Fiction House
Encyclopedia
Fiction House is an American
publisher of pulp magazines and comic books that existed from the 1920s to the 1950s. Its comics division was best known for its pinup-style good girl art
, as epitomized by the company's most popular character, Sheena, Queen of the Jungle
.
and sports pulps. By the 1930s, it had expended into detective mysteries. Publisher Thurman T. Scott, whose Fiction House group included the pulp-magazine imprints Glen-Kel and Real Adventures Publishing Co., expanded into comic books in the late 1930s when that emerging medium began to seem a viable adjunct to the fading pulps. Receptive to a sales call by Eisner & Iger
, one of the prominent "packagers" of that time who produced complete comic books on demand for publishers looking to enter the field, Scott released Jumbo Comics #1 (Sept. 1938).
Fiction House star Sheena, Queen of the Jungle
appeared in that initial issue. Will Eisner
and S.M. "Jerry" Iger
had created the leggy, leopard-wearing jungle goddess for the British
magazine Wags, under the joint pseudonym "W. Morgan Thomas".
Fiction House's other features in that initial foray included the period adventure "Hawks of the Seas" (continuing a story from Quality Comics
' Feature Funnies #12, after Eisner-Iger and Quality had had a falling out), and several now-obscure strips ("Peter Pupp"; "ZX-5 Spies in Action"; "Spencer Steel"; "Inspector Dayton"). These include three by future industry legend Jack Kirby
, representing his first comic-book work following his debut in Wild Boy Magazine: the science fiction
feature The Diary of Dr. Hayward (under the pseudonym "Curt Davis"), the modern-West crimefighter strip Wilton of the West (as "Fred Sande"), and Part One of the swashbuckling serialization of Alexandre Dumas, père
's The Count of Monte Cristo
(as "Jack Curtiss"), each four pages long.
-themed Wings Comics; the science fiction
title Planet Comics
; Rangers Comics; and Fight Comics during the early 1940s — most of these series taking their titles and themes from the Fiction House pulps. Fiction House referred to these titles in its regular house ads as "The Big Six," but the company also published several other titles, among them the Western
-themed Indians and Firehair, jungle titles Sheena, Queen of the Jungle and Wambi, and five issues of Eisner's The Spirit
.
Quickly developing its own staff under editor Joe Cunningham followed by Jack Burden, Fiction House employed either in-house or on a freelance basis such artists as Meskin, Matt Baker (the first prominent African-American artist in comics), Nick Cardy
, George Evans
, Bob Powell
, and the British Lee Elias, as well as such rare female comics artists as Ruth Atkinson
, Fran Hopper
, Lily Renée
, and Marcia Snyder
.
Feminist
comics historian Trina Robbins
, wrote that
Despite such pre-feminist pedigree, Fiction House found itself targeted in psychiatrist
Dr. Fredric Wertham
's book Seduction of the Innocent
(1954), which in part blamed comic books for an increase in juvenile delinquency
. Aside from the ostensible effects of gory horror
in comic books, Wertham cast blame on the sexy, pneumatic heroines of Fiction House, Fox Comics
and other companies. A subsequent, wide-ranging investigation by the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency
, coupled with outcry by parents, a downturn in comics sales, the demise of the pulps, and the rise of television and paperback novels competing for readers and leisure time, Fiction House faced an increasingly difficult business environment, and soon closed shop.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
publisher of pulp magazines and comic books that existed from the 1920s to the 1950s. Its comics division was best known for its pinup-style good girl art
Good girl art
Good girl art is found in drawings or paintings which feature a strong emphasis on attractive women no matter what the subject or situation. GGA was most commonly featured in comic books, pulp magazines and crime fiction...
, as epitomized by the company's most popular character, Sheena, Queen of the Jungle
Sheena, Queen of the Jungle
Sheena, Queen of the Jungle is a fictional, American comic book jungle girl heroine, published originally by Fiction House. The female counterpart to Tarzan, Sheena had two things in common with Edgar Rice Burrough's Jungle Lord: Both possessed the ability to communicate with wild animals and were...
.
