He-Man Pre He-Man

As mentioned last time, or next time if you're from the future and reading in reverse chronological order, Ziff-Davis published He-Man way back in 1952, long before that Masters Of The Universe guy showed up. I referenced the cover at right, saying that He-Man guy on the cover had his own book.

That was ... let's call it a "quantum truth", eh?
Has anyone tried covering their bullshit with that term yet? You see, that statement was both true and untrue - while He-Man did indeed have his own book, that's not him on the cover.

Well, it is and it isn't.
Here's the cover to He-Man #1:

Looks nothing like the other guy, right? That's because they are indeed different people. There is no "He-Man" character, only He-Man character types. The stories feature a Bullfighter...

...Gladiators...

...Fighters...

...and single page tales of Mountain Men...

...and Attila the Hun:

And, as promised last time, they also bring us the story of The He-est He-Man Of The All!

They couldn't darn his socks. That was the obvious reason they couldn't 'marry' with him.
Yeah. Brutally obvious.

Even the adverts were He-Man ads-

...well, maybe not this one-

But they've got a creepy cowboy ventriliquist dummy who smoke cigarettes.
I'm gonna give it a pass.

By the way - that Tops In Adventure at the top of the page reprints the entire issue, including ads (except covers), as well as three other comics The Hawk #3, Crusader From Mars #2 and Football Thrills. You can save yourself a bit of hunting by finding that one issue.

pages from He-Man #1 from Ziff-Davis (1952)

Pondering Painted Promotional Presentation Preferences

One thing of which i've always been fond is painted covers on comic books.

I believe it started with some old Gold Key covers in the 60s. They always seemed like a bonus on the comic, and the infrequent use in general made them little treasures to be found. Warren embraced the painted covers for their black & white newsstand magazines, and even when they were running old Frazetta paintings we'd seen before, they were still pretty cool. The new paintings they used drew me in and made me a regular reader on a lot of titles that were pretty hard to find in newsstand desert of SmallTown, USA, and even harder on the air base or naval post where we'd go to buy books & magazines from back home when living overseas. They became choice targets on hunts through dealers' rooms when conventions started sprouting up on a semi-regular basis. It didn't hurt that i'd moved to California by then, with Los Angeles and San Diego within easy travel distance.

Warren produced so many fine painted covers that i've started different piles for just the covers from different titles. I'm not sure how soon we'll start really digging into those, or the remarkable number of big name creators who seemed to work in the shadows at Warren, unseen by the average comic reader of the day. And then, of course, there's Joe Guy, America's Foremost Hero...

Anyway-  Today, we're going to jump back further, to the decade before i first developed my fondness for such covers. Not the earliest examples out there, but Ziff-Davis routinely used painted covers, often going for a more lavish book/magazine look to their comics.

Here are a dozen covers from the early 50s. After looking at the first cover again, i've decided to refrain from further comment at this time.

Oddly enough, that guy He-Man on the cover of Tops In Adventure had his own solo title decades before that Masters Of The Universe guy showed up using the name.

Y'know - I think that'll make a fine topic for a follow-up post.
Join us next time for He-Man #1 from 1952, and the He-est He-Man of them all.

covers from the self-indicated titles from Ziff-Davis (1950-51-52)