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Pep Comics #5

Jun 1940 · Archie

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★ 1st appearance — Thelma Gordon

About this Issue

Pep Comics #5 (cover-dated May 1940) is a standout early chapter in one of the Golden Age's most consequential anthology titles — the series that gave the world comics' first flag-costumed patriotic superhero in The Shield, a character who predated Captain America by roughly fourteen months. This particular issue deepens the Shield's ongoing continuity by staging an inter-title crossover, with The Wizard from MLJ's companion title Top-Notch Comics appearing as a guest-star — one of the earliest examples of deliberate shared-universe storytelling in American comics. The issue also continues Jack Cole's run on The Comet, a feature that would later make history in Pep #17 as the medium's first superhero death, meaning every Cole-drawn installment in this run carries retrospective weight in tracing how Golden Age creators were already pushing at genre conventions. As a dense, 68-page anthology packed with an unusually large roster of features, it represents the full ambition of MLJ's early publishing program before The Shield's eventual eclipse by Archie Andrews.

Pep Comics #5 is an anthology featuring multiple action and detective stories. "The Press Guardian" follows Perry Chase, the effete son of a newspaper publisher who secretly operates as a masked vigilante fighting enemies of the press, including a confrontation with Senator Palmgreas. The issue also features "The Shield" and "G-Man Extraordinary," along with appearances by other characters, and includes advertisements for upcoming Blue Ribbon Comics featuring Hercules, The Green Falcon, Ty-Gor, Rang-a-Tang, and Corporal Collins.

ComicBooks.com Value

Our Model is In Beta

Raw (Good) $406

CGC 9.8 · 1 in census $25,956*

CGC 9.6 none in existence

CGC 9.4 none in existence

CGC 9.2 · 1 in census $6,526*

CGC 9.0 none in existence

CGC 8.5 none in existence

Show all 22 grades ▾

CGC 8.0 · 1 in census $2,480

CGC 7.5 none in existence

CGC 7.0 · 2 in census $1,893

CGC 6.5 · 1 in census $1,388*

CGC 6.0 · 1 in census $1,200*

CGC 5.5 · 1 in census $1,009*

CGC 5.0 none in existence

CGC 4.5 · 2 in census $819*

CGC 4.0 none in existence

CGC 3.5 · 1 in census $634*

CGC 3.0 · 1 in census $561*

CGC 2.5 none in existence

CGC 2.0 · 2 in census $380

CGC 1.5 none in existence

CGC 1.0 none in existence

CGC 0.5 · 1 in census $195*

* estimate — limited direct-sales data at this grade

Our model’s value — refined as new sales data arrives · CGC census counts shown where available

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History

Pep Comics launched in January 1940 as the third anthology title from MLJ Magazines, Inc. — founded by Maurice Coyne, Louis Silberkleit, and John L. Goldwater — with the series edited in its early run by Abner Sundell. The lead feature, The Shield, was created by writer Harry Shorten and artist Irv Novick, and Novick provided the cover art for issue #5 as he did throughout the early run. The Comet strip was written and drawn entirely by Jack Cole, who was already developing the visual inventiveness that would later make him famous; additional strips were produced by a busy stable that included Charles Biro, Mort Meskin, and Lin Streeter, under the editorial direction of Sundell. The Shield's story in issue #5 was plotted as a direct continuation of a storyline begun in Top-Notch Comics #5, demonstrating that MLJ's editorial office was consciously coordinating its titles in a way that was unusual for the period.

Trivia · 7 facts

The Shield story (script: Harry Shorten, art: Irv Novick) features The Wizard of Top-Notch Comics as a guest-star — one of the earliest deliberate inter-title crossovers in American comics history — and involves Mosconian spies plotting to destroy Pearl Harbor and blow up Congress; it is a direct continuation from Top-Notch Comics #5.
A real-world figure, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, appears in the Shield story, a practice MLJ used to tie its patriotic hero to authentic government authority.
The Comet story (script and art: Jack Cole) introduces Thelma Gordon, a newspaper reporter, and villain Stinger Lee (both debut and die in this issue), while the Comet is still being pursued by the law as an outlaw — building the moral complexity that made the feature distinctive.
The Shield's story was later reprinted in America's 1st Patriotic Comic Book Hero, The Shield #1 (Archie Comics, 2002), affirming its place in the recognized canon of the character's earliest adventures.
Issue #5 marks the final appearance of the humor strip 'Prince Buttonhead' (which had run from #2), capping that short-lived feature.
The Press Guardian story introduces Senator Palmgreas and Killer Scaretti; the Queen of Diamonds / Sir Rocket story (art: Lin Streeter) introduces Prince Falkar of the Hawkmen — both are new supporting characters expanding the MLJ fictional universe.
The anthology roster in this issue includes The Shield, The Comet, The Press Guardian, Fu Chang International Detective, Sergeant Boyle, Lee Sampson Midshipman, Sir Rocket and the Queen of Diamonds, Kayo Ward, and Bentley of Scotland Yard — illustrating the sheer breadth of MLJ's Golden Age output.