Captain Freedom Saves New York City in Speed Comics #28, at Auction

Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: golden age, Harvey Comics

Before the Guardian and the Newsboy Legion there was Captain Freedom and the newsboy gang referred to as the Young Defenders in Speed Comics.

Undeniably, the lure of an intriguing cowl performs a big function in sparking a collector’s curiosity in Golden Age comedian books, and the weird cowl of Speed Comics #28 is one other nice instance. Published by Harvey Comics at the peak of World War II in 1943, the quilt right here by an unknown artist serves as vivid symbolism of the life-and-death combat in opposition to world menaces throughout World War II. This extraordinarily tough-to-get situation options Captain Freedom in a face-off with a gargantuan Nazi monster, and an inside story to match. This one not often comes up on the market at public public sale, however there is a Speed Comics #28 (Harvey, 1943) CGC GD- 1.8 Light tan to off-white pages up for public sale in the 2023 July 13 – 14 Pre-Code Horror & Crime Comics Showcase Auction #40227 at Heritage Auctions.

A more in-depth look at this cowl reveals that the German monster is wielding a gasoline gun of some kind in opposition to helpless residents, and the “story behind the cover” textual content story in this situation explains this example in element. Captain Freedom’s associates, the Young Defenders, had found an unknown scheme by three German saboteurs in New York City. The Young Defenders adopted the Germans to the Denbix Aircraft Company testing grounds and found that they deliberate to make use of the wind tunnel there to blow poison gasoline fired from unusual gasoline weapons over a lot of New York City, killing seven million residents in the method. Captain Freedom appeared on the scene simply as this plan was being put into motion, stopping this disaster. Whoever drew this cowl took a symbolic method to his task, successfully encapsulating the story into a bit of artwork that might appeal to consideration on the newsstands at a look.

Captain Freedom debuted in Speed Comics #13 in 1941, conceived because the patriotic alter-ego of a newspaper writer Don Wright. He was assisted by the Young Defenders, a bunch of 4 newsboys who offered papers for Wright’s Daily Bulletin. Notably, this dynamic precedes the debut of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby‘s Guardian and the Newsboy Legion by nearly a 12 months. The function ran in Speed Comics #13-44.

Interestingly, Speed Comics #28 has not been auctioned continuously. In the previous 20 years, solely 4 CGC-graded copies have been identified to alter arms at public public sale. A fantastic war-era cowl with a fantastic Captain Freedom story behind it, there is a Speed Comics #28 (Harvey, 1943) CGC GD- 1.8 Light tan to off-white pages up for public sale in the 2023 July 13 – 14 Pre-Code Horror & Crime Comics Showcase Auction #40227 at Heritage Auctions.