By Irving Novick, Harry Shorten & various (Archie Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-87979-408-5 (TPB/Digital edition)
This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.
There are numerous comics anniversaries this year. Some of the most significant will be rightly celebrated, but many are going to be unjustly ignored. As a feverish fanboy wedged firmly in the past, I’m still abusing my privileges to revisit another brilliant vintage book, criminally out of print but at least readily obtainable in digital formats…
Happy Birthday US of America! – even the less reasonable bits…
In the dawning days of the comic book business, just after Superman and Batman had ushered in a new genre of storytelling, many publishers jumped onto the bandwagon and made their own bids for cash and glory. Many thrived and many more didn’t, remembered only as trivia by sad blokes like me. Some few made it to an amorphous middle-ground: Not forgotten, but certainly not household names either…
The Shield was FBI scientist Joe Higgins who created a suit and vitamin supplement system bestowing enhanced strength, speed and durability. These advantages he used to battle America’s enemies in the days before the USA entered World War II. Latterly, he also devised a Shield Formula to increase his powers. Beginning with the first issue of Pep Comics (January 1940) he battled spies, saboteurs, subversive organisations and every threat to American security and well-being and was a minor sensation. He is credited with being the industry’s very first Patriotic Hero, predating Marvel’s iconic Captain America in the “draped in the Flag” field.
Collected here in this Golden-Age fan-boy’s dream (barely available as a trade paperback but also more accessible in digital formats) are the lead stories from monthly Pep Comics #1-5 (January – May 1940) plus three solo adventures from hastily assembled spin-off Shield-Wizard Comics #1 (Summer 1940).
Following a Foreword from Robert M. Overstreet and context-providing Introduction from Paul Castiglia the jingoistic wonderment opens with FBI agent Joe Higgins smashing a “Stokonian” spy and sabotage ring in his mystery man identity of The Shield – ‘G-Man Extraordinary’. Only his boss J. Edgar Hoover knows his dark secret and of the incredible scientific process that has made the young daredevil a veritable human powerhouse.
In Pep #2, as American oil tankers begin vanishing at sea, The Shield hunts down the ray gun-wielding rogues responsible and delivers punishing justice before #3 sees mini parachute mines cause devastating destruction in US waters… until the patriotic paragon locates the undersea base of brilliant science-maniac Count Zongarr and deals out some more all-American retribution…
There’s a whiff of prescience or plain military/authorial foresight to the blistering tale from Pep #4 (May 1940) when dirty, devious, diabolical Mosconians perpetrate a sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. Warned by a clairvoyant vision from new mystery man The Wizard, Higgins hurtles to Hawaii to scotch the plot. When fists and fury aren’t quite enough, the Shield turns an exploding volcano on the murdering backstabbers! Mission accomplished, Higgins takes an ocean liner home in Pep #5, only to have the ship attacked by vengeful Mosconians. After thwarting the sinister ambushers and battling his way home, Joe arrives back in the USA just in time to thwart a tank column attack on Congress!
The blistering pace, energising enthusiasm of the creators and sheer scale, scope and bravura of the Patriotic Paragon’s adventures made him an early hit, and he soon won a second venue for his crusade – the aforementioned Shield-Wizard Comics. The cunningly contrived shared title hit newsstands on June 20th 1940, and opened with the expanded origin for the red, white and blue blockbuster reprinted here.
In 1916 Joe Higgin’s father was a scientist and officer in US Army Intelligence. Whilst working on a formula to make men superhuman, Tom Higgins was attacked by enemy agents and lost his life when they blew up a fleet of ammunition barges. To make matters worse, the innocent dedicated agent was posthumously blamed for the disaster…
Joe grew up with the shame but swore to complete his father’s work and clear his name. By achieving the first – and gaining super-powers – Joe consequently lured out spy master Hans Fritz (who had framed his dad) and accomplished the most crucial component of his crusade: exonerating Tom Higgins. Then, with dad’s old partner J. Edgar as part of the secret, the son joined the FBI and began his work on America’s behalf…
Shield-Wizard #1 contained three complete exploits of the Star-Spangled Centurion, with the second introducing Joe to new partner Ju Ju Watson: a doughty veteran agent dedicated to completing the young operative’s training. Together they investigate a steel mill infiltrated by crooks holding the owner hostage and aiming to purloin the payroll. Young Higgins’ next case involves grisly murder as corpses are found concealed in a floating garbage scow with the trail leading back to vice racketeer Lou Zefke. His ongoing trial is stalling for lack of witnesses, but with only the slimmest of leads and plenty of enthusiasm, The Shield steps in and cleans up the mess…
Raw, primitive and inarguably a little juvenile, these are unadorned, glorious romps from the industry’s exuberant, uncomplicated daw days: Plain-&-simple fun-packed thrills from the gravely under-appreciated Irving Novick (Batman, Flash, Captain Storm, Wonder Woman, countless war comics, The Joker) & Harry Shorten (Archie Comics, Charlton Comics, The Black Hood, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, There Oughta be a Law!) and others whose names are now lost to history.
Despite absolutely not being to everyone’s taste, for dyed-in-the-woollen-tights superhero freaks, these guilty pleasures are worth a look, affording a rapturous tribute to those less complicated times and folk who always saw simple solutions to complex problems…
© 1940, 2002 Archie Publications In. All Rights Reserved.