Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson
Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson (1890-1968), a pulp magazine writer and entrepreneur, pioneered the American comic book, publishing the first such periodical consisting solely of original material rather than reprints of newspaper comic strips.
Additionally, Wheeler-Nicholson's company, National Allied Publications, would evolve into DC Comics, one of the world's two largest comic book publishers, though long after its founder had left it to fade into relative obscurity.
Early life and career
A former U.S. Cavalry officer, Wheeler-Nicholson, by his account, "chased bandits on the Mexican border, fought fevers and played polo in the Philippines, led a battlation of infantry against the Bolsheviki in Siberia, helped straighten out the affairs of the army in France [and] commanded the headquarters cavalry of the American force in the Rhine"Template:Fn, In 1924, after accusations by the major against senior officers, countercharges, hearings, and lawsuit threats, Wheeler-Nicholson left the service. Having already written non-fiction about military topics, he began writing short stories for the pulps. The major soon became a cover name, penning military and historical adventure fiction for such magazines as Adventure and Argosy.
New Fun Comics
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In 1929, he founded Wheeler-Nicholson, Inc. to syndicate a daily comic-strip adatation of Robert Louis Stevenson's novel Treasure Island, with art by N. Brewster Morse. In the fall of 1934, having seen the emergence of Famous Funnies and other oversize magazines reprinting comic strips, he founded National Allied and published Fun: The Big Comic Magazine #1 (Feb. 1935). A tabloid-sized, 10-inch by 15-inch, 36-page magazine without a card-stock, non-glossy cover, it was an anthology of humor features, such as the funny animal comic "Pelion and Ossa" and the college-set "Jigger and Ginger", mixed with such dramatic fare as the Western strip "Jack Woods" and the "yellow peril" adventure "Barry O'Neill", featuring a Fu Manchu-styled villain, Fang Gow.
Most significantly, however, whereas some of the existing publications had eventually included a small amount of original material, generally as filler, New Fun Comics #1 (as it is colloquially called) was the first such publication containing all-original material.
Wheeler-Nicholson retitled the magazine New Fun with the second issue. (The first has "New" on the cover only as a bannered blurb.) The first four issues were edited by future Funnies, Inc. founder Lloyd Jacquet, the next by Wheeler-Nicholson himself. Issue #6 (Oct. 1935) brought the comic-book debut of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the future creators of Superman, who began their careers with the musketeer swashbuckler "Henri Duval" (doing the first two installments before turning it over to others) and, under the pseudonyms "Leger and Reuths", the supernatural-crimefighter adventure "Dr. Occult", on which they would remain through More Fun Comics #32 (June 1938), after the magazine's second retitling.
This occurred with issue #7 (January 1936), with the magazine now featuring primarily adventure stories. Wheeler-Nicholson then added a second magazine, New Comics, which premiered with a Dec. 1935 cover date and at close to what would become the standard size of Golden Age comic books, with slightly larger dimensions than today's. The title became New Adventure Comics with issue #12, and finally Adventure Comics with #32. Continuing for many decades, until issue #503 in 1983, it would become one of the longest-running comic books ever published.
Despite Wheeler-Nicholson's optimism, however, finding a place in the market was difficult. Newsstands were reluctant to stock a magazine of untested new material, rather than familiar comic strips, and from an unknown publisher at that. Returns were high, and cash-flow difficulties made the interval between issues unpredictable. Artist Creig Flessel recalled that at the company's office on Fourth Avenue, "The major flashed in and out of the place, doing battles with the printers, the banks, and other enemies of the struggling comics." Template:Fn
Later career
Wheeler-dealer Wheeler-Nicholson suffered from continual financial crises, both in his personal and professional lives. "Dick Woods" artist Lyman Anderson, whose Manhattan apartment Wheeler-Nicholson used as a rent-free pied á terre, said, "His wife would call [from home on Long Island] and be in tears...and say she didn't have money and the milkman was going to cut off the milk for the kids. I'd send out 10 bucks, just because she needed it."Template:Fn. At National Allied, staff and freelance turnover was high, page rates were low — with some contributors, such as Anderson, never being paid — and the company lurched forward on the major's energy and charm.
The third and final title published under his aegis would be Detective Comics, advertised with a cover illustration dated Dec. 1936, but eventually premiering three months late, with a March 1937 cover date.
Detective Comics would become a sensation with the introduction of Batman in issue #27 (May 1939). By then, however, Wheeler-Nicholson was gone. In 1937, in debt to printing-plant owner and magazine distributor Harry Donenfeld — who was as well a pulp-magazine publisher and a principal in the magazine distributorship Independent News — Wheeler-Nicholson was compelled to take Donenfeld on as a partner in order to publish Detective #1. Detective Comics, Inc. was formed, with Wheeler-Nicholson and Jack S. Liebowitz, Donenfeld's accountant, listed as owners.
The major remained for a year, but cash-flow problems continued. Then, as historian Gerard Jones writes:
In early 1938, Harry Donenfeld send him and his wife on a cruise to Cuba to "work up new ideas". When they came home, the major found the lock to his office door changed. In his absence, Harry had sued him for nonpayment and pushed Detective Comics, Inc. into bankruptcy court. There a judge named Abe Mennen, one of Harry's old Tammany buddies, had been appointed interim president of the firm and arranged a quick sale of its assets to Independent News. Harry gave the major a percentage of More Fun Comics as a shut-up token and wished him well. The major gave up on the world of commerce thereafter and went back to writing war stories and critiques of the American military.Template:Fn
Shortly afterward came the launch of what would have been his fourth title, Action Comics, the premiere of which introduced Superman (a character with which he was not directly involved; editor Vin Sullivan chose to run the feature after Sheldon Mayer rescued it from the slush pile). Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson had become, in some ways, the Pete Best of comics.
Actress Dana Wheeler-Nicholson (sometimes credited as Dana Wheeler Nicholson), who has appeared in movies including Fletch and Tombstone and in the casts of such TV series as Beverly Hills Buntz and All My Children, is his granddaughter.
Other works
- Book: Wheeler-Nicholson, Maj. Malcolm, Are We Winning the Hard Way? (Crowell Publishing, 1934)
Quotes
Business Week, Dec. 6, 2004, unsigned review of Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book, by Gerard Jones (Basic Books, 2004) [1]: "Siegel and Shuster submitted some material to comic book publisher Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, a bizarre figure given to wearing a French officer's cloak and a beaver cap. They also sent the first 13 pages of what would become Superman. Their material ended up in the slush pile. After Wheeler-Nicholson went bankrupt, Donenfeld and Liebowitz snapped up his properties. Deciding they needed another comic, an editor slapped together Action Comics. That included Superman, which was fished out of the heap."
Golden Age comics creator Sheldon Mayer on Wheeler-Nicholoson was [2]: "Not only the first man to publish comic books but also the first to stiff an artist for his check" .
Footnotes
- Template:Fnb Ron Goulart's Great History of Comic Books (Contemporary Books, Chicago, 1986), by Ron Goulart, p. 5 ISBN 0809250454
- Template:Fnb Ibid., p. 60
- Template:Fnb Ibid., p. 61
- Template:Fnb Jones, Gerard. Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book (Basic Books, 2004; trade paperback ISBN 9780465036578)