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Funnies, Inc. was an influential comic book packager during the early Golden Age of comic books, and supplied, among other things, the contents of Marvel Comics #1 (Oct. 1939), the first publication of what would become the multimedia corporation Marvel Comics. a simple word balloon icon. ... // Controversy regarding the terminology Note: Although it takes the form of a plural noun, the common usage when referring to comics Scholars disagree on the definition of comics; some claim its printed format is crucial, some emphasize the interdependence of image and text, and others its sequential nature. ... A comic book is a magazine or book containing the art form of comics. ... Superman, the catalyst of the Golden Age, from Superman #14, January-February 1942. ... The first cover appearance of Namor the Sub-Mariner on Marvel Mystery Comics #4, February, 1940. ... See also: 1938 in comics, other events of 1939, 1940 in comics, 1930s in comics and the list of years in comics Publications: January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December Publications This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it. ... Jump to: navigation, search Multimedia is the use of several different media to convey information (text, audio, graphics, animation, video, and interactivity). ... Jump to: navigation, search A corporation is a legal entity (distinct from a natural person) that often has similar rights in law to those of a Civil law systems may refer to corporations as moral persons; they may also go by the name AS (anonymous society) or something similar, depending... Jump to: navigation, search Marvel Comics, NYSE: MVL (AKA Marvel Entertainment Group, Marvel Characters, Inc. ...

At the birth of comic books

American comic books originated as colorful magazines that reprinted newspaper comic strips These strips, coming from "the funny pages", were colloquially called "the funnies". Gradually, new material began to be created for the emerging medium of comic books. In the late 1930s, with the huge sales success of Superman, the first superhero, magazine publishers jumped on the trend. American comic books are typically small magazines containing fictional stories in the artistic medium of comics. ... This article is about the comic strip, the sequential art form as published in newspapers and on the Internet. ... The word medium has a number of uses: Medium is an average or mean in a range of sizes or conditions. ... Jump to: navigation, search Superman, nicknamed The Man of Steel, is a fictional character and superhero who first appeared in Action Comics #1 in June of 1938 and eventually became one of the most popular and well-known comic book icons of all time. ... Jump to: navigation, search Superman (left) and Batman, two of the most recognizable and influential superheroes. ... A collection of magazines A magazine is a periodical publication containing a variety of articles. ... 1. ...

Funnies, Inc. supplied the contents of Marvel Comics #1, the first publication of Marvel predecessor Timely Comics.

One of the many comics companies founded during this time, Centaur Publishing, found relative success with Amazing-Man Comics, an anthology featuring such superheroes as the titular Amazing Man (created by company art director Lloyd Jacquet and writer-artist Bill Everett), the Iron Skull, Mighty Man, Minimidget, and Skyrocket Steele. After the first issue, Jacquet broke off to form Funnies, Inc., a packager that would create comics on demand for publishers (while retaining the rights to characters created). Centaur staffers who followed him, on at least a freelance basis, included artists Everett, Carl Burgos, Paul Gustavson, and Ben Thompson; writers Ray Gill and John Compton; John Mahon, a publisher for one of Centaur's earlier iterations; business manager Jim Fitzsimmons; and sales director Frank Torpey. Others who worked there included future novelist Mickey Spillane; Leonard Starr, future creator of the comic strip On Stage; and artist Bob Davis, who for for Funnies, Inc. created the boy hero "Dick Cole" in Novelty Press' Blue Bolt Comics. The company's office was located on West 45th Street in New York City, near Times Square. Marvel Comics #1 This image is a book cover. ... Marvel Comics #1 This image is a book cover. ... Jump to: navigation, search Marvel Comics, NYSE: MVL (AKA Marvel Entertainment Group, Marvel Characters, Inc. ... Jump to: navigation, search Timely Comics is the 1940s comic book publishing company that would evolve into Marvel Comics. ... Amazing Man is a name used by several fictional characters, all of them superheroes. ... The term art director is an overall title for a variety of similar job functions in publishing, film and television, the Internet, and video games. ... Jump to: navigation, search Funnies, Inc. ... The term writer can apply to anyone who creates a written work, but the word more usually designates those who write creatively or professionally, or those who have written in many different forms. ... Jump to: navigation, search Artist is a descriptive term applied to a person who engages in an activity deemed to be an art. ... Bill Everett (May 18, 1917 – February 27, 1973) was a comic book writer/illustrator most famous for the creation of Namor the Sub-Mariner and co-creating Daredevil for Marvel Comics. ... Carl Burgos is an American comic book and advertising artist, born April 18, 1917, New York City; died 1984. ... Paul Gustavson (nee Gustafson), 1916-1977, is an American comic-book writer and artist. ... Jump to: navigation, search Frank Morrison Spillane (born March 9, 1918), better known as Mickey Spillane, is an American author of crime novels. ... Leonard Starr who was born October 28, 1925 was an advertising artist and cartoonist. ... Mary Perkins, On Stage was a very popular comic strip during the 1960s. ... New York City, officially named the City of New York, is the most populous city in the United States, the most densely populated major city in North America, and is at the center of international finance, politics, entertainment, and culture. ... Times Square Times Square is also the name of a station on the Detroit People Mover, a shopping mall in Hong Kong, and a 1980 movie. ...

