Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: Comic Magazine Company
First Detective-Themed Title, Detective Picture Stories #1, at Auction
The Detective comic book that came out before Detective Comics, Detective Picture Stories #1 was the first to focus on the theme.
Article Summary
- Detective Picture Stories #1 from December 1936 predates Detective Comics #1 as the first detective-themed comic book title.
- Published by Comics Magazine Company, it helped establish the genre-specific comic format before later landmark series.
- Its crime tales feature counterfeiters, radio patrolmen, kidnappers, smugglers, staged murders, and Bert Christman work.
- With just 18 Universal CGC copies and only six above 5.0, Detective Picture Stories #1 is scarce in higher grades.
This December 1936 issue an underappreciated landmark. Detective Picture Stories #1 is the first American comic book devoted entirely to detective and crime stories, appearing before Detective Comics #1, which has a March 1937 cover date. Comics Magazine Company had already published Funny Picture Stories #1 with a November 1936 cover date, and a somewhat broader adventure theme, featuring George Brenner‘s The Clock (who is notably absent from Detective Picture Stories #1, despite the cover blurb). A detailed history of Comics Magazine Company traces how Funny Picture Stories, Detective Picture Stories, and Western Picture Stories helped establish genre-specific comic books before the better-known titles that followed.
The stories here build on the detective pulps that came before it, emphasizing contemporary investigative methods and ingenious criminal schemes. Federal agents trace counterfeiters through radio interference in Bogus Bills; radio patrolmen pursue bank robbers in Police Patrol; and other detectives unravel staged murders involving stolen cadavers, jewels smuggled by homing pigeon, a roadhouse extortion racket, and killings connected to a zoo elephant and a bank robbery. The issue also includes Bert Christman‘s The Tale of Timothy O’Toole, about an Irish immigrant who breaks up a kidnapping ring and becomes a policeman, as well as a serialized murder-at-sea prose feature.
This is as tough as you’d expect, given the early-days 1936 release timeframe. There are 18 Universal copies on the CGC Census, plus one Qualified and seven Restored copies. There are only six Universal copies above CGC 5.0, and it appears none of those copies have hit public auction in 20 years. Detective Picture Stories #1 captures comic books at a critical moment of development. The title lasted only five issues, but its first one helped prove that a comic book could devote itself to a single genre. A comic book genre milestone and an issue that seems to be nearly impossible in higher grades, there’s a Detective Picture Stories #1 (Comics Magazine, 1936) CGC VG/FN 5.0 Cream to off-white pages up for auction at the 2026 August 13 Golden Age Century Comics Showcase Auction V #40377.
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