Lot Details
| Story | Uwana's Life-or-Death Loan Company |
|---|---|
| On sale | Jun 10, 1940 |
| Cover price | 0.10 USD |
| Pages | 68 |
| Genre / era | Superhero · Golden Age |
| Characters |
Steel Sterling (John Sterling), Dora Cummings, Clancy McGinty, A district attorney, the Uwana Loan Company, The Scarlet Avenger
and 19 moreInez Courtney, Maxie Malarky, John Doughboy, Nevada Jones, Little Joe, Don Cervantes, Kalthar, Pierre LeBrun, Kate Goodwill, Prof. Goodwill, Tim Shane, Tom Shane, Kermit, Anton Schultz, Captain Valor, Yat Sing, Tania, Ronnie, Angie |
Issue details: Grand Comics Database, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Zip Comics #7
Credits
Lot Details
| Story | Uwana's Life-or-Death Loan Company |
|---|---|
| On sale | Jun 10, 1940 |
| Cover price | 0.10 USD |
| Pages | 68 |
| Genre / era | Superhero · Golden Age |
| Characters |
Steel Sterling (John Sterling), Dora Cummings, Clancy McGinty, A district attorney, the Uwana Loan Company, The Scarlet Avenger
and 19 moreInez Courtney, Maxie Malarky, John Doughboy, Nevada Jones, Little Joe, Don Cervantes, Kalthar, Pierre LeBrun, Kate Goodwill, Prof. Goodwill, Tim Shane, Tom Shane, Kermit, Anton Schultz, Captain Valor, Yat Sing, Tania, Ronnie, Angie |
Issue details: Grand Comics Database, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Zip Comics #7 was published in October 1940 by MLJ Magazines, the publisher that later rebranded as Archie Comics. Launched during the initial expansion of the Golden Age of comic books, the anthology series served as a primary showcase for action, mystery, and superhero features. The issue's lead feature was Steel Sterling, created by writer Abner Sundell and artist Charles Biro, following his debut in the title's premiere issue earlier that year.
This seventh issue continued the serialized adventures of John Sterling, a hero who gained invulnerability and metallic strength through immersion in a chemical bath. Typical of early Golden Age comic structures, the issue paired its primary superhero feature with a rotating lineup of adventure and humor strips, including work on secondary characters like the Black Hood. Artist Charles Biro utilized dynamic staging and aggressive page layouts that helped establish visual conventions for 1940s action comics, moving away from the rigid grids of the late 1930s.
The archival significance of Zip Comics #7 lies in its representation of MLJ's superhero line prior to the publisher's shift toward teenage humor following the 1941 debut of Archie Andrews in Pep Comics. Copies from this pre-war period are exceedingly rare in mid-to-high grades. World War II paper drives, lower quality newsprint production, and decades of poor storage resulted in low survival rates, with total census populations for specific issues often numbering under thirty graded copies. Unrestored copies certified above a 5.0 grade represent a very small fraction of surviving copies, making a 6.5 graded example a rare physical survivor of pre-war comic publishing.
BidLots Collectibles Auction
October 27 - November 3, 2026
BidLots operates as a division of Mayberry Holdings Ltd t/a Mayberry Fine Art
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661 Wall St, Winnipeg MB
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Bidding Range
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Increment
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|---|---|
| $0.00 - $50.00 | $1.00 |
| $50.00 - $100.00 | $5.00 |
| $100.00 - $500.00 | $10.00 |
| $500.00 - $1,000.00 | $25.00 |
| $1,000.00 - $5,000.00 | $50.00 |
| $5,000.00 - $10,000.00 | $100.00 |
| $10,000.00 - $20,000.00 | $200.00 |
| $20,000.00 - $50,000.00 | $500.00 |
| $50,000.00 - $100,000.00 | $1,000.00 |
| $100,000.00+ | $5,000.00 |
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