Two other notable comics packagers were formed around this time: Eisner-Iger, founded by Will Eisner and Jerry Iger, and the quirkily named Harry "A" Chesler's studio. Will Eisner (March 3, 1917 – January 3, 2005) was an acclaimed American comics writer and artist who is considered one of the most important contributors to the development of the medium. ... Jump to: navigation, search Samuel Maxwell Jerry Iger (born Aug. ...

Initially called First Funnies, Inc., the company's first project was Motion Picture Funnies Weekly, a promotional comic planned for giveaway in movie theaters. The idea proved unsuccessful, and the only eight known samples among those created to send to theater owners were discovered in an estate sale in 1974. Additionally, proofs were made for the covers of issues #2-4. Cartoonist Martin Filchock drew the covers to all but #3, drawn by Max Neill. A typical megaplex (AMC Rolling Hills 20 in Rolling Hills Estates, California). ... A cartoonist at work. ...

The first Marvel comic

Funnies, Inc.'s first actual sale was to pulp magazine publisher Martin Goodman, who was looking to enter the comics field. For what would be called Marvel Comics #1, Funnies, Inc. created a set of features that included two nascent star characters: Burgos' original Human Torch and Everett's Sub-Mariner, expanding an origin story Everett had created for the never-released Motion Picture Funnies Weekly #1. Among the other characters introduced was Gustavson's The Angel, a modest hit who would appear in more than 100 Golden Age stories. Goodman, whose business strategy involved having a multitude of corporate entities, eventually used Timely Comics as the umbrella name for his comic-book division. Jump to: navigation, search Pulp magazines (or pulp fiction; often referred to as the pulps ) were inexpensive fiction magazines. ... Martin Goodman was an American publisher of Pulp Magazines and comic books. ... Jump to: navigation, search For the Fantastic Four member of the same name, see Human Torch (Johnny Storm) The original Human Torch is a fictional character who was created in by Carl Burgos for Marvel Comics #1 (Oct. ... Namor the Sub-Mariner is a fictional character, featured in Marvel Comics. ... The Angel is a Golden Age of Comics superhero in the Marvel Comics universe, created by writer-artist Paul Gustavson in Marvel Comics #1 (Oct. ... Strategic management is the process of specifying an organizations objectives, developing policies and plans to achieve these objectives, and allocating resources so as to implement the plans. ... Jump to: navigation, search Timely Comics is the 1940s comic book publishing company that would evolve into Marvel Comics. ...

Other early companies that bought material from Funnies, Inc. include Centaur, Fox, and Hillman Periodicals. For the Novelty Press division of the Premium Service Company, writer-artist Joe Simon created Blue Bolt and cartoonist Basil Wolverton did Spacehawk. Joe Simon (born 1915) was a comic book author and cartoonist who created or co-created many memorable characters in the Golden Age. ... The cover of Powerhouse Pepper #3 (July 1948), by Basil Wolverton. ...

