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The key early meetings of Superman and Batman in comic books are fairly well chronicled. The characters appeared on the cover of New York World’s Fair 1940 together. They had a single-panel cameo in All-Star Comics #7 in 1941. They then appear together briefly in the set-up to the adventure in All-Star Comics #36 (cover-dated August 1947) and more famously learn each other’s secret identities in an adventure Superman #76 (cover-dated May 1952). We could go on.
But before even that All-Star Comics #36 appearance, there’s the strange and wonderful All Funny Comics #16 (cover-dated March-April 1947), which might be viewed as a weird meta commentary on the comic book industry and perhaps even DC Comics itself. In the story, a comic book publisher who owns the superhero character called “The Pink Eyebrow” is tormented into (almost) selling his character to another publisher by imposter versions of Superman, Batman, Robin, Green Arrow, and Vigilante. It’s hard not to take that as a meta on DC Comics publisher Harry Donenfeld, who had an ownership interest in numerous publishers beyond DC Comics, and was known to be ruthless in getting what he wanted. For example, in the years leading up to this issue, industry legend and All-American Comics founder Max Gaines describes what had apparently become a common scene in the DC Comics offices:
Max found himself partnered with Liebowitz, and they didn’t get along. Bill remembers that every afternoon his father would take a taxi to the uptown offices, where he, Liebowitz, and Donenfeld would scream at each other for two hours. Something had to give and that something was Max’s patience. In early 1945, he hurled out his ultimatum: “You buy me out or I’ll buy you out.”
There are conflicting reports and data in regards to when this actually played out, but a statement of ownership dated September 25, 1945, suggests that the process to buy Gaines out began sometime before that date. Whatever the intent of the unknown story writer of the time, the theme of the story feels like a fascinating insider commentary about DC Comics slipped into one of the publishers’ own titles. There’s an All Funny Comics #16 David Crippen (“D” Copy) Pedigree (DC, 1947) CGC FN+ 6.5 Cream to off-white pages up for auction in the 2022 August 7-8 Sunday & Monday Comic Books Select Auction #122232 at Heritage Auctions. If you’ve never bid at Heritage Auctions before, you can get further information, you can check out their FAQ on the bidding process and related matters.
All Funny Comics #16 David Crippen (“D” Copy) Pedigree (DC, 1947) CGC FN+ 6.5 Cream to off-white pages. Genius Jones, Two-Gun Percy, and Dover and Clover are featured. Batman and Robin, Superman, Green Arrow and Vigilante cameos. Joseph Sulman, Tom McNamara art. Overstreet 2022 FN 6.0 value = $102; VF 8.0 value = $199. CGC census 6/22: 1 in 6.5, 2 higher.
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