History
Jumbo and Jack Kirby
Fiction House began in the 1920s as a pulp-magazine publisher of primarily aviation, WesternWestern fiction
Western fiction is a genre of literature set in the American Old West frontier and typically set from the late eighteenth to the late nineteenth century. Well-known writers of Western fiction include Zane Grey from the early 1900s and Louis L'Amour from the mid 20th century...
and sports pulps. By the 1930s, it had expended into detective mysteries. Publisher Thurman T. Scott, whose Fiction House group included the pulp-magazine imprints Glen-Kel and Real Adventures Publishing Co., expanded into comic books in the late 1930s when that emerging medium began to seem a viable adjunct to the fading pulps. Receptive to a sales call by Eisner & Iger
Eisner & Iger
Eisner & Iger was a comic book "packager" that produced comics on demand for publishers entering the new medium during the late-1930s and 1940s period fans and historians call the Golden Age of Comic Books...
, one of the prominent "packagers" of that time who produced complete comic books on demand for publishers looking to enter the field, Scott released Jumbo Comics #1 (Sept. 1938).
Fiction House star Sheena, Queen of the Jungle
Sheena, Queen of the Jungle
Sheena, Queen of the Jungle is a fictional, American comic book jungle girl heroine, published originally by Fiction House. The female counterpart to Tarzan, Sheena had two things in common with Edgar Rice Burrough's Jungle Lord: Both possessed the ability to communicate with wild animals and were...
appeared in that initial issue. Will Eisner
Will Eisner
William Erwin "Will" Eisner was an American comics writer, artist and entrepreneur. He is considered one of the most important contributors to the development of the medium and is known for the cartooning studio he founded; for his highly influential series The Spirit; for his use of comics as an...
and S.M. "Jerry" Iger
Jerry Iger
Samuel Maxwell "Jerry" Iger was an American cartoonist. With business partner Will Eisner he co-founder of Eisner & Iger, a comic book packager that produced comics on demand for new publishers during the late-1930s and 1940s period known to fans and historians as the Golden Age of Comic...
had created the leggy, leopard-wearing jungle goddess for the British
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
magazine Wags, under the joint pseudonym "W. Morgan Thomas".
Fiction House's other features in that initial foray included the period adventure "Hawks of the Seas" (continuing a story from Quality Comics
Quality Comics
Quality Comics was an American comic book publishing company that operated from 1939 to 1956 and was an influential creative force in what historians and fans call the Golden Age of comic books....
' Feature Funnies #12, after Eisner-Iger and Quality had had a falling out), and several now-obscure strips ("Peter Pupp"; "ZX-5 Spies in Action"; "Spencer Steel"; "Inspector Dayton"). These include three by future industry legend Jack Kirby
Jack Kirby
Jack Kirby , born Jacob Kurtzberg, was an American comic book artist, writer and editor regarded by historians and fans as one of the major innovators and most influential creators in the comic book medium....
, representing his first comic-book work following his debut in Wild Boy Magazine: the science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
feature The Diary of Dr. Hayward (under the pseudonym "Curt Davis"), the modern-West crimefighter strip Wilton of the West (as "Fred Sande"), and Part One of the swashbuckling serialization of Alexandre Dumas, père
Alexandre Dumas, père
Alexandre Dumas, , born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie was a French writer, best known for his historical novels of high adventure which have made him one of the most widely read French authors in the world...
's The Count of Monte Cristo
The Count of Monte Cristo
The Count of Monte Cristo is an adventure novel by Alexandre Dumas. It is often considered to be, along with The Three Musketeers, Dumas's most popular work. He completed the work in 1844...
(as "Jack Curtiss"), each four pages long.
"The big 6 of the comics"
Jumbo proved a hit, and Fiction House would go on to publish Jungle Comics; the aviationAviation
Aviation is the design, development, production, operation, and use of aircraft, especially heavier-than-air aircraft. Aviation is derived from avis, the Latin word for bird.-History:...
-themed Wings Comics; the science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
title Planet Comics
Planet Comics
Planet Comics was a science fiction comic book title produced by Fiction House and ran for 73 issues from January 1940 to Winter 1953. Like many of Fiction House's early comics titles, Planet Comics was a spinoff of a pulp magazine, in this case Planet Stories, which featured space operatic tales...
; Rangers Comics; and Fight Comics during the early 1940s — most of these series taking their titles and themes from the Fiction House pulps. Fiction House referred to these titles in its regular house ads as "The Big Six," but the company also published several other titles, among them the Western
American Old West
The American Old West, or the Wild West, comprises the history, geography, people, lore, and cultural expression of life in the Western United States, most often referring to the latter half of the 19th century, between the American Civil War and the end of the century...
