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Comics

Comics

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Comic books are most associated with the costumed superhero, but almost every conceivable topic has made it into a comic book at some point in time. Crime stories were a popular genre of the "Golden Age," and Dick Tracy was drawn from Chester Gould's studio in Bull Valley, Illinois for 46 years. That's the town just to the east of Woodstock, the hometown of The Crittenden Automotive Library, and Gould was a fixture in Woodstock's downtown for decades.

Hot rods and racing cars were such popular topics with young boys, a primary consumer market for comic books, that it was inevitable that in November 1951 Charlton Comics debuted a comic book with that exact title: Hot Rods and Racing Cars. It was drawn by comic veteran and car dealer Jack Keller, who would go on through multiple Charlton titles to put car culture of the fifties and sixties into the bright pages of the comic world, but HR&RC would be the most popular and longest running, ending in 1973. Jack Keller would even go on to work for DC Comics on the licensed Hot Wheels comic in 1970 as the automotive industry was about to undergo a sea change and the Silver Age ended in the comic book industry.

Comic book series with automotive themes include:
Drag 'n' Wheels by Charlton Comics
Gipsy (French)/Gypsy (English translation), 1993-1997
Grand Prix by Charlton Comics
Hot Rod Comics by Fawcett Publications, 1951-1953
Hot Rod Racers by Charlton Comics
Hot Rods and Racing Cars by Charlton Comics, 1951-1973
Hot Wheels by DC Comics, 1970-1971
Legends of NASCAR by Vortex Comics, 1990
NASCAR Adventures by Vortex Comics, 1991
Speed Demons, 1957-1958
Speed Smith by Charlton Comics, Spring 1952
Surf 'n' Wheels by Charlton Comics
Teenage Hotrodders by Charlton Comics
World of Wheels by Charlton Comics

Michel Vaillant was a French race car driver character created in 1957 and originally published in a 6-part series in the magazine Tintin, returning in 1959 for a full series, and the character has appeared in 76 volumes of comic books from 1959-2017 as well as a 1967 television miniseries, a 1990 animated series, and a 2003 film.

Automotive-themed graphic novels include:
Steve McQueen in Le Mans by Sandro Garbo, 2016

Manga is a style of graphic novel originating in Japan, produced in smaller and thicker books with more detailed plot lines that are directed at adults as well as teenagers.

Manga series with automotive themes include:
Initial D by Shuuichi Shigeno, 1995-2013
MF Ghost by Shuuichi Shigeno, 2017-____

