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Zip Comics#22

Cover: Irv Novick

Zip Comics #22

Jan 1942 · Archie · 0.10 USD

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Contains 8 stories

Untitled Superhero story

14 pp · Superhero

Steel Sterling [John Sterling]Clancy McGinty (Police)LooneyProfessor Dazzero

Cleopatra, Queen of Hearts

11 pp · Superhero

Black Jack [Jack Jones]CleopatraAnthony Mark (millionaire sportsman)Andrews (banking king)Philips (steel magnate)Bernhard BrutusCharles Caesar (finance tycoon)

Untitled Teen story

6 pp · Teen

Wilbur Wilkin

Untitled War story

7 pp · War

Captain ValorSlimSlamSergeant HoganNazis (villains)

Untitled Western-Frontier story

6 pp · Western-Frontier

Nevada JonesLittle Joe (sidekick)Pancho Cortez (outlaw)Mayor Guadalez

"Posing as factory inspectors..."

6 pp · War

Tim Shane (pilot)Tom Shane (pilot)Swen (crewman)Eric Schlitz (Nazi pilot)

Untitled Fantasy story

7 pp · Fantasy

DickyDicky's FatherJackieFrecklesLoki (Lord)

Untitled Superhero story

5 pp · Superhero

Zambini (magician)Bob (reckless driver)

ComicBooks.com Value

Our Model is In Beta

Raw (Good) $2,126

CGC 9.8 · 1 in census $185,784*

CGC 9.6 none in existence

CGC 9.4 none in existence

CGC 9.2 none in existence

CGC 9.0 none in existence

CGC 8.5 none in existence

Show all 22 grades ▾

CGC 8.0 none in existence

CGC 7.5 · 1 in census $14,245*

CGC 7.0 none in existence

CGC 6.5 none in existence

CGC 6.0 · 1 in census $11,696*

CGC 5.5 none in existence

CGC 5.0 · 2 in census $8,142

CGC 4.5 · 4 in census $5,861

CGC 4.0 · 2 in census $5,091*

CGC 3.5 none in existence

CGC 3.0 · 3 in census $4,018*

CGC 2.5 · 2 in census $3,843

CGC 2.0 · 1 in census $3,040

CGC 1.5 · 1 in census $2,330

CGC 1.0 · 1 in census $2,073

CGC 0.5 · 2 in census $1,396*

* 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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Trivia · 8 facts

Cover date: January 1942; publisher: MLJ Magazines Inc. (the company that would later become Archie Comics).
Cover art by Irv Novick, described in auction records as a Grim Reaper / V-for-Victory image — one of many wartime-themed covers Novick produced for the series.
Features Steel Sterling (the 'Man of Steel,' a chemist who bathed in molten metal to gain invulnerability) as the lead story; the Steel Sterling story involves the character and his sidekicks encountering the living dead on Waikiki Beach — a Hawaii-set plot landing just weeks after Pearl Harbor.
Black Jack (Jack Jones), who made his first appearance and origin in Zip Comics #20 (November 1941), appears here in one of his earliest stories; in this installment Black Jack faces the reincarnation of Cleopatra.
Also features Wilbur Wilkin (the teen-humor strip that predated Archie Andrews by four months and eventually graduated to its own long-running Archie series in 1944) and Captain Valor.
Series editor: Harry Shorten. Internal creative team for #22 included writer Joe Blair, penciler/inker Charles Biro (Steel Sterling), and penciler/inker Al Camy (Black Jack).
Black Jack's run in Zip Comics lasted from issue #20 through #35; the complete Black Jack stories from Zip Comics were later reprinted in Gwandanaland Comics #1068 — 'The Complete Black Jack' (May 2017).
Zip Comics was one of four main MLJ anthology titles alongside Blue Ribbon Comics, Top-Notch Comics, and Pep Comics, all of which mixed superhero and genre strips in the same format.