[1] The format of Top-Notch Comics was very similar to Blue Ribbon Comics; 64 pages of short strips, initially featuring a mixture of science-fiction stories such as "Scott Rand in the Worlds of Time" (#1–2) written by Otto Binder as 'Eando Binder'[2] and drawn by his brother Jack Binder; and "Streak Chandler on Mars" (#4–8),[3] the crime story "Lucky Coyne, Undercover Man" (#1) and true crime detection stories in "Manhunters"[4] by future Plastic Man creator Jack Cole (artist) (#1–3); and a number of adventure tales, "Swift of the Secret Service" (#1–3), "The Mystic" (#1–3), "Dick Storm" (#2–8)[5] and "Stacey Knight, M.D."

[6] Furthering the similarities with Blue Ribbon Comics, the medieval Knights of the Round Table tale "Galahad" by Lim Streeter (#5–11), mirrored the Green Falcon series in that title.

No single character lasted for the whole run of Top-Notch Comics/Top-Notch Laugh Comics, although the costumed hero the Wizard – subtitled "The Man With the Super-Brain", which began in issue #1, ran until #27 (May 1942).

before America enters World War II,[8] was written and drawn by Irv Novick, and later by Jo Blaire and Ed Smalle,[9] "The West Pointer", later renamed "Keith Cornell, West Pointer" (#7–27) which followed Keith Cornell through United States Military Academy and into various theaters of war, "Fran Fraser"', about a girl photographer who travelled the world on adventure assignments, by Irv Novick and Joe Blair (#9–24) and a boxing story, "The St Louis Kid" (#14–26) with artwork mainly by Bob Montana best known for his work on Archie Andrews.

[6] MLJ ran a reader-participation competition in Top-Notch Comics #6 (June 1940), offering 100 prizes to readers who completed a coupon listing their favorite characters.

[11] One of these new humor strips, "Dotty and Ditto" by Bill Woggon (best known for his "Katy Keene" comic) was unusual as it featured a continuing storyline as opposed to single-issue scripts.