Kid Eternity #5
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeKid Eternity #5 is a representative showcase of one of the Golden Age's most distinctive storytelling conceits: a boy returned from the dead who can call upon any figure from history or mythology simply by uttering the word 'Eternity.' Each issue in this Quality Comics run functioned as a self-contained classroom of historical imagination, and issue #5 is notable for the sheer breadth of its summoned cast — ranging from ancient Rome (Cleopatra and Marc Antony) to Greek myth (Achilles) to early-20th-century American popular culture (Tom Mix) — demonstrating how the concept could leap across centuries in a single story. The series as a whole is a forerunner of the educational-entertainment hybrid that would later influence countless comics, and issue #5 reflects the mid-run confidence of writers working fluently within that formula. As part of an 18-issue run that ended when the post-war superhero bust hit Quality Comics hard, this issue also represents the character at the height of his solo momentum, before the title's eventual cancellation in 1949.
In "The Hoodlum That Wasn't," Kid Eternity encounters a mysterious old man who claims to have flown decades before the Wright Brothers—riding a steam-powered contraption to a hidden mesa teeming with prehistoric life. With art by Pete Riss and Witmer Williams, and a striking cover by Al Bryant, this 1947 adventure blends pulp fantasy and early aviation myth with a touch of timeless wonder.
In "null," the Kid encounters an old man who claims to have flown decades before the Wright Brothers—riding a steam-powered plane he built himself—only to crash-land on a hidden mesa teeming with cave men and dinosaurs. The story unfolds as a surreal journey into a forgotten world, where time and invention blur in unexpected ways.
Snap Shotz, photographer for the Daily Item, is assigned to document an underwater salvage operation attempting to recover sunken gold bullion from the ocean floor—but what starts as a straightforward assignment quickly becomes something far more dangerous when he descends into the deep. Armed with his camera and a healthy dose of determination, Snap finds himself caught between competing salvage companies, mysterious sea creatures, and a mystery that only his photographs can expose. This adventure proves that sometimes the best story is the one you stumble into while looking for something else entirely.
In "Another Who Died Too Soon," Dan Doldrum’s despair draws the attention of Kid Eternity, who refuses to let him end his life—only to stir up trouble when he takes advice from the ghost of John Jacob Astor. Suddenly, every business man in town seems determined to silence Dan, turning his moment of weakness into a deadly game.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
Kid Eternity was created by writer Otto Binder and artist Sheldon Moldoff, debuting in Quality Comics' Hit Comics #25 in December 1942 — with Moldoff later confirming he worked as a freelancer and only contributed a handful of early stories before departing the feature. The character proved popular enough that Quality launched a self-titled solo series in spring 1946, with William Woolfolk serving as the primary scripter across the run and Al Bryant as the principal artist, working under editor George E. Brenner and publisher Everett M. Arnold. Issue #5, published in the spring of 1947 (on-sale January 29, 1947 according to copyright records), sits mid-run in a bi-monthly schedule that would ultimately span 18 issues through November 1949, when the post-war decline in superhero readership forced Quality to shutter the title.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published Spring 1947 (on-sale date January 29, 1947) by Quality Comics, the fifth issue of the 18-issue solo series launched in spring 1946.
- The lead feature is titled 'Kid Eternity and Mr. Keeper Don't Kid with Crime!' — one of several stories packed into a 52-page, full-color, 10-cent issue.
- Summoned historical and mythological figures confirmed in this issue include Cleopatra, Marc Antony, Achilles, and Tom Mix (the Western film and radio star who had died in 1940), alongside mythological figures such as Atlas, Jove, and Mercury.
- One story involves Kid Eternity meeting an old man who claims to have built a steam-powered flying machine before the Wright Brothers, leading to an adventure on a lost mesa populated by cave dwellers and dinosaurs.
- A second story features a murdered gang member who refuses to pass on to Eternity and instead walks the Earth seeking vengeance — an unusually dark premise for the series.
- The issue was edited by George E. Brenner under publisher Everett M. Arnold (Quality Comics' owner), with William Woolfolk as the series' primary writer and Al Bryant as principal artist across the solo run.
- Kid Eternity was created by Otto Binder (writer) and Sheldon Moldoff (artist), first appearing in Hit Comics #25 (December 1942); the character's concept — a boy killed too soon by a U-boat attack who is given powers to summon heroic dead figures — was speculated to draw inspiration from the 1941 film Here Comes Mr. Jordan.
- All Quality Comics properties, including Kid Eternity, were sold to DC Comics in 1956; the character was later reimagined in a 1991 Vertigo miniseries by Grant Morrison and Duncan Fegredo and a subsequent 1993–1994 Vertigo series by Ann Nocenti and Sean Phillips.
Cast · 6 characters
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Reprinted in PS Artbooks Softee: Kid Eternity #2 (2025)
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