Posted in: Comics | Tagged: archie comics, Golden Age comic, MLJ, Pep Comics

Diving Into the Comics Vault: Pep Comics #2

Published Sat, 28 Mar 2020 14:30:59 -0500

Pep Comics #2 is an eye catching comic. Featuring The Shield going against some bad guys, kids can see immediately that Shield is bulletproof, and ready for a fight.

The comic opens with exactly that — a fight. The Shield is going after whomever has made 5 American oil tankers vanish near Puerto Rico. The FBI sends Shield to Puerto Rico to investigate, but when his plane is hijacked, Shield has to play it calm and cool. The guys who overthrew the pilots are sending a ship into harm's way — will Shield be able to save the day? Well, yes. The outcome of these Golden Age stories are overwhelmingly in favor of the good guy, in an effort to keep the American morale up.

After Shield, The Comet has another fun adventure. I'm starting to grow fond of the mostly forgotten hero. In this story he's going after some monster that appears in the Florida sky, threatening people. This sounds about right for the state of Florida, but the Comet still has to do the right thing. Comet winds up in some lair within the Florida everglades, where he discovers that the skyline monster is a hologram projected from a blimp. The Comet takes the blimp down, the day is saved.

We then have an animal one pager, more of The Rocket and the Queen of Diamonds. I feel like The Queen of Diamonds would make for a good reboot. This series is very reminiscent of Buck Rodgers and especially Flash Gordon — it's a shame it didn't make a big splash. After we have a short story called "When the Redmen Rode", which starts with telling the reader that the peaceful frontier people were mistreated by Native Americans. I skipped over this.

Kayo Ward is next. The up and coming boxer is feeling blue as his girlfriend, Connie, has not written to him in three weeks. The real charm of these Golden Age books is moments like these. Pop culture is a great way to learn about how daily life was in a certain time period. This is one just example. While we don't really write letters (for now), we do text and email each other. I guess the more things change, the more they stay the same.

The rest of the comic features Sergeant Boyle, a one pager on Spies that Made History, The Press Guardian, Fu Chang, Prince Buttonhead (a fun and quirky comic, and very Archie-esque), The Midshipman, and Bently of Scotland Yard. This anthology comic is easy to digest and read, and paints a very real picture of how Archie Comics would become once the war effort was over. The art is delightful and fun, and also very colorful. The inkers of this time did a good job.

Overall this a great comic to read, or even own!

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