Ace Magazines was a comic-book and pulp-magazine publishing company headed by Aaron A. Wyn and his wife Rose Wyn. The Wyns had been publishing pulp fiction under the Periodical House and A. A. Wyn's Magazine Publishers names since 1928, and published comics between 1940 and the end of 1956. Its most successful and longest-running superhero title was Super-Mystery Comics featuring Magno the Magnetic Man and his boy partner Davey, who appeared in 28 issues of the title's 48-issue run. Magno is nearly unique among superheroes for having neither an origin for his powers or any apparent secret identity. Horror comics included Baffling Mysteries, Hand of Fate and Web of Mystery, while their contribution to the crime comics was Crime Must Pay the Penalty. Ace's longest running series were the company's romance comicsGlamorous Romances, Love At First Sight, Love Experiences and Real Love, which began in the late 1940s as the superhero books faded away, and continued until the company ceased publishing comic books in 1956. Other long running romance titles such as Complete Love Magazine and Ten Story Love began as pulp-magazine titles before switching to comics format in the early 1950s. A number of Ace stories were used as examples of violent and gruesome imagery in the 1950s U.S Congressional inquiries into the influence of comic books on juvenile delinquency that led to the Comics Code Authority, namely Challenge of the Unknown #6, Crime Must Pay the Penalty #3 and Web of Mystery #19. Western Adventures Comics #3 was used as an example in Fredric Wertham's Seduction of the Innocent, and in the United KingdomAtomic War #4, Beyond #18 and World War III #2 were cited as examples by Geoffrey Wagner's 1954 book on the same subject, Parade of Pleasure — A Study of Popular Iconography in the U.S.A. Although characters with the same names as Ace Comics characters have appeared elsewhere, after the early 1950s all their characters remained unused until 2008, when Lash Lightning and Lightning Girl appeared in flashback in Dynamite Entertainment’s Project Superpowers. In the one-shot Project Superpowers: Chapter Two Prelude, it was stated that the two of them will appear in this line as part of a team called The Super-Mysterymen.
Comics published
Imprints
Ace Magazine comic-book series were published through at least 17 affiliated entities:
A. A. Wyn, Inc.
Ace Books, Inc.
Ace Magazines, Inc.
Ace Periodicals, Inc.
Ace Publications
Ace Publications, Inc.
Current Books, Inc.
Humor Publications, Inc.
Junior Books, Inc.
Junior Magazines, Inc.
L. B. Fischer Publishing Corp.
Periodical House, Inc.
Publishers Specialists, Inc.
RAR Publishing Co., Inc.
Readers' Research, Inc.
Red Seal Publications, Inc.
Unity Publishing Corp.
Titles
All-Love / All Love Romances- under Ace Periodicals / Current Books imprint
All-Romances- under AA Wyn / Ace Periodicals imprint
Andy Comics - under Current Publications imprint
Atomic War! - under Ace Periodicals / Junior Books imprint
Baffling Mysteries- under Periodical House imprint
