Don Winslow of the Navy #1
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeDon Winslow of the Navy #1 (February 1943, Fawcett) marks the character's graduation from newspaper-strip reprints into a dedicated original-story comic book at the precise moment the United States was fully at war, making it one of the clearest examples of a Golden Age title conceived from the ground up as both popular entertainment and a deliberate instrument of military recruitment. The Fawcett series was the first to present all-new Don Winslow adventures rather than repurposed syndicated art, elevating the character from a strip spin-off into a bona fide comic book franchise. That Captain Marvel — Fawcett's flagship hero — appears on the cover personally 'introducing' Winslow to readers was an editorial masterstroke, consciously lending the publisher's biggest star as a seal of approval for its new wartime title. The series that began here ran, across Fawcett and Charlton, into the mid-1950s and generated circulation figures in the millions annually, reflecting just how deeply this sailor-spy resonated with a nation at war.
Commander Don Winslow of the Navy must prevent a dangerous German agent named Herr Hangs from escaping the country following the attack on Pearl Harbor. After a tense pursuit involving aircraft and naval vessels, Winslow shoots at the fleeing suspect but misses. In a secondary story titled "The Ash-Can Cannon," Don Winslow and Naval Intelligence Officer Red Pennington discover a deadly peril lurking in an ash-can device set on a pleasure craft off the coast, leading them to detect a submarine and its turned tail through the use of a sound device.
Don Winslow finds himself drawn into a dangerous web of espionage when he connects the seemingly random torpedoing of a fishing vessel with a Nazi plot to steal secret plans for a revolutionary submersible aircraft carrier. With Admiral Colby and his daughter Mercedes held hostage by enemy agents, Commander Winslow must race against time to stop the Germans from escaping with intelligence that could change the course of the war. Fists, wits, and nerves of steel are about to be put to the ultimate test.
Commander Don Winslow and Lieutenant Red Pennington fish a seemingly delirious survivor from the sea, only to discover his story about the S.S. Svensword doesn't add up—the ship they spot heading to port appears impossibly intact. When the mysterious seaman dies under suspicious circumstances, Don's investigation uncovers a chilling truth: Nazi spies have seized the vessel and loaded it with explosives bound for the Panama Canal, and now the pair must expose the conspiracy before it's too late.
When Don Winslow and his pal Red Pennington arrive at an East Coast port for shore leave, they're drawn into a deadly race against time: Nazi agents operating from the waterfront are coordinating with a German zeppelin laden with bombers to attack New York City. After discovering the enemy transmitter and pursuing the dangerous agent Herr Hans, Don and Red find themselves locked in a desperate aerial battle to stop the incoming strike before it reaches the city.
Jetsam Joe and his parrot Pete find themselves shipwrecked on the island of Zumba, where they discover giant pearls—but a local chief's terrible toothache stands between them and the treasure. Joe attempts to help, only to discover that his kindheartedness keeps getting in the way of actually claiming his prize.
Don Winslow and his fellow Navy lieutenant Red Pennington board what appears to be a civilian yacht conducting anti-submarine operations off the coast, but suspicious clues—unusual depth charges, overheard German commands, and a crew that seems far too interested in keeping the officers confined—suggest the Vandal may not be what it claims. As Don pieces together the yacht's true purpose, he and Red must find a way to expose the operation and escape before they're silenced.
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The Don Winslow character was conceived by Lieutenant Commander Frank V. Martinek, a World War I naval intelligence veteran and former FBI agent, originally at the suggestion of Admiral Wat T. Cluverius as a tool to boost Navy recruitment in the Midwest; the comic strip debuted via the Bell Syndicate on March 5, 1934. Before Fawcett launched its original-story comic book in 1943, the property had already passed through several publishers — Merwil offered strip reprints as early as 1937, and Dell ran the feature in Crackajack Funnies and Popular Comics — but those were all repackaged newspaper material. Fawcett's 1943 series broke new ground by commissioning entirely original stories and art, with Martinek contributing ideas drawn from the strip while the actual scripts and pages were largely produced by Fawcett house talents including artist Carl Pfeufer; the Fawcett dime comics carried explicit U.S. Navy approval, reinforcing their dual role as entertainment and recruiting propaganda.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published February 1943 by Fawcett Publications — the first issue of a dedicated, original-story Don Winslow comic book series, distinct from all prior newspaper-strip reprint editions.
- Cover features Captain Marvel (Fawcett's top-selling hero) introducing Don Winslow to readers — the cover artist is unidentified in available records.
- Lead story in #1 is 'The Coast Guard Menace,' a WWII-era adventure pitting Winslow against German naval operations.
- Character created by Lt. Commander Frank V. Martinek (1891–1971), a real WWI naval intelligence officer and former FBI agent who originally devised Winslow as a Navy recruitment tool at the request of Admiral Wat T. Cluverius.
- The Fawcett series carried explicit U.S. Navy approval and was sold as a ten-cent 'dime comic,' directly targeting young male readers as potential recruits.
- Interior art across the Fawcett run was prominently handled by Carl Pfeufer, whose kinetic action style — showing multiple phases of a punch in a single panel — became closely associated with the title.
- By the time #1 launched, Don Winslow was already a true multimedia franchise: the Bell Syndicate newspaper strip ran 1934–1955, a radio serial aired 1937–1939 and again 1942–1943, and Universal Pictures had released a 12-chapter film serial in 1942 (with a 13-chapter sequel, Don Winslow of the Coast Guard, following the same year).
- The Fawcett series ran until issue #69 (1948), was revived in 1951, and was later continued briefly by Charlton Comics from 1955 with reprint issues before Winslow was folded into the back pages of Charlton's Fightin' Navy.
Reprints
Reprinted in The Best of Don Winslow of the Navy: A Collection of High-Seas Stories from Comics' Most Daring Sailor #[nn] (2018)
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