Fantastic Comics was a comic book

Comic book

A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...

 superhero

Superhero

A superhero is a type of stock character, possessing "extraordinary or superhuman powers", dedicated to protecting the public. Since the debut of the prototypical superhero Superman in 1938, stories of superheroes — ranging from brief episodic adventures to continuing years-long sagas —...

 anthology

Comics anthology

Comics anthologies collect works in the medium of comics that are too short for standalone publication.- U.S. :- UK :British comics have a long tradition publishing comics anthologies, often weekly...

 title published by Fox Feature Syndicate

Fox Feature Syndicate

Fox Feature Syndicate was a comic book publisher from early in the period known to fans and historians as the Golden Age of Comic Books. Founded by entrepreneur Victor S...

 during the Golden Age of Comic Books

Golden Age of Comic Books

The Golden Age of Comic Books was a period in the history of American comic books, generally thought of as lasting from the late 1930s until the late 1940s or early 1950s...

. The title is notable for having introduced the characters Banshee, Black Fury (the third one, John Perry), Nagana, Queen of Evil, Samson

Samson (Fox Feature Syndicate)

Samson was a fictional superhero that appeared in comic books published by Fox Feature Syndicate. He first appeared in Fantastic Comics #1...

, and Stardust the Super Wizard

Stardust the Super Wizard

Stardust the Super Wizard is a fictional character, a comic book superhero from the Golden Age of Comics. Created by writer-artist Fletcher Hanks, he first appeared in Fox Comics' Fantastic Comics #1 .-Publication history:...

.

Publication history

The first issue is cover-dated December 1939. Fantastic Comics continued to run until issue #23 in November 1941.

Most of the characters appearing in Fantastic Comics eventually fell into the public domain

Public domain

Works are in the public domain if the intellectual property rights have expired, if the intellectual property rights are forfeited, or if they are not covered by intellectual property rights at all...

. In 2008, as part of the Next Issue Project

Next Issue Project

The Next Issue Project is a series of American comic-book anthology one-shots published by Image Comics beginning in February, 2008. The multi-title project, edited by Erik Larsen, creator of Savage Dragon, features comic book characters that have fallen into the public domain.The premise behind...

, Image Comics

Image Comics

Image Comics is a United States comic book publisher. It was founded in 1992 by high-profile illustrators as a venue where creators could publish their material without giving up the copyrights to the characters they created, as creator-owned properties. It was immediately successful, and remains...

 revived the title with a single issue, "#24." This issue features the following characters:

• Samson, written and illustrated by Erik Larsen
  Erik Larsen
  Erik J. Larsen is an American comic book writer, artist and publisher. He is best known for his work on Savage Dragon, as one of the founders of Image Comics, and for his work on Spider-Man for Marvel Comics.-Early life:...
  
  
• Flip Falcon, written by Joe Casey
  Joe Casey
  Joe Casey is an American comic book writer. He has worked on titles such as Wildcats 3.0, Uncanny X-Men, The Intimates, Adventures of Superman, and G.I. Joe: America's Elite, among others.-Biography:...
  
   and illustrated by Bill Sienkiewicz
  Bill Sienkiewicz
  Boleslav Felix Robert "Bill" Sienkiewicz [pronounced sin-KEV-itch] is an Eisner Award-winning American artist and writer best known for his comic book work, primarily for Marvel Comics' The New Mutants and Elektra: Assassin...
  
  
• Golden Knight, co-written and illustrated by Thomas Yeates
  Thomas Yeates
  Thomas Yeates is an American comic book and comic strip artist known for his work on characters created by Edgar Rice Burroughs, and on other properties such as Conan and the Zorro comic strip.-Selected works:...
  
   and Bryan Rutherford
• Yank Wilson, written and illustrated by Andy Kuhn
• Space Smith, written and illustrated by Tom Scioli
  Tom Scioli
  Thomas Scioli is an American comic book artist and writer best known for working in a style similar to Jack Kirby.-Biography:Scioli's epic sci-fi/fantasy series The Myth of 8-Opus won a 1999 Xeric Grant and attracted mild industry attention, earning him a small part illustrating the Fantastic Four:...
  
  
• Captain Kidd, written and illustrated by Jim Rugg
  Jim Rugg
  Jim Rugg is an American cartoonist and illustrator from Pittsburgh known for his tongue-in-cheek evocation of 1970s-era comics and pop culture. His graphic novels and comics collections include Street Angel, Afrodisiac, The P.L.A.I.N...
  
  
• Professor Fiend, written and illustrated by Fred Hembeck
  Fred Hembeck
  Fred Hembeck is an American cartoonist best known for his parodies of characters from major American comic book publishers. His work has frequently been published by the firms whose characters he spoofs. His characters are always drawn with curlicues at the elbows and knees...
  
  
• Sub Saunders, written and illustrated by Ashley Wood
  Ashley Wood
  Ashley Wood is an Australian comic book artist and illustrator who is well known for his cover art, concept design and his work as an art director....
  
  
• Stardust the Super Wizard
  Stardust the Super Wizard
  Stardust the Super Wizard is a fictional character, a comic book superhero from the Golden Age of Comics. Created by writer-artist Fletcher Hanks, he first appeared in Fox Comics' Fantastic Comics #1 .-Publication history:...
  
  , written by Joe Keatinge
  Joe Keatinge
  Joe Keatinge is an award winning American comic book editor and writer, best known as the co-editor of Popgun with Mark Andrew Smith. He is also a first cousin of Mayhaw Hoons, ex-bassist of Portland, OR indie rock band The Shaky Hands.-Biography:...
  
   and illustrated by Mike Allred
• a prose piece featuring Carlton Riggs by B. Clayton Moore with illustration by Jason Latour
  Jason Latour
  David Jason Latour is an American comic book artist and writer known for his work for Image, Marvel and DC comics on titles such as Scalped and Wolverine.-Early life:...