Motion Picture Funnies Weekly

Motion Picture Funnies Weekly is a 36-page, black-and-white American comic book series created in 1939, and designed to be a promotional giveaway in movie theaters. While the idea proved unsuccessful, and only a handful of sample copies of issue #1 were printed, the periodical is historically important for introducing the enduring Marvel Comics character Namor the Sub-Mariner, created by writer-artist Bill Everett.

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.

Contents
The first issue included Bill Everett's original eight-page Sub-Mariner origin story,   which was expanded by four pages when it eventually saw print in Marvel Comics #1 (Oct. 1939) — the first publication of Marvel Comics' Golden Age predecessor, Timely Comics, the contents for which were supplied by Funnies, Inc. The final panel on page 8 contained a box reading "Continued Next Week", as well as a notation indicating an April 1939 date for the art. The box remained, sans words and colored in, when reprinted as part of the 12-page story in Marvel Comics #1 (Oct. 1939), and reprinted as the original eight-page story in Marvel's The Invaders #20 (Sept. 1977). As historian Les Daniels writes,

Another Timely character that debuted in Motion Picture Funnies Weekly was writer-artist Paul J. Lauretta's aviator hero the American Ace, whose origin eventually appeared in two six-page stories in Marvel Mystery Comics #2-3 (Dec. 1939 - Jan. 1940), following the renaming of Marvel Comics after issue #1.

Additional features in Motion Picture Funnies Weekly #1 were the adventure strip "Spy Ring" by Jay Fletcher; "Kar Toon and his Copy Cat" by Martin Flichok; an activity page, "Fun-o-graphs," by Vernon Miller; and "Jolly the Newsie" by George Peter.

Cartoonists Fred Schwab or Martin Filchock drew the cover (sources differ). Filchock drew the covers of #2 and #4, and Max Neill the cover of #3; those latter three issues each are signed.