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Nina Albright Cover & The Mask's Debut, Suspense Comics 2 at Auction

Suspense Comics is a highly regarded Golden Age series, and issue #2 features a cover by Nina Albright and a story Death in the Fourth Dimension featuring The Mask.

Published Wed, 16 Jul 2025 10:47:02 -0500

by Mark Seifert

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Article Summary

Suspense Comics #2 features a rare Golden Age cover by pioneering female artist Nina Albright.
The issue debuts science-fiction hero The Mask in the story Death in the Fourth Dimension.
Stories blend crime, horror, adventure, and wartime propaganda, reflecting the era’s tone.
Only a handful of Suspense Comics #2 copies exist, making it highly sought-after by collectors.

Suspense Comics #3 tends to get all of the attention on this series due to the notoriety of its cover, but the entire Suspense Comics series is special for a variety of reasons. In addition to that now-legendary Alex Schomburg cover on issue #3, much of the rest of the series has become more popular over the decades as more and more collectors have become aware of its L.B. Cole covers. But Suspense Comics #2 with its cover by Nina Albright, is also worthy of such attention, and is a prominent example of a cover by a female artist in the Golden Age. Hitting newsstands in early 1944, at the height of the Second World War and published by the short-lived but notable Continental Magazines, this issue is a microcosm of the series and of its era itself, blending crime, horror, adventure, and wartime propaganda. It also features the debut of the science-fiction hero known as The Mask by Jack Grogan and Jack Alderman, and a horror tale called Vampire Moon drawn by John Giunta. A tough to get and underappreciated Golden Age comic, there's a Suspense Comics #2 (Continental Magazines, 1944) CBCS VG- 3.5 copy up for auction in the 2025 July 18 Golden Age Comics Century Showcase Auction.

A vintage comic book cover featuring a woman in a red dress fleeing from a shadowy figure, alongside a dramatic scene from a story titled "Death in the Fourth Dimension," showcasing a masked character and various characters reacting in surprise. — Suspense Comics #2 (Continental Magazines, 1944).

The cover of Suspense Comics #2 by Nina Albright captures the intent of the Suspense Comics series very well. A terrified blonde woman is pursued by the menacing, distorted shadow of a sinister figure… almost reminiscent of the film Nosferatu, and certainly more directly inspired by the film noir movement of the 1940s. Albright (1907-1997) was one of the few female artists working in the American comic book industry during this period. A graduate of the prestigious Pratt Institute, she was a versatile and prolific freelancer, working through various studios, including those of L.B. Cole and Bernard Baily, for publishers like Fiction House and Holyoke.

One of the most interesting interior stories here is Death in the Fourth Dimension, which marks the first appearance of a character with the relatively common name of The Mask. Written by Jack Grogan and drawn by Jack Alderman, the story introduces boy inventor Steve Sampson, who wears a mask and costume to foil the blackmail schemes of a villain using a "Fourth Dimension Television Receiver" to view the past. Another story, "Manhattan Episode," written and drawn by Marc Borgatta, follows two plainclothes detectives who stumble upon a gang of payroll robbers. In a twist ending, the mysterious woman they've been tailing is revealed to be Georgia McKee, "the head of the FBI Female Division," who takes down the gang herself. The issue is rounded out with an L.B. Cole-drawn adventure, a psychological horror tale, "Vampire Moon" by John Giunta that prefigures EC Comics' approach, and two blatant pieces of wartime propaganda.

The Photo-Journal Guide to Comic Books rates this issue a "7" or "scarce," estimating that only 21-50 copies exist. The CGC census bears this out, with only 25 total copies certified to date. An underappreciated issue of a highly sought-after Golden Age series, there's a Suspense Comics #2 (Continental Magazines, 1944) CBCS VG- 3.5 copy up for auction in the 2025 July 18 Golden Age Comics Century Showcase Auction. If you've never bid at Heritage Auctions before, you can get further information by checking out their FAQ on the bidding process and related matters.