The Mystery of Harvey’s Rare Speed Comics #22, Up for Auction

Legendary creators Joe Simon and Jack Kirby did a number of covers for Harvey in 1942. Among the team’s cover work for Harvey during this period was a stand-out run of covers on Speed Comics #17-23, featuring the patriotic superhero character Captain Freedom. There has been a longtime debate regarding who did what on each of these covers, and the cover of Speed Comics #22 is likely the biggest mystery of all of these.  This portion of the Speed Comics run has also always been tough to get, and issue #22 is one of the most rare among them.  But there’s a Speed Comics #22 (Harvey, 1942) Condition: FR and a bunch of other issues of Speed Comics up for auction in the 2022 August 28-29 Sunday & Monday Comic Books Select Auction #122235 at Heritage Auctions.

The cover of Speed Comics #22 is pretty clearly not a typical Simon and/or Kirby cover of the period, and that’s about the only thing that most collectors will agree on.  So let’s start by laying out what various experts have said about this over the years.  The original art for this cover sold at Heritage Auctions in 2003 credited as Jack Kirby and Arthur Caseneuve.  Caseneuve was the artist on the interior Captain Freedom stories at this time.  CGC originally did not list a cover artist for this issue, but later labeled it as a Joe Simon cover.  GCD designates the cover as Joe Simon (signed by Glaven) pencils and inks, noting, “Pencil identification by Henry Mendryk, who reports that ‘Glaven’ was a boyhood friend of Simon. Some experts believe the pencils are by Jack Kirby.”

Mendryk elaborates on the “Glaven” pseudonym on the Simon & Kirby blog, noting that this was a nickname of sorts for one of Simon’s childhood friends.

Is there anything to be learned about this cover in the context of Speed Comics #17-23?  The Speed Comics #17 cover is obviously by Simon, and this credit seems to have the most consensus among experts out of this Speed Comics group.  Notably, this cover also features the most accurate version of Captain Freedom’s costume out of the bunch.  No doubt Simon was particularly careful in drawing the character for the first time.  The remainder of these covers contain a variety of minor deviations from the “official” version of the costume for this period, but none of these stand out as consistent with corresponding artistic style variations on these covers.

However, the minor costume variations likely do tell us something about any possible involvement of Arthur Caseneuve on the cover.  Caseneuve was very consistent in drawing the character’s costume from issue to issue for the interior stories, and his version is inconsistent with this particular cover version of the costume.  The boot cuffs are the giveaway.  However, while this cover is not a typical Simon & Kirby style of layout, it is a possible Caseneuve style of layout.  So while it’s not impossible that Caseneuve provided a rough layout for the cover, it seems unlikely that he did anything more than a rough pencil layout at that.

While it’s impossible to be sure, I generally agree that Speed Comics #22 is more likely than not Joe Simon pencils and inks, possibly over a Caseneuve layout.  Regardless of this mystery, this issue has a spectacular Golden Age war era superhero cover, and has always been considered difficult to obtain. But you can get a Speed Comics #22 (Harvey, 1942) Condition: FR and a bunch of other issues of Speed Comics up for auction in the 2022 August 28-29 Sunday & Monday Comic Books Select Auction #122235 at Heritage Auctions. If you’ve never bid at Heritage Auctions before, you can get further information, you can check out their FAQ on the bidding process and related matters.

Speed Comics #22 (Harvey, 1942) Condition: FR. The Photo-Journal Guides to Comic Books rates this issue a “7” (“scarce”) in its Scarcity Index. In fact, this is one of three copies we’ve encountered and the first we’ve seen since 2003! Cover and first wrap detached, tape repair to cover, two center wraps detached, brittle pages. Overstreet 2022 GD 2.0 value = $258.

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