Science Comics #2 Page 57 “Navy Jones”
Fox Feature Syndicate was a comic book publisher that operated in the mid-20th century. The company was founded in the late 1930s by Victor Fox. Fox had noticed the success of other comic book publishers, such as DC Comics and Marvel (Timely), and wanted to get in on the action.
Fox Feature Syndicate published a wide range of comics, including superhero titles, war comics, and romance comics. Some of the company’s most popular characters included the Blue Beetle and the Flame. Fox Feature Syndicate’s comics were known for over the top cheesy Golden Age goodness and obscure characters like in this issue of Science Comics #2 which includes “Dynamo,” “Marga the Panther Woman,” “Navy Jones,” “Perisphere Payne” and “The Eagle.”
Science Comics #2 Page 41 “Marga the Panther Woman”
In the 1950s, Fox Feature Syndicate faced tough competition from other comic book publishers, and the company eventually went out of business. However, the company’s legacy lives on through the characters and stories it created, some of which have been revived and reinterpreted by other publishers over the years including Blue Beetle, which recently got its own major Hollywood movie.
Despite its short lifespan, Fox Feature Syndicate made a significant impact on the world of comics, and it will always be remembered as one of the pioneers of the medium.
Marvel Science Stories – 1939 Apr/May
Science Comics #2 Mile High
Science Comics was published for just eight issues, all in 1940. Science Comics #2 (March 1940) could be the most popular with modern collectors, no doubt due to its “girl in a glass tube” (yea, that seems to have been a thing) cover featuring hero “Dynamo” by Lou Fine. It’s a doppelganger for the classic Marvel Science Stories – 1939 Apr/May issue which could arguably be one of the top pulp covers of all time.
Dynamo (formerly Electro aka “E”)
The character named Electro in prior issues underwent a name change to Dynamo due to copyright issues with Timely’s Electro from Marvel Mystery Comics. Apparently someone forgot to tell the artist, as in some panels (but not all), Dynamo’s costume still has an “E” for Electro on the front of his costume above the lightning bolt.
It would be a stretch to call the comic scientifically educational, but the book did include two illustrated accounts of crimes solved by science. There is a review of Science Comics #2 as “an exploration of the Golden Age of Comics, through the lens of Hideouts & Hoodlums, the comic book role-playing game” here:
Science Comics #2 Page 28 “Perisphere Payne”
Leave a Reply