Joker Comics #2
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeJoker Comics #2 (Timely, June 1942) marks the first appearance of Tessie the Typist, who went on to become arguably Timely's first sustained female star character — predating the better-known Millie the Model and Patsy Walker by years. Debuting in compact one-page gag strips, Tessie quickly outgrew that format and evolved into a multi-page feature whose stories self-consciously reflected the wartime expansion of women in the American workforce, with the character cycling through roles as nurse, reporter, assembly-line worker, and even a Rosie the Riveter-style film character. Within two years of this issue, Tessie was simultaneously carrying three ongoing Timely titles — Joker Comics, Gay Comics, and her own Tessie the Typist Comics series — a level of franchise prominence that places this debut issue at the foundation of Timely/Marvel's entire Golden Age humor line aimed at female readers. The issue also contains the second appearance of Basil Wolverton's Powerhouse Pepper, cementing Joker Comics #2 as a double-barreled key for collectors of 1940s humor comics.
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Joker Comics was created and edited by Vincent Fago, Timely's chief humor specialist who briefly served as editor-in-chief while Stan Lee was away on military service during World War II. Issue #2, cover-dated June 1942, was part of the rapid early expansion of the anthology only one issue after Powerhouse Pepper debuted in issue #1 (April 1942). The Marvel Database identifies a notably large creative roster for this issue — including Al Jaffee, Basil Wolverton, Mickey Spillane, and Kosti Ruohomaa among contributors — with Stan Lee listed as editor and Fago as editor-in-chief. The creators responsible for the debut Tessie strips specifically are unidentified; sources at the Grand Comics Database and Bleeding Cool both confirm the earliest Tessie material in Joker Comics has no confirmed credited artist.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of Tessie the Typist (full name Tessie Tender, Earth-616), who debuted in a series of one-page, eight-panel standalone gag strips.
- Second appearance of Powerhouse Pepper, Basil Wolverton's slapstick superhuman boxer, who had debuted in Joker Comics #1 (April 1942).
- Published by Timely Comics (predecessor to Marvel Comics); cover date June 1942; edited by Vincent Fago.
- Other contributors to the issue identified by the Marvel Database include Al Jaffee, Mickey Spillane, Kosti Ruohomaa, and Basil Wolverton, with Stan Lee also listed as editor.
- Tessie the Typist grew from these one-page origins to become Joker Comics' primary cover feature beginning with issue #6, eventually headlining three concurrent Timely series by 1944 (Joker Comics, Gay Comics, and Tessie the Typist Comics).
- The character's stories progressively mirrored wartime social messaging about women's roles, with Tessie taking on jobs as nurse, reporter, marine, assembly-line worker, and a Rosie the Riveter-style film character over the course of the Joker Comics run.
- The creators of the earliest Tessie strips in Joker Comics are unconfirmed; the Grand Comics Database attributes the artist of later installments in the run to Morris Weiss.
- The issue also features a back-cover advertisement for Captain America, reflecting the cross-promotional nature of Timely's wartime output.
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