Number 1242: Luck be a Lady

This is the third of four postings this week from Quality Comics.

Why did Lady Luck only last five issues? I’d think she would have lasted longer just based on the pin-up aspect alone. Or maybe that was the problem. Around the time the Lady Luck comic book appeared in 1949 the critics of comics were in their battle armor and rattling their sabers. There were many other sexy female characters in comics, ranging from Sheena to Katy Keene, and despite them perhaps Quality lost its nerve about publishing sexy comic books. They also published the queen of comic book pin-ups, Torchy, and toned her down. So Lady Luck was Lady Out-of-Luck. Regardless, Lady Luck was a good character (part of Will Eisner’s Spirit Section in newspapers, published in four-page installments, and reprinted in Smash Comics #’s 42-85).

Klaus Nordling is credited with drawing and writing Lady Luck. He died at age 76 in 1986.

From Lady Luck #86 (1949).*

*Actually the first issue. It was continued from Smash Comics, which ended at #85.