Number 2048: Punched out

Captain Glory was short-lived in Harry “A” Chesler’s Punch Comics. He appeared in issues #1 and #2, then #12, a reprint of #2. Three issues, two stories. It could have something to do with a non-super hero G-Man wearing a domino mask a la the Spirit. J. Edgar Hoover’s usual scowling face would have gotten even more scowly if he’d seen “G-Man” Captain Glory. This story is the reprint from #2 (1942), scanned from issue #12 (1945).

So why show it? Well, because I like the skeleton costumes the bad guys wear. Publishers have known since sales trends were tracked that images of sex and death sell magazines, books, and comics. The cover by Gus Ricca, rendered in a pulp magazine style, is an especially good example of a symbolic death’s head cover

The Grand Comics Database has no artist listed for the story, but it may have been worked on by various hands from the comic art shop Chesler headed. His shop also provided art for other publishers, including Fawcett.