Ace Comics

Ace Comics
Publication information
Publisher	David McKay Publications
Schedule	Monthly
Format	Ongoing series
Publication date(s)	1937-1949

Ace Comics was a comic book series published by David McKay Publications between 1937 and 1949 — starting just before the Golden Age of Comic Books. The title reprinted syndicated newspaper strips owned by King Features Syndicate, following the successful formula of a mix of adventure and humor strips introduced by McKay in their King Comics title in April 1936; some of the strips transferred from King Comics from issue #1. Ace Comics #11, the first appearance of The Phantom, is regarded by many to be a key issue in the history of comics, as it introduced to the comics format one of the first of the costumed heroes, leading to the Golden Age of superheroes in comics.

The first issue of Ace Comics was published in April 1937, and included the adventures of hunter Jungle Jim written by Flash Gordon writer Alex Raymond, Chic Young's Blondie, and George Herriman's surreal Krazy Kat strip, all three characters going on to appear in every issue of Ace Comics. Issue #11 (cover date February 1938) is notable as a key Golden Age comic, as it introduced to a wider audience one of the first costumed heroes ever to be featured in a comic book, Lee Falk's The Phantom — pre-dating Superman (Action Comics #1, cover date June 1938). The Phantom daily strip, written by Ray Moore and drawn by Wilson McCoy, then featured in Ace Comics for a 140-issue run, appearing in every issue until the title was cancelled. Initially The Phantom was a four-page story, but from #38 this was increased to eight pages in each issue. Towards the end of the run, the Sunday strips were also included. Many of the strips were edited and cropped from the original newspaper stories, and the text was often rewritten also.

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