Complete Mystery

By the summer of 1947, Martin Goodman had been publishing only two types of comic books, superhero comics and humor comics. Humor comics were further subdivided into funny-animal comics and Archie-inspired teen humor comics. As mid 1947 approached, a new genre appeared on the Timely schedule: Crime comics.

Goodman had deep experience in the crime publication niche. We have already seen that he'd been publishing true-crime magazines since 1939 :

COMPLETE DETECTIVE CASES in 1939
AMAZING DETECTIVE CASES in 1940
NATIONAL DETECTIVE CASES in 1941
EXPOSE` DETECTIVE CASES in 1942
LEADING DETECTIVE CASES in 1943

.....and crime pulps from as far back as :

BLACK BOOK DETECTIVE in 1933
STAR DETECTIVE MAGAZINE in 1935
TRUE CRIME MAGAZINE in 1936
DETECTIVE SHORT STORIES in 1937 
COMPLETE DETECTIVE in 1938
DETECTIVE MYSTERIES in 1938
TOP-NOTCH DETECTIVE in 1938
ALL-STAR DETECTIVE in 1941
ANGEL DETECTIVE in 1941

STAR DETECTIVE Vol 1, #6 (Dec/36)

COMPLETE DETECTIVE Vol 1, #4 (Feb/39)

DETECTIVE SHORT STORIES Vol 3, #2 (Apr/41)

ALL STAR DETECTIVE Vol, #3 (May/42)

THE ANGEL DETECTIVE Vol 1, #1 (July/41)

Seeing the enormous success Lev Gleason gained from changing SILVER STREAK COMICS to CRIME DOES NOT PAY in 1942 prompted him to jump into the nascent crime comic market and he released two books simultaneously, JUSTICE COMICS and OFFICIAL TRUE CRIME CASES, both cover dated Fall/47 and both with great covers by Timely staff art director Syd Shores

JUSTICE COMICS #7 (#1) (Fall/47)

OFFICIAL TRUE CRIME CASES #24 (#1) (Fall/47)

1948 saw OFFICIAL TRUE CRIME CASES change title to ALL TRUE CRIME and 4 additional crime comics debut:

CRIMEFIGHTERS (Apr/48)
LAWBREAKERS ALWAYS LOSE (Spring/48)
CRIME EXPOSED (June/48) [actually a one-shot]

CRIME FIGHTERS #1 (Apr/48)

LAWBREAKERS ALWAYS LOSE #1 (Spring/48)

                         

CRIME EXPOSED #1a (June/48)

 ...and finally, COMPLETE MYSTERY #1 (Aug/48).

Timely was also at this time experimenting with book-length comic stories. We had previously seen extra long stories in the classic Human Torch/Sub-Mariner battles as well as in titles like YOUNG ALLIES where a story was broken up into 5 or so chapters all linked to the main story. The debut issue of JUSTICE COMICS ran a whopping 46 pages and the just launched esoteric IDEAL - A CLASSICAL COMIC also sported book-length tales. Now Timely released COMPLETE MYSTERY #1, a title that would cap the first wave of Timely/Atlas crime books, each issue a book-length story followed by a short 1 to 4 page filler.

What's special though about COMPLETE MYSTERY is not the story length, but the creators. With issue #2 Stan Lee takes over the scripting chores and scripts issues 2,3 and 4. The artists are absolute vintage Timely circa 1948. Let's take a look.

COMPLETE MYSTERY #1 (Aug/48)

COMPLETE MYSTERY #1 (Aug/48)

The phrase "book-length" is in the title on the cover and I've always wanted to say that this cover was by Gene Colan but I never have and probably never will. Inside is a 25 page lead feature "7 Dead Men", penciled by, yup... Gene Colan!  I'm going to devote an entire blog post or two in the future to Gene Colan's Timely and Atlas work so I'll just mention that Gene does a fantastic job this early in his career. The story was penciled at the age of 21 and by my unofficial tally this is approximately the 12th Timely story Gene worked on. As seen below, Gene is already one of the better artists on the Timely staff. The author is unknown, the inker is unknown and it's possible there may even be other hands helping out as Timely staff work was sometimes done piecemeal. Here are a couple of pages:

