Gwandanaland Comics #2237

Collecting Golden Age treasures from 1943–1944, this Gwandanaland Comics volume reprints stories from Whiz Comics and Captain Marvel Adventures, showcasing the Big Red Cheese in his Fawcett heyday. The reproduced cover of Whiz Comics #51 — rendered in C. C. Beck's crisp, dynamic linework — puts Captain Marvel in vivid action, grappling with a villain while a frightened red-haired woman backs against a post bearing a "Doorway of Beauty" sign, a skull ominously resting on the ground nearby. The cover's caption promises "Captain Marvel Judges the Ugly-Beauty Contest," and that irresistibly offbeat premise alone makes this 2019 treasury a genuinely fun addition to any Golden Age shelf.