THE CHALLENGER CLUB
Years ago, I came across The Challenger — a short-run comic from 1945 made by an interfaith group of educators, artists, and clergy. Only four issues were ever printed. But they weren’t fluff.
On the cover of Issue No. 1, a kid in a red jacket — The Challenger Club stitched across the back — is winding up and hurling a “Truth Bomb” like a Molotov cocktail straight at a Nazi’s head. It’s blunt. It’s wild. And it’s absolutely sincere. The book wasn’t metaphorical — it was calling out racism, antisemitism, and fascism in real time, while they were actually happening.
That stuck with me. And it still does. So here’s what I’m doing:
Restoring and archiving all four issues by hand — page by page — and releasing them online for free. No grants, no nonprofit, no team. Just a one‑man effort to keep something worth preserving alive. Not for nostalgia — for principle.
To help fund it, I made a shirt. Just the mark: The Challenger Club. Same black‑and‑white type from that red jacket on the cover. Left chest. Full back. Nothing inflated. Nothing fancy.
It’s not a costume. It’s just the only honest way I know to keep this going — and maybe spark a quiet coalition of people who still think fear and tyranny don’t get the final word.
If that sounds like something you'd carry forward — welcome to the club.
-Adam
