ALTER EGO #185

A first-ever, outstanding study of the 1940s Novelty Comics Group, with heroes like S&K's Blue Bolt (and the Green Sorceress), Target and the Targeteers, White Streak, and Wolverton's wonderful Spacehawk. All produced by such Golden Age super-stars as Joe Simon & Jack Kirby, Carl Burgos, Bill Everett, Tarpe Mills, Paul Gustavson et al.  Plus John Benson looks at Harvey romance comics before and after the code; Mr. Monster looks at Wally Wood's assistant, Ralph Reese; George Perez tribute; the story behind the well-done Captain Midnight serial, and more. Alter Ego #185 presents Mark Carlson-Ghost’s study of Novelty Comics. Mark also put together the excellent study of publisher Street and Smith a few issues back (#176, still available), the company responsible for comics with The Shadow, Doc Savage, and Red Dragon -- and of course, the plethora of pulps with these and other characters and genres. Mark does it again with Novelty, which was a division of Curtis Publishing. Who is Curtis? Well, they owned The Saturday Evening Post, the bestselling magazine perhaps of all time. As well as Good Housekeeping -- believe it or not, this was a premier source for fiction and fine new artwork in the 1920s and 1930s in their heyday, as was the Post. So Curtis/Novelty had money behind it...and very clear editorial opinions, often at odds with Lloyd Jacquet's creators. It was Lloyd's Funnies Inc. "shop" who was providing their comics by all the above artists. The same shop that created Wheeler/Nicholson/DC's first comic book, New Fun, and Marvel's Marvel Comics #1!! It's a fascinating story.