CGC Featured Comic of the Month: Pep Comics #1

Posted on 7/1/2026

Put some Pep in your step as we salute the red, white, and blue this month by honoring the very first patriotic superhero, The Shield!

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Name of comic: Pep Comics #1

Comic publisher: MLJ Magazines

Date: January 1940

Variants: None

What makes it special? Before Captain America or Wonder Woman, the very first American patriotic superhero to wear the stars and stripes was The Shield — making his first appearance here in Pep Comics #1. Created by Harry Shorten and Irv Novick, The Shield was the secret identity of a chemist named Joe Higgins, who continued the work of his late father to develop a special serum that grants super strength. Higgins becomes an FBI agent and helps the US government fight against foreign threats.

This issue was also the first appearance of The Comet, by Jack Cole. Both The Shield and The Comet would later unite in the 1960s to join the Mighty Crusaders superhero team, which was written by Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel.

Why is it interesting now? As America marks the 250th anniversary of its founding in 2026, few heroes are more fitting than The Shield, who embodied the ideals of courage, service, and national pride that resonated during a pivotal period in American history.

Did you know? After Archie and the Gang became a huge success for the publisher, MLJ gradually shifted away from superheroes and eventually renamed itself Archie Comics, though it periodically revived the old heroes under imprints such as Mighty Comics and Red Circle. In 1991, Archie licensed those superhero characters to DC Comics, which relaunched them in a new, self-contained universe under the Impact Comics imprint. Included was an all-new series, The Legend of the Shield, which featured Higgins handing the title over to Lt. Michael Barnes.

In 2015, The Shield returned to Archie Comics again under its Dark Circle Comics imprint, to introduce Victoria Adams as the newest steward of The Shield.

Total graded by CGC: As of June 2026, there are only 48 copies of Pep Comics #1 in the CGC Population Report.

CGC highest graded: There is only one example graded CGC 9.2 Universal, and one graded CGC 9.4 Restored.

CGC median grade: CGC 4.0 among the 37 examples with the Universal label

Sales highlights: A Pep Comics #1 graded CGC 8.5 realized $27,600 in a Heritage Auctions sale in April 2021.

CGC Comics Registry Champion: There are 18 sets in the Pep Comics cateogry of the CGC Comics Registry, but only PEP1, by CGC Comics Registry Member Rad Dude, includes a rare copy of Pep Comics #1, which happens to be graded CGC 1.0.

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