CATMAN COMICS #25 — CGC 3.0 (GD/VG)
Continental Magazines · July 1944 · Off-White Pages
CGC Certification #1559126020

Wartime Golden Age Cat-Man with a superb Rudy Palais cover, in a clean CGC Universal (blue label) holder.

Rudy Palais cover — mad scientist menace

A towering green-skinned fiend with pointed ears and burning red-and-yellow eyes looms over the whole cover, hypodermic needle raised in one fist and a gas hose gripped in the other, surrounded by canisters and strange apparatus. Cat-Man lunges in from the right to rip the hose away — while Kitten lies collapsed and motionless at lower left among the gas cylinders. Signed by Palais at bottom right.

Rudy Palais is one of the most collected artists of the era — the intense, sweat-beaded, high-tension style he later brought to Harvey's pre-code horror line is already fully visible here. A signed Palais Golden Age cover with a hypo, a monster and a downed sidekick is exactly the kind of image that draws horror and pre-code collectors as well as Cat-Man completists.

Credits

  • Cover: Rudy Palais
  • Story and art: Charles Quinlan
  • Art: Jack Alderman, Lou Ferstadt and Don Rico — Rico went on to a substantial career at Timely/Atlas, the company that became Marvel

Collector note: CGC has notated "V2 #12 on indicia" — the interior indicia reads Volume 2 #12 rather than #25, a known quirk of this run worth knowing if you are cataloguing it.

Back cover bonus

Full-page Pioneer Publications ad: "BE POPULAR — LEARN The NEWEST DANCES in 5 DAYS…or NO COST!" Betty Lee's Dancing book covering the Rhumba, Conga, Samba, Jitterbug, Fox Trot, Waltz and tap, with "Tip Top Tapping" and "Swing Steps" thrown in free. $1.98 C.O.D. from 1790 Broadway. A perfect swing-era 1944 period piece.

Condition notes

  • CGC 3.0 with Off-White page quality — good paper for a 1944 Continental
  • Cover colors remain strong; the green figure and red logo panel present well and the Palais artwork reads clearly
  • CGC label notation: "Tape on interior cover." Disclosed for transparency — it is interior, not on the front cover image
  • Wear consistent with the grade: spine and edge wear, corner wear, creasing, and small chips along the bottom edge
  • Please review photos closely; they show the actual book being sold

Shipping

Ships fully protected: slab bagged, corner-protected, and boxed with rigid backing in a double-walled carton. Insured with tracking. Questions welcome.