RED BAND #1 Facsimile Edition

Published in November 1944 by Rural Home Publishing, this oddity includes a variety of super-hero and adventure stories typical of the Golden Age... well, kind of. Bogey Man is a clear swipe of The Spirit, including hat and face mask. And the very, very weird villain Satanas is one scary demon from hell, out to destroy the world in The Daredevil's Claw. This first issue is part of a series that ran until May 1945, comprising a total of four issues. One of the weirdest titles from the post-war explosion of new titles and companies after the paper shortage was over. One of Gil Kane's very earliest works in comics, on Sgt. Strong! Wonderful cover by Bob Fujitani, moonlighting from his incredible work on MLJ's The Hangman from just a couple years earlier. Note: If you look close, you'll see this cover actually says #2, not #1. That's because both the first and second issues of this were exactly the same, released 3 or 4 months apart in 1945-46. PS calls this #1 and its the same contents as #1, and same cover, except for the issue number. Why? Who knows? Maybe they didn't have the paper allotment to do the entire print run first time out, so they ran a second printing of covers, and someone screwed up and put #2 on it.