All Star Comics is a 1940s comic book series from All-American Publications, one of the early companies that merged with National Periodical Publications to form the modern-day DC Comics. With the exception of the first two issues, All Star Comics primarily told stories about the adventures of the Justice Society of America. The series is notable for its introduction of the Justice Society of America, the first team of superheroes, and the introduction of Wonder Woman.
While the series cover-logo trademark reads All Star Comics, its copyrighted title as indicated by postal indicia is All-Star Comics.
Original Series
The original concept for All Star Comics was an anthology title containing the most popular series from the other anthology titles published by both All-American Publications and National Comics. All Star Comics #1 (cover-dated Summer 1940) contains primarily superhero stories including All-American's Golden Age Flash, Hawkman, Ultra-Man, National's Hour-Man, the Spectre and the Sandman, plus the adventure strip "Biff Bronson" and the comedy-adventure "Red, White and Blue". The title premiered with a Summer 1940 cover date.
Issue #3 (Winter 1940-1941) depicts the first meeting of the Justice Society, at which its members swap stories of their exploits, subsequently depicted in the book's array of solo adventures. In addition to the Flash, Hawkman, Hour-Man, the Spectre, and the Sandman were Doctor Fate, from National's More Fun Comics, and Green Lantern and the Atom from All-American's flagship title, All-American Comics. Comics historian Les Daniels noted that "This was obviously a great notion, since it offered readers a lot of headliners for a dime, and also the fun of watching fan favorites interact." The Justice Society was originally a frame story to present an anthology of solo stories about the individual characters. Different chapters of the JSA's stories would often be handled by different artists. This new format proved to be so successful that the individual adventures were dropped and the heroes started teaming up to fight crime.
All Star Comics #8 (Jan. 1942) is the first appearance of Wonder Woman in an eight-page story written by William Moulton Marston under the pen name of "Charles Moulton", with art by H. G. Peter. The insert story was included to test reader interest in the Wonder Woman concept. It generated enough positive fan response that Wonder Woman would be awarded the lead feature in the Sensation Comics anthology title starting from issue #1. Wonder Woman would appear in All Star Comics starting from issue #11 as a member of the Justice Society and as their secretary. This issue also featured Doctor Mid-Nite and Starman joining. Gardner Fox left the series with issue #34 (Aprilâ€"May 1947) with a story that introduced a new super-villain, the Wizard. The Injustice Society first battled the JSA in issue #37 in a tale written by Robert Kanigher. The Black Canary guest starred in issue #38 and joined the team three issues later.
All Star Comics increased its frequency from a quarterly to a bimonthly publication schedule, and the JSA lasted through #57 (March 1951) â€" in a story titled "The Mystery of the Vanishing Detectives". Superhero comics slumped in the early 1950s, and All Star Comics became All-Star Western from #58-119 (in 1961) with Western heroes replacing the Justice Society.
A good amount of artwork has survived from an unpublished All Star Comics story titled "The Will of William Wilson" and has been reprinted in various publications from TwoMorrows Publishing.
Revivals
1976 revival series
In 1976 the name All Star Comics was resurrected for a series portraying the modern-day adventures of the JSA. This new series ignored the numbering from All-Star Western and continued the original numbering, premiering with All-Star Comics #58. Starting in issue #66, a hyphen was added to the title and the words "All-Star Comics" became a much smaller part of the cover while the words "Justice Society" became much larger. This series ran for seventeen issues before it was abruptly canceled with issue #74 as part of the DC Implosion and the JSA's adventures were folded into Adventure Comics. The 1970s series introduced the new characters: Power Girl and the Helena Wayne version of the Huntress. Furthermore, the 1970s series was the first regular series set on DC's alternate continuity, Earth-Two. Despite the cancellation of the series, it generated enough interest to spawn two other series set on Earth-Two, All-Star Squadron and Infinity, Inc..
Conway at one point privately offered to his friend Roy Thomas to write several issues of the book under Conway's name, as Thomas was exclusively contracted to Marvel Comics at the time. Although Thomas, a lifelong fan of the Justice Society, was tempted, he declined on the grounds that when he finally did get to write the team's adventures, he wanted to do so publicly. In 1981, Thomas moved to DC and was able to work with the characters.
Subsequent revivals
A two-issue All-Star Comics series was published as a part of the "Justice Society Returns" storyline in May 1999.
Collected editions
- All Star Comics Archives:
- Volume 0 collects #1-2, 144 pages, March 2006, ISBN 1-4012-0791-X
- Volume 1 collects #3-6, 272 pages, 1992, ISBN 1-5638-9019-4
- Volume 2 collects #7-10, 256 pages, 1993, ISBN 0-9302-8912-9
- Volume 3 collects #11-14, 240 pages, November 1997, ISBN 1-5638-9370-3
- Volume 4 collects #15-18, 224 pages, December 1998, ISBN 1-5638-9433-5
- Volume 5 collects #19-23, 224 pages, December 1999, ISBN 1-5638-9497-1
- Volume 6 collects #24-28, 240 pages, October 2000, ISBN 1-5638-9636-2
- Volume 7 collects #29-33, 216 pages, July 2001, ISBN 1-5638-9720-2
- Volume 8 collects #34-38, 208 pages, August 2002, ISBN 1-5638-9812-8
- Volume 9 collects #39-43, 192 pages, August 2003, ISBN 1-4012-0001-X
- Volume 10 collects #44-49, 216 pages, August 2004, ISBN 1-4012-0159-8
- Volume 11 collects #50-57, 276 pages, March 2005, ISBN 1-4012-0403-1
- Justice Society
- Volume 1 collects #58-67 and DC Special #29, 224 pages, August 2006, ISBN 1-4012-0970-X
- Volume 2 collects #68-74 and Adventure Comics #461-466, 224 pages, February 2007, ISBN 1-4012-1194-1
- Showcase Presents: All-Star Comics collects issues #58-74, 448 pages, September 2011, ISBN 1-4012-3303-1
Millennium Edition
In 2000 and 2001, DC reprinted several of its most notable issues in the Millennium Edition series. All Star Comics #3 and #8 were reprinted in this format.
References
External links
- All Star Comics at Mike's Amazing World of DC Comics.
