Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: crime comics, golden age, prize comics

The Roller Derby Racketeers and Other Headline Comics, Up for Auction

Published Sun, 04 Sep 2022 15:18:10 -0500

We've recently covered its overlooked Simon & Kirby material and its historic debut of the first atomic-age hero, but overall, Headline Comics might be one of the most underappreciated series of its era. This Prize Comics Group series lasted for 77 issues from February 1943 to September-October 1956, comfortably transitioning from the Golden Age, to the Atomic Age, and even through to the early Silver Age. With the exception of Atomic Man's relatively brief run in the title, Headline Comics was never superhero-focused, which perhaps explains why it was so easily able to adapt to the changing winds of the comic book market. Like a lot of Prize Comics Group series, Headline Comics is deserving of more attention, and there are 28 issues out of the 77-issue Headline Comics run, including the tough early numbers from issue #1 on up for auction in the 2022 September 4-5 Sunday & Monday Comic Books Select Auction #122236 at Heritage Auctions.

Headline Comics #70 (Prize, 1955), cover by Marvin Stein

Headline Comics started out with a cover feature called the Junior Rangers, who were a group of kids fighting the war in the vein of Simon & Kirby's Boy Commandos. The group was in part inspired to take the battle to the Nazis by a cameo by Prize Comics superheroes Yank and Doodle in the first issue. Atomic Man took over the covers of the series for issues #17-19, but Joe Simon and Jack Kirby would set the tone for what the series would largely become beginning with issue #23. This era of the series would include a short but memorable run of crime-focused photo covers in 1949-1950, including the famous Headline Comics #37 which features a photo of Jack Kirby himself posing as a gangster being arrested. Seemingly trying to escape the crime genre as the Comics Code era began, the series shifted to cover feature the adventures of newsman Flash Cameron, Photographer. A final shift towards a war-themed cover (the interior story was about soldiers encountering a UFO during WWII) apparently couldn't save the tile, which ended with issue #77.

Showcase #4 from DC Comics, which features the debut of Barry Allen as Flash and is widely considered the debut of the Silver Age, was on the newsstands just as Headline Comics was ending. By then, the title had covered a lot of fascinating ground since its 1943 debut, and there are 28 issues out of the 77-issue Headline Comics run, including the tough early numbers from issue #1 on up for auction in the 2022 September 4-5 Sunday & Monday Comic Books Select Auction #122236 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.