The Marvel DNA of Amazing-Man Comics #6, Up for Auction

Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: bill everett, Carl Burgos, centaur, Lloyd Jacquet

Amazing-Man Comics #6 features work by Carl Burgos and Bill Everett, and also includes an aquatic anti-hero called the Shark, king of all sea life.

The earliest issues of Amazing Man Comics from Centaur are an obscure but important part of the early Golden Age.   The series features work from Human Torch creator Carl Burgos and Submariner creator Bill Everett, and was on newsstands at the same time as Marvel Comics #1.    Amazing-Man Comics #5 had introduced Burgos’s The Iron Skull, who like the Human Torch was an android of sorts, and Everett’s Amazing Man had a range of superhuman abilities.  Amazing-Man Comics #6, actually the second issue of the series, also features an aquatic anti-hero called The Shark, king of all sea life, by Lew Glanzman.  Art director/editor Lloyd Jacquet would oversee the contents of both Amazing-Man Comics #6 and Marvel Comics #1.

According to a letter that surfaced on eBay in 2009, Bill Everett‘s mom Grace Everett is likely the co-creator of Centaur superhero Amazing Man.  In a letter dated March 1, 1939, she wrote, “Bill has a lot of work to do on his present three comic strips, and Centaur Publications wants him to do a new one… I’m going to spend all day tomorrow at the Public Library, doing some research work for Bill. He has a new character, for a strip which Jacquet wants him to do in competition with the new one now being syndicated – called the ‘Superman’ I think. We’ve wracked our brains for a new kind of character; and all I can think of now is to back over some old folk tales, foreign ones if necessary, and try to find some unusual character around which we can build an unusual story for these modern times. Bill is rushing through another strip and two covers, so I am going to help him in this research. Of course I love to do it.”

Of course, this would not be the only time that Lloyd Jacquet, then an art director or editor for Centaur and a foundational figure of the Golden Age of comics, would work with Bill and Grace Everett.  Jacquet founded comic book production studio Funnies, Inc. with Bill Everett, and Grace Everett would become a letterer there, at least briefly. Around five months after Grace Everett’s letter was written, the character debuted in Amazing-Man Comics #5, the first issue of the series, having been trained by monks in Tibet while he was growing up.  The abilities he achieved included a laundry list of superpowers, such as superhuman strength, speed, and toughness, as well as telekinesis.  The series lasted for 22 issues through #26, and Amazing Man then reappeared in Stars and Stripes Comics.

Amazing-Man Comics has long been a favorite of serious Golden Age collectors, and most of the run is tough to get in any grade.  But the entire series hits the trifecta of rare, historically important, and popular among collectors.  There’s a CGC VG 4.0 Light tan to off-white pages copy of Amazing-Man Comics #6 (#2) (Centaur, 1939) as well as several other issues of the series up for auction in the 2025 September 18 Golden Age Comics Century Showcase Auction II at Heritage Auctions.

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