Simon, in his autobiography (cited below), recalled that his Funnies, Inc. rate for a completed comic-book page — written, drawn and lettered — was $7. For comparison, he recalled that at Eisner-Iger — where Eisner wrote the features and created characters, hiring novice artists — the page rate was approximately $3.50 to $5.50; publishers were charged $5 to $7 per finished page.

Funnies, Inc. was eventually made obsolete by the growing medium's success, allowing publishers to hire their own staffs. As Simon recalled in that same autobiography, he stopped freelancing for the company when he became Timely Comics' editor: "Soon, we were buying only The Human Torch and Sub-Mariner from Jacquet and irritating the hell ouf of him with demands for script and art changes in the hopes that he would resign the features he had helped to build."

Toward the end of 1940, Jacquet sold Goodman the rights to the characters. Business relations evidently remained cordial; in an Aug. 14, 1942, photo, Jacquet seated next to Goodman at a gala Hotel Astor luncheon Goodman hosted on for the Timely and Funnies staffs, followed by a showing of the new Disney movie Bambi. Others at the table included Torpey, Gill, Timely editor Stan Lee, and such artists/writers as Vince Alascia, Ernie Hart, Jack Keller, George Klein, Jim Mooney, Don Rico, Mike Sekowsky, and Syd Shores. Disney empire The name Disney may refer to several aspects of the entertainment empire of The Walt Disney Company: The Walt Disney Company Walt Disney Pictures, the companys flagship motion picture studio Walt Disney Feature Animation, part of Walt Disney Pictures and The Walt Disney Company Walt Disney Studios... For other uses see film (disambiguation) Film refers to the celluliod media on which movies are printed Film — also called movies, the cinema, the silver screen, moving pictures, photoplays, picture shows, flicks, or motion pictures, — is a field that encompasses motion pictures as an art form or as part of... Jump to: navigation, search This article is about the 1942 Walt Disney film. ... Jump to: navigation, search Stan Lee and his most famous co-creation, Spider-Man. ... Ernie Hart a. ... Jack R. Keller (born June 16, 1922, Reading, Pennsylvania, United States; died January 2, 2003, St. ... George Johnn Klein, O.C., M.B.E., B.A.Sc. ... Jim Mooney (born 1919) is an American comic book artist best known as a Marvel Comics inker and Spider-Man artist, and as the signature artist of DC Comics Silver Age Supergirl. ... Donato Francisco Rico II (1912-1985) was an American comic book writer and artist for Marvel Comics predecdessors, Timely and Atlas, and a paperback novelist. ... Mike Sekowsky Born 1928 Died 1989 Artist Writer Editor Timely Comics DC Comics Sterling Comics Various Main work: Justice League of America Brave and the Bold 28-30, Justice League of America #1-63 Wonder Woman Overview Michael Sekowsky started in comics in 1941, almost at the start, drawing for... Jump to: navigation, search Syd Shores (born 1916, died March 6, 1973) is an American comic book artist known for his work on Captain America in both during the 1940s Golden Age of comic books and the 1960s Silver Age. ...