#3042 COMPLETE MYSTERY #1 (Aug48) p.1

#3042 COMPLETE MYSTERY #1 (Aug48) p.6

#3042 COMPLETE MYSTERY #1 (Aug48) p.10

#3042 COMPLETE MYSTERY #1 (Aug48) p.11

#3042 COMPLETE MYSTERY #1 (Aug48) p.15

#3042 COMPLETE MYSTERY #1 (Aug48) p.23

#3042 COMPLETE MYSTERY #1 (Aug48) p.25

The back-up feature this issue is a 4 page Tommy Tyme story. Based on the job # of D-190, this story is definitely inventory from as far back as 1945-46 when an earlier method of assigning job #'s was used. The "D" here may stand for an editor but I postulate this without any assurance whatsoever.  Tommy Tyme was a time traveling youth whose adventures frequently took him to meetings with important individuals in history. Otto Binder created the series and was the primary author of most/all of the stories that ran from 1942 through 1946 in titles including KID KOMICS, the second MYSTIC and YOUNG ALLIES. Dan Barry was one of the main artists as well as Charles Tomsey. In this story I'm stumped at who this is. The art slightly suggests Chu Hing involvement in some capacity but in truth I'm clueless. I even wild guess wonder if this could be Tom Tomasch?  Any suggestions would be welcome.

#D-190 COMPLETE MYSTERY #1 (Aug48) p.1

#D-190 COMPLETE MYSTERY #1 (Aug48) p.2

#D-190 COMPLETE MYSTERY #1 (Aug48) p.3

#D-190 COMPLETE MYSTERY #1 (Aug48) p.4

COMPLETE MYSTERY #2 (Oct/48)

COMPLETE MYSTERY #2 (Oct/48)

Issue #2 introduces a familiar face to the series, the editor-in-chief of the company, Stan Lee. The cover is penciled by Timely's art director Syd Shores. Shores spent the majority of the 1940's as Timely's primary Captain America artist. His history on the character began when he inked the cover to issue #1. He then assisted on miscellaneous issues during the initial Simon and Kirby 10 issue run before becoming Al Avison's inker when S&K departed for National. When Avison moved on, Shores took over the feature completely and held it, save for time in the service, for most of the golden-age run, although a score of other artists continued to also drawing Cap's scattered adventures in several titles. 

The splash to issue #2 boldly lists the creator credits of the company's editor-in-chief and art director in fancy cursive lettering:

Story by Stan Lee

Drawn by Syd Shores

The story is put forth as a murder mystery narrated by the spectral image on the right hand side of the splash page. Let me say right at the outset that this story, "Fate's Fateful Jigsaw", is fantastic! Stan has crafted a convoluted plot where a business man sets out to murder his rival by creating the perfect crime with an air-tight alibi, getting a homeless man who looks like his twin to be seen at his club during the time of the murder. Add in the fact that his son is in love with his rival's beautiful daughter and is then arrested for his father's murder deed while the father himself cannot prove he is to blame because his alibi is too strong! Also his wife dies from a heart attack from the shock. Just as the son is going to be executed, the father in hopeless despair, runs away to shut himself off from the world for 20 years, before dying alone and unknown in untold misery as his actions have ruined his life and family. Except for one small fact, a great O'Henry shock ending that I did not see coming! The plot is so strong that I wonder if it's lifted off a movie plot.  I won't post the final page as I don't want to ruin it for you. This title may be reprinted in the future so I'm only posting a few pages to highlight Syd's artwork.

Syd's artwork is very strong and the panel pacing just superb. Some of the pages may be inked or assist-inked by George Klein and I'm nearly certain the panels with the rivals beautiful daughter were assisted by Gene Colan, who perhaps even drew the young woman!

