The Sphinx

Born in the earliest days of the Golden Age, The Sphinx debuted in Exciting Comics #2 back in 1940, brought to life by creator Max Plaisted under the Pines banner — a publisher that knew how to pack a newsstand with thrills. Sharing those pulpy pages with the likes of The Mask, Sergeant Bill King, and Jim Hatfield, this mysterious figure kept genuinely exciting company during comics' most adventurous infancy. The run was brief, stretching only into 1941, but The Sphinx leaves a collector's footprint that punches above its weight, with a key issue among its handful of appearances. For Golden Age enthusiasts hunting the rare and atmospheric corners of 1940s comics history, The Sphinx is exactly the kind of enigmatic discovery that makes the era so endlessly rewarding to explore.