''All Winners Comics'' was the name of two

American comic book An American comic book is a thin periodical originating in the United States, on average 32 pages, containing comics. While the form originated in 1933, American comic books first gained popularity after the 1938 publication of ''Action Comics'' ...

series of the 1940s, both published by

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is an American comic book publishing, publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Co ...

' predecessor,

Timely Comics Timely Comics is the common name for the group of corporations that was the earliest comic book arm of American publisher Martin Goodman, and the entity that would evolve by the 1960s to become Marvel Comics. "Timely Publications became the name ...

, during the period fans and historians call the

Golden Age of Comic Books The Golden Age of Comic Books describes an era of American comic books from 1938 to 1956. During this time, modern comic books were first published and rapidly increased in popularity. The superhero archetype was created and many well-known char ...

. A

superhero A superhero or superheroine is a stock character that typically possesses ''superpowers'', abilities beyond those of ordinary people, and fits the role of the hero, typically using his or her powers to help the world become a better place, ...

anthology comic in both cases, they variously featured such star characters as

Captain America Captain America is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by cartoonists Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, the character First appearance, first appeared in ''#Golden Age, Captain America Comics'' #1 (cover ...

, the original

Human Torch The Human Torch (Jonathan "Johnny" Storm) is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character is a founding member of the Fantastic Four. He is writer Stan Lee's and artist Jack Kirby's reinvention of ...

, and the Sub-Mariner. ''All Winners Comics'' was also the venue for two full-length stories of Marvel's first superhero team, the (hyphenated) ''

All-Winners Squad The All-Winners Squad is a fictional superhero team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The company's first such team, it first appeared in ''All Winners Comics'' #19 (Fall 1946), published by Marvel predecessor Timely Co ...

''.

Publication history

Volume One

Published quarterly, the first volume of ''All Winners Comics'' ran 20 issues, numbered #1-19 and #21 (Summer 1941 - Winter 1946/47). While the cover title was ''All Winners Comics'' or occasionally simply ''All Winners'', the indicia of all issues in the series (except #21) list the title as ''All-Winners Comics''. The working title was ''All Aces'', as seen in pre-publication house ads in other Timely Comics advising readers to "Watch out for this winner". ''All Winners Comics'' #1 (Summer 1941) contained a 12- to 13-page story each of the Human Torch, by writer-artist creator Carl Burgos; the minor hero

Black Marvel The Black Marvel (Daniel Lyons) is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by artist Al Gabriele with an unknown writer, he first appeared in ''Mystic Comics'' #5 (March 1941), published by ...

, by writer

Stan Lee Stan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber ; December 28, 1922 – November 12, 2018) was an American comic book writer, editor, publisher, and producer. He rose through the ranks of a family-run business called Timely Publications which ...

penciler A penciller (or penciler) is an artist who works on the creation of comic books, graphic novels, and similar visual art forms, with a focus on the initial pencil illustrations, usually in collaboration with other artists, who provide inks, colors ...

Al Avison and

inker The inker (sometimes credited as the finisher or embellisher) is one of the two line artists in traditional comic book production. The penciller creates a drawing, the inker outlines, interprets, finalizes, retraces this drawing by using a pencil ...

Al Gabriele Al Gabriele (deceased) was an American comic book artist during the 1940s period fans and historians call the Golden Age of comic books. He is known for his work on some of Marvel Comics' earliest Captain America and Sub-Mariner stories, and ...

; Captain America, by co-creators

Joe Simon Joseph Henry Simon (October 11, 1913 – December 14, 2011) was an American comic book writer, artist, editor, and publisher. Simon created or co-created many important characters in the 1930s–1940s Golden Age of Comic Books and served as the ...

and

Jack Kirby Jack Kirby (born Jacob Kurtzberg; August 28, 1917 – February 6, 1994) was an American comic book artist, writer and editor, widely regarded as one of the medium's major innovators and one of its most prolific and influential creators. He gr ...

(writers), Joe Simon, Kirby, and Avision (pencils), and Joe Simon, Al Gabriele and

Syd Shores Sydney Shores (1916 – June 3, 1973) was an American comic book artist known for his work on Captain America both during the 1940s, in what fans and historians call the Golden Age of comic books, and during the 1960s Silver Age of comic books. Bi ...

(inkers); the Sub-Mariner, by writer-artist creator

Bill Everett William Blake Everett (; May 18, 1917 – February 27, 1973) was an American comic book writer-artist best known for creating Namor the Sub-Mariner as well as co-creating Zombie and Daredevil with writer Stan Lee for Marvel Comics. He was alle ...

; and the

Angel In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God. Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles include ...

, generally credited, unconfirmably, to writer-artist creator

Paul Gustavson Paul Gustavson (né Karl Paul Gustafson; August 16, 1916 – April 29, 1977) was a Finnish-American comic-book writer and artist. His most notable creations during the Golden Age of Comic Books were The Human Bomb for Quality Comics, and the An ...

. All the characters were preexisting. Additionally, there was a two-page text story by Lee, with spot art by Ed Winiarski. The following issue, the preexisting superheroes the

Destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, manoeuvrable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against powerful short range attackers. They were originally developed in ...

and the Whizzer replaced the Black Marvel and the Angel. This lineup continued through #12, with a one-shot appearance of the Thunderer with the new code name Black Avenger in #6. With

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

wartime paper shortages, the page-count was reduced from 68 to 60 pages with issue #9 (Summer 1943), trimming the Destroyer feature slightly and shrinking that of super-speedster the Whizzer to six pages. With #12 (Spring 1944) it was further reduced to 52 pages, reducing the Destroyer feature to seven pages and eliminating the Whizzer's entirely. Two issues later, the book shrank to 36 pages, before finally returning to 52 pages after the war, with #17 (Winter 1945).

