Speed Comics #5
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeSpeed Comics #5 is one of the eleven surviving Brookwood-era issues of a series that sits at the very origin point of Harvey Comics — the title that Alfred Harvey acquired to launch what would become one of the most recognizable children's comics publishers of the twentieth century. As a mid-run Brookwood issue, it preserves the earliest iteration of Shock Gibson, one of the Golden Age's first electric-powered superheroes, appearing in continuous adventures before the editorial handoff to Harvey reshaped the book. The issue also captures a remarkable concentration of early Golden Age talent working simultaneously in the anthology format, offering a snapshot of how the pre-war comics industry mobilized an entire ecosystem of studio artists under pseudonyms. Its significance is institutional as much as narrative: every Brookwood Speed Comics issue is a primary document in the prehistory of Harvey Publications.
Speed Comics #5 is an anthology featuring multiple stories. The lead feature is a double-length Shock Gibson story in which the hero battles a giant dinosaur in a tropical jungle setting, showcasing his electrical powers. Another story in the issue stars Biff Bannon, a U.S. Marines character created by Ram Brant, depicted aboard a naval vessel. The anthology also includes a Landor adventure in which the villain Landor and his cohorts attempt to rob the treasury, prompting a pursuit that leads into a cavern where a gunfight erupts and causes a cave-in; Landor is apparently defeated by the resulting vibrations from the gun reports.
When arsonists Blyk and Chalky set up a scheme to torch the Globe Building for insurance money, their plan goes fatally wrong—leaving one man dead in a locked, burning room. Smoke Carter arrives on the scene to find the body and a mystery: how did the victim lock himself in before setting the fire? As Smoke pursues a suspect fleeing the building, evidence surfaces that points to a darker crime beneath the insurance scam, drawing the detective deeper into a case of murder and betrayal.
When Texas Tyler hears gunfire at the Chase Ranch, he discovers that the ruthless Bull Croker has been systematically buying up the land and cutting off water to force old Tom Chase into selling—but Tyler's investigation reveals Croker's real prize is something far more valuable buried beneath the property. As the two men clash over the ranch's fate, Texas must outgun Croker's hired thugs and expose the scheme before Chase loses everything.
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Speed Comics launched in October 1939 under Brookwood Publications, a company co-owned by Frank Z. Temerson and the Rosenfield family — with the series itself edited by Maurice Rosenfield, son of co-owner J. A. Rosenfield — and named by Temerson after a suburb of his adopted hometown of Birmingham, Alabama. The title was assembled from a pool of studio-packaged artists working under pen names, including Klaus Nordling (as Fred North), Dick Briefer (as Rem Brant), Munson Paddock (as Joe E. Martin), and George Tuska (as Carl Larson), typical of how content was produced industrially in the earliest years of the comic book medium. The series reportedly struggled commercially, and Brookwood published exactly eleven issues before Alfred Harvey acquired the title and relaunched it as the cornerstone of his new publishing company.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Speed Comics #5 was published in March 1940 by Brookwood Publications, one of eleven issues produced before the title transferred to Harvey Publications.
- The lead feature stars Shock Gibson — alter ego Robert Charles Gibson, a scientist transformed by a chemistry-and-electricity accident into a superhuman — created by artist Maurice Scott, who drew the character continuously through issue #11.
- The cover of #5 was drawn by Maurice Scott, consistent with his role as the primary cover artist across the Brookwood run.
- The issue is a 68-page, full-color anthology running nine distinct features, a page count that was standard for the title throughout its Brookwood years.
- Contributing artists include Bob Powell (Ted Parrish story), Klaus Nordling under the pen name Fred North (Crash, Cork, and the Baron), Dick Briefer as Rem Brant (Biff Bannon), Munson Paddock as Joe E. Martin (Smoke Carter), and George Tuska as Carl Larson (Spike Marlin).
- The issue also features Lt. Jim Cannon by C. A. Winter and Landor, Maker of Monsters by Gregory Torrey, reflecting the anthology's mix of adventure, military, and pulp-horror genres.
- Brookwood Publications was co-founded by Frank Z. Temerson and the Rosenfield family; the Temerson connection to Brookwood specifically is noted by at least one scholarly source as editorially distinct from his other imprints, with Maurice Rosenfield serving as editor of Speed Comics.
- PS Artbooks released a reprint collection in 2023 collecting issues #1–3 of the Brookwood run, establishing renewed modern interest in this foundational early-Golden Age series, though #5 itself has not been confirmed in a dedicated reprint volume.
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Reprinted in Gwandanaland Comics #2992 (2021)
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