The Comic Weekly Club was established by King Features Syndicate in USA in 1949. The club was advertised in Hearst’s ‘Puck The Comic Weekly’ Sunday comic section in various newspapers across America.
By returning the below coupon, plus 10 cents, to a PO Box in New York, you were able to join The Comic Weekly Club.
As a result of returning the above coupon, an envelope was mailed to the new member, containing various items produced by Whitman Publishing:
- Fun Time Activity Book (containing 8 pages), measures 8” x 4.75”
- Autographed Picture Sheet of Comic Book Characters, measures 8” x 4.75”
- Membership Card, measures 4” x 2.75”
- Tin Member Pin, measures 7/8”
We see the following wording printed on the back; ‘Imber Quality Products – L. J. Imber – 1639 W. Evergreen Ave – Chicago, ILL.’.
The above items were mailed in a plain brown envelope, an example is shown below.
A sheet containing a small welcome message from King Features Syndicate plus the ability to signup 2 of your friend to The Comic Weekly Club also arrived in the pack. A sample can be seen below, measuring 8” x 4.75”.
The Comic Weekly Club was operated in-conjunction with Hearst’s ‘Puck The Comic Weekly’ Sunday comic section, distributed across 18 national newspaper chains in USA. Hearst’s ‘Puck The Comic Weekly’ Sunday comic section would be seen in these newspapers from 1931 until the 1970’s.
Although comic strips licensed to King Features Syndicate were predominantly printed in this comic section of the newspaper, we also see some examples of other comic strips appearing, such as Hopalong Cassidy.
Below we see a copy of ‘Puck The Comic Weekly’, published on the 6th of August 1950 in the San Francisco Examiner. We see the Comic Weekly Club Corner on page 11 plus a Phantom Sunday comic strip on page 13.
‘Puck’ was advertised throughout the US wherever it was available for purchase. Below we see a shop advertisement from a Baltimore store, with the Phantom clearly visible.
Beginning Sunday the 6th of February, 1949 these 14.25” x 6.25” newspaper sections would contain an assortment of puzzles, quizzes and games intended for club members. Although the Phantom isn’t visible in any of The Comic Weekly Club paraphernalia above, he made several appearances in Puck’s ‘Comic Weekly Club Corner’. We see 3 examples below:
13th March 1949
17th April 1949
19th June 1949
NOTE: The ‘Comic Weekly Club Corner’ of 1949 should not be confused with the earlier 1930’s newspaper ‘THE COMIC CLUB’, which offered its readers the opportunity to purchase ‘paper face masks’ which came with complimentary uncut sheets of novelty comic character stamps. The novelty stamps bear a close likeness to those stamps seen in the Comic Weekly Club Corner.
Thank you Christopher Smith for assisting with images and information.
The Phantom 