1946 in comics

Events and publications

January

• January 6: Hildie and the Kid Gang, by Will Eisner.
• January 23: In Italy, the first number of Albi dell’intrepido by Editrice Universo, is published.
• Captain America Comics #52 - Timely Comics
• Marvel Mystery Comics #68 - Timely Comics

  February

• February 2: Jean Dulieu's Paulus de Boskabouter debuts in Het Vrije Volk.
• February 7: Buth's Thomas Pips makes its debut in Het Volk.
• Captain America Comics #53 - Timely Comics
• Marvel Mystery Comics #69 - Timely Comics

  March

• March 1: The National Cartoonists Society is established, along with the annual award, the Billy DeBeck Memorial Award, which will be renamed the Reuben Award in 1954.
• March 3: Milton Caniff's Male Call comes to its conclusion after three years of newspaper publication.
• March 4: Alex Raymond's Rip Kirby makes its debut. with The Chip Faraday Murder.
• March 12: The first issue of the comics magazine Treasure Chest is published.
• March 24: The Last Trolley aka The Man who Killed the Spirit, by Will Eisner.
• Captain America Comics #54 - Timely Comics
• Marvel Mystery Comics #70 - Timely Comics
• Young Allies Comics #19 - Timely Comics
• Master Ice-Fisher by Carl Barks, on Walt Disney's Comics and Stories.

  April

• April 15: Ed Dodd's newspaper comic Mark Trail is first published in the New York Post.
• April 22: First publication of Machiko Hasegawa's manga series Sazae-san in Fukunichi Shimbun.
• Captain America Comics #55 - Timely Comics
• Human Torch Comics #22 - Timely Comics
• Marvel Mystery Comics #71 - Timely Comics
• Sub-Mariner Comics #19 - Timely Comics
• The Hicks formula, by Alex Raymond, second adventure of Rip Kirby.

  May

• May 12: Andrea Lavezzolo and Edgardo dell'Acqua's comic strip Gim Toro makes its debut.
• May 15: Willy Vandersteen's Suske en Wiske story De Sprietatoom is first published. Halfway the story Lambik makes his debut.
• Captain America Comics #56 - Timely Comics
• Marvel Mystery Comics #72 - Timely Comics
• The first number of Albi d’Oro, anthological magazine edited by Mondadori, centered moreover on the Disney comics.

  June

• In Al Capp's Li'l Abner the character Lena the Hyena is introduced. "The world's ugliest woman" is an unseen character who is always obscured from view, but characters react in horror to her ugliness. Her face will finally be revealed five months later.
• All-Winners Comics #18 - Timely Comics
• Marvel Mystery Comics #73 - Timely Comics
• Sub-Mariner Comics #20 - Timely Comics
• In the Rip Kirby story Liquid murder, by Alex Raymond Rip Kirby meets his nemesis, the Mangler.

  July

• July 5: Hans G. Kresse's Eric de Noorman debuts in Het Laatste Nieuws.
• July 15: The first issue of Fantax magazine is published. The character, by Marcel Navarro and Pierre Mouchot, had debuted two months earlier on Paris-Monde Illustré.
• Captain America Comics #57 - Timely Comics
• Human Torch Comics #23 - Timely Comics
• Marvel Mystery Comics #74 - Timely Comics

  August

• August 1: Willy Vandersteen's De Vrolijke Bengels makes its debut in Ons Volkske.
• August 26: In Chester Gould's Dick Tracy Breathless Mahoney is killed.
• Marvel Mystery Comics #75 - Timely Comics

  September

• September 7: The first number of Albi dell’ardimento, an anthological magazine is published, edited by Edizioni Alpe, centering on Western comics.
• September 9: Honey and Hank, aka Elsworth by Bernard Segal, aka Seeg, makes its debut. It will run until 1958.
• September 20: The British comics magazine The Comet is first published. It will run until 17 October 1959, after which it merges into the magazine Tiger.
• September 23: The Mickey Mouse story Mickey’s menagerie, by Floyd Gottfredson and Bill Walsh is first published.
• September 26:
• * The first issue of the Belgian comics magazine Le journal de Tintin is published by Raymond Leblanc. The magazine will run until 1993. This also marks the continuation of The Adventures of Tintin by Hergé, which had been interrupted after World War II.
• * Edgar P. Jacobs' Blake and Mortimer by Edgar P. Jacobs debuts in Tintin.
• * Paul Cuvelier's Corentin debuts in Tintin.
• September 30: National Periodical Publications is established, from a merger of All-American Publications and Detective Comics, Inc.
• All-Winners Comics #19 - Timely Comics
• Captain America Comics #58 - Timely Comics
• Marvel Mystery Comics #76 - Timely Comics
• Sub-Mariner Comics #21 - Timely Comics

  October

• October 21: After five months of playing with readers' expectations the previously unseen character Lena the Hyena in Al Capp's comic strip Li'l Abner is finally revealed to the audience. Her design was part of a readers' contest won by a still unknown cartoonist Basil Wolverton. The exposure finally launches his career.
• October 26: In Topolino, the SF series Saturno contro la terra, by Cesare Zavattini, Federico Pedrocchi and Giovanni Scolari, gets its final chapter. It had continued since 1936, with a two year break-up because the war.
• Cesare Solini and Antonio Canale's Amok makes its debut.
• Human Torch Comics #24 - Timely Comics
• Marvel Mystery Comics #77 - Timely Comics
• Young Allies Comics #20 - Timely Comics -
• Ipnos il re della magia, by Gian Luigi Bonelli and Carlo Cossio, edited by Edizioni Audace; Italian imitation of Mandrake.

  November

• November 15: First publication of the Filipino comics magazine Halakhak Komiks.
• All-Winners Comics #21 - Timely Comics -
• Captain America Comics #59 - Timely Comics
• Human Torch Comics #25 - Timely Comics
• Marvel Mystery Comics #78 - Timely Comics

  December

• December 7: First appearance of Lucky Luke and his trusty horse Jolly Jumper by Morris, in Spirou with the story Arizona 1880.
• December 12: In the French magazine OK, the first chapter of Arys Buck et son épée magique, by Albert Uderzo. In 1946 he publishes also his first album, Les Aventures de Clopinard.
• December 23: Marten Toonder's Panda makes its newspaper debut.
• Marvel Mystery Comics #79 - Timely Comics

  Deaths

January

• January 2: O'Galop, French painter, illustrator, graphic designer, animator and comics artist, passes away at age 78.
• March 2: Don Newhouse, British comics artist, dies at age 62.

  June

• June 15: Charles Forbell, American comics artist, dies at age 71.

  August

• August 3: Viktor Deni, Russian cartoonist and poster designer, dies at age 53.

  September

• September 16: Francisque Poulbot, French illustrator and cartoonist, dies at age 67.

  Specific date unknown

• Albert Lanmour, French illustrator and comics artist, dies at age 58 or 59.
• Red W. Shellcope, American comics artist, dies at age 66 or 67.

  Initial appearances by character name

• Fantax, created by Marcel Navarro and Pierre Mouchot.
• Lambik by Willy Vandersteen.
• Morgaine le Fey in Batman #36 - DC Comics