Popular Comics #61

History

Popular Comics launched in February 1936 as Dell's standard-format monthly anthology, originally packaged by M.C. Gaines at the McClure Syndicate offices and built around Chicago Tribune Syndicate strip reprints — Dick Tracy, Gasoline Alley, Terry and the Pirates, and others. By 1939 Dell had handed production duties to Western Publishing (Western Printing and Lithographing Company of Racine, Wisconsin), and by the time issue #61 went to press in early 1941 that partnership was firmly in place. The copyright on the issue's original material is held by R. S. Callender (with one feature, Gang Busters, copyrighted by Phillips H. Lord, Inc.), reflecting the patchwork of rights typical of anthology comics of the era. The artist on the 'Professor Supermind and Son' feature is identified by the Grand Comics Database as Maurice Kashuba, though no writer credit has been publicly established.

Trivia · 8 facts

• Published by Dell Publishing Co., Inc. in March 1941 (on-sale date sourced from the Catalog of Copyright Entries, Part 2, Periodicals, 1941, New Series, Vol. 36, No. 2).
• 'Professor Supermind and Son' appears in this issue: Professor Warren (Supermind) uses an energy machine to grant his son Dan Warren super-strength, invulnerability, flight, and magnetic powers; the feature ran in Popular Comics #60–71 (Feb 1941–Jan 1942) and was drawn by Maurice Kashuba.
• Dan Warren (Supermind's son) was a deliberate Superman analog — sharing similar powers and, on some covers, a blue-and-red costume — yet no public record exists of DC Comics pursuing legal action against Dell over the character.
• The issue includes a 'The Voice (the Invisible Detective)' story in which supporting characters Boyd Philips, Hook, Red, and Tony all make their first appearances, per the Grand Comics Database.
• Additional original features in the issue include 'Martan the Marvel Man,' 'The Hurricane Kids,' 'The Masked Pilot,' and 'Wally Williams, American Boy,' alongside the contest page 'March Popular Comics Contest.'
• Popular Comics was Dell's flagship anthology title, launched February 1936 as a reprint vehicle for Chicago Tribune Syndicate strips; production had been turned over to Western Publishing by 1939, making issue #61 a Western-produced book.
• The series ran 145 issues (1936–1948), and issue #61 falls in the heart of its Golden Age superhero experiment, just as Dell was adding original costumed characters alongside its licensed newspaper-strip reprints.
• Doctor Hormone, another original Dell superhero feature that had run in Popular Comics since #54 (August 1940), was cancelled with issue #60 — meaning issue #61 marks the first number to appear without that strip, replaced effectively by the Supermind feature.

Full credits

Key issues in Popular Comics