#3354 COMPLETE MYSTERY #2 (Oct48) p.1

#3354 COMPLETE MYSTERY #2 (Oct48) p.6

The blond girl above in the last panel appears to be drawn by Gene Colan.

#3354 COMPLETE MYSTERY #2 (Oct48) p.13

#3354 COMPLETE MYSTERY #2 (Oct48) p.15

The page above appears to have been inked by George Klein

 

 #3354 COMPLETE MYSTERY #2 (Oct48) p.23

 #3354 COMPLETE MYSTERY #2 (Oct48) p.24

The back-up features this issue consist of two 1-page crime features. The first is called "Oddities in Crime!" and this is the sole installment of this feature anywhere in any Timely/Atlas crime comic. The exact same installment was run in IDEAL - A CLASSICAL COMIC #2 (Sept/48), a month previously, so this appearance can be deemed a "reprint", for what that's worth. The artist is unknown, a Timely bullpenner. I once thought this could be Allen Bellman but do not believe so any longer.

 

The final feature is another one-pager, this time the well-known "Let's Play Detective", written, penciled and inked by Allen Bellman. Allen created this feature circa 1943 and took the idea to Stan Lee who approved it and bought roughly 50 installments throughout the 1940's from Allen, all done freelance from his usual Timely staff duties.

#3697 COMPLETE MYSTERY #2 (Oct/48)

And lastly, a great house ad advertising the first and only appearance of THE WITNESS (in a solo book) and the very first issue of Timely's very first romance title, MY ROMANCE #1!  

The Witness was launched as a last-ditch effort to revive the Timely hero titles, launching with a revived ALL WINNERS #1, NAMORA #1, SUN GIRL #1, VENUS #1 and BLACKSTONE #2 (picking up the numbering from the previous EC series).

MY ROMANCE  was the first of what eventually would be 32 lines of romance comics that would appear in the next 16 months. It changed to MY OWN ROMANCE by issue #4 (Mar/49) and would be one of only two romance titles to survive the Atlas implosion (the other was LOVE ROMANCES), before changing title to TEEN-AGE ROMANCE with #77 (Sept/60) and ending with #86 (Mar/62). 

House Ad in COMPLETE MYSTERY #2 (Oct/48)

 COMPLETE MYSTERY #3 (Dec/48)

COMPLETE MYSTERY #3 (Dec/48)

Issue #3 once again pairs a veteran creator duo. Stan Lee scripts the 25 page "Fear in the Night" and the artwork is by Carl Burgos, now on staff after returning to Timely after the war and well after leaving Lloyd Jacquet's Funnies Inc.shop. The cover is unknown to me but like issue #1, hints of Gene Colan. It is much too fluid to be the staid and stiffer Carl Burgos. Marty Nodell is another candidate as he did a lot of still uncredited work in 1948/49.

"Fear in the Night" also may be a bit of an experiment. Last issue a ghostly specter narrated a crime tale. This issue, Stan and Burgos weave a tale of an evil man being unrelentingly pursued around the world by a man in black, with the kicker being it was his conscience all along. Concurrently, Timely was introducing the Witness to the newsstands, a supernatural "Phantom Stranger type character. All of this appears to be testing the waters for what will shortly come, the debut of horror/mystery at Timely with AMAZING MYSTERIES #32 cover dated May/49. Stan and Goodman had almost certainly seen Avon's one-shot EERIE COMICS #1 in late 1946 and with the success of radio suspense and mystery shows, probably felt the time was becoming right to dip into that quill.

The story itself rambles on way too long. Stan Lee and Steve Ditko will later on produce similar morality thrillers in a succinct 6 pages. Burgos's story art is serviceable, nothing spectacular. There are some good atmospheric panels, though.

#4041 COMPLETE MYSTERY #3 (Dec48) p.1

 

#4041 COMPLETE MYSTERY #3 (Dec48) p.10

#4041 COMPLETE MYSTERY #3 (Dec48) p.18

#4041 COMPLETE MYSTERY #3 (Dec48) p.23

#4041 COMPLETE MYSTERY #3 (Dec48) p.25

The back-up this time is a two-page Allen Bellman Let's Play Detective crime feature, "Call a Spade a Spade".

