''Leading Comics'' is a 1942–1955

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. ...

published by what is now

DC Comics DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with their f ...

during the 1940s and early 1950s, a period known to fans and historians as the

Golden Age of Comic Books The Golden Age of Comic Books describes an era of American comic books from 1938 to 1956. During this time, modern comic books were first published and rapidly increased in popularity. The superhero archetype was created and many well-known cha ...

. At the title's inception, DC was actually two companies, National Comics (later National Periodical Publications) and All-American Publications. National and All-American shared some ownership and advertised and co-branded their comics as if they were one company. They also collaborated on '' All Star Comics'', an All-American publication which featured the

Justice Society of America The Justice Society of America (JSA, or Justice Society (JS)) is a superhero team appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The team was conceived by editor Sheldon Mayer and writer Gardner Fox during the Golden Age of Comic Boo ...

, a super hero team including characters from both companies' stables, e.g., The Spectre and Starman from National, The Flash and

Green Lantern Green Lantern is the name of several superheroes appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. They fight evil with the aid of rings that grant them a variety of extraordinary powers, all of which come from imagination, fearlessness ...

from All-American. Given the success of the JSA, National decided to develop a team title of its own—this became ''Leading Comics'', #1 (Winter 1941–42) of which debuted the Seven Soldiers of Victory, a team made up exclusively of characters from National's anthology publications: '' More Fun Comics'', '' Adventure Comics'', ''

Action Comics ''Action Comics'' is an American comic book/ magazine series that introduced Superman, one of the first major superhero characters. The publisher was originally known as National Allied Publications, and later as National Comics Publication ...

'', '' Detective Comics'', and '' Star-Spangled Comics''. Like its predecessor ''All Star Comics'', each issue of ''Leading'' was taken up with a single adventure of the SSOV broken into multiple chapters, each featuring one or two heroes. However, the heroes of the SSOV were hardly the company's most popular characters—most of those already being members of the JSA—and the strip lasted through only the first fourteen issues of ''Leading''. When the superhero genre faded in popularity in the late 1940s, DC Comics decided to focus more on other genres, such as

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imagination, imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, Paral ...

, westerns, humor and romance. ''Leading Comics'' led the charge as the first DC title to drop its superheroes. With its Summer 1945 issue #15, ''Leading'' switched to talking animals, with the introduction of Nero Fox (a

fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelv ...

who was billed as the "jive-jumpin' emperor of

ancient Rome In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–50 ...

"). In issue #23 (February–March

1947 It was the first year of the Cold War, which would last until 1991, ending with the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Events January * January– February – Winter of 1946–47 in the United Kingdom: The worst snowfall in the count ...

), Nero Fox was dropped as the cover-featured first story in each issue, to be replaced by Peter Porkchops, a pig (created by Otto Feuer), in his first appearance. Peter appeared in ''Leading Comics'' (retitled ''Leading Screen Comics'' with #34 in 1948) regularly until issue #77 (August–September 1955). ''Leading Screen Comics'' ended with issue #77 (August–September 1955).

References

Comics magazines published in the United States Golden Age comics titles 1941 comics debuts 1955 comics endings DC Comics titles Magazines established in 1941 Magazines disestablished in 1955 {{DC-Comics-stub