Inspector Bentley

Inspector Bentley is a detective character who debuted in the very first issue of Pep Comics in 1940, placing him among the earliest figures in Archie's Golden Age lineup alongside heroes like The Shield.

Jack Cole — the genius behind Plastic Man — launched Inspector Bentley in the very first issue of Pep Comics back in 1940, making this detective a genuine ground-floor presence in Archie's Golden Age universe. Sharing those early pages with iconic figures like The Shield and Joe Higgins places Bentley right at the heart of one of the era's most exciting anthology launches. With appearances stretching across an remarkable eight-plus decades through Pep Comics, Archie Showcase Digest, and Flashback, this is a character whose staying power in the publisher's history is quietly impressive — and seven of those 26 catalog appearances carry key-issue status, a collector's batting average worth noticing. For fans who love digging into the roots of Golden Age publishing, Inspector Bentley is exactly the kind of discovery that makes hunting through early Pep Comics so rewarding.