NEW ADVENTURE COMICS #39 * Last Pre-Hero Ish

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Author:
Title: ADVENTURE COMICS No. 39
Place Published:
Publisher:DC [Indicia: Detective Comics Inc.]
Date Published: June, 1939
Description: CGC certified: Poor (0.5): Restored (C-1). Grader's notes: "Missing interior part/page/wrap page(s) 4,5,6 affects story; cover re-attached with glue; spine split sealed cover C-1" Off-white pages. Provenance: The DC UNIVERSE COLLECTION.

GPAnalysis: No Restored sales. A Universal 0.5 (incomplete) sold for $384 in 12/23.

Overstreet: "Jack Wood begins, ends #42, early mention of marijuana in comics." CGC Census: 13 graded copies (12 Universal, 1 Restored). Gerber's Photo-Journal Guide Scarcity Index: 6 ("Uncommon: 50-200 copies").

Credits: Cover: J.R. Flanagan. Scripts: Ed Winiarski, Fred Schwab, Gardner Fox, Jerry Siegel, Jim Chambers, Paul Gustavson, Tom Hickey, Bob Kane, Fred Guardineer. Art: Ed Winiarski, Fred Schwab, George Newman, Joe Shuster, Sheldon Moldoff, Jim Chambers, Paul Gustavson, Terry Gilkison, Don Lynch, Tom Hickey, Bob Kane, Fred Guardineer. Final Flanagan: The harried hero on Flanagan's final Adventure cover appears to be the same guy who blasted his way out of a hungry snake's coils a few issues prior. Looks like he won't be so lucky this time around, though. His hokey brand of heroism is old hat in the age of Superman, and the natives — like the readers — are getting restless. Next ish, Creig Flessel's Sandman debuts with his ever-ready gas gun, and then it's lights out for all of the old-time Adventure adventurers. As for Flanagan, after drawing this cover and two others for More Fun #s 45 and 48, he never worked in the comics biz again.

After WWII, Flanagan worked as an advertising artist, explored stained glass as an art form, and became an teacher at the Academy of Arts in York, Pennsylvania, a position he held for the rest of his life. He died at the age of sixty-nine in 1964, never having been interviewed about his DC work, never having attended a con, and never knowing that the six comic book covers he once cranked out for a fast payday would be his most enduring claim to semi-fame.****************************************
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