Before reading this, first click and review two articles on the comic book historians website by Michael Sanchez and Jeff Kepley:
click: Reprinting by Centaur Publications: Little Giant Comics By MICHAEL SANCHEZ & JEFF KEPLEY
click: The Comics Magazine Company: 14 months of Comic Book History by Michael Sanchez
also check out my best selling book for more history of comics also available in audiobook:
In May 1936, two restless impresarios—William Cook and John Mahon—shook off the financial storm clouds dogging Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson’s National Allied Publications (NAP) and staked their fortunes on a daring new frontier: The Comics Magazine Co., Inc. (CMC). Within a scant fourteen months (May 1936–June 1937), they rolled out 27 total issues across four titles—brief enough to be a footnote, yet brilliant enough to spark an epoch.
From the start, CMC’s approach bore traces of New Fun Comics (February 1935–January 1936) and New Comics (December 1935–February 1937), both hallmark NAP endeavors. But Cook and Mahon soon tossed aside the old blueprint, choosing fully self-contained short stories over serialized cliffhangers. This move ignited three laser-focused genre books—Funny Picture Stories (November 1936–June 1937), Detective Picture Stories (December 1936–April 1937), and Western Picture Stories (February–April 1937). According to Jeff Kepley’s painstaking chronology (1935–1942), those titles each hit the stands before Wheeler-Nicholson’s own Detective Comics #1 (March 1937), flipping the script on who truly launched the single-theme revolution.
But it wasn’t just timing that made CMC crackle—it was the roster of creators they gathered. Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, finally free to sign their real names rather than pen names, ratcheted up their Superman prototype “Dr. Occult” and introduced Bart Regan a full nine months prior to that detective’s arrival at DC. Will Eisner, a storytelling virtuoso, fashioned multiple features (including center spreads) for The Comics Magazine/Funny Pages, one famously re-drawn for Fox’s Wonder Comics #1. Rodney Thompson, another two-page spread master, brought a visual flamboyance reminiscent of cinematic wide shots. Meanwhile, a pre-Batman Bob Kane drafted a detective tale for Detective Picture Stories #5 that showcased a dashing ringer for Bruce Wayne—two years ahead of the Caped Crusader’s official debut.
Behind this bravado lay a trove of NAP inventory, spirited away by Cook and Mahon in lieu of unpaid wages. Lurking in the vault was a menagerie of oddball characters: Dickie Duck, J. Worthington Blimp, T’aint so! (It’s a Dern Lie), Cap’n Tripe (Cap’n Spinniker), Freddie Bell He Means Well, Chikko Chakko, Loonie Louie The Fire Chief (akin to McGluke The Fireman), Captain Bill of the Rangers/Further Adventures of Jane and Johnny, Federal Agent (Federal Men), and more. CMC boldly merged this recovered material with new submissions from Eisner, Thompson, Kane, and other hungry creators—generating a collision of comedic antics, detective suspense, and rip-roaring adventure. Yet even that boundless mix couldn’t fend off the realities of 1937’s market, and by June the company folded, leaving behind an unsolved cliffhanger: Funny Picture Stories #8 & #9 and Detective Picture Stories #6 & #7 never saw daylight, fanning collector whispers that they might have stalled at the cover stage or never reached press at all.

CMC’s spirit, however, refused to vanish. Irving W. Ullman and Frank Z. Temerson scooped up its properties under Ultem Publications, a brief run (September 1937–January 1938) that kept Funny Pages and Funny Picture Stories alive. Then, in March 1938, Centaur Publications—steered by Joe Hardie, Raymond Kelly, S. J. Fried, and E. L. Angel—picked up the baton (along with Harry Chesler’s Star Comics and Star Ranger), leveraging CMC’s backlog for a new publishing push. True, National Allied Publications had issued a few reprint specials, like Big Book of Fun Comics #1 (1935) and New Book of Comics (1937, 1938), but Centaur took that notion to a monthly level—foreshadowing the mighty reprint machine that Marvel Comics would unleash decades later with hits like Marvel Tales.
