New Fun #1-It’s Place in History

The first time I visited DC headquarters in New York in 2004, several times the comment was made, “If it wasn’t for your grandfather, we wouldn’t be here.” Although that has been a consistent refrain from the corporate entity, I didn’t see much evidence of that statement.

When “the Major” was inducted into the Eisner Hall of Fame in 2008 at San Diego Comic Con, I began a crusade to bring recognition to his contributions to the modern comics industry. They are substantial. If you don’t know or don’t believe me, please read DC Comics Before Superman for an inkling of this important piece of comics history.

In March 2019 when I visited the new DC offices in Burbank, I was thrilled to see the door to the archives painted with the cover of New Fun #1 and the Major’s photograph displayed prominently inside the archives. It seemed that the corporation had finally concluded that the Major indeed founded DC and should be honored.

I was there to see the rare copy of New Fun #1 that DC had acquired through the quick eye of one of the good guys on the MWN group on Facebook and my subsequent lobbying DC to buy it for the archives. Astonishingly they did!

Photo: NWN

Someone who deserves a medal made the decision to reprint New Fun #1 to appear in January 2020 to celebrate the 85^th anniversary. It is also the 130^th anniversary of the Major’s birth. And even more unbelievable I was asked to contribute to the reprint.

The last byline for Wheeler-Nicholson in DC Comics occurred in the September 1938, Detective Comics, Bruce Nelson “The Coolie Smugglers,” script Wheeler-Nicholson, art, Tom Hickey.

September 1938 is, coincidentally, the finalization of the forced bankruptcy brought by Harry Donenfeld and Jack Liebowitz against the Major. For the first time in 82 years a Wheeler-Nicholson byline was to appear in a DC Comics publication.

DC Comics September 1938, Cover: Creig Flessel

Finally, all the hard work was going to pay off. (Yes, I am the perennial Fool stepping happily into the abyss.) I was nervous about ATT taking over Warner Brothers and DC but was assured that DC Comics would continue as an entity.

I worked on the New Fun reprint providing an abbreviated biography of the Major and pushed for short bios for all the contributors, which I also wrote. It was a terrific experience and I’m grateful to have been a part. Everyone involved did a wonderful job and the end product Famous First Edition New Fun #1 is outstanding. Benjamin Le Clear, the DC archivist, deserves huge kudos.

The first inkling that things were going to go off the rails was that I could not get anyone in the corporate labyrinth to commit to any PR on DC’s 85^th and the Major’s 130^th. Then the publishing date was pushed to April instead of January. The pandemic began and the rest of the debacle of the worst year of my life and most everyone else’s careened forward.

Among other things comic book shops closed, there were no conventions, DC and Diamond Distributors got into a kerfuffle, my attempts to get a panel for the 85^th anniversary on New Fun #1 at San Diego Comic Con online were oddly ignored. Then my personal hell and high water occurred in mid-September almost losing my house and my life, and the terror I endured as Hurricane Sally roared over my home for 4 hours.

From New Fun #1, “Barry O’Neill,” Script: MWheeler-Nicholson, Art: Lawrence Lariar

After months of recovery from that disaster—and it will continue well into 2021–I am finally able to make room for my work.

I have repeatedly said that DC Comics matters to me because it is personal. It was my grandfather’s idea and to echo the refrain—“we wouldn’t be here without your grandfather,” well neither would I, so yes, it’s personal.

It’s been heartbreaking for me to see what appears to be the destruction of DC Comics as we know it. I am sorry for all the good people at DC and Warner Brothers who have lost their jobs. And there were and perhaps still are some good people within those two entities. It has been my pleasure to know many of them and work alongside them.

Everything changes and evolves and especially in any creative medium there are and should be changes. As a creative person I actively contribute to change. Although I consider myself a writer, I spent years as an editor and then as an audio publisher.

I’m currently in the process of co-creating a comic with the estimable Lee Marrs for David Lloyd’s Aces Weekly. We’re doing an update of the Major’s first female heroine Sandra of the Secret Service.

Creating requires an open mind to change. What I have discovered is that the best changes in creative work occur by standing on a strong foundation and reaching out beyond. Whatever changes needed to be made, I don’t get a good feeling from ATTyrannosaurus Rex lumbering around and smashing everything in sight. When the smoke clears, we’ll see where we are. Maybe it will eventually be okay.

Pudge: Lee Marrs

As the lone wolf having no corporation or institution to back me, I would not have made it this far without the tremendous support I have received from so many good and kind people.

So where to go from here? I believe the best way forward is to do exactly as our grandfather the Major always did when faced with difficulties and disappointments–create and move forward. The one aspect of his character that has mostly been overlooked in the quest to pin him down is his creative brilliance in the scope and breadth of all he accomplished in one life. As one of the Major’s fans, Ranger Gord said, “it’s like Indiana Jones became a comic nerd—and the first one!”

In that spirit, I’ll discuss the comics the Major published in 1935 over these last few weeks of 2020 to celebrate the 85^th anniversary of New Fun #1, DC Comics and the Major’s accomplishments. I’d love for you to join me as many of you have much to offer to a discussion of that era. Happy 85^th New Fun #1.