13 GREEN LANTERN PAGES: A MARTIN NODELL Birthday Celebration

The creator of the original Emerald Crusader was born 107 years ago…

The late Martin Nodell (aka Mart Dellon), who in 1940 created the original Green Lantern with an assist from Batman legend Bill Finger, was born 107 years ago on Nov. 15, 1915.

Nodell didn’t do many covers starring the Emerald Crusader so for this birthday celebration we instead bring you 13 PAGES (or 10 PAGES AND 3 COVERS, to be precise).

Enjoy these in brightest day or blackest night:

GL’s origin, in All-American Comics #16

Green Lantern #6

Green Lantern #4

Green Lantern #1

Green Lantern #9

Green Lantern #2

Green Lantern #13

Green Lantern #14

Green Lantern #16

Green Lantern #3

MORE

— The TOP 13 GREEN LANTERN Costumes — RANKED. Click here.

— The TOP 13 GREEN LANTERN Action Figures — RANKED. Click here.

Author: Dan Greenfield

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3 Comments

  1. “Jolaine publications?” What’s the story behind that?

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    • Jim Kelly on the cbr forums said: Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, who was a pulp writer, started National Allied, with the first comic coming out in January of 1935, called NEW FUN. The trick to Wheeler-Nicholson’s comics was that they were all new material (or mostly), whereas other comics were collections of newspaper strips. National soon added a second comic called NEW COMICS. Actually the titles are nearly synonymous, since comic and fun mean the same thing–and newspaper strips were often referred to as funnies or comics interchangeably. NEW FUN was changed to MORE FUN to distinguish it from NEW COMICS.

      National Allied wasn’t the only corporation that Wheeler-Nicholson used for his publications. It was common in those days for comics publishers to use several different corporate identities–I’m not sure why, maybe to escape creditors. And the Major had many debts, such that he needed to be bailed out by his creditors, Harry Donenfeld (the printing plant owner) and Jack Liebowitz (the distributor), who put up the money needed to finance a third ongoing title called DETECTIVE COMICS. And that was published by Detective Comics, Inc. Donenfeld and Liebowitz forced out the Major and took over National Allied and were now the publishers of the retitled MORE FUN COMICS and NEW ADVENTURE COMICS.

      The DC symbol was put on the covers of all the comics they published, even if the indicia inside the comic might have said National Allied or Detective Comics or All-American or something else.* Eventually the company was called National Comics and then National Periodical Publications before finally becoming the redundant DC Comics, Inc. in the late 1970s–redundant because you’re saying “Detective Comics Comics.” I always find it maddening when people say DC comics–it should just be DC, because the C is the Comics.

      *Other corporate identities for DC/National include: More Fun Magazine, Inc., Nicholson Publishing Co., Superman, Inc., World’s Best Company, Tilsam Publications, Jolaine Publications, J.R. Publishing, Gainlee Publishing, Wonder Woman Publishing.

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  2. I love the original GL (as I do all Golden Age). I met Mr. Nodell at a Motor City convention years ago. I bought a green mouse pad with a GL headshot.

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