#4052 COMPLETE MYSTERY #3 (Dec/48) p.1

#4052 COMPLETE MYSTERY #3 (Dec/48) p.2

  

And lastly this issue, as the cauldron of swirling anti-comics hysteria begins to coalesce, Timely would respond with 2 full-page editorials. The first, reprinted below, would appear in Dec/48 cover dated issues and address their concerns with the media's criticism of comic books. First Dr. Frederic Wertham sponsored a symposium on "The Psychopathology of Comic Books" on March 19, 1948.  From this came a scathing article in the March 25th, 1948 issue of Collier's Weekly, "Horror in the Nursery" by Judith Crist. Finally, the Saturday Review of May 29, 1948 published "Comics ... Very Funny!", where Wertham pushed his condemnation of comic books, specifically crime comic books, further onto the public's radar.

Timely's editorial department published this editorial below, countering the criticism with the fact that they obtained editorial advice from Dr. Jean Thompson, a psychiatrist in the Child Guidance Bureau of the New York City Board of Education.Dr. Thompson's name was placed in bold letters at the top of page 1 this issue, alerting readers that Marvel Comics were "above criticism". Interestingly, internally we see the company was calling itself "Marvel Comics" at this time.

Anti-Wertham editorial in COMPLETE MYSTERY #3 (Dec/48)

COMPLETE MYSTERY #4 (Feb/49)

COMPLETE MYSTERY #4 (Feb/49)

Stan Lee and Carl Burgos are reunited again on an 18 pager this time, "Squealers Die Fast". The story is a bit overwritten and too drawn out.  It's becoming obvious that the 4, 5 or 6  page story format is the preferable size. With this story put to bed, already clipped to18 pages from 25 pages the past 3 issues, the shorter size will become the dominant standard. I have no clue on the cover above.

#4443 COMPLETE MYSTERY #4 (Feb49) p.1

The back-up story this time is a traditional 4-page crime story. The artist is unknown.

#4444 COMPLETE MYSTERY #4 (Feb49) p.1

The issue concludes with Timely's "second" anti-Wertham editorial.  This editorial directly addressed the raging debate about comic books in the pages of the aforementioned Saturday Review and pointedly mentions Dr.Wertham by name. The editorial quotes a letter from the July 24th issue by David Pace Wigransky, a 14 year old comics reader, who intelligently and logically refutes Wertham, explaining that finding a juvenile delinquent as a comic reader proves nothing as the vast millions of America’s youth who read comics are “not” juvenile delinquents. The editorial ends with a claim that Marvel Comics are “good comics” and again touts Dr. Thompson’s endorsement on the first page of every comic they published, strategically countering like a chess game, pitting one psychiatrist against another.

Anti-Wertham editorial in COMPLETE MYSTERY #4 (Feb/49)

Starting with issue #5 (Apr/49), the title of this book changes to TRUE COMPLETE MYSTERY and will continue another 4 issues up through #8 (Oct/49). 3 issues will sport photo covers, #'s 6,7,8. The highlights of these issues are two John  Buscema penciled stories each in issues #5 and #6.  These will be discussed in detail in a future blog  post on John Buscema's Timely career. Allen Bellman has an "Are You a Detective?" likewise in #5 and #6. Two more editorials also make there appearance in issues #5 and #6. With the crime comics taking so much heat industry-wide, Stan Lee is working overtime trying to convince the readers that Marvel is beyond reproach. These two additional editorials I will also discuss in a separate blog post in the future on Timely/Atlas' battles with comic book censorship.

TRUE COMPLETE MYSTERY #5 (Apr/49)

Here are the rest of the covers after the title change. The book-length format is thrown out and the title becomes a standard crime format of 4 stories each in #5,6 and 3 stories each in #7,8.

