Famous Funnies #85
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeFamous Funnies #85 (August 1941) sits at a pivotal editorial crossroads in the history of American comics: it is one of the final issues of what historians call the 'pure reprint era' of the series, arriving just three issues before #88, the last issue to carry full-size newspaper-page reprints before wartime paper rationing forced Eastern Color to commission entirely original material. The issue continued the run of Invisible Scarlet O'Neil — one of the earliest female superheroes in comics, introduced just four issues earlier in #81 — keeping the character's momentum alive at a time when female-led adventure strips were a genuine rarity on newsstands. It also carries cover art verified to Bill Everett, the creator of Namor the Sub-Mariner, making it a notable freelance credit in Everett's early Golden Age career. As a snapshot of the anthology format that launched the American comic book industry, #85 captures the richness of the syndicated-strip pipeline that Famous Funnies had perfected over seven years.
Famous Funnies #85 is an anthology containing multiple stories. "Eagle Scout Roy Powers Zooms to the Rescue" features Roy Powers and companions engaged in military combat against enemy forces, with references to an army lieutenant and battle tactics. Another story involves royalty, a chancellor, and a jousting competition that is cancelled, followed by characters attending a stadium event where a character named Nellie goes missing, prompting a search involving horses. "Seaweed Sam: The Rhyming Rover" depicts Davy Jones meeting Sam at the ocean floor and receiving an umbrella as a gift, with a closing joke about wet weather forecasting.
A boat captain finds himself abandoned by his crew in this quick comedic romp—stranded with nothing but questions about how he'll ever get his vessel back. With nobody left to help him run the ship, he's going to have to figure things out on his own.
Mescal Ike stirs up trouble when a simple task leads to a cascade of comic misadventures, from mix-ups at the doctor's office to a run-in with smooth-talking swindlers and plenty of tall tales. This one-page romp by S. L. Huntley delivers the kind of frontier humor where every scheme backfires in the best possible way.
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Famous Funnies was published by Eastern Color Printing Company — widely regarded by historians as the originator of the ongoing, newsstand comic book format in America — and by August 1941 had been running monthly for over seven years. The issue appeared during a decisive editorial period: wartime paper conservation measures were forcing syndicate strips to be printed at reduced sizes in newspapers, meaning those strips were no longer suitable for comic book reprinting at standard reduction ratios. Eastern's editors were effectively counting down the last issues that could be assembled purely from full-size syndicated newspaper pages, with #88 (November 1941) marking the end of that era. The Ledger Syndicate had been a primary content provider for the title through issue #87, supplying strips by creators including A. E. Hayward, Frank Godwin, and F. O. Alexander, all of whom are represented in issues of this period.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published August 1941 by Eastern Color Printing / Famous Funnies, Inc.; cover price 10 cents; 68 pages, full color.
- The cover was penciled and inked by Bill Everett — creator of Namor the Sub-Mariner and one of the most prominent Golden Age freelancers — with the credit verified by Blake Bell in The Bill Everett Archives #2.
- Issue #85 is one of the issues immediately preceding the end of the 'full-size reprint' era: Famous Funnies #88 (November 1941) was the last issue assembled from full-size newspaper-page reprints before Eastern Color was forced by wartime paper rationing to commission original work.
- Confirmed interior features include: Invisible Scarlet O'Neil (Russell Stamm), Buck Rogers (Philip Francis Nowlan / Rick Yager credited as Dick Calkins), Skyroads (Dick Calkins / Russell Keaton), Dickie Dare (Milton Caniff), Adventures of Patsy (Mel Graff), Frankie Future (Victor E. Pazmiño), Napoleon (Clifford McBride), Highlights of History (J. Carroll Mansfield), and others.
- Notably, according to the List of Buck Rogers comic strips (Wikipedia / Buck Rogers fandom wiki), issues #84 and #85 did NOT include Buck Rogers newspaper strips — making #85 one of a very small number of issues in this run that lacked the character who was among the title's longest-running features (present from #3 through #190).
- Invisible Scarlet O'Neil — created by Russell Stamm and debuting in the Chicago Times on June 3, 1940 — had entered Famous Funnies with #81 (April 1941), and #85 continues one of comics' earliest ongoing superhero-style stories centered on a female protagonist; scholars have positioned the strip as a precursor to Wonder Woman's debut later that same year.
- H. G. Peter, best known as the defining Golden Age artist of Wonder Woman, contributed at least one panel to the interior (per GCD indexing), providing a notable creative connection given that Wonder Woman herself debuted in All Star Comics #8 in late 1941.
- The Ledger Syndicate supplied content for Famous Funnies through issue #87, meaning #85 is among the penultimate group of issues reflecting the original editorial agreement that had sustained the series from its 1934 launch.
Full credits
Reprints
Reprinted in Great American Comic Books #[nn] (2001), The Bill Everett Archives #2 (2013)
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