Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Alex Schomburg, Ned Pines, patricia highsmith
Schomburg, Doolittle’s Raid Echoes in Exciting Comics #28, at Auction
Exciting Comics #28’s cover by Alex Schomburg is one of the 44 fabled Gerber “white space” covers. It also includes a story inspired by the Doolittle Raid.
Article Summary
- Exciting Comics #28 ties Larry North’s mission to the Doolittle Raid, echoing 1943 headlines about captured raiders.
- Exciting Comics #28 includes interior work linked to Max Plaisted, Richard Hughes, Al Camy, Bob Oskner, and Patricia Highsmith.
- Exciting Comics #28 is one of Ernie Gerber’s 44 “white space” covers, a Gerber 8 with enduring Golden Age mystique.
Doolittle’s Tokyo raid was back in the news for grim reasons in the spring of 1943, when Americans learned of the execution of captured raiders. Exciting Comics #28 gives Larry North of the U.S. Navy a follow-up mission that uses intelligence obtained during the raid. In the six-page adventure, with art attributed to Max Plaisted, a photograph taken during Doolittle’s mission sends North after three enormous Japanese aircraft carriers. Cover-dated August 1943, the comic pairs that fictional war saga with Alex Schomburg‘s underwater Black Terror cover and repeated appeals to buy War Bonds and Stamps. The heroes fight in support of the war effort, while readers are offered a way to support that effort as well.
Doolittle’s Raid and Larry North’s Next Mission
North’s discussion of the photograph taken during the raid <a href="https://comicvibe.com/15-most-anticipated-tv-shows-of-2027/” title=”15 Most Anticipated TV Shows Of 2027″>shows three carriers under construction, each said to carry 100 aircraft, which could threaten Hawaii, the Panama Canal, and America’s West Coast. Leaving Betty Harmon in Hawaii, North sets off with a three-bomber force to destroy them. But the shipyard slips are empty by the time the bombers arrive. They receive alternate targets and instructions to make for China or Russia afterward. North ultimately destroys all three carriers.
A Japanese propaganda broadcast offers a fake account of the mission, claiming that 100 American aircraft have been destroyed and five captured airmen will be executed for bombing schools and hospitals. This seems to be directly inspired by the aftermath of the Doolittle Raid. In an April 12 diplomatic protest, the United States condemned the execution of captured Tokyo raiders and rejected allegations that they had deliberately attacked civilians. Roosevelt’s statement was released publicly on April 21, with the matter making headlines across the country. This issue hit newsstands around June 8, 1943.
Plaisted’s comics work for Pines during 1940-1944 overlapped with his teaching modern and commercial art at Keuka College. This issue also includes art by Al Camy and Bob Oskner and scripts by Richard Hughes. There’s also a tentative Patricia Highsmith script credit here for the Crime Crushers story. Highsmith, who would later become a legendary novelist, was also name-checked in the dialogue of that story. Of course, the cover here is by Schomburg, who did substantial work at Pines.
Exciting Comics #28 might be most famous among collectors as a “Gerber white space” issue. In 1989, comic book dealer, collector, and inventor of the Mylar Snug Ernie Gerber published his original two-volume The Photo-Journal Guide To Comic Books, which showed photographs of 21,000 comic books from the Golden Age era, along with his informed opinion as to their relative rarity as a longtime participant in the business of comic book collecting. The eleven-point Gerber Scarcity Index rated comics from common to nonexistent, with Gerber 11 meaning known to be published but with no copies known to exist, Gerber 10 designated as less than 5 known copies, a Gerber 9 meant to indicate 6-10 known copies, and a Gerber 8 indicative of less than 20 known copies, for example. Additionally, Gerber could not track down 44 of the 21,000 covers he wanted to show in time for publication, and had to print those entries with blank white spaces where the cover images were meant to be shown. These 44 comics developed a mystique of their own.
Gerber rated Exciting Comics #28 as an 8 on his scale, and additionally, it was one of the 44 missing covers. The CGC census currently lists 29 Universal entries, one Conserved and three Restored. Three Universal entries have been graded 6.0, with three higher. For its Doolittle-linked history, Schomburg’s wartime cover, and Gerber notoriety, there’s an Exciting Comics #28 (Nedor, 1943) CGC Universal FN 6.0 with cream-to-off-white pages up for auction at the November 5, 2026 Golden Age Century Comics Showcase Auction VI #40378.
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