[4] Steel Sterling was supported by a number of other long-running series, the war adventure "War Eagles, the Devil's Flying Twins" (#1–27) by Ed Smalle, concerning two young American airmen who join the Royal Air Force to continue a feud with a German pilot who was their fencing adversary; "Captain Valor" 'the hard-bitten adventurer' by Mort Meskin (#1–26), who 'resigns his commission in the U.S. Marine Corps to seek adventure, because the Marines are no longer exciting enough for him' [5] and heads for the Far East; the costumed crime-fighting magician "Zambini the Miracle Man" – (#1–35), called "The Miracle Man, Zambini the Magician" in issue #1 only, by Ed Wexler, "Nevada Jones, Quick Trigger Man" (#1–25), a 'cowboy Cattle Detective' forced to become a masked outlaw doing good in secret after being framed for murder; and the masked gangbuster "Scarlet Avenger" (#1–17).

These stories were accompanied in early issues by "Kalthar the Giant Man" 'King of the Jungle' (#1–9) by Lin Streeter and the adventurer "Mr Satan" (#1–9) an 'International Detective and Soldier of Fortune' .

In the early Zip Comics there was only one humor strip, "Mugsy" by Kim Platt (#1-#6), about a dog who always ended up back in the pet shop window because of his escapades.

Published four months before MLJ's most successful character, "Archie Andrews", Wilbur was also a teen humor strip that outlasted his home title, graduating to his own long-running series in 1944 after appearing for the rest of the Zip Comics run.

[3] From then on until the end of the series only one other non-humor strip ran in Zip Comics, orphan Rueben Rueben, "Red Rube", a superhero who could call on the powers of his ancestors (who were all called Reuben Reuben) by saying 'Hey Rube' , and who replaced Steel Sterling as the star on the cover from his first issue, most in a humorous style instead of the war/adventure scenarios of the earlier Steel Sterling Zip Comics covers.