Another assemblage of vintage photographs showing the comic books of yesteryear either on sale around the world or else in the hands of hungry readers of their native time period. These have been gathered up from everywhere over the years.
Comics in the Wild 12
The Tom Brevoort Experience 
In that first photo, dated 4-8-54…
…that’s DC’s HOPALONG CASSIDY 88, on sale in February ’54, Marvel’s RIOT 2 (on sale in March), Ajax’s BUGHOUSE 2 (March), Harvey’s LOVE PROBLEMS AND ADVICE ILLUSTRATED 27 (March) and Aven’s SENSATIONAL POLICE CASES 3 (March), which nails down the timeframe pretty well.
On the 1952 Mexican comic book stand, one of the books is EL RATON PÉREZ Y EL REY LUCAS 5, and there’s Editorial Nova’s TARZÁN 7, but the logo background doesn’t look right. And that DICK TRACY is a recolored version of the cover to Harvey’s DICK TRACY 49.
The proud kids outside the DeSoto dealership are showing off STRANGE ADVENTURES 46 (7/54) and DARK MYSTERIES 19 (8/54, pretty grim cover)
Bill Clinton appears to be on the campaign trail — most of those comics went on sale in June or July of 1992, and he’s mangling a copy of BEETLE BAILEY BIG BOOK 1.
That shadowy newsstand is selling ACTION COMICS 21, COMICS ON PARADE 22 and SILVER STREAK COMICS 2, among others.
The happy young Christmas referee is reading THE ATOM 23.
The kid on the train is perusing the back cover of KING COMICS 39 (from 1939).
The camo-garbed soldiers are reading SGT. ROCK 408 and 411.
That Chicon dealer is selling ACTION COMICS 72, ALL-AMERICAN COMICS 53 and STAR-SPANGLED COMICS 78, among others.
The youngster in the train station is reading BOY COMICS 34, from 1947.
The waterfall rack below is mostly (if not entirely) comics sated Jan or Feb 1979.
Below that, the rack has AMAZING ADVENTURES 3, MARVEL TWO IN ONE 61 and GHOST RIDER 39-41, among others.
Next up, a Coors fan thrilling to DEADLY HANDS OF KUNG FU 27.
Next, DETECTIVE COMICS 27, of course.
Young Miss eBay Scan has FOUR COLOR 851 (The Story of Mankind), 866 (Walt Disney’s Mars and Beyond), 871 (Curly Kayo), Dell’s JUNGLE JIM 15 and MARGE’S TUBBY 26, among others.
Dee Finch is reading SUPERMAN 127.
CAPTAIN MARVEL JR 88, being printed at the Fawcett-Dearborn plant in Louisville.
WHIZ COMICS 54 and a couple of soldier practicing poor gun safety.
THREE DIMENSION COMICS 1 featuring Mighty Mouse.
The girls there have CASPER 49, BUGS BUNNY 50 and RIN TIN TIN 12, among others, and one appears to be reading TUROK 5.
The sailor here is holding 4MOST vol 5 issue 4.
She’s enjoying WALTER LANTZ NEW FUNNIES 149.
The cover we can see is BATTLEFRONT 44.
They’re learning from CRIME MUST LOSE 4 and AUTHENTIC POLICE CASES 9. As for the one on the left, my best guess would be BLACK CAT 24, but I wouldn’t wager money. It’s not an issue of FIGHT COMICS either, I’d say.
In the newsstand photo below, the boy’s reading FAWCETT’S FUNNY ANIMALS 62, which suggests it’s the spring of 1949, and BLACK CAT WESTERN 17 and BOY COMICS 46 on the stand confirm it.
The next image from the same Russell Lee collection is of the same vintage, showing SUZIE COMICS 68, JUNGLE COMICS 111 and RULAH 24.
That library carrell shows SUPERMAN 11 & 12 and FANTASTIC COMICS 19 from 1941.
And that last one in the commissary shows POPULAR COMICS 69 (Nov 41) and DETECTIVE COMICS 82 (Dec 43).
LikeLike
This must have took a lot of research
LikeLike
Thanks to sites like Grand Comics Database and the Amazing World of Comics, finding covers to look at isn’t that hard; it’s just a matter of seeing enough clues in the photos to figure out what to look at. Like, “This is an issue of ______ with a light logo against a dark background, and a shape over on the left…” so you look at the covers to that series and discover, “Ahh, it’s __ issue, and that shape is a woman!”
Plus it was Sunday, so I was relaxing. And once I got the first few, I kinda got determined to figure out the others…
kdb
LikeLike
I wonder if that Clinton picture is the closest a head of state has ever been to a copy of Sleepwalker.
LikeLike