American Comics #5
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeAll-American Comics #5 (August 1939) is a working document of Golden Age anthology publishing in action — five issues into a brand-new series that would eventually birth Green Lantern, the Atom, and Doctor Mid-Nite, this issue shows the title still operating as a hybrid of reprinted newspaper strips and original serial fiction. Its most distinctive contribution is inaugurating 'The American Way,' a comic adaptation of the celebrated George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart Broadway stage play of the same name — a remarkable early example of the comics medium deliberately adapting prestige theatrical material. The issue also continues the ongoing 'Red, White, and Blue' espionage strip (created by Jerry Siegel and artist Walter Galli) and opens the science-fiction serial 'Mystery Men of Mars' by writer Carl H. Claudy and artist Stan Aschmeier, demonstrating the enormous genre range All-American Comics was willing to explore before superheroes fully took over its pages.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
All-American Comics was the flagship title of Max Gaines's All-American Publications, launched in April 1939 with Gaines as publisher and Sheldon Mayer — who also drew 'Scribbly' within its pages — serving as editor. By issue #5, the title was only four months old and still built substantially on reprinted newspaper-strip material alongside original features, a production strategy common to the era that allowed the young company to fill its 68 pages affordably. All-American Publications operated semi-independently but shared office and distribution infrastructure with National Allied Publications (the forerunner of DC Comics), which is why early issues carried the DC bullet on their covers despite being a separate company.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Cover date: August 1939; published by All-American Publications (later DC Comics), 68 pages at a cover price of ten cents.
- Debut of 'The American Way' serial — an original comic adaptation of the 1939 Broadway play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, making this one of the earliest examples in American comics of a theatrical work being adapted directly into the medium.
- Continues 'Red, White, and Blue,' the patriotic military espionage strip co-created by Jerry Siegel (co-creator of Superman) with artist Walter Galli, featuring Marine Sgt. Red Dugan, Army Sgt. Whitey Smith, and Navy sailor Blooey Blue.
- Opens 'The Mystery Men of Mars: Part 1 — Adventures in the Unknown,' a multi-part science-fiction serial scripted by author Carl H. Claudy and drawn by Stan Aschmeier (who would later draw Dr. Mid-Nite).
- Contains an untitled Scribbly installment written and drawn by editor Sheldon Mayer — Mayer's semi-autobiographical strip about a boy cartoonist was one of the title's signature original features from issue #1.
- Continues the Hop Harrigan aviation strip by Jon L. Blummer (working under the pen name Jon Elby) — Hop Harrigan was the series' lead original adventure feature and would eventually spawn a 1940s radio show.
- Includes reprinted newspaper strips occupying a significant portion of the 68-page issue, among them Mutt and Jeff (Al Smith ghosting for Bud Fisher), Reg'lar Fellers by Gene Byrnes, and Bobby Thatcher by George Storm — reflecting the transitional nature of the title at this early stage.
- The issue carries an in-house advertisement for the debut issue of Movie Comics, giving readers a contemporaneous window into All-American Publications' broader line of titles in mid-1939.
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Reprints
Reprinted in Action Comics #15 (1939), Detective Comics #30 (1939)
Key issues in All-American Comics
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