Famous Funnies #39
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeFamous Funnies #39 (cover-dated October 1937) is a mid-run chapter of what historians broadly recognize as the first true ongoing American comic book sold on newsstands — a series whose monthly publication model set the template for the entire industry. The issue continued the long-running Buck Rogers feature that had appeared in the title since issue #3 (1934), bringing Philip Francis Nowlan and Rick Yager's 25th-century science fiction strip to a mass comic-book readership at a moment when the series was reaching its peak monthly circulation. By packaging syndicated newspaper strips in a dime-priced, saddle-stitched periodical, Eastern Color Printing demonstrated that comics could sustain a genuine retail market, a proof-of-concept that directly encouraged the launch of titles like Action Comics the following year. Wilma Deering, Buck's stalwart companion and one of the earliest recurring female adventurers in American popular fiction, appears alongside him in the reprinted strip content, reinforcing her steady presence across all comic-book installments of the run.
Famous Funnies #39 is an anthology featuring multiple comic strips and stories. "War on Crime" by Rex Collier presents a Federal Bureau of Investigation tale in which agents pursue a criminal named Karpis, involving disguises, a marked man scheme, and a climactic capture in Toledo, Ohio. "Oaky Doaks" follows a young character and his companion Nellie as they encounter lions at what appears to be a circus or menagerie, leading to action and adventure. "Babe Bunting" by Roy L. Williams tells the story of a young girl named Babe who searches for a missing boy named Buttons along a waterfront, eventually reuniting him with his family and hosting a school party.
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Famous Funnies was the brainchild of Eastern Color Printing, with Maxwell C. Gaines instrumental in developing the newsstand distribution model that debuted with issue #1 in July 1934. By 1937, the title had settled into a stable anthology formula — reprinting licensed newspaper strips in full color on 68 pages for a dime — and the Buck Rogers feature was supplied by the John F. Dille Co. syndicate, scripted by creator Philip Francis Nowlan and illustrated by Rick Yager, who signed his work as 'Dick Calkins' (the strip's original artist) throughout this period. Issue #39 falls within the title's demonstrably peak commercial phase: the immediately preceding issue (#38) recorded a single-issue circulation of 530,824 copies, making this one of the best-selling runs in the book's two-decade history. Eastern Color's editorial approach at this stage was still almost entirely reprint-based, adapting the Sunday Buck Rogers pages from their original broadsheet dimensions to the smaller comic-book page.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published by Eastern Color Printing; cover-dated October 1937, placing it as issue #39 in the series that ran 218 issues from July 1934 through July 1955.
- Buck Rogers had been a continuous feature in Famous Funnies since issue #3 (October 1934) — one of the longest unbroken science-fiction runs in early comic-book history, eventually spanning issues #3–190 and #209–215.
- The Buck Rogers strip content was scripted by Philip Francis Nowlan (creator of the character) and drawn by Rick Yager, who signed the work under the name 'Dick Calkins,' the strip's founding artist.
- Wilma Deering, Buck's primary companion and one of the earliest recurring female protagonists in American science fiction, appears in the Buck Rogers strip pages reprinted in this issue, as she did throughout the run from Famous Funnies #3 onward.
- Wilma Deering originated in Nowlan's August 1928 Amazing Stories novella 'Armageddon 2419 A.D.' and debuted in the Buck Rogers newspaper strip in August 1929 — her comic-book appearances in Famous Funnies are reprints of that strip material.
- The Buck Rogers newspaper strip, syndicated by John F. Dille Co. beginning January 7, 1929, was the first American comic strip devoted to serious science fiction, and Famous Funnies was its primary comic-book venue throughout the 1930s and 1940s.
- Famous Funnies as a series is recognized by popular-culture historians as the first true ongoing American comic book, establishing the standardized size, color printing, newsstand distribution, and 10-cent price point that the industry adopted.
- The issue was part of a dense anthology format typical of the era, mixing the Buck Rogers science-fiction pages with humor, adventure, and other reprinted newspaper strips — all produced without original stories commissioned specifically for the comic.
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