Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: fox features syndicate, Matt Baker, phantom lady, victor fox

The Strangest Phantom Lady Adventure of the Golden Age, at Auction

After a seven-issue start as a funny animal title, Victor Fox company Fox Features Syndicate transformed its All Top Comics series into the kind of content it has become best known for to collectors in the decades since.  The title is best remembered today for its jungle girl-centric content featuring the likes of Rulah and Jo-Jo (who was of course not a jungle girl himself, but had adventures with plenty of characters who were), along with stellar content from the likes of artists Jack Kamen and Matt Baker. But the series has quite a bit more going for it than that, with the inclusion of typically stand-out Blue Beetle and Phantom Lady stories as well.  And as it happens, the Phantom Lady story in All Top Comics #10 by legendary artist Matt Baker is one of the most unusual stories featuring the character during the Golden Age.  There's a copy of All Top Comics #10 (Fox Features Syndicate, 1948) CGC FN+ 6.5 Cream to off-white pages featuring this weird and wonderfully historic story up for auction in this week's 2021 August 8-9 Sunday & Monday Comic Books Select Auction #122132 from Heritage Auctions.

As we've seen recently, many of Phantom Lady's adventures of this era were pretty typical crime comic (or even true crime) stories, but this tale in All Top Comics #10 is another thing entirely.  Via a connection made through her father who was a United States Senator, Sandra Knight stumbled upon a spy intent on stealing America's atomic bomb plans.  This early-1948 story is a clear reaction to the "Atomic Spy" scare that made frequent headlines throughout the prior two years.  As it happens, things were even worse than they appeared at the time that All Top Comics #10 hit the newsstands.  The most damaging Atomic Spy of all, theoretical physicist Klaus Fuchs, was still stealing secrets regarding the development of the hydrogen bomb at the time.

A fascinating product of the history of its time with a Jack Kamen cover and Matt Baker Phantom Lady art, there's a copy of All Top Comics #10 (Fox Features Syndicate, 1948) CGC FN+ 6.5 Cream to off-white pages featuring this weird and wonderfully historic story up for auction in this week's 2021 August 8-9 Sunday & Monday Comic Books Select Auction #122132 from Heritage Auctions.

All Top Comics #10 (Fox Features Syndicate, 1948) CGC FN+ 6.5 Cream to off-white pages. Phantom Lady, Jo-Jo, Blue Beetle, and Rulah stories. Rulah, Pygmy, bondage, skull cover by Jack Kamen. Matt Baker art. Overstreet 2021 FN 6.0 value = $609; VF 8.0 value = $1,289. CGC census 7/21: 6 in 6.5, 26 higher.

View the certification for CGC Certification ID 93821009 and purchase grader's notes if available.

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