St. John's Original Crime Reporter Jane Arden No. 1 at Auction

Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: Matt Baker, St. John Publications

The comic book character Jane Arden may have influenced Lois Lane and others, but the title “St. John” arguably changed the course of this publisher’s history.

The Jane Arden Comic strip is an underrated part of comic history. The character debuted on November 26, 1928, created by the author Monte Barrett and artists Frank Ellis for the Register and Tribune Syndicateand ran for four decades until January 20, 1968. Jane Arden is widely believed to have influenced numerous other famous female reporter characters, including Superman's Lois Lane and her comic colleague Brenda Starr, reporter. Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Mary McGrory Jane Arden was the inspiration for her career. The character's adventures went beyond simply reporting on the aftermath of crimes and actively aimed to infiltrate and expose criminal activities. Russell E. Ross took over the drawing and eventually the writing of the strip.

The character's comic exploits were reprinted several times in comic books during the Golden Age, including Funny feature And Cracking ComicsBut St. John's use of the Jane Arden Strip material led to an interesting turn in the history of this publishing house. There is a copy of Jane Ardene #1 (St. John, 1948) Condition: VG, auctioned in Comic Books Select Auction #122422, May 26-28, 2024 (Sunday, Monday and Tuesday) at Heritage Auctions.

Archer St. John entered the magazine publishing business in 1941 with the war pilot magazine Air Newsand later with Flying Cadet. Flying Cadet is notable for occasionally containing comic material. St. John entered the comic book business with two different reprints of newspaper strips, Comics Review And Treasure trove of comics which both appeared in the newspapers in April 1947. In September 1947, St. John took over the Terry Toons Comics license from Marvel that included the comic adventures of Mighty Mouse and other Terry Toons characters. That same month, St. John added a third newspaper comics reprint title, Comics Parade.

As the publisher began to steadily add new titles, the sporadically published comic book reprints began to spin off their own comic book reprint series, including Jane Arden, which started with Comics Pageant No. 2 at St. John with the cover title Jane Arden, crime reporter. The series Jane Arden, crime reporter (again as it was titled on the covers) lasted two issues at St. John, and the second issue followed directly Crime Reporter No. 1 next month. The cover of this debut issue is by Robert Lubbers which looks very similar to a reused Jane Arden cover.

Despite the lack of Jane Arden strip reprints on the inside pages, Crime reporter still did not contain any original stories. The series consists entirely of reprints of Chesler comic material, with some of the more famous characters being renamed. The infamous Black Dwarf from Red Seal Comics Stories were added to Blue Monk in Crime reporter, and Lucky Coyne from Red Seal Comics And Dynamic Comics The eponymous crime reporter Jinx Jordan was in Crime reporter. And so it happened that Jane Arden, crime reporter became Crime reporter with the crime reporter exploits of Jinx Jordan and co. And while the cover of issue #1 looks like a Jane Arden relic for all the world, the covers of the rest of this short-lived series are a completely different matter. Of course, there is no Jinx Jordan on these covers, but Matt BakerHe portrayed beautiful women when he reached the peak of his artistic ability.

Matt Baker began perhaps the most important period of his career with St. John Publications in mid-1948. The cover of Crime Reporter No. 2 was Baker's first St. John work to hit the newsstands, with an on-sale date of June 26, 1948 (according to Library of Congress copyright records). This was followed by a six-page interior story in Northwest Mounties No. 1 (available in stores from August 1, 1948) and then the cover of Crime Reporter No. 3 (on sale on September 22, 1948). The Crime reporter Covers, along with Authentic Police Cases #6, are also the first covers signed by Baker. While the series is superficially a crime comic designed to take advantage of the rising tide of the genre at the newsstands of the time, it is, of all things, a Jane Arden The title reboot is intended to create a new series without the former star.

St. John seemed to go to great lengths to maintain the low brand value they had with the Crime reporter title, and it still didn't work out, as the series ended with issue #3. The fledgling company had been publishing comics for about a year when this issue hit newsstands, and they were still finding their way. An underrated part of St. John's publishing history, there is a copy of Jane Ardene #1 (St. John, 1948) Condition: VG, auctioned in Comic Books Select Auction #122422, May 26-28, 2024 (Sunday, Monday and Tuesday) at Heritage Auctions.

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