John Sterling

Few characters can claim a publishing footprint stretching from the very dawn of the Golden Age all the way into the 2020s, but John Sterling is one of them — debuting in Zip Comics #1 in 1940, co-created by the legendary Charles Biro, and still turning up in reprints decades later. A fixture across Zip Comics and eventually Archie's Double Digest Magazine, he's kept remarkable company over the years, sharing pages with Golden Age icons like Steel Sterling and The Shield as well as beloved Riverdale regulars like Archie Andrews, Jughead Jones, and Reggie Mantle. With three key-issue appearances flagging him as a collector's prize and a catalog presence spanning 83 years, John Sterling is a genuine artifact of comics history — the kind of discovery that reminds you just how deep the Golden Age rabbit hole goes.