Betsy Ross

Few comic characters can claim a debut crafted by the legendary duo of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby — yet here is Betsy Ross, introduced in 1947's 48 Famous Americans, a Golden Age publication with the distinctly American spirit you'd expect from those two titans. Spanning a remarkable stretch from 1947 all the way to 2015, she keeps extraordinary company across her appearances, sharing pages with the likes of Benjamin Franklin, Daniel Boone, Paul Revere, Abraham Lincoln, and even Archie Andrews. It's a catalog that ranges from patriotic reverence to pop-culture playfulness — turning up in Archie and Mad's Greatest Writers: Frank Jacobs alongside her Golden Age origins. A rare and genuinely curious piece of comics history, Betsy Ross is the kind of find that reminds collectors how wide and wonderfully strange the medium's reach has always been.