'' #1 (Jan. 1948). Cover art by
Joe Shuster. In late 1947, Superman creators
Jerry Siegel and
Joe Shuster collaborated once again with editor Vin Sullivan, who had worked with the writer-artist team during their nascent days freelancing for National Allied Publications, the future
DC Comics. The duo had decamped to Magazine Enterprises after leaving National Allied (by then called
National Comics) and suing to regain the rights to Superman and their later creation,
Superboy. Siegel and Shuster brought most of their studio's artists with them, except for 1950s Superman penciler
Wayne Boring, and created the new character
Funnyman, a
slapstick-comedian hero. Both as a comic book and as a
comic strip, however, the character failed to find an audience. Magazine Enterprises' best-known character may be
Ghost Rider, a
horror-themed
Western avenger created by writer
Ray Krank and artist
Dick Ayers in 1949. After the trademark lapsed, Ayers and others adapted it as
Marvel Comics' non-horror but otherwise near-identical Western character
Ghost Rider in 1967. The company's two superhero characters were the Avenger, created by writer
Gardner Fox and artist
Dick Ayers in
The Avenger #1 (March 1955), with Bob Powell drawing the character's three subsequent issues and all four covers; and the aptly named Strong Man, an unmasked, super-strong hero in a jungle-print
circus strongman outfit. The Avenger was one of the very few traditional, costumed superheroes created during the period before superheroes' revival in what historians and fans call the
Silver Age of Comics, beginning 1956. Other original characters include the
jungle goddess Cave Girl, drawn by
Bob Powell, and the
talking animal canine hero Hot Dog, created by cartoonist
George Crenshaw and unrelated to the later
Archie Comics character of that name. Among the company's publications were licensed
film and
TV comics featuring comedian
Jimmy Durante; suave actor
Dick Powell; and the
CBS television series
The Adventures of Robin Hood, starring
Richard Greene. Additionally,
Little Miss Sunbeam Comics starred the blond, pig-tailed mascot of
Sunbeam Bread. Since the copyright to Magazine Enterprises' comics do not appear to have been renewed, they evidently fell into the
public domain in accordance with copyright laws at the time. Beginning in the 1980s,
AC Comics issued reprint titles of Magazine Enterprises material, along with those of other defunct publishers of that era. As well, AC revived the Avenger as a guest star in
FemForce #19 (1989; no cover date), then creating a new series. Ghost Rider reprints appeared in 1999 with the character renamed the Haunted Horseman. ==Titles by genre==