War Realities

Just six moths after Pearl Harbor, the war intensified in April and May of 1942, especially in and around the Pacific. The fortunes of the American forces fell and rose. April 9th, Bataan fell to the Japanese and the remaining American forces surrendered on Corregidor on May 61. On the positive side for America, April 1942 also brought Jimmy Doolittle's raid on Tokyo.2

War shortages ranged from labor to paper, yet comic books continued to be in high demand. This issue packed in as many stories as possible, and title characters included Dick Cole, Sub Zero, Sergeant Spook, Krisko and Jasper, Edison Bell, White Rider and Super Horse, The Phantom Sub, Old Cap Hawkins, and Blue Bolt, the American. For a dime, America got 64 pages of escape from the uncertainty of the war.

A new type of ad was appearing in comic books at this time. Classified-type ads for "collectible" stamps, were sold by the column inch. In this issue of Blue Bolt, ads like the one for "Stampdom's Biggest Bargains" appear on the page with a text story about Christophe, the Black Emperor of Haiti.

The remainder of this issue's advertising was again sold in-house. In the Treasure House Novelties ad, the number of novelties offered was down, presumably due to war shortages, but Novelty Press' Treasure House Novelties continued to place a full page ad on the inside back cover. The outside back cover space was taken up with an ad for another Novelty Press publication, 4Most Comics.

1 Bataan and Corregidor

2 Doolittle Raid on Japan, 18 April, 1942