In the summer of 1949, Marvel decided to bring its successful sports pulps to the Atlas comic-book line, launching Sport Stars #1, which became Sports Action with its second issue, the same name as one of his most successful sports pulps of the 1930s. Across fourteen tumultuous issues, the artistic cream of the Timely/Atlas crop (Syd Shores, Joe Maneely, Bill Everett, Bob Powell, Gene Colan, George Tuska, Bernard Krigstein, and others) told biographical stories about sports heroes of the 1930s and 1940s in all the major sports: Knute Rockne (football), Hack Wilson (baseball), Man O’War (horse racing), Herman Sandow (physical culture), Bronco Nagurski (football), Ralph Kiner (baseball), Phil Rizzuto (baseball), Warren Spahn (baseball), Sugar Ray Robinson (boxing), Jackie Robinson (baseball), and Niles Kinnick, the 1939 Heisman Trophy winner of the Iowa Hawkeyes, among a score of others! These never before collected stories add to the historical Timely/Atlas tapestry, providing another window into the variety and breadth of Marvel’s early history.
