The idea of licensing Double Action Pictures seems to have been developed in 1939 as a way of promoting The Sentinel serial series. A comic book "shop" called Rosewood Art Creations contracted to produce Issue #1 of DOUBLE ACTION JUMBO COMICS a 64-page book which would feature "The Spy-Smashing Adventures of The Sentinel." Someone apparently realized other D-A properties could be used to fill out the book, backing up the 12 page cover story were a second Sentinel story 8 pages long, 8-page "Range Mavericks" western, an 8-page car racing mystery story that was based on the "Speed Demons" feature film, an 8-page story starring The Sentinels female sidekick Solitaire (going undercover as a showgirl in a nightclub to unmask a spy ring) , an 8-page swimming race story apparently based on the Jennifer Garnet/Jane Barrett film WHERE THE HEART IS, then two 6 page stories--a Jungle Action story that seems to have been based on the serial JUNGLE TRAIL TO DANGER and then another western 6-pager based on THE PHANTOM SHERIFF. Rosewood supplied the artists and writers. Judging by his memos, studio head Richard Fannin kept a close eye on the project which was reasonably faithful to the source material.

It will be noted that while the story content of the issue was prim and proper, The Solitaire Story--"Undercover Show Girl" and the swimming story: "Dangerous When Wet" featuire excellent "Good Girl Art" with girls in sexy nightclub showgirl attire and swimsuits.

Rosewood also arranged for the publication under its RED ROSE COMICS banner and was released in June 1939 and sold well enough to encourage the publishing of more issues on a quarterly basis, thus the second issue was cover dated Fall 1939. (Rosewood was founded and run by Calvin Rose, a shrewd former artist who realized the real money in comics belonged to the publishers. Prying Double-Action's fair share of the profits was to keep D-A attorneys busy for years, but it must be admitted Rose and his associates turned out well-written, well-drawn comics that kept Fannin coming back despite the dfifficulties working with Calvin Rose created). Fannin always said: "When it came to the content, Rose and I were a team, but trusting his accounting was another story.,"

Double Action Jumbo Comics, V1 N.1 Summer 1939

Double Action Jumbo Comics, V,1 N.2 Fall 1939

The second issue which featured a mammoth 36-page Sentinel and Solitaire vs  "The Master of War" who seeks to gather and refine superweapons from all nations which he then plans to sell back to the highest bidder after using them to attack a South American country. Many great war machines blown up not top mention the War Master's sexy spy queen

Bella Donna who gives Solitaire many tough moments before the American shoots her down in a fierce aerial dogfight. (Meanwhile The Sentinel and his ragtag but determined guerrilla storm the Master's base hidden in a great dam that is blown up to sweep the Master and his death machines to destruction.

Backing up this epic tale is a 12 page "Range Mavericks" (which unlike the first issue story now includes the expect good girl vs bad girl fight action). An 8 page "Jungle Trails" adventure with one jungle girl fighting an impostor to become queen of a "Lost City of Ivory". Plus an 8 page change-of-pace humorous story about a rivalry between a female reporter and female cop to expose a ring of society girls who pull off cat burglars for the thrill of it. This one reads like it should have been a D-A story with a well-done finale in which the detective and reporter duke it out against the 5 "Cats of Crime".

The book was a sell-out and very quickly Red Rose Comics was publishing a variety of more specialized titles: DOUBLE-ACTION WESTERN COMICS ,and DOUBLE ACTION WILD WEST COMICS, (between 1943 and 1945 when publishers had to deal with a wartime paper shortage, these books were published on alternate months allowing Red Rose to have a western comic out every month. Initially featuring the Trail Busters, the Busters were reduced to back-up status and The Midnight Rider and The Six Gun Sisters came to dominate covers. DOUBLE ACTION ADVENTURE COMICS was built around the heroines of the ADVENTURE ISLAND serial who find themselves plunged in a time vortex by the beautiful but deranged  Doktor Katrina Kronos who believes she can control time. Issue after issue sees the Adventure Girls fighting Doktor Katrina's allies (lady pirates, amazons, women warriors of all eras, created when the Doktor tampers with the timestream to make it more to her liking.

Things really got hopping with DOUBLE ACTION FUN COMICS which featured the comic adventures of the Donnybrook Girls in every issue beginning in 1941. The comic book tended to keep Faith, Hope and Charity at the orphanage and constantly embroiled in amusing action with the rich, snotty girls of Parkwood Academy next door. One typical story "Cruising for a K.O. " (Double-Action Fun Comics v2 n, 1 January 1942) finds the DG's tricked out of the money they had been entrusted by the school to buy tickets for a pleasure cruise at a nearby lake. Instead of the nice boat they were supposed to be renting, the girls find they've rented a broken down steamboat. Undaunted, the DG's manage to trick the Parkwood girl out of the luxury yacht they've rented for their own party and leave them stranded overnight in their swimsuits on island after they lose their latest brawl with the Donnybrook Girls. Next morning the DG's rescue the mosquitoe bitten and shivering Parkwoods who find being rescued by their archr-rivals even more humiliating.

Also in 1941, Red Rose Comics launched DOUBLE-ACTION WILD WEST COMICS which initially featured Range Mavericks/TrailBusters but soon switched over to such female heroines as The Midnight Rider and, surprisingly The Cheyenne Wildcat, who appeared in only one D-A western,but had a long career in WILD WEST COMICS. Naturally when THE SIX GUN SISTERS series replaced THE MIDNIGHT RIDER, it was soon starring in WILD WEST COMICS.

One of the more interesting was Red Rose's 1947-51 DOUBLE-ACTION OUTLAWS, a mixture of crime comics and the western, but featured female outlaws being brought to justice by more law-abiding western females (BELLE STARR appeared frequently sometimes on the side of the law,sometimes against it, depending oin which issue you bought.  Red Rose was not big on story continuity especially in the later years of its association with D-A when the studio did not maintain a tight control on its characters)

Of course,themost significantcharacter to comeout of D-A's comic book venture was The Blue Guardian, who first appeared as a back-up story in a 1942 Double-Action Jumbo Comics, then popping up in the back pages of Double-Action Adventures and Double-Action Thrillers before settling down in 1943 as the cover feature for Double-Action Detective Comics. Then  the need of a costumed female character (Wonder Woman and The Phantom Lady's publishers having priced themselves out of D-A's budget) made D-A turn to the character they already owned: The Blue Guardian for the 1947 serial WEB OF THE BLACK SPIDER.)

The popularity of "jungle girl" comics such as "Sheena" was not unnoticed by Red Rose which made use of Double-Actions "Jaguar Girl" character from the serials "The Jaguar Girl" and its sequel "The Jaguar Queen". Set in "the lost jungles of the Amazon" the Jaguar Girl battled an impressive variety of sexy and combative female villainesses through three dozen issues of Double Action Jungle Fighters beginning in 1943 and running to 1948.

Double Action Thrillers which began in 1942 at first featured a variety D-A mystery movie adaptations built around a curvy, but shrewd and hard-punching red-haired detective called "Scarlett Steele". For instance, Scarlett solved amurder at a beauty contest that was clearly borrowed from D-A's classic "Beauty Pageant Muirders".