Set Description:
In November 1948 DC Comics moved its All American Comics away from the super hero centric genre to the, at the time, popular western genre. From issue 103 to issue 126 published in June/July 1952 the series was renamed All American Western featuring Johnny Thunder (not to be confused with the JSA Johnny Thunder), as well as Minstrel Maverick, Foley of the Fighting 5th and the Overland Coach. This was the arrangement of stories for the series’ three and a half year run before it was again renamed, this time to All American Men of War. In April-May of 1951 All Star Comics became All Star Western but survived a more respectable ten years while the generically named Western Comics lasted thirteen years.
Johnny Thunder (aka John Tane) was the star of All American Western and was featured on the cover of all 24 issues. Of the three big DC western comics of this era All American probably has my favorite covers having been rendered by the great Alex Toth. Johnny Thunder’s first appearance was in All American Comics #100, prior to the series switching to the western genre. With the end of All American Western, Foley of the 5th immediately switched to All Star Western and Johnny Thunder started appearing in Oct/Nov 1952. At this point Johnny Thunder was playing behind the Trigger Twins who were getting nearly all of the covers. That changed in Aug/Sept 1958 when Johnny Thunder took center stage on the covers and in Aug-Sep 1959 the cover was redesigned with Johnny Thunders name in large font and All Star Western pushed up in a much smaller font. Johnny had officially taken over as the star of All Star Western. In Feb/Mar 1973 DC published Johnny Thunder #1 which was nothing more than reprinted western stories from all three of the big western series. Even the covers were reprints. The series lasted just three issues.
The number of total issue CGC graded is somewhere over 50 but probably under 100. That’s TOTAL. Based on the numbers I’m seeing as I write this summary, issues 114, 116,118 and 126 have never been CGC graded. The crown jewels of this set are clearly the issues from the Mile High Pedigree collection and they are priced at a huge premium as in 2x or 3x guide price. Not something I’m generally willing to pay but if you want the best I guess you go with Mile High. This is a hard set to collect because the availability is so low.
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