TRUE COMPLETE MYSTERY #6 (June/49)

TRUE COMPLETE MYSTERY #7 (Aug/49)

TRUE COMPLETE MYSTERY #8 (Oct/49)

Amazing Detective Cases

The question today is "Why did AMAZING DETECTIVE CASES start with #3?"

We have to backtrack first....

Timely and Atlas collectors are very familiar with Martin Goodman's long pattern of starting new comic book titles with a number other than #1. It's happened over and over. Here are some random examples of debut Timely/Atlas titles and issues:

ADVENTURES INTO TERROR #43
ALL TEEN #20
AMAZING DETECTIVE CASES #3
AMAZING MYSTERIES #32
APACHE KID #53
BEST WESTERN #58
BLONDE PHANTOM #12
COMEDY COMICS #9
COMPLETE COMICS #2
COWGIRL ROMANCES #28
CRIME CAN'T WIN #41
CRIME MUST LOSE #4
HONEYMOON #41
JOURNEY INTO UNKNOWN WORLDS #36
JUSTICE COMICS #7
LOVERS #23
LOVE TALES #36
MARVEL TALES #93
OFFICIAL TRUE CRIME CASES #24
REAL EXPERIENCES #25
RENO BROWN #50
ROMANCE TALES #7
SPY CASES #26
STRANGE STORIES OF SUSPENSE #5
TRUE ADVENTURES #3
YOUNG MEN #4

Some of these are easy to track and are obviously just title changes that continue the numbering. For example:

MARVEL MYSTERY COMICS #92 becomes MARVEL TALES #93.
AMAZING COMICS #1 becomes COMPLETE COMICS #2.
RUGGED ACTION #4 becomes STRANGE TALES OF THE UNUSUAL #5.
ALL SELECT #11 becomes BLONDE PHANTOM #12.
GIRL COMICS #12 becomes GIRL CONFESSIONS #13.
 
Fans and historians frequently also made guesses as to where some of the other new titles spun off from based on looking at what titles were running concurrently and then choosing the title with the closest number to the number of the new title's first issue, imagining the new title "spun off" from there. Often the jump is a real stretch of the imagination as there could be 6-9 months between the former number and the spun off  number.

A second way some have tried to unravel this was to go by the company mentioned in the indicia. For his entire publishing career, Martin Goodman used scores of different company names as a way to shield himself against liability if he got into trouble with a particular title. So searching concurrently published titles and comparing company names was thought to be another clue to determining where a new, weirdly numbered title hailed from.

There is a third way of looking at this mystery, a way that takes the onus away from the comic books themselves and places it anywhere and everywhere around Martin Goodman's publishing empire.

The first clue of this came to me a few years ago. I collect Goodman's true-crime magazines enthusiastically. The reason is that I look for illustrations that comic book artists may have drawn while moonlighting over in different parts of the company, be it magazines or pulps. I've put together long, near complete runs of COMPLETE DETECTIVE CASES, AMAZING DETECTIVE CASES, NATIONAL DETECTIVE CASES and EXPOSE` DETECTIVE CASES in the process.

One of the strangest things I noticed after 20 years of collecting these was that not a single "volume one" issue of COMPLETE DETECTIVE CASES seemed to exist. The title appeared  to start with Vol 2, #1 (Dec/39) and continued through 14 volumes into 1953.

COMPLETE DETECTIVE CASES Vol 2, #1 (Dec/39)

In 1951 and 1952, for a brief period, the format changed to an over sized "bedsheet" format before reverting back to a standard magazine size. This makes finding 1951 and 1952 issues extremely difficult as the larger sized issues didn't survive as well into the present day.

But where was COMPLETE DETECTIVE CASES volume 1? They were nowhere to be found. At some point  I just chalked it up to an unsolvable mystery and forgot about it altogether.  Then one day I was looking on my shelf of Goodman pulps and saw my copy of the lurid COMPLETE DETECTIVE Vol 1, #1 (May/38) [with a great Norman Saunders cover!] and a light bulb went off in my head.

