| Additional Information |
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| Publication | June 1941 | Price: 0.10 USD | Pages: 1 | Frequency: Monthly |
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| Cover | A Super Thriller |
| Content | Genre: Superhero | Characters: The Ray [Happy Terrill]; Bozo the Robot (inset); Espionage [Black X] (inset); The Jester [Chuck Lane] (inset); Midnight [Dave Clark] (inset) |
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| Comic Story | The Beetle and the Tongs (9 pages) |
| Synopsis | To help out during a case involving feuds between rival clans in Chinatown, The Ray gives Bud a "ray ring" that emits a beam to blind people. |
| Content | Genre: Superhero | Characters: The Ray [Happy Terrill]; Bud; Tom Lum (introduction); The Beetle (villain, introduction); Long Woo (villain, introduction, death) |
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| Comic Story | The Hijacked War Planes (4 pages) |
| Content | Genre: Aviation | Characters: Wings Wendall; Spinner; General Harrison |
| Notes | Henkel s credited as writer and artist on this feature by Jerry Bails' Who's Who. |
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| Comic Story | Boomerang Bullets (1 page) |
| Content | Genre: Humor; Detective-mystery | Characters: Wun Cloo (detective) |
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| Comic Story | The Hundred Grand Hobo (5 pages) |
| Content | Genre: Superhero | Characters: The Jester [Chuck Lane]; Mulligan; Limpy (introduction) |
| Notes | All Gustavson credits verified and courtesy of Terry Gustafson, son of Paul Gustavson. |
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| Comic Story | The Ghost Town Bandits (6 pages) |
| Content | Genre: Adventure | Characters: The Purple Trio [Tiny Todd; Warren; Rocky Hill]; Wolf Fang (villain, introduction) |
| Notes | Alex Blum is credited on this feature by Jerry Bails' Who's Who, and his gloomy faces are not to be mistaken. Compare sample in Jerry Bails' Who's Who. Jerry Iger is credited as writer for Quality, and his pen name was S.M. Regi (Iger backwards).
Writer revision from Jerry Iger to ? by Craig Delich 2013-12-26. The Who's Who indicates that S. M. Regi was a pen-name sometimes used by Jerry Iger, but also by others as a house by-line. It further indicates that Jerry Iger did not write this feature, but that Alex Blum, under this pen-name or by-line, did draw the strip. |
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| Content | Genre: Humor; Children | Characters: Princess Itchovitch (intro); Archie; Ivan |
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| Comic Story | Enter: Doc Wackey (5 pages) |
| Synopsis | Midnight faces a foe who administers pills to people that regresses them to infancy, and he is even tricked to ingesting the drug as well. Gabby takes a chance with the antidote, which might kill the subject, but Dave is restored. Then, instead of turning the doctor in, Midnight gives Wackey a chance to reform, working with him and Gabby to better promote his genius. |
| Content | Genre: Adventure; Superhero | Characters: Midnight [Dave Clark]; Gabby (a monkey); Doc Mortimer Wackey (villain, introduction, reforms) |
| Notes | Dr. Wackey's first name was not revealed until Smash #32. He becomes Midnight's partner by the end of this story.
A diagram of Midnight's Vacuum Gun is shown in this story. |
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| Comic Story | The Temple of Mars (6 pages) |
| Content | Genre: Spy | Characters: Espionage [Black X]; Sandra Sanders (introduction), Luigi Piscato (death); Madam Doom (villain) |
| Notes | Williams is credited on drawing this feature.
Writer revision from Eisner to French by Craig Delich.
Will Eisner created the Espionage feature, and Will Erwin was a pen name used by Will Eisner (Erwin was Eisner's middle name), but it also became a house by-line after Eisner's tenure after 1940. Lane French wrote the feature in 1941, followed by Toni Blum (1942) and Otto Binder (1942-43). |
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| Comic Story | The Blue Death (5 pages) |
| Synopsis | Caglio and the Crystal Queen squabble over a mystical and lethal blue gem, which ends when the magician kiils the Queen and later succumbs to an explosion. |
| Content | Genre: Superhero | Characters: The Invisible Hood [Kent Thurston]; The Crystal Queen (villain, death); Caglio (villain, a magician, introduction, death) |
| Notes | Art Gordon is a pen name for Art Pinajian, and he is credited as writer and artist on this feature by Jerry Bails' Who's Who. |
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| Comic Story | The Human Bronzes (5 pages) |
| Synopsis | The Seal takes the law into his own hands to stop a murderous embalmer who is killing young women and posing them as life-like sculptures. |
| Content | Genre: Detective-mystery | Characters: The Scarlet Seal [Barry Moore]; Captain Tim Moore; Bernice Fonda (introduction, death); Morta (villain, embalmer, introduction) |
| Notes | This feature was created by Manning de Villeneuve Lee, an accomplished fine artist and book illustrator who specialized in historical subjects. His by-line only appears on the first story in #16....after that, the strip was signed "Duane Byrd Monroe", a pen name for which no reference can be found.
The Who's Who lists Campbell as writer and artist in 1940-41.......Lee (called Lee Manning in the Who's Who) wrote and drew the strip in 1940, and Henry Taylor drew the strip in 1941. I'll leave it to other writer/art experts that have access to all the stories (from Smash #2-24) to determine who did what stories story and artwise. |
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| Text Story | Beeskrieg (2 pages) |
| Featuring | Jimmy Christian |
| Credits | Letters: typeset |
| Content | Genre: Adventure | Characters: Jimmy Christian |
| Notes | next story "The Hunted Castle" |
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| Comic Story | The Capture of Princess Bardia (4 pages) |
| Content | Genre: Adventure | Characters: Abdul; Hassan; Pooch (intro,a girl), Princess Bardia; Kibur (Intro, Dies) |
| Notes | Powell is credited as writer and artist on this feature, and his pen name was Powell Roberts, all by Jerry Bails' Who's Who. |
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| Comic Story | The Black Death (4 pages) |
| Content | Genre: Detective-mystery | Characters: Chic Carter; Monahan; The Black Death (Intro; Holt); Foster (intro, dies), Worthington (intro, dies); Dr. Parker |
| Notes | Originally credited to Klaus Nordling, but this is Henkel, who is credited on this feature by Jerry Bails' Who's Who. Compare the grinning face with bright eyes with his signed Wings Wendell story. |
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| Comic Story | Karl Zoff's Double (7 pages) |
| Content | Genre: Science Fiction | Characters: Hugh Hazzard; Bozo; Karl Zoff; Kurtz (Intro for both); Fox (intro) |
| Notes | Wayne Reid is a pen name for Brenner, and he is only credited as artist on this feature by Jerry Bails' Who's Who. |
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Creative Commons Attribution License.
More details about this comic may be available in their page here |
