Lot # 12: 1940 Novelty Press Blue Bolt #1 Origin of Blue Bolt, 1st Dick Cole, 1st Wonder Boy - CGC 7.0

Lightning strikes the comic collecting world, with this June, 1940 Novelty Press Blue Bolt #1 issue. Zapped into being by legendary creator Joe Simon, this title stars a super-hero who was struck by lightning, not once, but twice, and then treated to an experimental radium cure for his ills, by a not-so-mad scientist. As a result, Blue Bolt was able to project bolts of lightning, and the scientist Bertoff armed him with a lightning gun. Headed by Blue Bolt's origin story, this exciting issue began a run that lasted for one hundred and one issues, until the title was changed in the early 1950s.

In the timeline of comic book super-heroes, Superman had been around for two years, Batman a year, and Captain Marvel did his SHAZAM! thing for the first time, just four months before this inaugural Blue Bolt issue rolled out. Simon enlisted Jack Kirby to share writing and artwork duties starting with issue #2, and a few months later, the Simon and Kirby team breathed life into Timely Comics' Captain America. If the history doesn't get yet, the scarcity and impressive grade surely will.

CGC has encapsulated this exciting Golden Age comic book with a favorable 7.0 score, in a Universal Grade holder. A review of CGC's Census reveals a mere nineteen examples of this Blue Bolt #1 issue have been graded by the leading certification service in Universal holders, to date. This charmer stands as "1 of 1" at the 7.0 level, with only six rated higher. Label notes are "Joe Simon story, cover & art, Paul Gustavson, Jack Warren, Bob Davis & Henry Kiefer stories & art. Origin of Blue Bolt. 1st appearance of Dick Cole, Wonder Boy.".