Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: bob powell, Fox Feature Syndicate, Jerry Iger, lou fine, will eisner

Lou Fine & Will Eisner's U-Boat War, Wonderworld Comics #9 at Auction

Lou Fine and Will Eisner's Flame cover feature for Wonderworld Comics #9 was inspired by real U-Boat attacks in the opening moments of WWII.

Wonderworld Comics #9 reached newsstands on November 25, 1939, less than three months after World War II began in Europe, and even at that early moment, its contents reflect the world's emerging new reality. Lou Fine's cover catches the Flame standing on an airplane wing and firing his flame gun in an overall battle involving aircraft, a warship, and a submarine. The nine-page feature story inside is even more specific: an American freighter is torpedoed without warning while crossing the Atlantic toward "war-torn Europe." Unlike some comics from earlier in 1939, this was no longer some abstract war adventure plot. In the weeks before this issue appeared, submarine warfare, neutral shipping, and the safety of Americans at sea had become front-page concerns. Will Eisner and Fine responded with a story whose route, weapons, and diplomatic tensions were drawn from the headlines of the crisis unfolding around the world.

The Flame Enters the U-Boat War

"Raiders of the Deep" opens with survivors struggling in the water as their ship goes down. The attack leads the Flame to General Doyoff, a mercenary commander with a hidden submarine base who offers his services to whichever foreign power pays the most. Doyoff soon orders the American steamer Carlton, sailing from New York to Oslo, destroyed with no survivors. The timing gives that fictional voyage unusual weight. The German submarine U-30 sank the British liner Athenia on September 3, 1939, the day Britain declared war, with Americans among those aboard. On October 9, a German warship seized the American freighter City of Flint; her American master regained control in a Norwegian fjord on November 3. By extraordinary coincidence, the real American steamer Carlton would later be sunk by the German U-88 in 1942.

Eisner returns again here on the script for K-51's "The Three European Dictators," drawn by Bob Powell. Dictators named Diableff, Riano, and Morga plan to conquer and divide Europe, but Morga arranges Riano's death, tries to blame the United States, and intends to betray Diableff after securing a war pact. The inspiration here seems to be the German-Soviet Pact of August 23, which included a secret agreement dividing Eastern Europe into spheres of influence, followed by the German and Soviet invasions of Poland in September.

The rest of Wonderworld Comics #9 demonstrates the incredible roster of talent working on the Fox material at this time. Powell draws K-51, writes and draws Dr. Fung as Arthur Dean, and illustrates the text feature. Claire S. Moe writes and draws the Patty O'Day story as Vic Todd, while Munson Paddock provided the art for the Tex Maxon western. George Tuska draws the last appearance of Mob Buster Robinson, and Klaus Nordling writes and draws the closing Spark Stevens story, and Jerry Iger's Shorty Shortcake. This issue appeared during the closing days of the Eisner-Iger partnership, before Eisner left to develop The Spirit, and Iger continued the packaging operation under his own name.

There are only seven Universal copies on the CGC Census higher graded than CGC 3.0. Wonderworld Comics #9 brings together one of Lou Fine's highly collected Fox covers, two remarkably current Will Eisner war stories, and a deep roster of early Golden Age creators. For collectors interested in the moment American superhero comics first started confronting the war on a more real level, there's a Wonderworld Comics #9 (Fox, 1940) CGC GD/VG 3.0 Cream to off-white pages up for auction at the 2026 August 13 Golden Age Century Comics Showcase Auction V #40377.

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