Production History
Motion Picture Funnies Weekly was produced by First Funnies, Inc., one of the 1930s-1940s Golden Age of comic books "packagers" that would create outsourced comics on demand for publishers. The company, founded by Centaur Publications art director Lloyd Jacquet and later named Funnies Inc., planned to be a publisher itself, with Motion Picture Funnies Weekly as its initial product. While the postal indicia gives the publisher as First Funnies, Inc., the back cover, a house ad, directs interested parties to contact Funnies, Inc.
The comic, designed to be distributed to children in movies theaters, was never published, although samples were printed to show theater-owners. Either eight or nine samples exist (sources differ). All but one were discovered at the late Jacquet's estate sale in 1974. One sample, dubbed the "Pay Copy", contains written payment information for the various creators who contributed to the comic. Additionally, proof sheets were found there for the covers of issues #2-4. The discovery of the hitherto forgotten Motion Picture Funnies Weekly rewrote an early part of the history of comics, and caused a sensation at the time.
Marvel Comics, in 1978, describing the creation of its superhero the Sub-Mariner, wrote
Sub-Mariner's first story, eight pages long, was written, penciled, inked and lettered by the late William Blake "Bill" Everett, for publication in the pilot issue of a small giveaway comic book titled Motion Picture Funnies Weekly. This comic was the first item produced by the Lloyd V. Jacquet art shop, Funnies, Inc. (then called First Funnies, Inc.); the Sub-Mariner story was dated April 1939. It was the idea of those who operated Funnies, Inc. to distribute Motion Picture Funnies Weekly through movie theaters to attract customers. Apparently the theater owners thought little of the venture and the project was unsuccessful.The "Comic Books on Microfiche" collection of the University of Tulsa's McFarlin Library lists Centaur Publications' Amazing Man Comics #5 (Sept. 1939), the premiere issue, as continuing the numbering of Motion Picture Funnies Weekly, but this is unconfirmed.
No copy was filed with the Library of Congress.
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