Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: Bob Wood, centaur
The Incredibly Rare Funny Pages V2#7, at Auction
There are only seven copies of Funny Pages V2#7 on the CGC Census, and higher graded copies almost never come up for sale.
Article Summary
- Funny Pages V2 #7 hit newsstands on March 10, 1938, just 39 days before Action Comics #1 changed comics history.
- Funny Pages V2 #7 marks an early Centaur era issue, bridging Comics Magazine, Ultem, and Centaur publishing history.
- Bob Wood signed the cover and story, with interior art credited to Jack Cole, Dick Ryan, and Gill Fox in 1938.
- Funny Pages V2 #7 is exceptionally scarce, with only seven CGC census copies and few higher-grade examples known.
Per copyright records,Funny Pages volume 2 #7 reached newsstands on March 10, 1938, only 39 days before Action Comics #1. That timing places this issue at a historic threshold. Superman was about to transform the business, but Bob Wood‘s signed cover still sells the comic with a visual gag: a theater promises that “children in arms” will be admitted free, so one child arrives at the ticket booth carrying another. The title itself is part of a complicated piece of early comic-book history. William H. Cook and John F. Mahon‘s Comics Magazine Company created Funny Pages, Ultem Publications resumed it as volume 2, and Centaur Publications acquired Ultem’s continuing titles and inventory in 1938. Centaur Publications Inc. appears in this issue’s indicia, making it part of the opening stage of the actual Centaur era as a publishing company.
Bob Wood Before Crime Does Not Pay
Wood was 20 years old when this issue hit newsstands He had entered Harry “A” Chesler‘s shop in 1937, working in one of the production environments that supplied original material to publishers during this era. His Funny Pages work predates the editorial partnership with Charles Biro and Lev Gleason that would make Crime Does Not Pay one of the defining and most controversial comics of the 1940s. Wood also signed the five-page story “The Strange Case of the 20 Pills,” the issue’s opening feature. Heritage and the CGC label also credit interior art to Jack Cole, Dick Ryan, and Gill Fox. Cole had entered the Chesler shop in late 1937 or early 1938, years before creating Plastic Man. Historian Paul Tumey’s study of Cole’s 1938 work demonstrates both the extent of his activity in that year and the difficulty of settling some early attributions.
The CGC census lists seven copies across all labels, including six Universal copies. Two Universal copies are CGC 5.0, and only two other copies are graded higher. It appears to have been eight years since either of the higher graded copies have come up for public sale. Funny Pages volume 2 #7 represents an industry on the cusp of something different, hitting newsstands immediately before Superman changed the comic-book market, inside a title that had just become part of the emerging Centaur line. For collectors interested in a genuinely elusive and historic early Golden Age comic book, there’s a Funny Pages V2#7 (Centaur, 1938) CGC VG/FN 5.0 Cream to off-white pages up for auction at the 2026 August 13 Golden Age Century Comics Showcase Auction V #40377.
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