Early life and military career Malcolm was born on January 7, 1890, in
Greeneville, Tennessee. His father, Lew O. Strain, died after the birth of his second son, Malcolm's brother Christopher. Wheeler-Nicholson spent his boyhood both in Portland and on a horse ranch in
Washington state. Raised riding horses, he went on to attend the
military academy The Manlius School in
DeWitt,
New York, and in 1917 joined the
U.S. Cavalry as a second lieutenant. According to differing sources, he rose to become either "the youngest
major in the
Army", or, as per the family, one of the youngest in the Cavalry, at age 27, His outposts included Japan; London, England; and Germany. After
World War I, Wheeler-Nicholson was sent to study at
Saint-Cyr in Paris, France. Following this, Wheeler-Nicholson in June 1922 was convicted in a
court-martial trial of violating the 96th
Article of War in publishing the open letter. Although he was not demoted, his career was dead-ended. He resigned his commission in 1923.
Writing career Wheeler-Nicholson wrote nonfiction about military topics, including the 1922 book
Modern Cavalry.
New Fun In 1935, having seen the emergence of
Famous Funnies (1933) and other oversize magazines reprinting comic strips, Wheeler-Nicholson formed, from an idea in 1934, the comics publishing company
National Allied Publications. While contemporary comics "consisted ... of reprints of old syndicate material", Wheeler-Nicholson found that the "rights to all the popular strips ... had been sewn up". generally as filler, and while
Dell Publishing had put out a proto-comic book of all original strips,
The Funnies, in 1929, Wheeler-Nicholson's premiere comic –
New Fun #1 (Feb. 1935) – became the first comic book containing all-original material. As author Nicky Wright wrote, A tabloid-sized, 10-inch by 15-inch, 36-page magazine with a cardstock, non-glossy cover,
New Fun #1 was an anthology of "humor and adventure strips, many of which [Wheeler-Nicholson] wrote himself". While all-original material was a risky venture, the book sold well enough that National Allied Publishing continued to fill books "with new strips every month". The first four issues were edited by future
Funnies, Inc. founder
Lloyd Jacquet, the fifth by Wheeler-Nicholson himself. Issue #6 (Oct. 1935) brought the comic-book debuts of
Jerry Siegel and
Joe Shuster, the future creators of
Superman, who began their careers with the musketeer swashbuckler "Henri Duval" (doing the first two installments before turning it over to others) and, under the pseudonyms "Leger and Reuths", the supernatural-crimefighter adventure
Doctor Occult. They would remain on the latter title through issue #32 (June 1938), following the magazine's retitling as
More Fun (issues #7–8, Jan.–Feb. 1936), and
More Fun Comics (#9–on). Wheeler-Nicholson added a second magazine,
New Comics, which premiered with a Dec. 1935 cover date and at close to what would become the standard size of
Golden Age comic books, with slightly larger dimensions than today's. The title became
New Adventure Comics with issue #12, and finally
Adventure Comics with #32. Continuing for many decades, until issue #503 in 1983, it would become one of the longest-running comic books. In 2009, it was briefly revived with its original numbering, ultimately ending again in 2011 with issue #529, prior to DC Comics'
New 52 reboot. Despite Wheeler-Nicholson's optimism, finding a place in the market was difficult. Newsstands were reluctant to stock a magazine of untested new material from an unknown publisher, particularly as other companies' comics titles were perceived as being "successful because they featured characters everyone knew and loved". and cash-flow difficulties made the interval between issues unpredictable. Artist
Creig Flessel recalled that at the company's office on
Fourth Avenue, "The major flashed in and out of the place, doing battles with the printers, the banks, and other enemies of the struggling comics".
Later career . Wheeler-Nicholson suffered from continual financial crises, both in his personal and professional lives. "Dick Woods" artist , whose
Manhattan apartment Wheeler-Nicholson used as a rent-free
pied-à-terre, said, "His wife would call [from home on
Long Island] and be in tears ... and say she didn't have money and the milkman was going to cut off the milk for the kids. I'd send out 10 bucks, just because she needed it". The third and final title published under his aegis would be
Detective Comics, advertised with a cover illustration dated Dec. 1936, but eventually premiering three months late, with a March 1937 cover date.
Detective Comics would become a sensation with the introduction of
Batman in issue #27 (May 1939). By then, however, Wheeler-Nicholson was gone. In 1937, in debt to printing-plant owner and magazine distributor
Harry Donenfeld – who was as well a pulp-magazine publisher and a principal in the magazine distributorship
Independent News – Wheeler-Nicholson was compelled to take Donenfeld on as a partner in order to publish
Detective Comics #1.
Detective Comics, Inc. was formed, with Wheeler-Nicholson and
Jack Liebowitz, Donenfeld's accountant, listed as owners. The major remained for a year, but cash-flow problems continued. DC's 50th-anniversary publication
Fifty Who Made DC Great cites the
Great Depression as "forc[ing] Wheeler-Nicholson to sell his publishing business to Harry Donenfeld and Jack Liebowitz in 1937". However, wrote comics historian Gerard Jones: Wheeler-Nicholson "gave up on the world of commerce thereafter and went back to writing war stories and critiques of the American military" in addition to straight "articles on politics and military history". ==Personal life==