Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: Alex Blum, bob powell, Fox Feature Syndicate, George Tuska, Louis Cazeneuve, victor fox
Samson #1 and the Fears of an Expanding World War, at Auction
A mix of reprints and new material, the stories in Samson #1 became an almost accidental timeline of the early moments of World War II.
Article Summary
- Samson #1 turns Fox reprints and new material into an accidental World War II timeline, from Poland to Western Europe.
- The Dragor story from Fantastic Comics #2 eerily anticipated Nazi moves into Denmark, Holland, Belgium, and France.
- George Tuska, Jack Kirby, Bob Powell, Will Eisner, Toni Blum, and Louis Cazeneuve shape Samson #1’s standout stories.
- With just 34 CGC census copies, Samson #1 stands out as a scarce Fox key with a biblical hero reimagined as a superhero.
A fall 1940 issue released in early August, Samson #1 contains a dictator’s invasion of Denmark, Holland, Belgium, France, and England. That may sound like one more comic book response to Hitler’s western offensive, except this particular story had first appeared in Fantastic Comics #2, which, according to copyright records, went on sale in early November, 1939. Germany would not invade Denmark until April 1940, or the Netherlands, Belgium, and France until May.
This was not difficult to predict in late 1939, although of course, the actual attacks that came against England were aerial, and later V1 buzz bombs and V2 rockets. In the comic, the dictator of Ratonia sends troops into Denmark and Holland while it is also announced that his armies are marching into France, England, and Belgium. By the time Fox reprinted the story in Samson #1 in August 1940, much of its fictional campaign had become recent history.
Other stories in this issue chronicle this same historic timeframe from different perspectives. Wing Turner is sent to the American consulate at Le Havre to help get Americans out of Europe, only to face a U-boat attack at sea. George Tuska drew this feature, with GCD attributing the script to Jack Kirby. The K-51 story begins with Poland under invasion and follows an American woman and a Polish embassy employee toward Romania, a route that reflects the real Romanian Bridgehead and evacuation corridor used during Poland’s collapse. The art here is credited to Bob Powell with script by Will Eisner.“The Coming of Samson” came from Fantastic Comics #1, the Dragor the dictator episode from #2, and K-51 from Wonderworld Comics #10. Put together for the August 1940 release of Samson #1, they became an accidental timeline: pre-war invasion fears, the invasion of Poland, Americans trying to leave Europe, and a western offensive imagined before the real one unfolded.
The opening 14-page Samson origin story that leads off the issue is not a comic book reprint but has a more unusual history. In its November 18, 1939, issue, Editor & Publisher announced an Sunday half-page Samson strip and said a daily version was in production for January 1940. While an obscure Fox Feature Syndicate Sunday newspaper insert did debut that month, Samson was notably missing from its lineup. The Blue Beetle daily strip also debuted that January, but no other announced Fox property ever made it to that stage. According to GCD, the unused Samson newspaper strip material origin script was written by Toni Blum under the shared Alex Boon house name, with pencils by Louis Cazeneuve. Cazeneuve had arrived in the U.S. from an established Argentine newspaper strip career, making this assignment a good fit for him. He also took oer for Jack Kirby on the Blue Beetle daily.
As had become common practice for the Fox characters who got their own series in 1940, this story takes a character who had previousloy been introduced with little or no origin and develops it into something complete. In this story, a college graduate named Sam learns that he is a direct descendant of Samson. He grows his hair, accepts the strength that comes with it, and vows to serve freedom and his country. Professor Brun discovers him with an “iconoscope,” the name of a real early television camera tube associated with the development of television. But with his version, Brun can watch serious or emergency situations anywhere on Earth. The name “Professor Brun” is a bit of an Easter egg here, as Victor Fox‘s original publishing corporation was Bruns Publications.
There are 34 copies of Samson #1 on the CGC Census, and higher grades only come up for sale sporadically. A fascinating transformation of a biblical character into a superhero, combined with an almost eerie chronicle of the history of its moment, there’s a Samson #1 (Fox Publications, 1940), CGC FN- 5.5 Off-white pages copy up for auction at the 2026 August 13 Golden Age Century Comics Showcase Auction V #40377.
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