By Rik Offenberger & Paul Castiglia

MLJ Magazines, Inc. began publishing comics in 1939. Founded by Maurice Coyne, Louis Silberkleit, and John L. Goldwater, the company’s name came from the initials of its founders’ first names. Among its earliest offerings were superhero comics.

To paraphrase Mark Twain, “reports of the MLJ Universe’s demise have been greatly exaggerated.” In fact, the MLJ heroes have thrived in six different universes interconnected by the “Blue Ribbon,” as in Blue Ribbon Comics, the first title published by MLJ Comics in 1939. The Blue Ribbon encapsulates the entire MLJ Multiverse.

First Universe

The original universe encompasses stories printed under the MLJ Comics imprint in the 1940s, also known as the Golden Age of comics. In the Golden Age, Archie Comics was known as MLJ Comics, and they were a full-service comic publisher. Their first superhero, Bob Phantom, premiered in the second issue of the company’s flagship title, Blue Ribbon Comics, in December 1939.

In a tale written by editor Harry Shorten and drawn by superstar artist Irv Novick, columnist Walter Whitney becomes one of the first citizens to take to the streets and fight crime in the name of vigilante justice. Walter’s costumed persona, Bob Phantom, haunted the world of drug dealers and organized crime using an array of mysterious abilities including teleportation and matter-transforming mists.

The following year, in Pep Comics #1 (January 1940), Shorten and Novick reunited to create The Shield, the first patriotic superhero. The Shield was the bestselling character in the MLJ pantheon of heroes. Not only was he the star of Pep Comics, but he also had a second title, Shield-Wizard Comics.

In the story, Joe Higgins was the son of Thomas Higgins, a government biochemist and member of the Burning Hand, a secret society formed to protect America. Thomas was attempting to recreate the powers of the Shield formula when he was killed by Axis spies. Joe completed his father’s research, applied it to himself, and became the Shield.

Pep Comics #1 also saw the debut of the Comet from creator Jack Cole. He would go on to create Plastic Man, and Comet would serve as the inspiration for Marvel Comics’ Cyclops. When John Dickering began his scientific experiments, he didn’t know at the time that one of those experiments was going to change his life forever. During his experiments, he discovered the formula for a new lighter-than-air gas, but he wasn’t sure how humans would be affected by direct contact with the gas. He chose the most unorthodox way of testing the effects of the gas on humans by injecting himself with it, risking his life in the process. After injecting himself with the gas, he found he was able to leap tremendous distances. Further injections made him buoyant enough that he practically had the power of flight.

There was a major catch to those injections, however: an unforeseen – and very deadly – side effect. The gas had collected in his eyes and threw off two beams. When the beams crossed, they combined to form a deadly energy beam that disintegrated anything he looked at! Discovering that the beam was ineffective against the element Silicon, Dickering formed a protective pair of goggles to protect those around him from being harmed by the deadly eyebeams.

At the height of his popularity, the Comet was the first superhero to die in the line of duty. He was replaced by his brother Bob, who became the Hangman to avenge John’s death. Creators Cliff Campbell and George Storm produced one of the most powerful and emotional moments in comics, in Pep Comics #17 (July 1941), Bob Dickering vowed “I’ll carry on for him… I’ll bring his murderers to the hangman! I’ll be their hangman!”

The Hangman was a powerful and imposing figure, but the company’s only multimedia Golden Age star was Black Hood. The Black Hood was created by Cliff Campbell and Al Camerata. Patrolman Kip Burland, was attacked by the Skull, who framed him for robbing a jewelry store. Burland was discharged from the force. When Burland tried to capture the Skull on his own he was shot and thrown in the woods. A man called the Hermit rescued him and trained him to become the Black Hood. As the Black Hood, Burland was able to clear his name. He now fights crime as both a lawman and a vigilante. The concept was so strong that the Black Hood was featured in comics, pulp magazines, and on the radio.

In what would become commonplace in comics, the Comet came back from his temporary death. As it turned out according to the story, the Comet was struck by a fireball that teleported him to the planet Altrox, where he had adventures before eventually returning to Earth.

The Golden Age MLJ Comics featured many other great heroes as well, but they all succumbed to the post-war market’s turn away from superheroes and MLJ’s own success with a teenaged boy named Archie Andrews. Archie was so popular that he took over the starring role in Pep Comics… and ultimately, the name of the publisher changed from MLJ Comics to Archie Comics.

The first Crusaders universe ended in January 1948 with Pep Comics #65.

Second Universe

It is generally agreed that the Silver Age of comics initially began in 1956 when DC released Showcase #4. It wouldn’t hit the company that became Marvel for several more years, but Archie Comics decided it was time to revive their line of superheroes in June 1959.

The team of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby came to Archie Comics to relaunch their superheroes in the pages of The Double Life of Private Strong with a new version of the Shield and their new character, the Fly.

The new Shield was Roger Fleming. His father, Dr. Malcolm Fleming, raised Roger to use the untapped portions of the human brain, thus making him a superhuman. After communist spies killed Dr. Fleming, the Strongs, a farm couple, raised Roger.

