Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: Ace Periodicals, Flash Lightning, golden age

Channeling Shazam and Dr. Fate, the Rare Flash Lightning, at Auction

Published Fri, 29 Jul 2022 10:03:11 -0500

Last updated Fri, 29 Jul 2022 10:58:50 -0500

Ace Periodicals entered the comics field in early 1940 with the title Sure Fire Comics, which featured the character Flash Lightning by Robert Turner and Harry Lucey. A superhero with a broad range of lightning-powered abilities, Flash Lightning's origin takes some fairly obvious inspiration from Fawcett's Captain Marvel. But it is arguably even more similar to the origin of Dr. Fate, and Sure Fire Comics #1 pre-dated Dr. Fate's first-told origin in More Fun Comics #67 by over a year. Robert Morgan was an American studying in Egypt who encountered an ancient Egyptian figure known as "The Old Man of the Pyramids", who taught him ancient arts and sciences, and gave him "the Amulet of Annihilation, the weapon of the forces of right." An underappreciated and rare gem of a comic character from the Golden Age, there's a very tough-to-get example of his exploits in Lightning Comics #5 (Ace, 1941) CGC GD 2.0 Cream to off-white pages and a lot of other tough to get Ace Magazines comic books up for auction in the 2022 July 31-August 1 Sunday & Monday Comic Books Select Auction #122231 at Heritage Auctions.

Sure-Fire Comics was renamed Lightning Comics with issue #4 and lasted until issue #6. Lightning Comics was then rebooted with a new #1 later in 1941. While Flash Lightning's adventures were far more standard superhero fare than Dr. Fate's, the saga made references to Egyptian themes from the obvious "lightning pyramid" symbol on his chest, to the Mummy supervillain that was introduced in issue #5. DC Comics reportedly objected to the "Flash in the character name "Flash Lightning", and the character's name was shortened to simply "Lightning" with issue #6. The series was rebooted with a new #1 in 1941, where he was renamed "Lash" Lightning and the character also appeared in Ace's Four Favorites title.

The entire Ace Periodicals comic book line is woefully underappreciated, a bunch of it is next to impossible to get. But there's a rare chance to get a Lightning Comics #5 (Ace, 1941) CGC GD 2.0 Cream to off-white pages and a lot of other tough to get Ace Magazines comic books up for auction in the 2022 July 31-August 1 Sunday & Monday Comic Books Select Auction #122231 at Heritage Auctions. If you've never bid at Heritage Auctions before, you can get further information, you can check out their FAQ on the bidding process and related matters. It's a particularly good week to take a look with lots of rare Ace Magazines comics, Champ and Champion Comics, Lev Gleason comics, and much more.