D&D Comic Book from 1939

[Steve]

I'm a fan of vintage comic books, and I recently uncovered a comic book from 1939 y'all might find interesting.

The Golden Knight is supposedly about a knight that decides it would be cool to go on a crusade and whoop up on some Saracens, but in fact it is more about a knight exploring dungeons, fighting monsters, and wielding magic items. It is surprisingly D&Dish considering it came out decades before D&D.

The knight uses a magic ring to cast a light spell to blind his enemy, explores a place called "Blackamoor," and like all good D&D campaigns, he ends up on another planet wielding a ray gun (seriously).

His story runs through the first 20 issues of Fantastic Comics; you can read it HERE.

I also recommend checking out Stardust the Super Wizard (think a more powerful but vindictive Superman), Space Smith, Flick Falcon in the Fourth Dimension (a sci-fi/fantasy mash up where he explores other planets, wields super powers, and fights Satan, demons, and ghosts in the 4th dimension), and Sub Saunders, all of which have features in Fantastic Comics.

[ThirstyStirge]

Great discovery! I wonder if either Arneson or Gygax were big comics readers...

[T. Foster]

Great discovery! I wonder if either Arneson or Gygax were big comics readers...

I'm pretty sure both of them were (Gary definitely was), but this book is probably a bit before their time (Gary was one year old when it came out, Dave was still several years away from being born...)

[tetramorph]

Awesome stuff, Steve. Thanks for the link.

[rogatny]

Great discovery! I wonder if either Arneson or Gygax were big comics readers...

I'm pretty sure both of them were (Gary definitely was), but this book is probably a bit before their time (Gary was one year old when it came out, Dave was still several years away from being born...)

Yeah. Gary said a number of times that he was a fan of the classic pre-code EC horror titles like Tales from the Crypt.

When censors cracked down on the comics horror genre in the 50s, EC founded a little humor mag called Mad Magazine, which some of you may have heard of...

[rogatny]

Snip

Thanks for posting! Awesome website.

Here's a good one for vintage horror comics: http://thehorrorsofitall.blogspot.com/

[Falconer]

I seem to recall Gene teased out from Gary that he enjoyed Captain Marvel.

[thedungeondelver]

Fourth "sin" from the right remind anyone of anything?

[benjoshua]

Fourth "sin" from the right remind anyone of anything?

My nether regions are on fire?

[gizmomathboy]

Fourth "sin" from the right remind anyone of anything?

My nether regions are on fire?

That'll learn ya to go to Bangkok

[Matthew]

Gygax had access to plenty of old books, mainly his grandfather's library collection or some such thing. No reason he might not also have had access to old comic books. The "Blackamoor" things sounds mighty coincidental, though obviously that is more Arneson than Gygax.

[Juju EyeBall]

My local library had anthologies of all those old kinda comics, shazam etc. I read them as a kid. No doubt Gary could have gotten ahold of them.

[JCBoney]

Fourth "sin" from the right remind anyone of anything?

My ex-GF's mother.

[Juju EyeBall]

I thought we were doing no politics.

[bobjester]

Fantastic!

Comics!

Thanks for the links.