Feature Comics #27
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeFeature Comics #27 holds a firm place in Golden Age history as the debut issue of Doll Man, the first comic book superhero whose defining power was the ability to shrink — a concept that would echo through the medium for decades before Ray Palmer's Atom (1961) and Hank Pym's Ant-Man (1962) made it famous. Created by Will Eisner and introduced in a compact four-page origin story titled 'Meet the Doll Man,' he was Quality Comics' first super-powered character, arriving at a moment when the entire costumed superhero genre was still in single digits. For the Charlie Chan feature specifically, issue #27 is one of nine consecutive installments (beginning in #23) in which Alfred Andriola's newspaper strip reprints ran in Feature Comics, continuing Chan's serialized adventures in comic-book form and keeping a major cross-media property visible on newsstands during the strip's first full year.
"Meet the Doll Man" introduces Darrel Dane, a man transformed by a revolutionary formula that shrinks him to doll size while amplifying his strength—perfect for a hero who can slip into the most dangerous places unseen. Written and illustrated by Will Eisner, this early adventure follows Dane as he grapples with his new form and uses it to protect Martha from a menacing threat. The cover by Ed Cronin captures the story’s whimsical yet daring tone, a striking visual for a 10-cent comic in 1939.
In a 1939 tale from Feature Comics #27, Professor Roberts' experimental formula shrinks Darrel Dane to doll size—yet leaves him with superhuman strength. After a brief descent into madness, Dane regains control and uses his new form to protect Martha from a threatening extortionist.
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Quality Comics publisher Everett M. 'Busy' Arnold launched Feature Comics (formerly Feature Funnies) in June 1939, built largely around reprinted newspaper strips supplied through syndicate partnerships. For #27, Will Eisner — working under the pseudonym William Erwin Maxwell through the Eisner & Iger studio — created Doll Man as an original superhero feature, with initial artwork by Lou Fine, whose anatomically precise draftsmanship defined the character's visual identity through the first several issues. The Charlie Chan pages were reprints of Alfred Andriola's McNaught Syndicate newspaper strip, which had launched on October 24, 1938; Andriola, a former assistant to Milton Caniff on Terry and the Pirates, adapted Earl Derr Biggers' detective for the comics page, and Quality packaged those strips as ongoing content across nine issues of Feature Comics.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Cover date: December 1939; on-sale date: November 1, 1939; published by Quality Comics (Comic Favorites, Inc.); 68 pages, full color.
- First appearance of Doll Man (Darrel Dane), the first shrinking superhero in comic book history, predating DC's Atom and Marvel's Ant-Man by over two decades — in the four-page origin story 'Meet the Doll Man.'
- Doll Man was created by Will Eisner (writing under the pseudonym William Erwin Maxwell) with early art by Lou Fine; Eisner established the character's science-based power set: a self-developed serum that shrinks Dane to six inches while retaining the full strength of a normal-sized man.
- Doll Man was Quality Comics' first super-powered character; at the time this issue went on sale, fewer than fourteen costumed, super-powered heroes existed in all of American comics.
- Charlie Chan appears in a continuing adventure ('The Mahati Diamond') — his comic-book appearances in Feature Comics were reprints of Alfred Andriola's newspaper strip, which debuted under the McNaught Syndicate on October 24, 1938. Charlie Chan's first comic-book appearance was Feature Comics #23 (August 1939), not this issue.
- Alfred Andriola's art style for the Chan strip was heavily influenced by his apprenticeship under Milton Caniff and Noel Sickles; the strip was notably promoted as 'totally devoid of guns and gangsters,' distinguishing it from harder-boiled contemporaries.
- The issue also features George E. Brenner's masked detective The Clock, Lank Leonard's Mickey Finn (newspaper reprints), Ham Fisher's Joe Palooka, Dixie Dugan, and several other strips — reflecting Feature Comics' anthology format blending original superhero content with established newspaper features.
- Doll Man grew rapidly in prominence after this issue: moved to first feature in #29, received his first full cover in #30, and remained the title's lead feature through issue #139 (October 1949), eventually spinning off into his own self-titled quarterly series in 1941 that ran 47 issues through 1953.
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Reprinted in Gwandanaland Comics #2005 (2018)
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