| All Winners Comics | |
|---|---|
 All Winners Comics #1 (Summer 1941), cover art byAlex Schomburg. | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Timely Comics |
| Schedule | Quarterly |
| Publication date | (vol. 1) Summer 1941 – Winter 1946/47 (vol. 2) Aug. 1948 |
| No. of issues | (vol. 1) 20 (vol. 2) 1 (retitledAll-Western Winners,Western Winners,Black Rider,Western Tales of Black Rider andGunsmoke Western) |
| Creative team | |
| Created by | Joe Simon |
| Written by | Joe Simon Stan Lee Otto Binder |
| Artist(s) | Joe Simon Jack Kirby Bill Everett Alex Schomburg Al Avison Al Gabriele Syd Shores |
All Winners Comics is the name of twoAmerican comic book series of the 1940s; both were published byMarvel Comics' predecessor,Timely Comics, during the period fans and historians call theGolden Age of Comic Books. Asuperhero anthology comic in both cases, they variously featured such star characters asCaptain America, the originalHuman Torch, and theSub-Mariner.[1]All Winners Comics was also the venue for two full-length stories of Marvel's first superhero team, the (hyphenated)All-Winners Squad.
Published quarterly, the first volume ofAll Winners Comics ran 20 issues, numbered #1-19 and #21 (Summer 1941 - Winter 1946/47). While the cover title wasAll Winners Comics or occasionally simplyAll Winners, theindicia of all issues in the series (except #21) list the title asAll-Winners Comics. The working title wasAll Aces, as seen in pre-publication house ads in other Timely Comics advising readers to "Watch out for this winner".
All Winners Comics #1 (Summer 1941) contained a 12- to 13-page story each of the Human Torch, by writer-artist creatorCarl Burgos; the minor heroBlack Marvel, by writerStan Lee,pencilerAl Avison andinkerAl Gabriele; Captain America, by co-creatorsJoe Simon andJack Kirby (writers), Joe Simon, Kirby, and Avision (pencils), and Joe Simon, Al Gabriele andSyd Shores (inkers); the Sub-Mariner, by writer-artist creatorBill Everett; and theAngel, generally credited, unconfirmably, to writer-artist creatorPaul Gustavson. All the characters were preexisting.[2] Additionally, there was a two-page text story by Lee, with spot art byEd Winiarski.
The following issue, the preexisting superheroes theDestroyer and theWhizzer replaced the Black Marvel and the Angel. This lineup continued through #12, with a one-shot appearance of theThunderer with the new code nameBlack Avenger in #6. WithWorld War II wartime paper shortages, the page-count was reduced from 68 to 60 pages with issue #9 (Summer 1943), trimming the Destroyer feature slightly and shrinking that of super-speedster the Whizzer to six pages. With #12 (Spring 1944) it was further reduced to 52 pages, reducing the Destroyer feature to seven pages and eliminating the Whizzer's entirely. Two issues later, the book shrank to 36 pages, before finally returning to 52 pages after the war, with #17 (Winter 1945).
Timely/Marvel's first superhero team, theAll-Winners Squad, featuring Captain America, the Human Torch, the Sub-Mariner, the Whizzer, andMiss America, starred in #19 (Fall 1946), in a 43-page story in seven chapters. A second, same-length All-Winners Squad story appeared in #21 (Winter 1946/47).[3]
Due to the vagaries and often-poor record-keeping of the early days of comic books, the interrupted numbering of the first volume, which has no issue #20, has never been definitively explained. Most comics historians follow a generally accepted theory[4] involving the cost of registering magazines with theU.S. Postal Service in order to receive bulk-mailing rates: a common practice of the time involved retitling an existing series rather than registering a new one.[5] Historians generally agree that after issue #19,All Winners Comics continued as a single-issueteenage-humor comic featuring aPatsy Walker story,All Teen Comics #20 (January 1947). When Timely chose to do another All-Winners Squad story, the publisher retitled the canceledYoung Allies Comics, which had ended with #20 (Oct. 1946), resulting inAll Winners Comics #21.[5][6] Most sources sayAll Winners Comics afterward became the humor titleHedy De Vine Comics, starting with #22 (Aug. 1947).
A second volume ran one issue (Aug. 1948) before being retitled and reformatted as theWestern anthologiesAll Western Winners (#2-4, Winter 1948 - April 1949),Western Winners (#5-7, June-Dec. 1949), the Western masked-crimefighter seriesBlack Rider (#8-27, March 1950 - March 1955) andWestern Tales of Black Rider (#28-31, May-Nov. 1955), and, finally, the anthologyGunsmoke Western (#32-77, Dec. 1955 - July 1963), that last primarily starringKid Colt.[7]
In December 1999, Marvel reprinted #19 asTimely Presents: All-Winners, cover titledTimely Comics Presents All Winners Comics. From 2004 to 2011, Marvel reprinted all ofAll-Winners Comics under theMarvel Masterworks imprint in four volumes:
Individual digital issues were released onMarvel Unlimited andComiXology beginning in a period from 2017 to 2018.