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The Strange Case of Canada's 1948 Golden Age Flash Comic, at Auction

The unusual 1948 Canadian comic book Flash is a historical oddity, but its circumstances connect it to one of the best-known tabloids of the era.

Sometime in 1948, an unusual-looking comic book called Flash appeared on Canadian newsstands, with two different covers.  It was not the DC Comics superhero Flash, as the import of printed American comic books was banned at that time due to Canada's Foreign Exchange Conservation Act (FECA), which was in effect from November 17, 1947, to January 2, 1951. Flash Comics was near the end of its run by that time and the companies that published DC Comics in Canada during this period, National Comics Publications of Canada and Simcoe Publishing, did not pick up that title.  But there was another publication called Flash in Canada during this period that was well-known throughout the country, and its publisher also happened to publish comic books.

The interior contents of this Flash comic book come from Rucker Publications Scooter #1 from 1946. These contents were also used in Rucker's Rocket Man Comics v2 #1 that same year.  The most famous cover version on this unusual Flash comic is by Paul Gatusso, from Chesler inventory, and first used by Superior's Red Seal #19.  The cover is obviously sized incorrectly for the final trim of this comic book, and the interiors contain no identifiable publishing information. While publication of this comic book is typically attributed to Superior due to the connection to Red Seal #19, there may be a more compelling possibility.

In our brief biography of Canadian publisher Al Rucker, we noted the likelihood that his friend and fellow publisher Lou Ruby (Super Publications) had helped guide Rucker's comics endeavors from early on, due to his hospitalization and passing.  Lou's brother Morris Ruby was also the man behind Superior, and the brothers used their companies to work together in indeterminant ways at times.

Rucker's history was also connected with Toronto's Flash tabloid.  Rucker launched his own tabloid the Week-Ender after the tabloid he worked for, Hush, split from its printer.  The printer supported the launch of the Week-Ender, and in 1937 teamed with Hush's former distributor to found a new tabloid, Flash.  Rucker's friend Lou Ruby acquired the Toronto tabloid Flash in 1947 and quickly made it the centerpiece of his public identity.  He named his private stable of racehorses Flash Farms.

The best-known of the Rucker comic book output is the title Weekender, which was a reuse of the name of his the Week-Ender tabloid.  This gives us all the elements needed to explain the circumstances of the 1948 Canadian one-shot comic Flash.  Lou Ruby borrowed the Rucker example of naming the comic after his tabloid; it also uses Rucker Publications interiors with a Chesler-originated Paul Gattuso cover (first seen on Superior's Red Seal Comics #19) and was published by some combination of Lou Ruby and/or Morris Ruby.  It should also be noted that CGC refers to this issue as "Flash Comic Section", and while there's no indication of that on the comic itself, we speculated that this was Al Rucker's original intent for his comic book version of Weekender, so it's not impossible that Lou Ruby originally had the same intent for this comic book for use with his Flash tabloid.

Flash #nn (1948, Canada) has long been of interest to collectors for that great Paul Gatusso cover image and also for the mystery behind its publication.   There's a FN- condition copy up for auction at the 2025 March 13 Canadian Golden Age Comics Showcase Auction #40290.

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