Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: Harry Sahle, MLJ
Pep Comics #50: Archie and the Fading Superhero Stars, at Auction
Pep Comics #50 is a key example of the rise of Archie in progress, as the MLJ superheroes lose their cover prominence in 1944.
Article Summary
- Archie takes over Pep Comics #50 in 1944, marking MLJ’s shift from superheroes to the humor formula that built Archie.
- Harry Sahle’s cover gives Archie center stage while The Shield and Black Hood fade to small insets for the final time.
- Inside, The Shield battles pulp-style science fiction in an Irv Novick story as wartime paper salvage themes shape the issue.
- Pep Comics #50 is a scarce Archie-era transitional key, with only 23 CGC copies recorded and few higher-grade sales.
Archie Andrews has taken over the cover of Pep Comics #50, with Mr. Weatherbee, Jughead and Veronica crowding into Harry Sahle‘s cover composition played for comedy. The Shield and Black Hood are still there, but only as small circular insets on the sides. This had been a while in coming, of course. Archie had debuted in Pep Comics #22 (cover dated December 1941). His own series had then launched with a Winter 1942 cover date, and he then shared the cover with the Hangman and the Shield on Pep Comics #36 (February 1943). He returned for that same sort of sharing arrangement with Pep Comics #41, and from then on, Archie gradually began to dominate the covers. Pep Comics #50 (September 1944) would be the last time the heroes appeared on the covers at all, although for the Pep Comics #51 cover, Archie is clearly wearing a football uniform meant to resemble The Shield’s costume. The company would adopt the Archie Comic Publications name in 1946. The Shield’s last appearance in the title came in Pep Comics #64 (January 1948), and his club was taken over by Archie in the next issue.
The Shield Still Had A Club To Lead, For Now
Even with this transition well underway, war-era superhero conventions were still in place in this issue. Shield G-Man Club Bulletin No. 28 addresses readers as members of an organized home-front unit, and its first order of business is paper salvage. The bulletin tells readers to save waste paper for the war effort and to continue day after day, week after week, and month after month until the war is won. This aligns with publishing industry guidance on the matter. The Office of War Information’s Magazine War Guide for June 1944, prepared in February to accommodate magazine deadlines, asked editors to reinforce paper conservation and identified conservation and salvage as ongoing campaigns that could benefit from magazine support.
The Shield still has a prominent place inside the issue, despite being shunted aside on the cover, and the story’s influences are made very obvious in this issue. In The Man Who Played God, The Shield encounters a number of science fiction devices, though we won’t spoil how it all turned out here. Irv Novick‘s pages show superhero comics borrowing the shrinking rays, bottled miniatures, and time machines of pulp science fiction.
The Black Hood feature is a bit more grounded. Police officer Jim Blake escorts a music publisher named Johnson to a bank, where a songwriter attacks the man and demands payment. The writer says Johnson stole his contract and songs, but he has no proof. Blake goes undercover as beginning songwriter Kid Burland and watches Johnson steal another contract, then promise a new victim a big payout.
There are 23 copies of this issue on the CGC Census, with just one 8.0 and one 8.5 higher. No Universal copy at 7.0 or higher has sold at public auction since 2018. Pep Comics #50 shows the rise of Archie in progress. The future Archie Comics was already becoming clear, but the departing MLJ superheroes still had plenty to say. High grade copies of this issue almost never show up at public auction, but there’s a Pep Comics #50 (MLJ, 1944) CGC FN/VF 7.0 Off-white to white pages up for auction at the 2026 August 13 Golden Age Century Comics Showcase Auction V #40377.
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