All-Winners Squad

Timely/Marvel's first superhero team, the

, featuring Captain America, the Human Torch, the Sub-Mariner, the Whizzer, and

Miss America Miss America is an annual competition that is open to women from the United States between the ages of 17 and 25. Originating in 1921 as a "bathing beauty revue", the contest is now judged on competitors' talent performances and interviews. As ...

, starred in #19 (Fall 1946), in a 43-page story in seven chapters. A second, same-length All-Winners Squad story appeared in #21 (Winter 1946/47). Due to the vagaries and often-poor record-keeping of the early days of comic books, the interrupted numbering of the first volume, which has no issue #20, has never been definitively explained. Most comics historians follow a generally accepted theory involving the cost of registering magazines with the

U.S. Postal Service The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the U. ...

in order to receive bulk-mailing rates: a common practice of the time involved retitling an existing series rather than registering a new one. Historians generally agree that after issue #19, ''All Winners Comics'' continued as a single-issue

teenage Adolescence () is a transitional stage of physical and psychological development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to adulthood (typically corresponding to the age of majority). Adolescence is usually associated with the te ...

humor Humour (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English) or humor (American English) is the tendency of experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement. The term derives from the humorism, humoral medicine of the ancient Gre ...

comic featuring a

Patsy Walker Patricia "Patsy" Walker is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Stuart Little and Ruth Atkinson, Patsy Walker first appeared in ''Miss America Magazine'' #2 (November 1944), published by Marvel precu ...

story, ''All Teen Comics'' #20 (January 1947). When Timely chose to do another All-Winners Squad story, the publisher retitled the canceled ''

Young Allies Comics Young Allies is the name of three fictional superhero teams appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Golden Age The Golden Age's Young Allies were a gang of kids who fought the Axis. Their line-up included the two key sidek ...

'', which had ended with #20 (Oct. 1946), resulting in ''All Winners Comics'' #21. Most sources say ''All Winners Comics'' afterward became the humor title ''Hedy De Vine Comics'', starting with #22 (Aug. 1947).

Volume Two

A second volume ran one issue (Aug. 1948) before being retitled and reformatted as the

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

anthologies ''All Western Winners'' (#2-4, Winter 1948 - April 1949), ''Western Winners'' (#5-7, June-Dec. 1949), the Western masked-crimefighter series '' Black Rider'' (#8-27, March 1950 - March 1955) and ''Western Tales of Black Rider'' (#28-31, May-Nov. 1955), and, finally, the anthology ''

Gunsmoke Western ''Gunsmoke Western'' was an American comic book series published initially by Atlas Comics, the 1950s forerunner of Marvel Comics, and then into the 1960s by Marvel. A Western anthology that ran 46 issues, it featured early stories of the Marvel ...

'' (#32-77, Dec. 1955 - July 1963), that last primarily starring

Kid Colt Kid Colt is the name of two fictional characters appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The first is a cowboy whose adventures have taken place in numerous western-themed comic book series published by Marvel. The second is a ...

.''All_Winners''_[''All-Winners_Comics''
/nowiki>_(Marvel,_1948_series).html" ;"title="'All-Winners Comics''">''All Winners'' [''All-Winners Comics''
/nowiki> (Marvel, 1948 series)">'All-Winners Comics''">''All Winners'' [''All-Winners Comics''
/nowiki> (Marvel, 1948 series)at the Grand Comics Database

Collections

In December 1999, Marvel reprinted #19 as ''Timely Presents: All-Winners'', cover titled ''Timely Comics Presents All Winners Comics''. From 2004 to 2011, Marvel reprinted all of ''All-Winners Comics'' under the ''Marvel Masterworks'' imprint in four volumes: * ''Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age All-Winners'' Vol. 1 (reprints ''All-Winners Comics'' #1-4) (2004) * ''Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age All-Winners'' Vol. 2 (reprints ''All-Winners Comics'' #5-8) (2006) * ''Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age All-Winners'' Vol. 3 (reprints ''All-Winners Comics'' #9-14) (2008) * ''Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age All-Winners'' Vol. 4 (reprints ''All-Winners Comics'' #15-19, 21 & Vol. 2 #1) (2011) Individual digital issues were released on

Marvel Unlimited Marvel Unlimited, formerly known as Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited, is an online service by Marvel Comics that distributes past issues of their comics via the internet. The service launched on November 13, 2007, and now has more than 30,000 comic ...

and

ComiXology Iconology Inc., d/b/a ComiXology (styled comiXology), is a cloud-based digital distribution platform for comics owned by Amazon, with over 200 million comic downloads . It offers a selection of more than 100,000 comic books, graphic novels, and ...

beginning in a period from 2017 to 2018.

References

External links

AtlasTales.com

The Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators
{{Otto Binder Comics magazines published in the United States 1941 comics debuts 1947 comics endings 1948 comics debuts 1948 comics endings Quarterly magazines published in the United States Defunct American comics Golden Age comics titles Magazines established in 1941 Magazines disestablished in 1947 Magazines established in 1948 Magazines disestablished in 1948 Marvel Comics titles Magazines published in New York City