America's 1st Patriotic Comic Book Hero The Shield (The Red Circle Series)

The Shield is an excellent read for the time period in which it was written. Pep Comics which introduced the Shield did it's best to teach kids about Truth, Justice, Patriotism and Courage and it's not a bad lesson to teach kids today. The Shield (Joe Higgins) - 1940Joe Higgins' father, Lieutenant Tom Higgins, was working on a formula that would grant super-strength to American soldiers. Tragically, Tom Higgins was killed in an act of German sabotage known as the Black Tom explosion, which was an attempt by the Nazis to acquire the formula. In the aftermath, Tom was framed as the saboteur. A chemistry student, Joe continued his studies after his father's death and completed the formula himself. He used the process on himself, gaining greath strength and invulnerability and deriving the name Shield from the process.After clearing his father's name, Joe joined the FBI and let only J. Edgar Hoover know of his dual identity. He soon recruited a young partner named Dusty Simmons after foreign agents were responsibly for the death of Dusty's father, giving them a common tragedy.The character's time in the spotlight was short-lived, lasting only a few years before the character of Archie skyrocketed in popularity and Archie Comics decided to shift their focus away from superheroes. (issue #50)This is Pep Comics 1-5 and Shield - Wizard #1.Created in 1940 by Harry Shorten and Irv Novick for Archie Comics, the Shield was actually the first patriotic American superhero who wore a costume patterned after the flag, predating Captain America by over a year. He quickly became the publisher's most popular superhero.This book like lots of comic magazines of the time are heavily influenced by Superman but I highly recommend this book if your a patriotic superhero fan along with the Shield I recommend Captain America and the Fighting American which is more set in the commie scare of the 50's. Trades for all there of these icons are available.

If you are into Golden Age comics this collection is a great find. Filled with WWII era stories all Starring the original Patriotic Hero The Shield.The covers used don't look the best. But the interior pages look great. Looks like some touch up work was done. And the colors just pop.

this features great reproductions of the great shield series that started in pep comics. Pep eventually was taken over by archie, I would have like to get full pep reprints and not just the shield from that series. We also get some stories from the shield-wizard comics .Which ran for about 17 issues or so. It's about time we get more reprints from this company , who had some of the better golden age heroes and stories. The shield would return later and he even had his own comic in the 1980's. But these early adventures are entertaining and fun. And they are well drawn too, This features great pep comics covers too. And they were classic!

Better than Captain America.

When Jack Kirby lent his considerable talents to "Shield-Wizard" #7, the "King of Comics" repaid a debit to fellow artist Irv Novick, who (with writer Harry Shorten), had created the first patriotic hero The Shield, in 1940 -- a full year before Kirby and his partner, Joe Simon, unveiled one of the greatest comic book heroes of all time, Captain America. The art seemed to explode off the page, a technique Novick quickly adopted. These earlier stories of Joe Higgins (alter ego) don't have the vibrancy of the post-Kirby issues, but they easily rank among the best of the original superhero publications. Nicely recolored to compete with the DC Archives and Marvel Masterworks tomes. Those readers who like what they see here will be equally pleased by Golden Age Reprints scans of the rest of the Shield's run in Pep Comics and Shield-Wizard Comics, although the primitive coloring methods can be annoying as things like the tinting of costumes bleed into the backdrops. One other thing to keep in mind: Irv Novick's excellent work on Batman coincided with the post-TV show rebirth of the Dark Detective and the rise of a newcomer named Neal Adams, whose pencils Novick inked to perfection.