Full History Here
Comic History around that time
1942-45 WW II
30% of the reading material shipped to soldiers are comic books
Paper needed to be donated for War effort. These paper drives make older comics very rare.
1945 Comic book More Fun 101 introduced Superboy - Superman when he was young. Superboy was not part of Siegel Shuster contract. Siegel suggested it but DC said no. DC used character while Siegel was in Army…
1946 Soldiers return home.
Comic book sales drop dramatically because no longer shipped to soldiers, former soldiers think of comics as related to war, comic book covers no longer can carry dramatic and patriotic War themes.
1947 Court Case As 10 year contract nears end, Siegel Shuster sue DC for rights to Superman and Superboy. They lose the case and are fired by DC.
1947 Comic Book Simon Kirby Young Romance
1947 Wonder Woman creator Marston dies. His wife Elizabeth asks for her being given the right to write Wonder Woman, as she worked with her husband on it. DC refuses.
1950 Comic Book EC Comics Crime Horror
1950s Most superheroes no longer published. Only Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Superboy, and backups Aquaman and Green Arrow survived
Replacements were:
Cowboy titles: (Atlas, now Marvel, had Kid Colt Outlaw, Rawhide Kid, Two-Gun Kid, and Wild Western, all by Stan Lee. Harvey had Boys’ Ranch, by Simon and Kirby, DC Comics had All-Star Western, which replaced the JSA in All Star Comics in 1951)
Humor/Romance: (Archie, at Atlas: Mille the Model and Patsy Walker (lHellcat decades later) by Stan Lee),
and EC Comics: (Crime, Horror, Science Fiction, War and Humor (Mad)).
1952 TV Adventures of Superman
1954 Court Case National Comics Publications versus Fawcette Publications. Judge ruled Captain Marvel was a copy of Superman in 1952, after 11 years of litigation. Fawcette paid 400,000 in damages and got out of declining super hero market. Whiz Comics ended with issue #155 in June 1953, Captain Marvel Adventures was canceled with #150 in November 1953, and The Marvel Family ended its run with #89 in January 1954.
1954 Book Seduction of the Innocent Comic book says comic books are a cause of juvenile delinquency
Batman Robin were portrayed in the book as homosexuals living together Superman was a fascist. Wonder Woman was a Lesbian.
1954 Congressional Hearing on Comics EC Publisher Bill Gaines Testifies. Public Relations disaster
1954 Comic Code Authority
(CCA) created, providing self censorship guidelines for remaining publishers.
1954 Wholesalers refuse EC Comics because no CCA seal on covers
1955 Magazine Mad first appears.
1955 Comic Book Detective Comics backup Martian Manhunter
1956 to 1967 Comic Books Jerry Siegel 's second wife, who modeled for Siegel Shuster as Lois Lane, shamed DC to employ Siegel as a writer for Superman stories again including Return to Krypton and Imaginary Story Death of Superman.
1956 Comic Book Showcase 4 The Flash. Barry Allen Julius Schwartz editor. Kanigher Infantino Kubert
The Silver Age Starts
1958 Comic Book Adventure Comics Legion of Super Heroes. by Otto Binder.
1958 Magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland, started by publisher James Warren and editor Forrest J Ackerman.
1959 Comic Book Supergirl Action Comics 252. Otto Binder