Perhaps nowhere is Centaur’s strategy clearer than in Little Giant Comics, which debuted in July 1938. Historian Michael Sanchez meticulously charted how the compact 6.75″ x 4.5″ digest (with a whopping 128 pages) recycled stories from Funny Picture Stories in near-record time. The debut issue—Little Giant Comics Volume 1 #1—featured a parade of short comedic strips and puzzle breaks, including Bob Wood’s “Goofy Gags plus extra panel” (originally in Funny Picture Stories Volume 2 #2, October 1937), plus quick bursts like “Rough House Annie,” “Spider Legs,” “Ma and Pa,” “Dormitory Daze,” “Tim and Tom,” and “Echo.” Martin Filchock’s playful puzzle pages (“Can you find at least thirty mistakes,” “15 Errors, 33 Dots,” “Riddle Rebus”) parted the curtains for action or detective beats by Bob Wood (“Phoney Crime,” “The Little Black Bag,” “Vacation Cowgirl”), comedic segments by Dick Ryan (“Bear Facts,” “Funny Fables,” “Sweet Revenge”), and breezy comedic or Western arcs by Paul Gustavson (“Cheerio Minstrels,” “High Pressure Preston”) and Claire S’Moe (“Sonny Darling”). Two-page center spreads weren’t the only showpieces; single-page clips—“Jig-Saw Trail,” “Tin Mule,” “Tom o’ Shanter,” “Ticklers,” “The Firehouse Gang”—brought color and humor, interspersed with house ads like “Draw Cartoons! Ad,” “Super Magic Ad,” and “Magic Money Ad.” Rounding out the lineup was a two-page chiller called “Cop Killer,” attributed to Jack Binder.
But that was only the appetizer. Frank Frollo stirred the imagination with “Flood Valve ‘5’” (Funny Picture Stories Volume 2 #3, November 1937) and his monumental 18-page saga “Jack Strand in the 4th Dimension” (Volume 2 #1, September 1937). Ross Martin & W. M. Allison delivered “Rustlers from the Sawtooth,” while Jim Chambers served up “Fangs of the Cougar” and “Arizona’s Ace Trick,” two quick-draw Western gems. Creig Flessel showed up with “Cutter Carson” and “Lucky Coyne A Slight Error,” joined by Ken Fitch’s “Pot o’ Gold” (three pages) and the 12-page “Top-Guy, A G-Man Action Story.” Even Federal Agent got a second lease on life. Each reprinted tale—and there were many—was a testament to Centaur’s relentless quest for content: cost-effective, crowd-pleasing, and (thanks to CMC’s windfall) largely ready to go.

Centaur took the same approach with Keen Detective Funnies—building off Detective Picture Stories numbering at “Volume 1 #8”—and Amazing Mystery Funnies (August 1938). Early issues often recycled older material before sprinkling in fresh features, such as Bill Everett’s “Skyrocket Steele.” This thrifty blend of legacy content and new assignments sustained Centaur until December 1940, when the company finally succumbed—saddled, many speculate, by debts inherited from shaky acquisitions. Some staffers regrouped as the Comic Corporation of America (CCA), carrying over characters from Amazing Man Comics, Liberty Scouts, and Stars & Stripes Comics, even reusing old stories in freebies like C-M-O Comics. But by WWII’s onset, many Golden Age publishers—including CCA—had been swept away by distribution woes and shifting popular tastes.
Peering through Kepley’s month-by-month chart reveals how, despite its short life, The Comics Magazine Co. (CMC) fused single-theme innovation, reprint stockpiles, and raw creative energy into a movement that outlived the company itself. Siegel, Shuster, Eisner, Kane, Thompson, Bob Wood, Frank Frollo, Jack Binder—these names moved on to broader stages, but CMC gave them a proving ground unlike any other. The phantom Funny Picture Stories #8 & #9 and Detective Picture Stories #6 & #7 remain lost to time, teasing collectors with the possibility of half-finished pages or never-printed covers. Even ephemeral strips like “Loonie Louie The Fire Chief” and “T’aint so! (It’s a Dern Lie)” found extended life as reprints crossed from CMC to Ultem, then on to Centaur and, eventually, CCA. Though CMC managed a scant 27 issues before folding, it seeded the reprint revolution, while championing genre experimentation and spotlighting creators who would redefine the comics realm. It is, in every sense, a testament to how a tiny publisher, aflame with ideas, can leave a trail of brilliance long after it bows offstage.
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Use of images are not intended to infringe on copyright, but merely used for academic purpose.