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| Police Comics seems to go into overdrive with this issue! 9 pages of Plas with a great splash, terrific art & bizarre story from Cole, beautiful (and funny) Human Bomb tale from Gustavson, fine work from Kotsky on Manhunter- all this and The Spirit too. Bliss! |
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| This is the issue I mentioned earlier, a gory story involving an undying brain in a grave, people stomped FLAT... Plastic Man almost constantly involved murders, facial mutilation, needless tragic death, and unexplained freaks.
The Comics Code Authority often made silly censoring (such as removing the letters FBI from a desk). |
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| Additional Information |
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| Publication | September 1942 | Price: 0.10 USD | Pages: 1 | Frequency: monthly |
| Notes | Art credits confirmed by Gill Fox. Fox's color guides were found with the original art. |
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| Content | Genre: Superhero | Characters: #711 [Daniel Dyce] (inset); Chic Carter (inset) |
| Notes | Art credits confirmed by Gill Fox. Fox's color guides were found with the original art. |
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| Credits | Letters: typeset |
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| Content | Characters: Mickey Finn; Phil Finn; Lala Palooza (inset); Spin Shaw (inset); Samar (inset) |
| Notes | Feature Comics #59. |
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| Comic Story | The Brain of Cyrus Smythe (9 pages) |
| Synopsis | Cyrus Smythe was a super-powered villain who was killed in 1642 by a monster of his own creation, and left in a vat of chemicals that allowed his body to die but the brain to remain alive. Soldier Tad Wilkins died centuries later near the grave of Smythe, and medics mistakenly implanted Smythe's brain into Wilkins and Smythe assumed the soldier's life in America. Soon he came into conflict with Plastic Man and his body died.....but the living brain was once again buried. |
| Content | Genre: Superhero | Characters: Captain Murphey (Mammoth City Policeman); Tad Wilkins (introduction, death); Mr. Wilkins (death); Mrs. Wilkins (death); Valda; Shirley; Father Time (cameo); Cyrus Smythe (villain, introduction); Zither; Si Ray |
| Notes | DC villain, the Ultra-Humanite, also had a mobile brain, first appearing in Action Comics #20 (1940).
A similar freak, Giganta, appeared in Wonder Woman #9 (1944), having elements of both size-changing and brain transference. |
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| Synopsis | Dewey's maw thinks he has become a general. |
| Content | Genre: Humor | Characters: Dewey Drip; Mr. Drip; Mrs. Drip; General Fitz-Frogfuzz |
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| Comic Story | The Runt's Revenge (5 pages) |
| Synopsis | The Runt has gotten himself transferred to the prison to kill some talkative underlings. |
| Content | Genre: Adventure; Crime | Characters: #711 [Daniel Dyce]; The Runt (villain); Drip; Dip |
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| Synopsis | The Human Bomb faces his first costumed super villain, a master of physics who plays a destructive flute. |
| Content | Genre: Superhero | Characters: Hoiman Schtrugmeyer (villain) |
| Notes | Mike Kooiman and Jim Amash state in the Quality Companion that Gustavson created the strip and wrote it. Gustavson's son, Terry Gustafson, concurs.
Letters credit from Terry Gustafson, Paul Gustavson's son. |
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| Comic Story | The Tire Thieves (5 pages) |
| Synopsis | Steele comes across a gang of tire thieves. |
| Content | Genre: Detective-mystery | Characters: Steele Kerrigan; Anne; Bugsy Williams; Dippy Stahl; Mr. Stanton; Fritz |
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| Comic Story | The Laughing Gas Crimes (6 pages) |
| Synopsis | Professor Hooker invents a laughing gas that is stolen by his lab assistant. Soon, Manhunter is on the trail and he discovers the antidote to the gas: onions! |
| Content | Genre: Superhero | Characters: Professor Hooker; I. Q. Matelli; Egghead; Jim Kelly; Kit Kelly; Chief Brannigan; Uriah Heap (villain, the professor's assistant) |
| Notes | Manhunter wears new costume without a mask, red armlets or chest symbol (which has moved onto his belt). |
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| Comic Story | Killer Kane (1 page) |
| Synopsis | Kane has to kill someone to keep his reputation as a killer. |
| Content | Genre: Humor | Characters: Burp the Twerp; Killer Kane; Joe |
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| Comic Story | The Origin of the Spirit (7 pages) |
| Synopsis | Denny Colt is exposed to Dr. Cobra's serum, apparently dies, and comes back to fight crime as the Spirit. |
| Content | Genre: Superhero | Characters: Leeng; Kelly; Happy; O'Rourke; Pokey; Gimp |
| Notes | This appears to be the first "The Spirit" story to receive national magazine distribution. The original newspaper comic-book inserts appeared in only a handful of markets, and none were further west than Minneapolis.
Ebony White, the hero's future sidekick, appears in only one panel as an unnamed cab driver. The character, who is African-American, was written and drawn as a racist caricature. |
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| Comic Story | The Monster of the Swamps (6 pages) |
| Synopsis | Chic and Gay check out a legend of a swamp monster. |
| Content | Genre: Detective-mystery | Characters: Peter Miles; Chic Carter; Gay Nolan; Nick; The Swamp Monster [Rocky Green] (intro, villain) |
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| Synopsis | Super Snooper has to figure out how a man is stealing gas. |
| Content | Genre: Humor | Characters: Super Snooper |
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| Comic Story | The White Gardenias (5 pages) |
| Synopsis | Firebrand must battle a local hate group that is attempting to halt the activities of a U.S. Senator that promises to expose the group. |
| Content | Genre: Superhero | Characters: Slugger Dunn; Joan Rogers; Senator Barrow; The White Gardenias [Senator Beep; others] (villains) |
| Notes | The Order of the White Gardenias were a true-life branch of the KKK. |
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| Text Story | Produce the Body (1.8 pages) |
| Synopsis | Several Haitians have mysteriously disappeared. |
| Credits | Letters: typeset |
| Content | Genre: Detective-mystery | Characters: Dick Mace; Carlos Mijara; Steve |
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| Comic Story | The Murder of Malcom Munsey (5 pages) |
| Synopsis | Bulloni is stealing some plans and murders Malcolm Munsey. |
| Content | Genre: Detective-mystery; Superhero | Characters: The Mouthpiece [Bill Perkins]; Malcom Munsey (death); Mrs. Munsey; Greaseball Bulloni |
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| Comic Story | The Spy Ring Murder (6 pages) |
| Synopsis | Sandra and Don witness the murder of a U.S. intelligence officer who had been working on the suspected sabotage of an American re-fueling station. The Phantom Lady discovers some Nazis are responsible and they are operating through the office of a wealthy jeweler. |
| Content | Genre: Superhero | Characters: Lieutenant Bob Forbes (of U.S. intelligence, death); Nazis (villains); Mike |
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| Credits | Letters: typeset |
| Content | Characters: Eddie L.; Virginia D.; Tommy R. |
| Notes | Back cover. |
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| The data in the additional content section is courtesy of the Grand Comics Database under a
Creative Commons Attribution License.
More details about this comic may be available in their page here |
