When I opened this 1952 comic I was surprised how 1940s it seemed. Then I noticed that the top of the art in the first story had been extended. I looked closer. The "commies" sure dress and act like WWII comic book Japanese. Then I came to panels 4 and 5 of page 4. The non-existent "P-96" jet is a WWII propeller-driven fighter: a redrawn P-38 Lightning! Check out panel 5. They forgot to redraw, so the P-38's twin booms and central pod are unmistakable. In the rest of the panels the fuselage has been extended and the booms chopped off to look like jet engines In the first panel of page 5 it's again obvious why the story is titled "Greased Lightning."
Checking out the rest of the stories, I'm convinced all of them, even "Operation Jet!" are re-purposed WWII stories (note that the supposed jet bomber in page 23 panel 1 still has "spinning propeller" lines in front of the engines). A final clue is in the book's final panel. Our hero walks past a "U.S. Army Ai[r Forces]" building. The USAAF was disbanded in 1947, when the U.S. Air Force was created. Poor Captain Jet is caught in a time warp.
It strikes me that turning a WWII airplane story into a jet story was a helluva lot of work. The re-lettering is exceptionally good. I guess Ajax-Farrell decided this was still cheaper than commissioning new material.
Link to the book:
Captain Jet 1
