America's Best Comics #3
America's Best Comics #3 (November 1942) holds a notable place in Golden Age history as the first published comics appearance of Pyroman — the electrically-powered Nedor hero Dick Martin — beating his formal origin story in Startling Comics #18 (December 1942) to the newsstands by roughly one month. The issue also continued the early run of the Black Terror, Nedor's flagship character, and anchored the wartime anthology format that made the title one of the publisher's most visible superhero showcases. Because Nedor's characters eventually entered the public domain, every appearance in this series — including this one — became source material for later revival waves, most famously Alan Moore's Tom Strong–era SMASH team-up concept.
This anthology issue features multiple superhero stories. In "The Black Terror," the hero races to spy headquarters to stop a murderer, discovering a clue in a lamp that leads to a confrontation with an enemy named Carney, ultimately turning evidence over to the D.A. "The Liberator" concludes with the hero battling a villain named Torquo on a ship, where the Liberator defeats his opponent and later discusses buying defense bonds and stamps with a companion named Dr. Drew. The issue also includes stories featuring Doc Strange, Captain Future, and Pyroman.
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The series was published by Nedor Comics, the comic-book arm of publisher Ned Pines, who ran parallel pulp-magazine lines under the Standard, Better, and Thrilling imprints. America's Best Comics launched in February 1942 and settled into a roughly quarterly schedule, with issue #3 carrying a November 1942 cover date. The credited creative contributors for this issue were writer-editor Richard E. Hughes alongside artists Kin Platt, Jack Binder, Ed Moritz, Donald Bayne Hobart, and Ray Thayer — the same collaborative pool that staffed the title throughout its early run.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Cover date: November 1942; published by Nedor/Better Publications (Ned Pines), third issue of a series that ran 31 issues through July 1949.
- First published comics appearance of Pyroman (Dick Martin), the electrical-powered hero created by Jack Binder — appearing here before his formal origin issue in Startling Comics #18 (December 1942).
- Pyroman subsequently appeared throughout America's Best Comics (#3–8, #10, #12–13, #17–22, #24, #28–29) and across multiple Nedor titles into 1949.
- The Black Terror (Bob Benton), Nedor's most popular superhero and the series' perennial lead feature, appears in his story 'Sinistro's Beast-Men.'
- Cover art depicts the Black Terror and Pyroman in combat against Japanese and German soldiers — a direct reflection of wartime patriotic cover iconography.
- Stories in this issue include Doc Strange vs. Dr. Seppuku ('The Human Bombs'), Captain Future vs. The Red Regent, and Don Davis, Espionage Ace vs. Nazi agents ('The Maneuver Map Robbery'), scripted by Richard Hughes.
- Artist and writer credits for the issue: Richard Hughes (script, multiple stories), Kin Platt (American Eagle story art), Jack Binder (Doc Strange/Pyroman art), Ed Moritz, Donald Bayne Hobart, and Ray Thayer.
- All Nedor Comics characters in this series, including those debuting in or passing through this issue, have since entered the public domain and were revived by AC Comics in the 1990s and by Alan Moore for his Tom Strong / SMASH continuity in the early 2000s.
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