General George Armstrong Custer

A comics adaptation of the real-life U.S. Army officer famous for his flamboyant Civil War heroics and his ill-fated command at the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876, depicted here as a historical figure rather than a fictional one.

Few figures from American history have wandered as far across the comics landscape as General George Armstrong Custer, who made his four-color debut all the way back in 1937 — a genuine Platinum Age appearance in The Funnies #6, brought to life by none other than Sheldon Mayer. Over a remarkable span stretching from the late 1930s all the way to 2014, this historical icon has turned up in a wonderfully eclectic range of titles, from Cracked Collectors' Edition to Dennis the Menace to the British sci-fi anthology 2000 AD, sharing pages with figures as varied as Chief Sitting Bull and Santa Claus — which tells you something about the sheer unpredictability of his comics journey. With a key issue among his appearances and nearly eight decades of publication history, Custer stands as a fascinating case study in how comics have long reached beyond superheroes to mythologize — and reimagine — the legends of the American frontier.