COVER STORY: Green Lama #2

What makes the best comic book covers? It’s a great topic for debate. For us as individuals there is no wrong answer, of course. It’s purely subjective. But with a little thought it is frequently possible to explain what it is about a particular image that grabs you. The best ones are the ones that make you stop and check out something you weren’t previously going to purchase – and in some cases, you even end up picking up a title you’ve never even heard of before.

Published in February 1945 – with the end of World War II months away – comic book legend Emmanuel “Mac” Raboy’s cover to Spark Publications’ Green Lama #2 had victory in its sights – and American spirit to spare.

Introduced five years earlier within the pages of the pulp fiction anthology, Double Detective, the Green Lama was Jethro Dumont, a wealthy patriot who used the mysterious secrets of the Far East to both fly and fight for freedom. With his adventures illustrated by Raboy (the artistic genius behind Fawcett Publications’ Captain Marvel, Jr., Quality’s Kid Eternity, and King Features’ Flash Gordon, among others), this issue finds our hero leading a fleet of trains, tanks, warplanes, and warships, as they all travel “forward to victory in 1945!”

Although quietly appreciated by Golden Age collectors and Raboy enthusiasts alike, the highly collectible Green Lama #2 is one of the best war covers – as well as pieces of Allied propaganda – ever produced. Still affordable to the persistent collector, this World War II classic is a must for four-color enthusiasts who want to expand their comic book arsenal with some of the best the funny book industry had to offer!

–Scott Braden