COMPLETE DETECTIVE Vol 1, #1 (May/38)

I frantically checked out the COMPLETE DETECTIVE publishing history and saw that 6 total issues had been published before cancellation ( I had 3 of them). The very last issue was Vol 1, #6, cover dated Oct/39  Bingo! I had the answer before me all along! Volume 1, #6 (Oct/39) of the pulp had become Vol 2, #1 (Dec/39) of the magazine.  

So what does this have to do with AMAZING DETECTIVE CASES? I'm going to explain. The name AMAZING DETECTIVE CASES conjures up a different image in the mind of different types of collectors.

The pulp enthusiast will recognize the name as one of the longest running true-crime magazines of the 1940's and 1950's, actually lasting into the early 1960's, published by Martin Goodman. AMAZING DETECTIVE CASES was the second such true crime magazine published by Goodman, coming on the heels of the aforementioned COMPLETE DETECTIVE CASES, with Vol 1, #1 cover dated June/40.

AMAZING DETECTIVE CASES Vol 1, #1 (June/40)

An interesting aside to both these titles is that the Art Director of both mags, as well as to a third title, NATIONAL DETECTIVE CASES Vol 1, #1 (May/41), for a span of about 13 months (cover date Nov/40 to Dec/41), was Joe Simon. 

NATIONAL DETECTIVE CASES Vol 1, #1 (May/41)

Joe Simon - Art Director

The comic book enthusiast recognizes the name as one of the myriad crime comic titles that burst onto the newsstands during the "second wave" of the Timely/Atlas crime comic surge. Starting cover date Aug/50, six new crime comic titles debuted within a five month period. One of these was AMAZING DETECTIVE CASES, which started its run with #3 (Nov/50).

So I ask the same question I asked at the beginning of this post..... "Why did AMAZING DETECTIVE CASES start with #3?"

With the background reasons I gave above, the usual thought went to looking for a comic title close enough to "spin it off". The suspect has historically been SUSPENSE #2 (Feb/50) for the reason that it's the only crime comic with a #2 close by (and the title changed to horror with #3). But this is ridiculous. There's a 9 month interval between SUSPENSE #2 (Feb/50) and AMAZING DETECTIVE #3 (Nov/50). It's not impossible but it never smelled right to me.

SUSPENSE #1 (Dec/49)

SUSPENSE #2 (Feb/50

Once again, the answer was right in front of me all along! A look at the publishing history of the crime magazines shows that the Goodman true crime mag AMAZING DETECTIVE CASES ran from Vol 1, #1 (June/40) to Vol 10, #2 (July/50).

AMAZING DETECTIVE CASES Vol 10, #2 (July/50)

For the first time, this very week, I realize that the magazine then went on a hiatus. The comic book AMAZING DETECTIVE CASES then starts with #3 (Nov/50) and runs through #14 (Sept/52), with the last 4 issues changing over to pre-code horror before cancellation.

AMAZING DETECTIVE CASES #3 (Nov/50)

AMAZING DETECTIVE CASES #4 (Jan/51)

AMAZING DETECTIVE CASES #5 (Mar/51)

AMAZING DETECTIVE CASES #6 (May/51)

AMAZING DETECTIVE CASES #7 (July/51)

AMAZING DETECTIVE CASES #8 (Sept/51)

AMAZING DETECTIVE CASES #9 (Nov/51)

AMAZING DETECTIVE CASES #10 (Jan/52)

AMAZING DETECTIVE CASES #11 (Mar/52)  [horror]

AMAZING DETECTIVE CASES #12 (May/52)  [horror]

AMAZING DETECTIVE CASES #13 (July/52) - [horror] Joe Maneely cover art

AMAZING DETECTIVE CASES #14 (Sept/52) [horror]

Then, and only then, does the true crime magazine come back, without missing a beat, as Vol 10, #3 (Winter/53), before continuing on into the 1960's.

AMAZING DETECTIVE CASES Vol 10, #3 (Winter/53)

So the mystery of the Atlas AMAZING DETECTIVE CASES has been solved. It also opens up new avenues to track many other similar Atlas title numbering mysteries. But not today.