-themed Indians and Firehair, jungle titles Sheena, Queen of the Jungle and Wambi, and five issues of Eisner's The Spirit
The Spirit
The Spirit is a crime-fighting fictional character created by writer-artist Will Eisner. He first appeared June 2, 1940 in "The Spirit Section", the colloquial name given to a 16-page Sunday supplement, distributed to 20 newspapers by the Register and Tribune Syndicate and reaching five million...
.
Quickly developing its own staff under editor Joe Cunningham followed by Jack Burden, Fiction House employed either in-house or on a freelance basis such artists as Meskin, Matt Baker (the first prominent African-American artist in comics), Nick Cardy
Nick Cardy
Nick Cardy , a.k.a. Nick Cardi, is an American comic book artist best known for his DC Comics work on Aquaman, the Teen Titans and other major characters....
, George Evans
George Evans
George Evans may refer to:*George Evans *George Evans, 1st Baron Carbery , Irish politician*George Evans, 4th Baron Carbery , British politician*George Evans , Australian explorer...
, Bob Powell
Bob Powell (comics)
Bob Powell né Stanislav Robert Pawlowski was an American comic book artist known for his work during the 1930-40s Golden Age of comic books, including on the features "Sheena, Queen of the Jungle" and "Mr. Mystic". He received a belated credit in 1999 for co-writing the debut of the popular...
, and the British Lee Elias, as well as such rare female comics artists as Ruth Atkinson
Ruth Atkinson
Ruth Atkinson Ford née Ruth Atkinson and a.k.a. R. Atkinson Ruth Atkinson Ford née Ruth Atkinson and a.k.a. R. Atkinson Ruth Atkinson Ford née Ruth Atkinson and a.k.a. R. Atkinson (June 2, 1918 - June 1, 1997 was an American cartoonist and pioneering female comic book artist who helped create the...
, Fran Hopper
Fran Hopper
Fran Hopper, née Frances Deitrick, also credited as France, was an American comic book artists active during the Golden Age of Comic Books. She was one of the comic artists working for publisher Fiction House, drawing many of their prominent titles, including Jane Martin, Glory Forbes, Camilla,...
, Lily Renée
Lily Renée
Lily Renée Wilheim Peters Phillips, , often credited as L. Renée, Lily Renée, or Reney, is an Austrian-American artist, writer, and playwright...
, and Marcia Snyder
Marcia Snyder
Marcia Snyder was a comic book artist and newspaper cartoonist who worked for the Binder Studio, Timely Comics, Fawcett Comics, and Fiction House during the Golden Age of Comic Books....
.
Feminist
Feminism
Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
comics historian Trina Robbins
Trina Robbins
Trina Robbins is an American comics artist and writer. She was an early and influential participant in the underground comix movement, and one of the few female artists in underground comix when she started. Both as a cartoonist and historian, Robbins has long been involved in creating outlets for...
, wrote that
Despite such pre-feminist pedigree, Fiction House found itself targeted in psychiatrist
Psychiatrist
A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy...
Dr. Fredric Wertham
Fredric Wertham
Fredric Wertham was a Jewish German-American psychiatrist and crusading author who protested the purportedly harmful effects of violent imagery in mass media and comic books on the development of children. His best-known book was Seduction of the Innocent , which purported that comic books are...
's book Seduction of the Innocent
Seduction of the Innocent
Seduction of the Innocent is a book by German-American psychiatrist Fredric Wertham, published in 1954, that warned that comic books were a negative form of popular literature and a serious cause of juvenile delinquency. The book was a minor bestseller that created alarm in parents and galvanized...
(1954), which in part blamed comic books for an increase in juvenile delinquency
Juvenile delinquency
Juvenile delinquency is participation in illegal behavior by minors who fall under a statutory age limit. Most legal systems prescribe specific procedures for dealing with juveniles, such as juvenile detention centers. There are a multitude of different theories on the causes of crime, most if not...
. Aside from the ostensible effects of gory horror
Horror fiction
Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...
in comic books, Wertham cast blame on the sexy, pneumatic heroines of Fiction House, Fox Comics
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...
and other companies. A subsequent, wide-ranging investigation by the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency
Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency
The United States Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency was established by the United States Senate in 1953 to investigate the problem of juvenile delinquency.- Background :...
