Wonderland Comics #1
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeWonderland Comics #1 (Summer 1945, Feature Publications/Prize) marks the debut of Alex in Wonderland, a nursery-rhyme-flavored funny-animal strip by the young Howard Post that became the title's anchor feature across its entire eight-issue run. It stands as one of the final comic books fully assembled by a Golden Age packaging studio — Bernard Baily's shop — at a moment when that production model was already giving way to in-house publisher staffs. The issue also introduced the supporting cast of Nip and Tuck, The Boy Pirate, Max the Magician, Fantastic Ferdy, and M'sieu Macaw, establishing Prize's only dedicated children's humor anthology during the mid-1940s. For historians, it documents a publishing inflection point: Prize was a small five-title bimonthly line in 1946, and Wonderland was its sole title aimed squarely at the youngest readers, a niche that Simon and Kirby's crime-and-romance reinvention of the company would soon render obsolete.
Wonderland Comics #1 is an anthology featuring "The Adventures of Alex in Wonderland," in which a young boy encounters a criminal gang fleeing town and becomes entangled in their escape; the story also includes a subplot involving anthropomorphic rabbits in military uniform engaged in a war, with comedic interactions between the different groups. Additional stories include a tale of a counterfeiting operation where an officer has obtained fake currency and attempts to outwit criminals by offering them counterfeit money as bail, only to have the criminals discover and expose the deception.
Tuck’s new metal fillings accidentally turn her teeth into a radio, tuning in to mysterious signals—and when she and her pal Nip stumble into a scheme involving some crooks, her unexpected ear for broadcasts might just be the key to getting them out of trouble.
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The issue was produced by the Bernard Baily Studio — co-founded by veteran comic artist Bernard Baily and Mac Raboy in 1943 — one of the last active comics packaging operations of the era, which assembled finished books for publishers who lacked in-house creative staffs. Baily had a talent for discovering young artists: the studio that built Wonderland Comics also briefly employed or mentored Gil Kane, Carmine Infantino, and a teenage Frank Frazetta, who inked on a simultaneous Prize project, Treasure Comics #1. The editorial director credited on the indicia for Wonderland Comics #1 was Samuel Berman (also recorded as Bierman across later issues). Howard Post, barely 17 at the time and moonlighting from his day job as an in-betweener at Paramount's Famous Studios animation unit, supplied the cover art and the bulk of the interior strips, signing most stories 'Howard W. Post'; co-contributor Jerry Gale also received interior credits.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published Summer 1945 by Feature Publications Inc. (the formal legal name for Prize/Crestwood), released as a bimonthly title; ran for eight issues total, ending December 1947.
- First appearance of Alex in Wonderland — a little boy who adventures through a realm populated by nursery-rhyme characters — the series' flagship strip, written and drawn by Howard Post.
- Also debuts the supporting features Nip and Tuck, The Boy Pirate, Max the Magician, Fantastic Ferdy, M'sieu Macaw, and Jungle Jests, all of which recurred throughout the series.
- Cover and primary interior art by Howard Post (signed 'Howard W. Post' on most stories), with additional interior work by Jerry Gale; Samuel Berman credited as Editorial Director on the indicia.
- Produced entirely by the Bernard Baily Studio (Bernard Baily and Mac Raboy), one of the last functioning comics packaging studios of the Golden Age, which closed circa 1946.
- The Nip and Tuck story in this issue introduces a running gag premise: character Tuck receives metal dental fillings that pick up radio broadcasts, entangling her and Nip with criminals.
- 48 pages, full color, published at the standard Golden Age cover price of ten cents.
- When Simon and Kirby restructured Prize's line after 1947 — pivoting to crime and romance — Wonderland Comics was among the titles discontinued, as its young-reader humor content had no place in the new editorial direction.
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Reprints
Reprinted in The Golden Collection of Klassic Krazy Kool Kids Komics #[nn] (2010)
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