Comments |
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I like how Firebrand's sweat soaked shirt becomes translucent as the story progresses! |
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Plastic man is as good as I had heard as a kid growing up! |
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Additional Information |
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Publication | November 1941 | Price: 0.10 USD | Pages: 1 | Frequency: Monthly |
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Content | Genre: Superhero | Characters: The Firebrand [Rod Reilly]; Plastic Man [Patrick "Eel" O'Brian] (inset); Phantom Lady [Sandra Knight] (inset); Eagle Evans (inset); #711 [Daniel Dyce] (inset); The Human Bomb [Roy Lincoln] (inset) |
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Comic Story | Herr Strasse's Sea Island Spy Ring (11 pages) |
Synopsis | Rod develops a combat bomber capable of taking off and landing with only 50 yards of airstrip available. After the Nazis attempt to steal the plane and the Firebrand steps in to stop that endeavor, the U.S. military orders 5000 of the aircraft. |
Content | Genre: Superhero | Characters: Firebrand [Rod Reilly]; the Nazis (villains) |
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Comic Story | The Van Dern Pearls (6 pages) |
Synopsis | Daniel learns of a plot to snatch the Van Dern pearls. |
Content | Genre: Adventure; Crime | Characters: #711 [Daniel Dyce] |
Notes | Van Dern is the name of Batman's maternal family and the pearls are a symbol linked to his mother's death in more modern revelations. |
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Comic Story | The Yegg Beater (1 page) |
Content | Genre: Humor |
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Comic Story | Defending the Dartmoor (7 pages) |
Content | Genre: Detective-mystery | Characters: Eagle Evans; Snap Smith |
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Comic Story | Dr. Scratch of Demon Hill (6 pages) |
Synopsis | Dr. Scratch is trying to build an electronic brain, using the actual brains of famous scientists. Chic Carter, now abandoning his former role of the Sword and content just to be a reporter, tackles this eerie case. |
Content | Genre: Detective-mystery | Characters: Chic Carter; Gargoyle; Sir John Nienstine; Gay Nolan; Monahan; Dr. Scratch (villain) |
Notes | Story riffs on Universal's Frankenstein movies, with Dr. Scratch in search of a brain, aided by his assistant Gargoyle (think Igor), with his intended target being Dr. Nienstine (rhymes with Frankenstein). |
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Comic Story | Crime School for Delinquent Girls (6 pages) |
Synopsis | Madam Brawn of the Crime School for Delinquent Girls campaigns to take over the protection racket in Windy City. Eel O'Brian manages to wiggle his way into the racket, but Plastic Man gets tied into knots before subduing the Madam. After Brawn manages to escape, Plas grants her leniency, but she vows to get revenge. |
Content | Genre: Superhero | Characters: Plastic Man [Patrick "Eel" O'Brian]; Madam Brawn (villain, introduction); Lefty Goon (villain, introduction) |
Notes | Belfi claimed (in Alter Ego #11, page 6) to be inking some Plastic Man stories at this date. The art does look rather different from Cole's complete pencil and ink jobs, so this may feature at least partial Belfi inks. |
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Content | Genre: Humor | Characters: Dewey Drip |
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Comic Story | McGaw's Proposition (5 pages) |
Content | Genre: Detective-mystery | Characters: Steele Kerrigan; Spike McGaw (villain); Cokey Marino (villain) |
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Comic Story | The Flash Photo Fixers (6 pages) |
Content | Genre: Detective-mystery; Superhero | Characters: The Mouthpiece [Bill Perkins] |
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Text Story | The Goof (2 pages) |
Credits | Pencils:? (spot illustrations) | Inks:? (spot illustrations) | Colors:? (spot illustrations) | Letters: typeset |
Content | Characters: Dick Mace; Duffy the Goof (pilot) |
Notes | Dick Mace text story. |
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Comic Story | The Dirigible of Doom (6 pages) |
Synopsis | The Phantom Lady rescues Don and an ambassador from a dirigible on which some Nazis had planted a bomb. |
Content | Genre: Superhero | Characters: Phantom Lady [Sandra Knight]; Don Borden; un-named Anglican Ambassador; Kurtz (villain, death); Heine (villain, death) |
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Comic Story | The Safety Pin Stealer (1 page) |
Content | Genre: Humor | Characters: Burp the Twerp |
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Synopsis | Roy, an accomplished chemist in his own right, invents another explosive that scares his co-workers so much that he moves the experiment into his own private lab. It is formulated into a substance that is harmless on its own, but detonates when it comes in contact with Roy's hot hands. The substance is used to take down a Nazi vessel that the Human Bomb encounters en route to Havana. |
Content | Genre: Superhero | Characters: The Human Bomb [Roy Lincoln]; the Nazis (villains, some die) |
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.
Art credits revised from Gustafson to Eisner-Fine by Craig Delich (per note below):
"Upon examination of the original artwork to “Police Comics #4, page 62”, featuring The Human Bomb in the story: “The U-Boat Battle,” it indicates that this specific page, and likely the entire story, was illustrated by the combined talents of Will Eisner and Louis K. Fine and NOT by Paul Gustavson as originally credited to, although Paul Gustavson DID in fact write this particular story. Will Eisner's long-time publisher and art agent, Denis Kitchen, confirmed that “panel 1” from “Police Comics #4, page 62” looks incredibly like Will Eisner’s late 1930’S style of work as seen in the Quality Comics’ “Smash Comics” titles: “Espionage: Starring Black X” series, while the remaining panels featuring The Human Bomb in the heat of battle, resemble the style Lou Fine with the finely delineated line work, the broken-panel layouts, and the overall positioning of The Human Bomb." |
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Creative Commons Attribution License.
More details about this comic may be available in their page here |