Lloyd Jacquet

Funnies, Inc. founder Lloyd Jacquet, a former World War I colonel, was an editor who worked for pulp magazine publisher Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson's National Allied Magazines (the future DC Comics) on some of the first comic books. These included the landmark New Fun: The Big Comic Magazine (a.k.a. New Fun Comics), which debuted in Feb. 1935 as the first such publication with original material rather than newspaper comic strip reprints. Jacquet remained through its first four issues, later becoming art director of Centaur Publishing — co-creating Amazing Man with Bill Everett there — before leaving to start Funnies, Inc. Jump to: navigation, search World War I was primarily a European conflict with many facets: immense human sacrifice, stalemate trench warfare, and the use of new, devastating weapons - tanks, aircraft, machineguns, and poison gas. ... Colonel (Spanish: Coronel; German: Oberst; Russian:Полко́вник/Polkovnik) is both a military rank and civilian title, used by nearly every country in the world. ... Jump to: navigation, search An Editor is a person who prepares text—typically language, but also images and sounds—for publication by correcting, condensing, or otherwise modifying it. ... Jump to: navigation, search Pulp magazines (or pulp fiction; often referred to as the pulps ) were inexpensive fiction magazines. ... A publisher is a person or entity which engages in the act of publishing. ... DC Comics is one of the largest companies in comic book and related media publishing. ... Jump to: navigation, search The current DC Comics logo, adopted in May 2005. ... A comic book is a magazine or book containing the art form of comics. ... This first issue was published in February 1935 and was the first DC Comic. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1935 was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... This article is about the comic strip, the sequential art form as published in newspapers and on the Internet. ... The term art director is an overall title for a variety of similar job functions in publishing, film and television, the Internet, and video games. ... Bill Everett (May 18, 1917 – February 27, 1973) was a comic book writer/illustrator most famous for the creation of Namor the Sub-Mariner and co-creating Daredevil for Marvel Comics. ...

Novelist Mickey Spillane, who began his career in comics and worked at Funnies, Inc., recalled: Jump to: navigation, search Frank Morrison Spillane (born March 9, 1918), better known as Mickey Spillane, is an American author of crime novels. ...

"Our boss, Lloyd Jacquet, a dead ringer for Douglas MacArthur (corncob pipe and all), was a wonderful man, but could never understand living among wildcat writers and artists. All of us were pretty much freelance people, so firing us would have been a useless gesture."¹ Jump to: navigation, search General Douglas MacArthur aboard a battle ship toward the end of World War II, 1945 Douglas MacArthur (26 January 1880-5 April 1964) was an American military leader credited with defeating the Japanese in World War II. He helped rebuild Japan after the war played a...

After Funnies, Inc. ended, Lloyd Jacquet Studios continued to package comics through at least 1949, when Jacquet hired artist Joe Orlando to do work for Treasure Chest, the Catholic-oriented comic book distributed in parochial schools. Other Lloyd Jacquet Studios projects included Your United States, an educational, giveaway comic produced for publisher Fred W. Danner in 1946, with art by future DC Comics inker Sid Greene (Batman, Justice League of America). Jump to: navigation, search 1949 is a common year starting on Saturday. ... Jump to: navigation, search Joe Orlando was an illustrator, writer, editor and cartoonist who was born April 4, 1927, in Bari, Italy, and died December 23, 1998, in Manhattan. ... A parochial school is a type of private school which engages in religious education in addition to conventional education. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1946 was a common year starting on Tuesday. ...

References

• Jess Nevins' The Timely Comics Story
• Marvel Masterworks Resource Pages

• Comic Books on Microfiche: The University of Tulsa, McFarlin Library, Dept. of Special Collections Note: The listing for Amazing Man Comics #5 (Sept. 1939) says the comic continues the numbering of the unreleased Motion Picture Funnies Weekly.
• Lambiek Comiclopedia: Robert "Bob" Davis
• Comics Reality #11 (online newsletter)
• Joe Simon
• DC Timeline
• Comic Book Resources: Oddball Comics — Your United States
• The Grand Comics Database Project
• All in Color for a Dime by Dick Lupoff & Don Thompson ISBN 0873414985
• The Comic Book Makers by Joe Simon with Jim Simon ISBN 1887591354
• Ron Goulart's Great History of Comic Books by Ron Goulart ISBN 0809250454
• Alter Ego #22, March 2003

Joe Simon (born 1915) was a comic book author and cartoonist who created or co-created many memorable characters in the Golden Age. ...

External links

• "A Tribute to Bill Everett, the Sub-Mariner's Father" by Monique Pryor
• The Deep Six Project: A Biography of Namor McKenzie, The Sub-Mariner
• A Timely Talk with Allen Bellman
• Comics Should be Good: Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed #15!

Footnotes

• Note 1: The Golden Age of Marvel Comics, Vol. 2 ISBN 0785107134