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A 15% BUYER'S PREMIUM WILL BE ADDED TO THIS ITEM AT CONCLUSION OF THE AUCTION
Cream/off-white pages; QES Certified: impressive prime focal area, deep color strike (red, yellow & blue)
1st appearance of Captain America, Bucky Barnes, Red Skull w/ origin; 1st app. Super-Soldier Serum (3/41); classic Hitler cover; Jack Kirby & Joe Simon cover/art; Comic Book Impact rating of 10 (CBI)


Captain America Comics #1 has the first appearance of Captain America, the first appearance of Bucky Barnes, and the first appearance of the Super-Soldier Serum. That's about as classic as a first issue gets, with 1941's "Meet Captain America" setting up decades of beloved storytelling. Jack Kirby and Joe Simon already had a vision for Captain America's true nemesis, too. Technically, "The Riddle of the Red Skull" features an early imposter, but Marvel later established that Johann Schmidt (staying in the shadows until Captain America Comics #7) is pulling the strings.

There's also the classic cover that adds to the book’s importance as an American artifact from the months before Pearl Harbor. Copies flew off the shelf as this sensational debut established Captain America as the leading symbol of American heroism. It bears repeating that the popularity of characters such as Captain America (and the willingness of comic writers and artists to confront the Axis threat) went a long way toward mobilizing a heretofore isolationist American populace in the long, dark days of the late 30s and early 40s.

Many other art forms desperately avoided or ignored the ugly truth of Europe's rapid slide into fascism and Nazism in an obvious attempt to protect their own financial interests overseas. The almost entirely US-based comics business, staffed and developed largely by fugitives from those same wartime horrors, boldly waved the flag of freedom, most notably in this instant classic.
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