The Red Bee

Richard Raleigh was an assistant district attorney who fought crime as the Red Bee, armed with trained bees — including a favorite named Michael — which he kept hidden in his belt buckle. A Golden Age Quality Comics hero, he operated in Superior City, Oregon.

Buzzing out of the Golden Age in 1940, The Red Bee is one of those wonderfully offbeat Quality Comics originals — the kind of character who reminds you just how gloriously strange the earliest days of superhero publishing could be — debuting in the pages of Hit Comics alongside the likes of Starman and The Flash. Created by S. M. Iger and Alex Blum, this curious figure has proven surprisingly durable, with traces of their legacy turning up across nearly eight decades of comics history, from vintage Hit Comics to Animal Man. With only a handful of catalog appearances, The Red Bee is a genuine rarity — a collector's footnote with real historical texture, the sort of deep-cut Golden Age gem that rewards the curious fan willing to dig.