This Guide is Based on my personal observations, and collecting comics off and on since the late 1960's.............. I RECENTLY BEGAN TO FOLLOW ONE OF MY GREAT HOBBY PASSIONS ....GOLDEN AGE SUPER-HERO COMICS.... MY FOCUS IS THE POST WORLD WAR II ERA INTO THE EARLY TELEVISION ERA , AND OF COURSE RIGHT UP UNTIL THE ENACTMENT OF THE SO- CALLED " COMICS CODE AUTHORITY IN MID-1955.

THIS ERA ( 1946-1955 ) SPELLED THE END OF MANY OF THE CLASSIC SUPER HERO TITLES ,    ALTHOUGH COMICS WERE SELLING BETTER THAN EVER,    SUPER HERO BOOKS, SIMPLY WERE NOT ,   SO, MANY OF THE GREAT HEROES , BY THE EARLY 1950'S ,   SADLY WERE DISCONTINUED,    IN FAVOR OF MYSTERY, SCI-FI, AND ROMANCE TITLES, WHICH WERE FLOODING THE NEWSSTANDS....SOME GREAT, SOME GOOD, AND MANY NOT SO GOOD.     WHERE DOES THAT LEAVE OUR FAVORITE SUPER HEROES ????? OTHER THAN SUPERMAN,   BATMAN, AND WONDER WOMAN ,  BY 1954, ALL OF THE AMAZING 1940'S SUPER HEROES WERE NO MORE....GONE WERE THE GREAT TIMELY CHARACTERS ...THE HUMAN TORCH, CAPTAIN AMERICA , SUB -MARINER, ETC. GONE WERE CAPTAIN MARVEL   AND THE WHOLE "SHAZAM " FAMILY,    GONE WERE ALL OF THE FANTASTIC SUPERMAN IMITATORS SUCH AS MASTER MAN,  THE AMAZING-MAN , WONDER-MAN TO NAME, BUT A FEW....

FAWCETT PUBLICATIONS ,   WHO PUBLISHED MANY SUPER-HERO TITLES WAS , FINALLY FORCED OUT OF BUSINESS BY A YEARS OLD LAW SUIT PUT FORTH BY D.C. COMICS CLAIMING CAPT. MARVEL    WAS A COPY RIGHT INFRINGMENT ON SUPERMAN ,   AND ALL OF THE OTHERS SIMPLY WENT BY THE WAY SIDE DUE TO TELEVISION, CHANGING TIMES,  AND  GENERALLY POOR SALES FIGURES .   THE FINAL NAIL IN THE COFFIN OF THE GOLDEN AGE OF COMICS ,   CAME BY WAY OF A PROPAGANDA CAMPAIGN   LAUNCHED BY WAY OF A  BOOK, CALLED   "THE SEDUCTION OF THE INNOCENT "  WRITTEN BY DR, FREDERICK WERTHAM P.H.D. ( THIS  "QUACK " HAD A REAL AXE TO GRIND WITH THE COMIC BOOK INDUSTRY   )  THIS BOOK,   WHICH,   LARGELY TARGETED HORROR , ROMANCE AND SCI-FI COMICS, BUT  ALSO TOO ,TOOK SOME VERY SICKENING, DISTURBING  SHOTS AT ALL OF OUR FAVORITE SUPER-HEROES. AMOUNG SOME OF THE UGLY, UNTRUE THINGS CLAIMED WERE,  BATMAN & ROBIN WERE HOMOSEXUALS,   SUPERMAN HAD , AMOUNG OTHER THINGS A "GOD" COMPLEX , WONDER WOMAN WAS A LESBIAN,   INTO S & M  AND  INTO BONDAGE   ... THIS BOOK CREATED A HYSTERIA WHICH ,   VERY NEARLY KILLED OFF ALL COMIC-SUPER-HEROES. SO,  ONE BY ONE THE SUPER HEROES ,  WENT AWAY.......EVEN WONDER WOMAN,  WHO DID SURVIVE THIS ERA  ( BARELY )  WENT FROM  IN THE LATE 1940'S APPEARING REGULARLY IN FOUR  TO FIVE TITLES, INCLUDING TWO , IN WHICH SHE WAS THE LEAD FEATURE, TO,  BY 1952 , ONE COMIC  , HER NAME TITLE , ONLY PUBLISHED SIX TIMES A YEAR. BATMAN WAS FINE, AND SOLD WELL DURING THIS TIME , DETECTIVE COMICS AND BATMAN COMICS ALSO SURVIVED  THIS ERA  ( ALONG WITH SUPERMAN, BATMAN & ROBIN ALSO CONTINUED TO BE FEATURED  IN WORLDS FINEST COMICS  )  . ONLY SUPERMAN THRIVED ,  AND  ACTUALLY EXPANDED HIS SCOPE DURING THIS ERA , IN 1946 , (  FRESH  FROM HIS DEBUT IN MORE FUN COMICS  )  SUPERBOY TOOK OVER ADVENTURE COMICS  (  MY PERSONAL FAVORITE OF ALL COMICS  ) ,  AND IN 1949 D.C.  LAUNCHED THE NEW SUPERBOY TITLE ,   AND JUST BEFORE THE COMICS CODE WAS PUT INTO PLACE, D.C. LAUNCHED "SUPERMAN'S PAL, JIMMY OLSEN IN 1954,  FOLLOWED THREE YEARS LATER BY A LOIS LANE COMIC.   NOW,  ONE OF THE MAIN REASONS THIS IS MY FAVORITE ERA IN COMICS IS THE FACT THAT  THE COMICS OF THE POST WAR  / / EARLY T.V. ERA ARE , FOR THE MOST PART,  SCARCE, IN SOME CASES ,  RARE !!! AND YET ,  WHEN COMPARED TO THE EARLIER GOLDEN AGE COMICS   ( 1938- 1945 )  PRICE WISE,  MANY ARE A BARGAIN ,  YET SOMEWHAT MORE SCARCE,   EVEN RARE IN SOME CASES ..... AND I BELIEVE,  JUST AS DESIRABLE.  IN FUTURE GUIDES,    I LL BREAK DOWN INDIVIDUAL TITLES AND DISCUSS THE KEY ISSUES AND  GENERAL FUN IT IS TO COLLECT  THESE   GREAT OLD COMICS, MANY OF WHICH ARE NEAR OR IN SOME CASES , OLDER THAN 60 YEARS  !!!  WOWW!!    BETWEEN  52- 64 PAGES  A BOOK .... ALL IN COLOR FOR A DIME .... WHAT A MAGICAL TIME TO LIVE THE GOLDEN AGE  OF COMICS MUST HAVE BEEN  ... I WILL ALWAYS CHEISH THE COMIC BOOKS OF THIS TIME  ..... THEY ARE LIKE NO OTHER ....  THEY WILL NEVER BE MADE AGAIN  QUITE THE SAME WAY ..

THANK YOU ..............  DANNY ANABLE ,________ OCTOBER , 2007