| Comments |
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| I just love the cover art on this issue. |
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| I love Golden Age title changes: "Black Cobra (formerly Billy Bunny)" |
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| Crash Ryan, magazines still make strange title changes. Distributors have a pad number by which they identify the titles. When I was with Hasbro, we used the TopDeck pad number when we acquired Star Wars Insider. That guaranteed a certain amount of distribution right off the bat without soliciting new orders. Even though the TopDeck reader wasn't necessarily the same as the Star Wars Insider reader, the old pad number got our foot in the door.
As for Black Cobra, I keep being surprised. I didn't realize that the offensive slang for Asians was used in the Korean Conflict. But it was frequently used in the text adventure in this issue. Also, there was a paragraph where the enemy soldiers came charging at the US forces with bugles blaring. That seemed anachronistic to me, but the official US military historian (or an official military historian) wrote: "They came out of the hills near Unsan, North Korea, blowing bugles in the dying light of day on 1 November 1950, throwing grenades and firing their "burp" guns at the surprised American soldiers of the 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division." There is also at least one Chinese bugle in a military museum here in the U.S. So, it's rare that my big takeaway from an issue is based on the text story, but this was pretty cool. I read these issues to time-travel and this one was terrific in that regard. |
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| Cover is similar to the cover for Pep Comics #9. |
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| Additional Information |
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| Publication | December 1954-January 1955 | Price: 0.10 USD | Pages: 1 | Frequency: Bi-monthly |
| Notes | Art credits added by Eric Schumacher via the GCD Error Tracker. |
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| Cover | The Big Blast! |
| Featuring | The Black Cobra |
| Credits | Pencils: Ken Battefield | Inks: Ken Battefield |
| Content | Genre: Superhero | Characters: The Black Cobra [Steve Drake] |
| Notes | Art credits added by Eric Schumacher via the GCD Error Tracker. |
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| Comic Story | The Big Blast (7 pages) |
| Synopsis | F.B.I. Agent Steve Drake is assigned to prowl around a Guatemalan Air Base which seems to be a target for a red spy ring. |
| Featuring | The Black Cobra |
| Content | Genre: Superhero | Characters: the Black Cobra [Steve Drake] |
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| Comic Story | A Message to Gomez (7 pages) |
| Synopsis | Press photographers in Cuba during the Spanish-American War. |
| Featuring | Valor Unlimited |
| Content | Genre: Adventure | Characters: Jimmie Hare (photographer); Robert J. Collier (editor); Sylvester Scovel (reporter); General Gomez; the Black Cobra [Steve Drake] (host/narrator) |
| Notes | Black Cobra replaces the original host Brenda Starr. |
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| Comic Story | Trap for Traitors / Grenades For Glory (5 pages) |
| Synopsis | The Black Cobra finds himself up against an incredible and fantastic plot to steal one the U.S.A.'s super-tanks. |
| Featuring | The Black Cobra |
| Credits | Pencils: Robert Webb? | Inks: Robert Webb? |
| Content | Genre: Superhero | Characters: the Black Cobra [Steve Drake]; Debbie; Steve Drake's unnamed boss; Mike (villain, killed) |
| Notes | The art is very similar to the credited Webb-story in this issue, faces, ears, hands and cheek lines.
In the introductory blurb, the story title appears as "Grenades for Glory," which is how the reprint is titled. |
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| Text Story | No Cowards Allowed (2 pages) |
| Credits | Letters: typeset |
| Content | Genre: War | Characters: Sergeant Pavey; Lieutenant; Johnny; Corporal Berkowitz |
| Notes | Small drawing on second page. |
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| Comic Story | Deadline for Danger / The Mystery of the Falling Corpse (7 pages) |
| Synopsis | The Black Cobra gets a hurry up call for help from a great atomic plant. |
| Featuring | The Black Cobra |
| Credits | Pencils: Robert Webb | Inks: Robert Webb |
| Content | Genre: Superhero | Characters: Black Cobra [Steve Drake]; Debbie; Steve Drake's unnamed boss; unnamed spy |
| Notes | Art identification from reprint.
There is an alternate title in the introductory blurb: "The Falling Corpse." |
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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 |
