1943 in comics

Events and publications

Year overall

January

• January 24: Milton Caniff's Male Call makes its debut. It will run until 3 March 1946.
• Action Comics #56 - DC Comics
• Adventure Comics #82 - DC Comics
• Air Fighters Comics #4 - Hillman Periodicals
• All-American Comics #46 - DC Comics
• All-Flash #8, previously quarterly - DC Comics
• All-Winners Comics #7 - Timely Comics
• Captain America Comics #22 - Timely Comics
• Crack Comics #27 marks the debut of Captain Triumph. - Quality Comics
• Detective Comics #71 - DC Comics
• Flash Comics #37 - DC Comics
• Human Torch Comics #10 - Timely Comics
• Marvel Mystery Comics #39 - Timely Comics
• More Fun Comics #87 - DC Comics
• Sensation Comics #13 - DC Comics
• Star Spangled Comics #16 - DC Comics
• Superman #20 - DC Comics
• Young Allies Comics #6 - Timely Comics

  February

• February 19: Hergé's Tintin story Red Rackham's Treasure is prepublished in Le Soir.
• Action Comics #57 - DC Comics
• Adventure Comics #83 - DC Comics
• Air Fighters Comics #5 - Hillman Periodicals
• All-American Comics #47 - DC Comics
• All-Star Comics #15 - DC Comics
• Batman #15 - DC Comics
• Captain America Comics #23 - Timely Comics
• Detective Comics #72 - DC Comics
• Flash Comics #38 - DC Comics
• Marvel Mystery Comics #40 - Timely Comics
• More Fun Comics #88 - DC Comics
• Sensation Comics #14 - DC Comics
• Star Spangled Comics #17 - DC Comics
• U.S.A. Comics #7 - Timely Comics

  March

• March 4–5: Halfway the Tintin story Red Rackham's Treasure Professor Calculus makes his debut.
• Action Comics #58 - DC Comics
• Adventure Comics #84 - DC Comics
• Air Fighters Comics #6 - Hillman Periodicals
• All-American Comics #48 - DC Comics
• All-Flash #9, previously quarterly - DC Comics
• Captain America Comics #24 - Timely Comics
• Crack Comics #28 - Quality Comics
• Detective Comics #73 - DC Comics
• Flash Comics #39 - DC Comics
• Marvel Mystery Comics #41 - Timely Comics
• More Fun Comics #89 - DC Comics
• Sensation Comics #15 - DC Comics
• Star Spangled Comics #18 - DC Comics
• Superman #21 - DC Comics

  Spring Issue

• World's Finest Comics #9 - DC Comics

  April

• René Bonnet's comic strip Fripounet debuts in the magazine Lettres aux Jeunes. The boy character Fripounet will receive a female friend in 1945, named Marisette.
• Action Comics #59 - DC Comics
• Adventure Comics #85 - DC Comics
• Air Fighters Comics #7 - Hillman Periodicals
• All-American Comics #49 - DC Comics
• All-Star Comics #16 - DC Comics
• All-Winners Comics #8 - Timely Comics
• Batman #16: marks the debut of Batman's faithful butler Alfred Pennyworth. - DC Comics
• Captain America Comics #25 - Timely Comics
• Detective Comics #74 - DC Comics
• Flash Comics #40 - DC Comics
• Human Torch Comics #11 - Timely Comics
• Marvel Mystery Comics #42 - Timely Comics
• More Fun Comics #90 - DC Comics
• Sensation Comics #16 - DC Comics
• Star Spangled Comics #19 - DC Comics
• Sub-Mariner Comics #9 - Timely Comics
• U.S.A. Comics #8 - Timely Comics
• Young Allies Comics #7 - Timely Comics

  May

• May 10: Jack Sparling's Claire Voyant makes its debut. It will run until 1948.
• May 16: The final issue of the Italian comics magazine L'Avventuroso is published.
• Action Comics #60 - DC Comics
• Air Fighters Comics #8 - Hillman Periodicals
• All-Flash #10, previously quarterly - DC Comics
• Captain America Comics #26 - Timely Comics
• Crack Comics #29 - Quality Comics
• Detective Comics #75 - DC Comics
• Flash Comics #41 - DC Comics
• Marvel Mystery Comics #43 - Timely Comics
• More Fun Comics #91 - DC Comics
• Sensation Comics #17 - DC Comics
• Star Spangled Comics #20 - DC Comics
• Superman #22 - DC Comics

