T-MAN

Quality Comics, which later became Fox Feature Syndicate and whose characters were even later purchased by DC Comics, had an impressive run of original characters, several of which remain to date and a couple of which have achieved cult hero status. One of Quality's premiere magazines was Police Comics, an interesting name since its first issue might have dealt with crime fighting but the presence of actual police is tangential at best.

Issue #1, released in August, 1941, introduced a slew of new characters as the comic was throughout its life an anthology. Several of these newcomers came and went quickly, as was not uncommon, but a couple would prove very long-lasting. Plastic Man and the Phantom Lady made their debut in the pages of this first issue and would remain for some time.

Phantom Lady would remain with the magazine for 23 issues before going off on her own way including getting her own title. Plastic Man would also get his own magazine as time went along but he still stuck with Police Comics as well.

Towards the end of 1950, though, change was coming to Quality Comics, as it was to the whole industry, and superheroes were disappearing quickly. The big guys like Batman and Superman would stick around but many of the anthology mags would gradually reduce the men-in-tights stories and going to men-in-fedoras.

For Police Comics, the change took place with issue #103 (Dec. 1950) and it was abrupt. #102 had two Plastic Man stories and one The Spirit story, along with a cop story and a couple of smaller pieces. The next issue, coming out two months later, had no superhero in it and had totally changed the direction of the magazine, a direction which would remain for the remaining two dozen issues.

The star of the revised Police Comics was a "rough, touch, and rugged Private Eye" named Ken Shannon. He was most definitely in the Mike Hammer / Michael Shayne / Sam Spade ilk and would be popular enough to not only grace the pages of this magazine but would also get his own title as well.

And showing up in that initial revised edition was "Treasury Agent Trask". That was the only time he was titled as such for the next issue would refer to him as "T-Man Trask" and from then on, if he were mentioned on the title page (he usually was not), he was identified just as "T-Man".

Both Trask and Shannon would remain with Police Comics for the 26 more issues it would last. They would also both get their own magazine starting the next Fall (1951) with the solo title coming out every two months and Police Comics coming out monthly. Since each story was totally stand-alone, there was no problem with continuity.

When Police Comics came to an end in October, 1953, the T-Man comic would continue. It ran every two month for a while then switch to monthly in October, 1954.

T-Man came to an end in December, 1956 but it really had stopped with original stories a year earlier. Issue #28 (October 1955) was the first issue to have repeats of stories originally printed in much earlier Police Comics issues. There were still 3 "T-Man" tales in it but they were all repeats. The same for issues #29-38 although the number of stories would vary with addition non-T-Man tales as filler.

[According to the terrific Grand Comic Database, a source for a ton of information, several of the stories in the last couple of issues were changed a fair amount, likely to meet the Comics Code Authority.]

So, it was really with T-Man #27 (September 1955) that the last tales of Pete Trask, T-Man, were told.

Parent company Quality Comics must have been in a sharing mood (or the price was right) because though there would be no new adventures for T-Man, his previous exploits would be repeated numerous times by several different companies. The ones I know about are:

1953 - Magazine Management produced a 4-issue series for T-Man World-Wide Trouble Shooter!, each issue likely containing three tales.

1957 - Horwitz Publications came out with a one-shot T-Man issue with 2 T-Man tales along with others.

1959 - Archer Press, Ltd. in England had a 6-issue series of reprints of T-Man.

1961 - L. Miller and Son had an anthology series of reprints called Voodoo in which issue #9 told three T-Man tales.

1999 - AC Comics had a Men of Mystery anthology series showcasing many tales from earlier decades. At least 7 of these issues had a T-Man story in it.

2002 - AC Comics released a series of anthology comics called Golden Age Greats Spotlight, issue #2 of which had one tale.

When Quality Comics went out of business, powerhouse DC Comics purchased the rights to some (or all) of the properties. If it snatched up Pete Trask, T-Man, it has not yet chosen to do anything with him.