Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: Ace Periodicals, Captain Courageous, golden age

Captain Courageous in the Elusive Banner Comics, Up for Auction

Sort of a patriotic force of nature, Captain Courageous appeared when needed to defend Democracy in the rare Banner Comics series.

Ace Periodicals' Banner Comics title starts off with a little bit of a mystery: the series begins with issue #3.  Typically, this would mean that the series changed titles after the first two issues, sometimes even from a non-comics title, but there's no apparent match for that scenario on the Ace Periodicals timeline.  The debut of Captain Courageous in that issue isn't much less of a mystery.  The character may have been created by Jim Mooney, but that is far from clear. Captain Courageous's origin and powers are vague.  He is super strong and durable, and appears to defend Democracy when needed — kind of a patriotic force of nature.  This sort of superheroic shorthand was not uncommon outside of major publishers like DC Comics, Marvel/Timely, and Fawcett.  After the Golden Age had progressed for a bit, some publishers relied on the assumption that the readership understood the conventions of superhero stories, and given that stories might be 8-16 pages long in this era, they just got down to the business of setting up a storytelling conflict and rolling with it.  With a name like Captain Courageous, perhaps that all makes sense after all, and there's one of the rarest Ace Periodicals comics ever published available here with a CGC 3.0 copy of Banner Comics #5 (Ace, 1942) up for auction along with copies of #3 and #4 in the up for auction in the 2024 August 1 – 2 Rarities of the Golden Age Comics Showcase Auction #40259 at Heritage Auctions.

The name Captain Courageous might have been inspired by a 1937 MGM movie of that name, which was itself based on an 1897 Rudyard Kipling novel, though certainly, it's an obvious enough name for a heroic character.  The Banner Comics title lasted #3-5 and was then retitled Captain Courageous for the final issue #6.  The title also included the seemingly Captain America and Bucky-inspired Lone Warrior and Dicky among others throughout the series. Captain Courageous himself subsequently appeared in Ace's Four Favorites.

Banner Comics and the rest of the Ace comic book line was edited by Frederick Gardener in its early era.  A longtime magazine and pulp editor, Gardener edited Screen Book magazine for Fawcett 1928-1932.  He went on to edit the pulp Conflict for Centaur Publications around 1932-1934, then moved to Teck Publications as editor of Wild West Stories and Complete Novel Magazine.  He began his association with Ace as the editor of the pulp Romance Round-Up in 1936.  Gardener also had a long run as art director and editor on the Ace aviation magazine Flying Aces and its successor Flying Age during the 1940s.

The extremely brief Banner Comics run certainly implies a lack of sales success for the title, and like many Ace Periodicals comics, this short run is tough, with issue #5 considered among the most difficult to obtain Ace titles by knowledgable collectors.  But there's a CGC 3.0 copy of Banner Comics #5 (Ace, 1942) up for auction along with copies of #3 and #4 in the up for auction in the 2024 August 1 – 2 Rarities of the Golden Age Comics Showcase Auction #40259 at Heritage Auctions.

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