  June

• June 20: Harry Haenigsen's Penny makes its debut. It will run until 1970.
• Action Comics #61 - DC Comics
• Adventure Comics #86 - DC Comics
• Air Fighters Comics #9 - Hillman Periodicals
• All-American Comics #50 - DC Comics
• All-Star Comics #17 - DC Comics
• All-Winners Comics #9 - Timely Comics
• Batman #17 - DC Comics
• Captain America Comics #27 - Timely Comics
• Detective Comics #76 - DC Comics
• Flash Comics #42 - DC Comics
• Human Torch Comics #12 - Timely Comics
• Marvel Mystery Comics #44 - Timely Comics
• Sensation Comics #18 - DC Comics
• Star Spangled Comics #21 - DC Comics
• Sub-Mariner Comics #10 - Timely Comics

  Summer Issue

• World's Finest Comics #10 - DC Comics

  July

• July 4: Jimmy Hatlo's Little Iodine receives her own spin-off comic. It will run until 1985.
• July 18: Kathleen O'Brien's Wanda the War Girl first appears in print.
• July 24: Steve Dowling's Garth makes its debut. It will run until 22 March 1997.
• July 24: Gilbert Lawford Dalton and Jack Glass's Wilson the Wonder Athlete makes its debut.
• Action Comics #62 - DC Comics
• Air Fighters Comics #10 - Hillman Periodicals
• All-American Comics #51 - DC Comics
• All-Flash #11, previously quarterly - DC Comics
• Captain America Comics #28 - Timely Comics
• Detective Comics #77 - DC Comics
• Flash Comics #43 - DC Comics
• Jolly Jingles #10 - MLJ Comics - marks the debut of Al Fagaly's Super Duck.
• Marvel Mystery Comics #45 - Timely Comics
• More Fun Comics #92 - DC Comics
• Sensation Comics #19 - DC Comics
• Star Spangled Comics #22 - DC Comics
• Superman #23 - DC Comics
• U.S.A. Comics #9 - Timely Comics
• Wonder Woman #5 - DC Comics: marks the debut of the villain Doctor Psycho.
• Young Allies Comics #8 - Timely Comics

  August

• Action Comics #63 - DC Comics
• Adventure Comics #87 - DC Comics
• Air Fighters Comics #11 - Hillman Periodicals
• All-Star Comics #18 - DC Comics
• Batman #18 - DC Comics
• Captain America Comics #29 - Timely Comics
• Crack Comics #30 - Quality Comics
• Detective Comics #78 - DC Comics
• Flash Comics #44 - DC Comics
• Marvel Mystery Comics #46 - Timely Comics
• Sensation Comics #20 - DC Comics
• Star Spangled Comics #23 - DC Comics

  September

• September 10: The final episode of the Italian comics magazine Bertoldo is published.
• September 27: In Bob Karp and Al Taliaferro's Donald Duck comic strip Grandma Duck makes her debut as a character.
• Action Comics #64, with Toyman vs Superman - DC Comics
• Air Fighters Comics #12 - Hillman Periodicals
• All-American Comics #52 - DC Comics
• All-Winners Comics #10 - Timely Comics
• Captain America Comics #30 - Timely Comics
• Detective Comics #79 - DC Comics
• Flash Comics #45 - DC Comics
• Marvel Mystery Comics #47 - Timely Comics
• More Fun Comics #93 - DC Comics
• Sensation Comics #21 - DC Comics
• Star Spangled Comics #24 - DC Comics
• Sub-Mariner Comics #11 - Timely Comics
• Superman #24 - DC Comics
• U.S.A. Comics #10 - Timely Comics
• Young Allies Comics #9 - Timely Comics

  Fall Issue

• All-Flash #12, previously quarterly - DC Comics
• World's Finest Comics #11 - DC Comics

  October

• October 4: Alfred Andriola and Allen Saunders' Kerry Drake makes its debut. It will run until 1983.
• October 17: In an episode of Milton Caniff's Terry and the Pirates Filip Corkin gives a patriotic speech about comradery in the U.S. army. The next day politician John Carl Hinshaw reads it to the Congressional Record. The page becomes a classic and will often be reprinted.
• October 23: Péricles de Andrade Maranháo, aka Pericles, launches the comic strip O Amigo da Onça.
• Action Comics #65 - DC Comics
• Adventure Comics #88 - DC Comics
• Air Fighters Comics #13 - Hillman Periodicals
• All-American Comics #53 - DC Comics
• All-Star Comics #19 - DC Comics
• Batman #19 - DC Comics
• Captain America Comics #31 - Timely Comics
• Crack Comics #31 - Quality Comics
• Detective Comics #80 - DC Comics
• Flash Comics #46 - DC Comics
• Human Torch Comics #13 - Timely Comics
• Marvel Mystery Comics #48 - Timely Comics
• Sensation Comics #22 - DC Comics
• Star Spangled Comics #25 - DC Comics

