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Winston Churchill on the Cover of Weird Comics #20, up for Auction

Weird Comics #20 may be the first appearance of Sir Winston Churchill in an action scene on the cover of an American comic book.


It's not the first appearance of Sir Winston Churchill on the cover of an American comic book; that would be True Comics #1 a couple of years previously. But this may be his first cover appearance in an actual action scene. At the same time, The Eagle And Buddy rescue Churchill from capture by Hitler and Mussolini. Weird Comics #20 from Fox Comics, published in 1942. A year in which the Wannsee Conference took place in Berlin to implement the "Final Solution." It was a year in which President Roosevelt promised more military aid to Britain, including US troops, who arrived in the UK later that year. And in which Russia had pushed the German army, following Operation Barbarossa, back many miles from Moscow.

Weird Comics #20 (Fox Features Syndicate, 1942)
Weird Comics #20 (Fox Features Syndicate, 1942)

And it is in this light that Weird Comics #20 begins, "Before the dictator and his cohorts could make away with Varnoff, the Eagle was upon them." Weird Comics was an anthology comic published by Fox Feature Syndicate from 1940 to 1942 that features Birdman, Sorceress of Zoom, The Dart, Thor, Dynamite Thor, The Eagle, Dynamo, and the Black Rider, characters who still emerge in various public domain comic books these days from the likes of Dynamite… but not Dynamite Thor, I think they are missing a trick there. And a copy is up for auction from Heritage Auctions this week of Weird Comics #20 with a CGC grade 3.0.

Weird Comics #20 (Fox Features Syndicate, 1942) CGC GD/VG

3.0 Off-white pages. A classic Hitler and Winston Churchill cover, by an unknown artist, wraps this last issue of the title. The origin of the Rapier is explained in the last story of the book. CGC notes, "Tape on interior cover." Overstreet 2023 GD 2.0 value = $1,250; VG 4.0 value = $2,500. CGC census 8/23: 2 in 3.0, 4 higher.

CGC Grader Notes: heavy spine roll, moderate creasing to cover, small, multiple tear left top of front cover, tape interior cover, tear with crease right bottom of front cover.

 

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Rich JohnstonAbout Rich Johnston

Founder of Bleeding Cool. The longest-serving digital news reporter in the world, since 1992. Author of The Flying Friar, Holed Up, The Avengefuls, Doctor Who: Room With A Deja Vu, The Many Murders Of Miss Cranbourne, Chase Variant. Lives in South-West London, works from Blacks on Dean Street, shops at Piranha Comics. Father of two. Political cartoonist.
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