Once he hit his teens, he discovered the truth of his background and his powers. He also learned that his father had created a patriotic costume for him, and this led Roger to embark upon a life of heroics as a new iteration of the Shield.

He soon joined the army, hence his “double life” as both a soldier and a superhero. When DC Comics noticed that Roger was a baby with superpowers raised by a childless farm couple, they considered it too close to their Superman and brought up the matter to Archie management, resulting in Archie canceling the title.

The Fly, however, would continue to soar in one form or another from 1959 to 1967. The Fly has an interesting backstory. Young Tommy Troy started his superhero life with the name “Spiderman” with veteran Captain Marvel artist C.C. Beck providing the art. When Joe Simon sold the story to Harvey Comics, he changed the name to the Silver Spider. Harvey failed to publish the comic, so Simon sold the story to Archie Comics changing his name again, this time to the Fly, with artist Jack Kirby redrawing the Beck pages.

During the Silver Age renaissance of superheroes at Archie Comics, when their Mighty Comics Group imprint was in use, virtually all the Golden Age MLJ heroes were revived. Only Red Rube and Mister Satan failed to return. The Wizard and Hangman, who had been stars in the Golden Age, would find themselves in the role of villains as Superman creator Jerry Siegel took over writing the Fly.

Siegel used the exaggerated, comical camp style for his work with these mighty heroes. While many people incorrectly attribute Siegel’s use of camp to the popular 1966 Batman TV show, his work on these comic books predates the debut of that series.

Others have unfavorably compared Siegel’s style to that of Stan Lee. While Lee used a lot of similar hyperbole and was not beyond a pun or character-driven humor, Lee’s modus operandi was to contrast extraordinary super-heroics with the often mundane, though no less soap operatic lives of those heroes’ very ordinary alter egos. Siegel was aware that he was working for a humor comics publisher, so he deliberately delivered camp versions of the publisher’s heroes as a form of humor, as opposed to emulating the Lee style. Especially since the Archie heroes could be seen regularly in the pages of Pep Comics and Laugh Comics, both of which were humor titles by the late 1950s and into the ‘60s.

Speaking of humor, Archie Andrews experienced a tremendous amount of success during the Silver Age. This era saw the greatest expansion of Archie Andrews-related titles in the company’s history. With Archie and the gang being cheaper to produce and selling better than the superheroes, the heroes were stuck in the drawer once more, and died a second death.

Third Universe

In 1972, the comic book business was on the cusp of major changes. Phil Seuling founded Sea Gate Distributors and made purchasing arrangements with Archie, DC, Marvel, and Warren, creating the direct market distribution system. The system had a business model opposite to the traditional comics distribution approach. Prior to the direct market, the only avenue publishers had to get their comics to retail stores was newsstand distribution. In newsstand distribution, unsold comics could be returned to publishers after a set period had elapsed, with credits then being made to the distributor and passed on to the retailers for the unsold copies. In the direct sales model, stores (usually hobby shops or shops dedicated exclusively to comic books), would buy the comics from the distributor on a non-returnable basis. It was a guaranteed sale for publishers, in which they cut in the distributor for a percentage of the sale, and it was up to the comic shops to hope they could sell every copy they ordered for clear profit, or to at least make back something down the road with discounted sales. 

In 1981, John Carbonaro worked out a deal with Archie owner Richard Goldwater to have Archie Comics print and distribute his JC Comics into the growing direct comics market. In JCP Features #1 (December 1981), Carbonaro reprinted a Black Hood story by Gray Morrow and Neal Adams. The story was well-received, and Goldwater hired Carbonaro as editor to revive the MLJ heroes for the third time under their Red Circle imprint.

Plans were made for a new comic featuring the Fly, Private Strong, and the Mighty Crusaders. The line had production problems and was late, which led to Goldwater firing Carbonaro before the March 1983 shipping of the new Red Circle line of comics. Carbonaro was replaced as editor by Mighty Crusaders writer-artist Rich Buckler.

While Buckler was a veteran comic creator, he had not been an editor before, and also fell victim to slow production and missed deadlines. Despite the problems, this is one of the most beloved periods for these heroes. It featured the work of creators Jim Steranko, Alex Toth, Steve Ditko, Rudy Nebres, Alan Weiss, Carmine Infantino, Dick Ayers, John Severin, and Pat Boyette, among others. Despite the love the fans had for these comics, the publisher was very unhappy with the erratic shipping schedule.

Goldwater then asked Bill DuBay to step in and replace Buckler as editor, but DuBay was Buckler’s brother-in-law and refused, citing the family issues could arise should he take the role. Instead, the editorial duties were split between them. Unfortunately, the missed deadlines continued. This resulted in an erratic shipping schedule, and the line’s audience began to erode.

Both Buckler and DuBay were let go and Victor Gorelick took over as editor. He used a less expensive stable of artists. At the same time, Archie changed the imprint from Red Circle to Archie Adventure Comics and started to distribute them on the newsstands as well as in the direct market. The newsstand audience didn’t take to the comics. After suffering heavy returns, the line was canceled, resulting in the heroes’ third death.

Look for coverage on the fourth through sixth universes in next week’s issue of Scoop. To learn more about Mighty Crusaders in The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide to Lost Universes from gemstonepub.com.