Motion Picture Funnies Weekly
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Motion Picture Funnies Weekly is an unpublished, 36-page, black-and-white American comic book series created in 1939, and designed to be a promotional giveaway in movie theaters. While the idea proved unsuccessful, and only a handful of sample copies of issue #1 were printed, the periodical is historically important for introducing the enduring Marvel Comics character Namor the Sub-Mariner, created by writer-artist Bill Everett.
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[edit] Production history
Motion Picture Funnies Weekly was produced by Funnies, Inc., one of the 1930s-1940s Golden Age of comic books "packagers" that would create outsourced comics on demand for publishers. The company, founded by Centaur Publications art director Lloyd Jacquet, had originally been formed as First Funnies, Inc. to be a publisher itself, with Motion Picture Funnies Weekly as its initial product.
Seven of the only eight known samples created to send to theater owners were discovered in a publisher's estate sale in 1974. Additionally, proof sheets were found there for the covers of issues #2-4. The discovery of the hitherto forgotten Motion Picture Funnies Weekly rewrote an early part of the history of comics, and caused a sensation at the time.
The first issue included Bill Everett's original eight-page Sub-Mariner origin story, expanded by four pages when it eventually saw print in Marvel Comics #1 (Oct. 1939) — the first publication of Marvel Comics' Golden Age predecessor, Timely Comics, the contents for which were supplied by Funnies, Inc. The final panel on page 8 contained a box reading "Continued Next Week", as well as a notation indicating an April 1939 date for the art. The box remained, sans words and colored in, when reprinted in Marvel Comics #1 and again in Marvel's The Invaders #20 (Sept. 1977).
Another Timely character that debuted in Motion Picture Funnies Weekly was writer-artist Paul Lauretta's aviator hero the American Ace, whose origin eventually appeared in two six-page stories in Marvel Mystery Comics #2-3 (Dec. 1939 - Jan. 1940), following the renaming of Marvel Comics after issue #1.
An additional feature in Motion Picture Funnies Weekly #1 was the adventure strip "Spy Ring".
Cartoonist Fred Schwab drew the cover.[1] Martin Filchock is generally credited as the cover artist for the remainder, except for #3, credited to Max Neill.
The "Comic Books on Microfiche" collection of the University of Tulsa's McFarlin Library lists Centaur Publications' Amazing Man Comics #5 (Sept. 1939), the premiere issue, as continuing the numbering of Motion Picture Funnies Weekly [2], but this is unconfirmed.[3]
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ The Comic Book Price Guide, 15th edition, by Robert M. Overstreet (1985), p. 236. Cartoonist Schwab drew many gag strips for DC Comics' Adventure Comics and others periodicals, including for the inside front cover of Marvel Comics #1.
- ^ The University of Tulsa, McFarlin Library, Special Collections Department: Comic Books on Microfiche
- ^ Overstreet, Ibid. IListing for Motion Picture Funnies Weekly asks "Amazing Man No. 5 on?"
[edit] References
- Scoop: "Did you Know...?" (column), Oct. 4, 2002: "The Origins of Subby"
- The Grand Comics Database
- Jess Nevins' "The Timely Comics Story"
- Jim Hill Media: "A Tribute to Bill Everett, the Sub-Mariner's Father", by Monique Pryor
- Lambiek Comiclopedia: Paul J. Lauretta
- Heritage Comics auction description, July 4-7, 2002
- Heritage Galleries & Auctioneers: "Heritage to Auction Legendary 'Pay Copy' of Motion Picture Funnies Weekly #1!" (press release, Sept. 16, 2005)
- Archangels Vintage Collectibles auction description, Filchock's issue #4 cover art (defunct site)
[edit] External links
- The Golden Age of Comic Books, hosted by Bill Jourdain (Sept. 26, 2005) (Podcast panel discussing Motion Picture Funnies Weekly)
