Will Eisner, Lou Fine Debut the Flame, Wonderworld Comics at Auction

Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: Fox Feature Syndicate, golden age, lou tremendous, will eisner

The legendary Will Eisner preferred calling characters “The Flame”, and his best-known character of that title debuted in Wonderworld Comics #3.

Will Eisner was enamored with calling characters “The Flame.”  In 1935, he created samples for an (unpublished) detective cartoon that includes a personality of that title as a part of his early makes an attempt to interrupt into syndicated newspaper strips.  In 1936, a characteristic referred to as The Flame, higher identified by its retitled title Hawks of the Seas, was serialized in early Golden Age comedian guide sequence Wow, What a Magazine.  Neither of those characters had something particularly to do with hearth. Initially, Eisner and Lou Fine‘s The Flame for Fox Feature Syndicate title Wonderworld Comics did not have fairly as a lot to do with hearth as one would possibly suppose both.

The creation of the costumed superhero model of the Flame was prompted by what can now be thought-about one in all the most necessary sequences of occasions in American comedian guide publishing historical past. Fox’s Wonderworld Comics title was launched as Wonder Comics #1 on March 17, 1939.  Its writer Victor Fox was sued by DC Comics nearly the immediate his debut challenge hit the newsstands, “for infringement of copyright on plaintiff’s comic strip called ‘The Superman’ by defendants’ comic strip called ‘The Wonderman.'”

On April 7, 1939, SDNY Judge John Munro Woolsey discovered that Wonderman did infringe on DC Comics copyrights. Although Victor Fox would enchantment this determination, he had no intention of ready on that enchantment to proceed his comedian guide empire.  Via one other authorized detour we’ll get to in one other publish, Fox renamed Wonder Comics as Wonderworld Comics and had challenge #3 on the newsstands cowl that includes The Flame about six weeks later.  There are 26 of the 33 problems with the extremely sought-after and tough-to-get Wonderworld Comics sequence, together with the traditionally necessary Wonderworld Comics #3 up for public sale in the 2023 September 28 The Fox Comics Showcase Auction #40239 at Heritage Auctions.

It is commonly assumed that the Flame is little greater than a Human Torch rip-off, however that challenge is extra sophisticated than it appears. The Flame’s debut in Wonderworld Comics #3 got here three months earlier than the Human Torch’s debut in Marvel Comics #1.  However, his fire-based powers had been restricted to materializing himself inside a flame in his preliminary appearances, as a method of teleportation, and utilizing a flame gun that he invented.

In Wonderworld Comics #11, a number of months after the debut of the Human Torch in Marvel Comics #1, the Flame’s origin is advised for the first time.  It was a not unusual sort of saga by which he results in a Buddhist monastery as a toddler and learns methods of superior science, magic, and bodily fight — and most significantly, management over flame.  That management is seemingly demonstrated for the first time in Wonderworld Comics #14, the place he reveals one in all his go-to strikes of this era, taking pictures a stream of flame from his gun after which strolling on that stream to get the place he must go.  Eventually, with out additional clarification in Wonderworld #22 and The Flame #4, he’s proven having the ability to spontaneously burst into flame himself, which permits him to fly.

Wonderworld Comics is a extremely sought-after sequence with quite a few stand-out covers, and the competitors to get them is fierce.  A traditionally necessary title, there are 26 of the 33 problems with the extremely sought-after and tough-to-get Wonderworld Comics sequence, together with the traditionally necessary Wonderworld Comics #3 up for public sale in the 2023 September 28 The Fox Comics Showcase Auction #40239 at Heritage Auctions. If you have by no means bid at Heritage Auctions earlier than, you will get additional data, you’ll be able to try their FAQ on the bidding course of and associated issues.

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