All Top Comics
Entry updated 15 December 2025. Tagged: Comics, Publication.
US Comic (1944; 1946-1949). Fox Publications, Inc. Artists include Matt Baker, Ellis Chambers and Jack Kamen. Script writers include Pat Adams and Jack Kamen. 20 issues. Initially published in 1944, All Top Comics was one of several single-issue 132-page comics published by Fox at this time; others included The Book of Comics, All Good Comics, All Your Comics (all 1944) and Book of All-Comics (1945), whose strips covered a mixed bag of genres. All Top Comics was revived in 1946 with 36 pages and running for 19 issues (numbered #1-#18, but with two different instances of #7). The 132-pager had 26 strips of various lengths, plus non-fiction and joke pages; #1-#18 comprise 4 long strips and a short text story, plus occasional short fillers.
The 1944 one-shot opens with Captain V, a Superhero subsequently known as The Puppeteer (see All Good Comics) who had first appeared in The Book of Comics a couple of months earlier. Alan Dale owns a puppet shop, but when required to fight evil plays what seems to be Beethoven's Fifth on his organ, transforming him into Captain V, who can travel along a "V Beam" at "the speed of light" (see Superpowers). Red Robbins a "young hero of democracy" is charting a course across the North Pole to Russia when he discovers an Underground "Shangrila in the middle of the Arctic" named Undarcia, founded by a lost American explorer subsequently murdered by another arrival named Reltih (see World War Two) who then enslaved the population. Red puts things to rights. The Case of Professor Zoff has two "spook hunters" [for Occult Detectives see The Encyclopedia of Fantasy under links below], a professor of English literature and his athletic star pupil, investigating reports of the recently passed chemist Zoff's laboratory being haunted; they have visions of demons whilst there. It turns out that Zoff had been working on a hallucinogenic gas Weapon; one of the cylinders holding it has a leak.
The Adventures of Connie is a reprint from the newspaper strip Connie (1927-1941, these from 1940). Here, in mid-adventure, Connie and friends reach the apparently deserted lost City of Lankpor in India, "that was ancient before they drew the plans for Babylon". The former inhabitants had atomic power and advanced Technology and the visitors find a disintegrator Ray, which is used to see off their treacherous guides. They also meet a Scientist who is using the ancient knowledge to build Weapons in preparation for taking over the world. The story ends with the city blown up and the set-up for a continuation in All Good Comics.
The first eight numbered issues (including the two #7s) consist of humorous strips, often with anthropomorphized animals. One regular, Cosmo Cat, "the cat of tomorrow" who first appeared in Ribtickler (1945) and would get his own comic, has many sf elements: Cosmo owns a Spaceship and in #3 a scientist sends him "into the atomic empire of the fourth Dimension" through the process of "atomic disintegration": after dealing with the local dictator Adolf Sitler, he wanders a mildly surreal landscape. In #6 Cosmo foils an Invasion from Venus.
#8 marks a shift to adventure strips. Rulah, Jungle Goddess (who first appeared in Zoot Comics #7, 1947) is a variation on Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, and is able to wrestle crocodiles and kill rhinos with a knife; she faces a beautiful were-panther (see Werewolves) (#9); bikini-clad cat-women in cat hoods, with claws that can tear a man to shreds (#12); and an ex-Nazi scientist whose "electronic brain ... [can] intercept the thoughts of others and replace them with your own" (see Hypnosis) – this is used to make Rulah commit Suicide, but through strong will she fights off the urge for long enough to fashion a protective helmet out of lead containers (#18). Jo-Jo (who first appeared in Zoot Comics #7, 1947) is a Tarzan clone who is friends with a gorilla troupe: he faces a tribe that can make diamonds from sand (#8); a Mad Scientist whose growth formula (see Great and Small) creates giant crocodiles – Jo-Jo uses the formula on himself to defeat them (#9); a woman brought up by gorillas since she was a baby, who becomes their leader (#12); a woman scientist transplanting ape brains into humans (#14); Valkyrie-like Amazons – but with wings not horns on their helmets – who "live in nests same like birds" [sic], as well as controlling killer hawks and enslaving men. Blue Beetle (see Blue Beetle) faces mad scientist Sneer who uses his Eon-Scope (see Time Machine) to bring Blackbeard, Dr Crippen and Jack the Ripper to the present to run errands for him, as his legs are weak (#8); subsequent adventures are more humdrum (last appearance #13). Phantom Lady (see Miss Fury) has a device that emits a darkness ray, used to defeat mundane criminals (last appearance #17). The strips that replaced the last two were non-genre.
The 1944 one-shot is largely forgettable, the Connie reprint being the highlight – the writing and artwork is stronger than in the other strips, though the attitudes are no different (see Race in SF). #8-#18 are better, with the two jungle-based strips being lively – though also suffer from some of the era's racist assumptions: the native populations tending to be villainous, shifty or good but passive, relying on the white heroes to help them. When a man tries to assault Rulah she pushes him into the ocean to drown, declaring "My conscience doesn't bother me a bit" (see Feminism). Both Rulah and Jo-Jo commonly have strong female characters, albeit usually as antagonists: the tropical climate inclines them to favour the bikini (see Women in SF). The first Blue Beetle strip is pleasantly absurd. [SP]
links
- Comic Book Plus
- Grand Comics Database (1944)
- Grand Comics Database (1946-1949)
- The Encyclopedia of Fantasy: Occult Detectives
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