, coupled with outcry by parents, a downturn in comics sales, the demise of the pulps, and the rise of television and paperback novels competing for readers and leisure time, Fiction House faced an increasingly difficult business environment, and soon closed shop.
List of Fiction House pulps
- Aces (estimated 100 issues, December 1928 - Spring 1939)
- Action Novels
- Action StoriesAction StoriesAction Stories was a multi-genre pulp magazine published between September 1921 and Fall 1950, with a brief hiatus at the end of 1932.As an adventure pulp it did not feature the horror and science fiction of other pulp magazines. Instead it focused on real-world adventure stories...
(225 issues, September 1921 - Fall 1950) - Air Stories (estimated 50 issues, August 1927 - Winter 1939)
- All Adventure Action Novels
- All-American Football Magazine
- Baseball Stories (estimated 50 issues, Spring 1938 - Spring 1954)
- Basketball Stories (one known issue, Winter 1937)
- Black Aces (7 issues, January 1932 - July 1932)
- Bull's-Eye Detective
- Bull's-Eye Sports (estimated 8 issues, Winter 1938 - Fall 1939)
- Bull's-Eye Western Stories
- Civil War Stories (one known issue, Spring 1940)
- Detective Book MagazineDetective Book MagazineDetective Book Magazine was an American pulp magazine that published detective fiction. It was published in 1930 to 1931 and from 1937 to 1952....
(65 issues, April 1930 - Winter 1952/53) - Detective Classics (22 issues, November 1929 - September 1931)
- Fight StoriesFight StoriesFight Stories was a pulp magazine devoted to stories of Boxing published between June 1928 and spring 1952...
(106 issues, June 1928 – Spring 1952) - Football Action
- Football Stories (estimated 35 issues, Fall 1937 - Fall 1953)
- Frontier Stories
- Frontier Stories of the Pioneer Days
- George Bruce's Aces (Glen-Kel)
- George Bruce's Air Novels
- Jungle Stories (59 issues)
- Lariat Story Magazine
- North-West Stories
- North-West Romances
- Planet StoriesPlanet StoriesPlanet Stories was an American pulp science fiction magazine, published by Fiction House between 1939 and 1955. It featured interplanetary adventures, both in space and on other planets, and was initially focused on a young readership. Malcolm Reiss was editor or editor-in-chief for all of its 71...
(71 issues) - Soldier Stories
- True Adventures
- Two Complete Detective Books (Real Adventure)
- Two Western Books
- Two Western Romances
- Wings
List of Fiction House comic books
- Cowgirl Romances
- Fight Comics
- Firehair
- Ghost
- Indians
- Jumbo Comics
- Jungle Comics
- Ka'a'nga, Jungle King
- Man O'Mars
- Movie Comics
- Planet ComicsPlanet ComicsPlanet Comics was a science fiction comic book title produced by Fiction House and ran for 73 issues from January 1940 to Winter 1953. Like many of Fiction House's early comics titles, Planet Comics was a spinoff of a pulp magazine, in this case Planet Stories, which featured space operatic tales...
- Rangers Comics
- Sheena, Queen of the Jungle
- The Spirit (five issues, 1952-54)
- Wambi
- Wings Comics
External links
- "Good Girl Art in the Comics: Sheena, Miss Fury, etc.", Ken Pierce Books
- Good Girl Art at AC Comics.com
- Reading Room Index to the Comic Art Collection, Michigan State University Libraries Special Collections
- Galactic Central
Further reading
- Comic Book Marketplace vol. 2, #57 (March 1998): "Fiction House Pulps!" by Christian K. Berger, pp. 34-37, 44
- Comic Book Marketplace vol. 2 2, #60 (June 1998): "Fiction House Sci-Fi" (cover gallery) pp. 40-43
- Comic Book Marketplace vol. 2, #72 Oct. 1999): Letter from Bill Black on Australian versions of Fiction House comics, pp. 8-9
- Fiction House: A Golden Age Index compiled by Henry Steele (San Francisco, A. Dellinges, 1978)
- Fiction House: A Golden Age Index of Planet Comics (San Francisco: A. Dellinges, 1978)
- Ron Goulart's Comics History Magazine #4 (Summer 1997): "The History of Good Girl Art", Part 2, pp. 3-5