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Found in a Northern California attic, the highest graded CGC 9.0 copy of Superman #1 should contend for the record of highest price ever paid for a comic book.
Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: joe kubert, MLJ
16 Year Old Joe Kubert Plus the War in Zip Comics #34, Up for Auction
Zip Comics #34 has stories that reflects three different theaters of operation of World War II, plus a backup story by 16 year old Joe Kubert.
Article Summary
- Zip Comics #34 features stories inspired by WWII events across three different global theaters of battle.
- Includes early supernatural backup work by acclaimed artist Joe Kubert at just 16 years old.
- The Web, Steel Sterling, and Black Jack headline tales rooted in real wartime fears and news stories.
- Only 22 graded copies on record, with very few in higher grades, making this issue especially sought-after.
While many World War II-era comics offered broad patriotic themes, as we've chronicled here over the years, some of them reflected specific events of the war a short time after they happened. The lead features of MLJ's Zip Comics #34 have been inspired by war activities in three different theaters of operation. The Web confronts Nazi saboteurs in Alaska, a reflection of the Aleutian Islands Campaign on American soil. Steel Sterling tackles a Nazi plot to steal industrial diamonds from an airplane factory, a possibility that had been noted in newspapers around the time this story was being created. Finally, Black Jack uncovers a spy ring feeding information to enemy submarines off the coast, a situation that had inspired fear over the prior year, so much so that it was used as a plot element in other comics like Pep Comics #32 as well. An MLJ comic book with a rather wild range of wartime themes and a brutal and chaotic cover to match, there's a CGC FN- 5.5 Cream to off-white pages copy of Zip Comics #34 (MLJ, 1943) up for auction in the 2025 October 16 Golden Age Comics Century Showcase Auction III at Heritage Auctions.
Zip Comics #34 also features early work by a 16 year old Joe Kubert, on a supernatural backup featured called Stories of the Black Witch. According to a number of interviews and comments from Kubert over the years, he had entered the comic book business at a very early age, perhaps around 1939. Per GCD, he was coloring Will Eisner's The Spirit in early 1940. His first verifiable pencils and inks are in Holyoke's Catman Comics #8, cover dated march 1942, and went on to do work on that title and Blue Beetle (also at Holyoke at that time) for the next several months. His first known work at MJL/Archie was in Zip Comics #31.
There are only 22 graded copies of this issue on the CGC census, with only six of those graded higher than CGC 5.5. Very few copies above that grade have every been available at public auction, but there's a CGC FN- 5.5 Cream to off-white pages copy of Zip Comics #34 (MLJ, 1943) up for auction in the 2025 October 16 Golden Age Comics Century Showcase Auction III at Heritage Auctions.
Affiliates of Bleeding Cool buy from and/or consign to Heritage Auctions.
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