Top-Notch Comics

Top-Notch Comics
Cover of Top Notch Comics 1 (Dec 1939).
Publication information
Publisher	MLJ Magazines Inc
Schedule	Monthly
Publication date	December 1939 - May 1942
Number of issues	27
Main character(s)	The Wizard Black Hood The Firefly Kardak the Mystic Magician Wings Johnson of Air Patrol Keith Cornell, West Pointer Bob Phantom, Scourge of the Underworld Fran Fraser, Girl Photographer

Top-Notch Laugh Comics
Cover of Top Notch Laugh Comics 28 (Jul 1942). Art by Bob Montana.
Publication information
Publisher	MLJ Magazines Inc
Schedule	Monthly / Bi-monthly
Publication date	June 1942 - June 1943
Number of issues	8
Main character(s)	Black Hood Kardak the Mystic Magician Snoopy McGook the Soapy Sleuth Pokey Oakey Dotty and Ditto

Top-Notch Comics was the name of an American comic book anthology series published by MLJ Magazines Inc., more commonly known as MLJ Comics, during the 1930s and 1940s period known as the Golden Age of Comic Books. From issue #28 it was re-titled Top-Notch Laugh Comics.

Top-Notch Comics was the second anthology comic published by MLJ Magazines Inc., the precursor to what would become the publisher Archie Comics. It was launched a month after Blue Ribbon Comics #1 (Nov. 1942) with an editorial page exclaiming 'Let's all whoop it up together for TOP-NOTCH....THE WORLD'S GREATEST COMIC BOOK!' . The series was edited by Harry Shorten.

The format of Top-Notch Comics was very similar to Blue Ribbon Comics; 64 pages of short strips, initially featuring a mixture of science-fiction stories such as "Scott Rand in the Worlds of Time" (#1-2) written by Otto Binder as 'Eando Binder' and drawn by his brother Jack Binder; and "Streak Chandler on Mars" (#4-8), the crime story "Lucky Coyne, Undercover Man" (#1) and true crime detection stories in "Manhunters" by future Plastic Man creator Jack Cole (artist) (#1 - 3); and a number of adventure tales, "Swift of the Secret Service" (#1-3), "The Mystic" (#1-3), "Dick Storm" (#2-8) and "Stacey Knight, M.D." (#2-4).

Furthering the similarities with Blue Ribbon Comics, the medieval Knights of the Round Table tale "Galahad" by Lim Streeter (#5 - 11), mirrored the Green Falcon series in that title. Early issues of Top-Notch Comics also contained text stories, as all comic books did through the early 1960s to satisfy U.S. Postal Service requirements for magazine rates. A few short humor strips also featured in the first four issues, "Lonesome Luke", "Impy" by Winsor McCay and a rhyming funny animal strip "Pokey Forgets to Remember" (all in issue #1), while "Noodle" by Quincy featured in six issues (#2-7). The "Impy" 1-page strip was the only reprint during the Top-Notch Comics run.