Aug 3, 2025
Boy Meets Girl #7, January 1951. Bob Fujitani cover illustration.
Info from Grand Comics Database
seen from Netherlands
seen from Malaysia
seen from United States
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Argentina
seen from New Zealand
seen from United Kingdom
seen from China
seen from South Korea
seen from Canada
seen from Hong Kong SAR China
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from New Zealand
seen from United States
seen from Tunisia
seen from Australia
seen from United States
seen from Iraq
seen from Singapore
Boy Meets Girl #7, January 1951. Bob Fujitani cover illustration.
Info from Grand Comics Database
Collection of Lev Gleason redesigns from a year or two ago. I was reading a lot of Brubaker Captain America at the time:
Captain Battle
Nathan Hale as the assassin “The Deaglo”
Madame Veil
War Eagle II
Black Dragon
One of the most important crime comics, if not comics in general, was "Crime Does Not Pay", an anthology series first appearing on June 1942, created by Charles Biro and Bob Wood and published by Lev Gleason. It would soon reach over a million in sales, becoming one of the most successful comics of all time.
I love Lev Gleason, because in the 30s they had a comic addressing lynchings, a pirate character whose sole mission in life was ending the slave trade, a Native American character who went to law school and defended his community from abusive Whites, and a comic affirming that Japanese-Americans are American citizens, and okay, that last one was also heavy on trying to convince Japanese-American children the internment camps were nothing personal, but the spirit was definitely there. I mean, the Spirit wasn't there, he was with Quality Comics, you know.
But like...it's genuinely bizarre the extent to which LG seems to have shifted all it's bigotry points into hating the physically disabled. I don't mean this was their one blind spot, like they were progressive about everything else but normal 30s ableist, I mean they were TURBO-ableist even by the standards of the time. For every racist depiction of a non-White person in comic books by other publishers, and keep in mind that back then you couldn't flip a page without seeing ten goblin monsters screeching in Chinese restaurant sign font, Lev Gleason would feature an ax murderer driven to homicidal frenzy by some disfigurement or another.
It comes off as though the American man in the first half of the 20th century, even a progressive ahead of his time by leaps and bounds, struggled to envision a world where there was not some irredeemable class of inhuman folk to serve as generic villains in stories.
Daredevil Comics #04
Thirteen
The Glass Gargoyle Pg 01
Original Art
Art by Bernard Klein
Lev Gleason (1941)
From Heritage Auctions...
Every day feels like Friday the 13th when you're a crook caught in the glare of masked vigilante Thirteen! This dynamic full-page splash opens "The Glass Gargoyle", starring a two-fisted mystery man who hunted down crooks, saboteurs, and spies on the darkened streets of the World War II era. Leaning into pulp and noir roots, Thirteen delivered shadow-soaked crime-fighting with a grittier edge than the flashier superheroics of Daredevil. Behind the moody inks was artist and former boxer Bernie Klein, a New York freelancer who even roomed with Batman artist Jerry Robinson, before his promising career was cut tragically short in WWII combat.
"I Played With Fire" by Alex Toth
Marvel’s Daredevil & Lev Gleason’s Daredevil by Chris Nye
March 1945. Sam Lewis, "the meekest man alive," in a story from CRIME DOES NOT PAY #38.