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Full Comic Books

Issues	Document Name & Details	Documents
Issue 1 November 1951	Hot Rods and Racing Cars Charlton Comics	Issue Page - 33MB - 36 pages
Issue 2 January 1952	Hot Rods and Racing Cars Charlton Comics	Issue Page - 34.1MB - 36 pages
Issue 1 February 1952	Hot Rod and Speedway Comics Hillman Periodicals	Issue Page - 35.3MB - 36 pages
Issue 3 March 1952	Hot Rods and Racing Cars Charlton Comics	Issue Page - 34.5MB - 36 pages
Spring 1952	Speed Smith Ziff-Davis	Issue Page - 20.6MB - 36 pages
Issue 4 May 1952	Hot Rods and Racing Cars Charlton Comics	Issue Page - 35.3MB - 36 pages
Issue 4 August 1952	Hot Rod Comics Fawcett	Issue Page - 17.9MB - 36 pages
Issue 1 Fall 1952	Hot Rod King Ziff-Davis	Issue Page - 21.8MB - 36 pages
Issue 6 September 1952	Hot Rods and Racing Cars Charlton Comics	Issue Page - 32.5MB - 36 pages
Issue 2 September 1952	Hot Rod and Speedway Comics Hillman Periodicals	Issue Page - 13.0MB - 36 pages
Issue 3 December 1952	Hot Rod and Speedway Comics Hillman Periodicals	Issue Page - 35.1MB - 36 pages
Issue 6 December 1952	Hot Rod Comics Fawcett	Issue Page - 35.1MB - 36 pages
Issue 8 February 1953	Hot Rods and Racing Cars Charlton Comics	Issue Page - 18.4MB - 36 pages
Issue 7 February 1953	Hot Rod Comics Fawcett	Issue Page - 38.9MB - 36 pages
Issue 5 April 1953	Hot Rod and Speedway Comics Hillman Periodicals	Issue Page - 32.8MB - 36 pages
Issue 10 June 1953	Hot Rods and Racing Cars Charlton Comics	Issue Page - 31.8MB - 35 pages
Issue 11 August 1953	Hot Rods and Racing Cars Charlton Comics	Issue Page - 22.9MB - 36 pages
Issue 22 May 1955	Hot Rods and Racing Cars Charlton Comics	Issue Page - 34.0MB - 36 pages
Issue 24 September 1955	Hot Rods and Racing Cars Charlton Comics	Issue Page - 26.9MB - 36 pages
Issue 5 February 1957	Speed Demons Charlton Comics	Issue Page - 34.8MB - 36 pages
Issue 6 May 1957	Speed Demons Charlton Comics	Issue Page - 33.6MB - 36 pages
Issue 7 August 1957	Speed Demons Charlton Comics	Issue Page - 33.8MB - 36 pages
Issue 33 November 1957	Hot Rods and Racing Cars Charlton Comics	Issue Page - 57.7MB - 36 pages
Issue 8 November 1957	Speed Demons Charlton Comics	Issue Page - 34.1MB - 36 pages
Issue 9 January 1958	Speed Demons Charlton Comics	Issue Page - 34.5MB - 36 pages
Issue 10 March 1958	Speed Demons Charlton Comics	Issue Page - 34.8MB - 36 pages
Issue 37 October 1958	Hot Rods and Racing Cars Charlton Comics	Issue Page - 34.3MB - 36 pages
Issue 60 November 1962	Hot Rods and Racing Cars Charlton Comics	Issue Page - 11.8MB - 36 pages
Issue 2 June 1963	Teenage Hotrodders Charlton Comics	Issue Page - 9.6MB - 36 pages
Issue 64 July 1963	Hot Rods and Racing Cars Charlton Comics	Issue Page - 20.7MB - 36 pages
Issue 4 October 1963	Teenage Hotrodders Charlton Comics	Issue Page - 10.0MB - 36 pages
Issue 6 February 1964	Teenage Hotrodders Charlton Comics	Issue Page - 11.1MB - 36 pages
Issue 68 March 1964	Hot Rods and Racing Cars Charlton Comics	Issue Page - 9.3MB - 36 pages
Issue 7 May 1964	Teenage Hotrodders Charlton Comics	Issue Page - 9.1MB - 36 pages
Issue 8 July 1964	Teenage Hotrodders Charlton Comics	Issue Page - 40.4MB - 36 pages
Issue 70 September 1964	Hot Rods and Racing Cars Charlton Comics	Issue Page - 29.8MB - 36 pages
Issue 11 February 1965	Teenage Hotrodders Charlton Comics	Issue Page - 12.7MB - 32 pages
Issue 13 July 1965	Teenage Hotrodders Charlton Comics	Issue Page - 13.1MB - 33 pages
Issue 5 September 1965	Hot Rod Racers Charlton Comics	Issue Page - 29.2MB - 36 pages
Issue 17 March 1966	Teenage Hotrodders Charlton Comics	Issue Page - 13.2MB - 36 pages
Issue 8 April 1966	Hot Rod Racers Charlton Comics	Issue Page - 25.2MB - 36 pages
Issue 79 May 1966	Hot Rods and Racing Cars Charlton Comics	Issue Page - 30.5MB - 36 pages
Issue 9 July 1966	Hot Rod Racers Charlton Comics	Issue Page - 20.1MB - 36 pages
Issue 19 August 1966	Teenage Hotrodders Charlton Comics	Issue Page - 16.6MB - 36 pages
Issue 21 December 1966	Teenage Hotrodders Charlton Comics	Issue Page - 9.3MB - 36 pages
Issue 14 May 1967	Hot Rod Racers Charlton Comics	Issue Page - 20.3MB - 36 pages
Issue 85 June 1967	Hot Rods and Racing Cars Charlton Comics	Issue Page - 26.4MB - 36 pages

Segments

Stories and covers from comic books that aren't entirely about cars or racing.

Subject:  Cover of All-Time Sports Date:  April-May 1949 View cover of All-Time Sports, April-May 1949 - 260KB

Issues	Document Name & Details	Documents
Issue 4 Excerpt October 1953	Teenage Temptations: Flirtation on Wheels St. John	Story Page - 9.2MB - 8 pages

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Strips & Shorts

Comic strips and single-panel daily or weekly comics usually featured in newspapers. Some are regularly automotive-themed, others are stories or single items from regularly non-automotive comics.

Gasoline Alley - November 1918 through December 1921

	Strip:  Outta Luck Club Source:  Washington Times Date:  25 December 1922 View Outta Luck Club 25 December 1922
	Strip:  The Xmas Waits Source:  Washington Times Date:  25 December 1922 View The Xmas Waits 25 December 1922
	Strip:  Outta Luck Club Source:  Washington Times Date:  26 December 1922 View Outta Luck Club 26 December 1922
	Strip:  Abie the Agent Source:  Washington Times Date:  27 December 1922 View Abie the Agent 27 December 1922
	Strip:  Outta Luck Club Source:  Washington Times Date:  27 December 1922 View Outta Luck Club 27 December 1922
	Strip:  Outta Luck Club Source:  Washington Times Date:  28 December 1922 View Outta Luck Club 28 December 1922
	Strip:  Outta Luck Club Source:  Washington Times Date:  29 December 1922 View Outta Luck Club 29 December 1922
	Strip:  Bringing Up Father Source:  The Ludington Daily News Date:  24 May 1929 View Bringing Up Father 24 May 1929
	Strip:  Sweetie Pie Source:  The Pittsburgh Press Date:  29 November 1955 View Day Shift 29 November 1955
	Strip:  Sweetie Pie Source:  The Pittsburgh Press Date:  29 November 1955 View Sweetie Pie 29 November 1955

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Article Index

Date	Article	Details
12 December 2005	The Hardballers Thunder Across America A new comic book featuring four beautiful leather-clad women on a road to vengeance.	Press Release ( PDF) Author: Craig Knight Business: Coolhandz USA Productions Topic: The Hardballers