  November

• November 1: The first episode of Roy Crane's Buz Sawyer is published. It will run until 21 April 1979.
• The first episode of Albert Chartier's newspaper comic Onésime is published. It will continously for 59 years, until 2002.
• The final issue of the Italian comics magazine Giornale dei Ragazzi is published.
• Action Comics #66 - DC Comics
• Air Fighters Comics #14 - Hillman Periodicals
• All-Winners Comics #11 - Timely Comics
• Captain America Comics #32 - Timely Comics
• Detective Comics #81 - DC Comics
• Flash Comics #47 - DC Comics
• Marvel Mystery Comics #49 - Timely Comics marks the debut of Otto Binder and Al Gabriele's Miss America.
• More Fun Comics #94 - DC Comics
• Sensation Comics #23 - DC Comics
• Star Spangled Comics #26 - DC Comics
• Sub-Mariner Comics #12 - Timely Comics
• Superman #25 - DC Comics

  December

• December 21: In Chester Gould's Dick Tracy the villain Flattop makes his debut.
• December 26: Joseph Hughes Newton's Tullus makes its debut. It will run until 1976.
• Action Comics #67 - DC Comics
• Adventure Comics #89 - DC Comics
• Air Fighters Comics #15 - Hillman Periodicals
• All-American Comics #54 - DC Comics
• All-Star Comics #20 - DC Comics
• Batman #20 - DC Comics
• Captain America Comics #33 - Timely Comics
• Crack Comics #32 - Quality Comics
• Detective Comics #82 - DC Comics
• Flash Comics #48 - DC Comics
• Marvel Mystery Comics #50 - Timely Comics
• Sensation Comics #24 - DC Comics
• Star Spangled Comics #27 - DC Comics
• Young Allies Comics #10 - Timely Comics

  Winter Issue

• All-Flash #13, previously quarterly - DC Comics
• World's Finest Comics #12 - DC Comics

  Deaths

January

• January 28: Eddie Eks, American comics artist, dies at age 60.

  March

• March 3:
• * Otto Luihn, Norwegian journalist, poet and comics writer, dies from heart failure at age 52.
• * Karóly Mühlbeck, Slovakian-Hungarian painter, graphic artist, caricaturist and comics artist, dies at age 73.
• March 28: Pete Llanuza, American comics artist, dies at age 70.

  April

• April 9: Felix Hess, Dutch illustrator, painter, etcher and comics artist, passes away at age 64 in concentration camp Sobibor.
• April 26: Frank Ladendorf, aka Lads, American comics artist, passes away at age 82.

  June

• June 16: Nicholas Afonsky, Russian-American comics artist, dies at age 51.

  July

• July 8: Jean Moulin, French resistance fighter and cartoonist, dies at age 44, after being captured by the Gestapo.

  October

• October 10: Charlotte Salomon, German painter and comics artist, is gassed to death in Auschwitz at age 26.
• October 18: A.M. de Jong, Dutch novelist and comics writer is murdered by two SS soldiers in his own home, at age 55.

  Specific date unknown

• Herbert Sydney Foxwell, British comics artist, dies at age 52 or 53.
• Worden Wood, American comics artist, passes away at age 62 or 63.

  First issues by title

Initial appearances by character name

• Alfred Beagle in Batman #18, created by Bob Kane, Bill Finger and Jerry Robinson - DC Comics
• Henry King in All Star Comics #15, created by Gardner Fox and Joe Gallagher - DC Comics
• Captain Triumph in Crack Comics #27, Created by Alfred Andriola - DC Comics
• Cavalier in Detective Comics #81, created by Don Cameron and Bob Kane - DC Comics
• Cheetah in Wonder Woman #06, William Moulton Marston - DC Comics
• Crime Doctor in Detective Comics #77, created by Bill Finger and Bob Kane - DC Comics
• Doctor Psycho in Wonder Woman #5, created by William Moulton Marston and Harry G. Peter - DC Comics
• King Bee in All-Star Comics #18, created by Gardner Fox - DC Comics
• Sabbac in Captain Marvel Jr. #4, created by Otto Binder and Al Carreno - DC Comics
• Thinker in All Flash #12, created by Gardner Fox and E.E. Hibbard - DC Comics
• Toyman in Action Comics #64, created by Don Cameron and Ed Dobrotka - DC Comics
• Tweedledum and Tweedledee in Detective Comics #74, created by Bob Kane, Don Cameron and Jerry Robinson - DC Comics
• Uncle Marvel in Wow Comics #18, created by Otto Binder and Marc Swayze - DC Comics
• Vandal Savage in Green Lantern #10, created by Alfred Bester and Martin Nodell - DC Comics