Star Comics #2
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeStar Comics #2 (April 1937) is a tangible artifact from the very earliest months of the American comic book as a commercial medium, produced by Harry 'A' Chesler's studio — the industry's first comic book packager. The issue continues the serialized science-fiction adventures of Dan Hastings, an Interplanetary Police officer whose ongoing clashes with alien antagonists like Galada Eutopas made him one of the first recurring sci-fi heroes in comics, predating the superhero explosion by more than a year. Its broad anthology format — blending space opera, historical biography, slapstick comedy, and literary adaptation all in a single oversized issue — represents a formative editorial model that the early Golden Age would refine for decades. The creative talent cycling through its pages (Clem Gretter, Fred Guardineer, Creig Flessel, and others) reads like a who's-who of artists who would go on to define the Golden Age at DC, Quality, and beyond.
Star Comics #2 is an anthology issue featuring multiple stories. "Ima Sphinx" follows a gossipy woman whose constant talking and exaggeration drives everyone around her to distraction, culminating in a humorous punch line about applesauce. A science fiction story depicts Dr. Carter discovering a new planet approaching Earth at tremendous speed, prompting military action and diplomatic concerns about the threat to humanity. The issue also includes "Behind the Scenes," a feature about proper dress and etiquette, and concludes with advertisements including an offer for an Engineers Watch available on approval.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
Star Comics launched in February 1937 as one of Harry 'A' Chesler's two debut titles (alongside Star Ranger), published initially through Chesler's own imprint before being sold to Ultem Publications, which handled distribution of this second issue with Chesler continuing as packager and editor. The first six issues were produced in an oversized format — roughly 8.5 by 11.5 inches, full color, running to 68 pages — a physical scale that Chesler used to distinguish his product on newsstands before the title shifted to standard comic-book dimensions. Chesler's studio was simultaneously training ground and production house: young, largely untested artists turned out genre-spanning material on tight deadlines, giving figures like Guardineer and Flessel their first sustained comics work before they moved on to in-house positions at larger publishers.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published April 1937 by Ultem Publications (distributed from Harry 'A' Chesler's studio); cover by Dick Ryan.
- Interior contributors for this issue include Creig Flessel, Dick Ryan, Fred Schwab, H. C. Kiefer, Ken Fitch, Clem Gretter, Rafael Astarita, and W. C. Brigham — a roster of early Golden Age talent working some of their first professional comics assignments.
- The Dan Hastings sci-fi strip — an Interplanetary Police officer who battles alien threats — appears in this issue; the strip ran across the full Star Comics run and was first drawn by Clem Gretter before Fred Guardineer took over art duties.
- This issue's Dan Hastings story specifically involves an incursion by the alien Galada Eutopas on the planet Mexady — one of the earliest named alien antagonists in American comic book history.
- Dan Hastings's supporting cast includes scientist Dr. Carter and his children Bob and Gloria; Dan and Gloria develop a romance across the run, and their enemies include Galada Eutopas, Jovas Grid, Vyona Casa, and Rad Omeron.
- Issue #2 is a wide-ranging anthology: in addition to sci-fi, it includes comics biographies of Saint Patrick and Daniel Boone, Dickens adaptation ('Sketches from A Tale of Two Cities'), King Arthur adventure strips, and multiple one-page comedy features.
- Chesler attempted newspaper syndication of the Dan Hastings strip through the Harry Chesler Syndicate (credited with Jack Binder, Fred Guardineer, and Ken Fitch) as a daily and Sunday strip in 1937–38, though its newspaper run appears to have been minimal.
- The complete Dan Hastings run from Star Comics #1–6 (1937) was later collected and reprinted in a trade paperback, making the strip accessible to modern readers despite the extreme rarity of the original issues.
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Reprints
Reprinted in Keen Komics #1 (1939), Dynamic Comics #3 (1942), Jest Comics #10 (1944), Skyrocket Comics #[nn] (1944), Carnival Comics #[13] (1945), Jest Comics #11 (1945), Komik Pages #1 (10) (1945), Punch Comics #22 (1947)
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