MORE FUN COMICS #32 * Action #1 Ad * Horse of a Different Color

Heading:
Author:
Title: MORE FUN COMICS No. 32
Place Published:
Publisher:DC [Indicia: Detective Comics Inc.]
Date Published: June, 1938
Description: CGC certified: Poor (0.5). Grader's notes: "Detached 2 center wrap; missing interior part/page/wrap 1st wrap; puzzle filled out page(s) 15; spine of cover completely split & cover detached; tape full right of back cover." Off-white pages. Provenance: The DC UNIVERSE COLLECTION.

GPAnalysis: A 0.5 (no grade, front cover missing) sold for $1676 in 2/22.

Overstreet: "Last Dr. Occult." CGC Census: 15 graded copies (13 Universal, 2 Restored). Gerber Photo-Journal Guide Scarcity Index: 7 ("Scarce: 21-50 copies").

Credits: Cover: Vin Sullivan. Scripts: Jerry Siegel, Stan Asch?, Bernard Baily, Russell Cole, Sheldon Moldoff, Sven Elven, Bob Kane. Art: Bill Ely, Joe Shuster, Stan Asch, Bernard Baily, Homer Fleming, Russell Cole, Ray Burley, Sheldon Moldoff, Sven Elven, Bob Kane, Ed Winiarski, Tom Hickey.Horse of a Different Color: A pair of juvenile impresarios zebra-stripe a horse on this mag's cover, hoping that painting "Old Paint" will attract visitors to their low-budget circus. Meanwhile, the inside front cover features a house ad for Superman's historic debut in Action Comics #1, which shares this ish's cover date of June, 1938. The Action ad's image of a costumed adventurer lifting a car over his head was newsstand dynamite, unlike anything anyone had ever seen before — a horse of a different color, indeed.

Interestingly (or pedantically) enough, the famous image of Superman hefting a car overhead may have had hidden origins in another form of horseplay. 19th century muscleman Eugen Sandow astonished Victorian-era audiences by lifting a horse over his head with one arm, an image that was widely disseminated in prints and adverts. But by the 1930s, the motorcar had supplanted the horse as an emblem of speed, power and mobility, and the once-impressive image of a strongman hoisting a horse would've struck up-to-date readers as old hat. The image of Superman manhandling a motorcar offered an eye-popping update of Sandow's feat: by smashing a machine humming with horsepower, the Man of Steel established himself as an instant icon of muscular modernity.****************************************
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