Russkie-Smashers PHANTOM LADY "Television Spies!" 2.0

The Phantom Lady Usually Punched Nazis, but in This Case...

...she did so in a totally-redrawn version of a previous Phantom Lady tale! which now has her taking on Russkie spies!

In the original 1948 version of this tale, the tv images were in full glorious color, and television was just beginning to enter American households, so few people had actually seen a tv screen!

But, by the time of this story in Ajax/Farrell's Phantom Lady #3 (1955), almost half the households in America had tvs, but they were almost all b/w sets.

As a result, the tv screens shown in this version of the story were b/w, the way most Americans experienced video at the time.
Plus, in the original tale, it wasn't made clear if it was industrial spying or international spying!

The artist (or artists) of this tale are unknown, but the writer is probably editor Ruth Roche, as usual.

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Phantom Lady

Crime Never Pays!

(With a new Adam Hughes cover!)

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Nazi-Punchers MILITARY COMICS "The Coming of...Blackhawk!"

Before He Became the Ultimate Russkie-Smasher...

...he was the premier Nazi-Puncher!
Now witness his first bombshell appearance in Quality's Military Comics #1 (1941)

Written by Will (The Spirit) Eisner & Bob Powell and illustrated by Chuck Cuidera, the initial appearance of Blackhawk and his crew is slightly-different from all later stories!

• No trademark Grumman XF5F Skyrockets...which will premiere in the next issue! The planes we do see are rather...generic!
• The uniforms are different. Blackhawk doesn't have his distinctive hawk-head insignia on his chest, and all the Blackhawk uniforms are almost solid black, rather than blue.
• The Blackhawks themselves are not yet identified, and the only one who speaks has a British accent!

But all-in-all, a well thought-out first story, setting up the basis for the ongoing series!
We'll be rotating Blackhawk's Russkie-Smashing tales with his earlier Nazi-Punching adventures, so watch for them!

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Blackhawk

by William Rotsler

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Russkie-Smashers JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY "Invisible Woman!"

Sometimes, the Best "Man" for Russkie-Smashing is a WOman...

...as this never-reprinted tale from Atlas' Journey into Mystery #43 (1957) aptly-demonstrates!

This story has a rather unique artistic pedigree

Pencils by Syd Shores, who is usually an inker, and inking by one of the (now) most famous pencilers of the era...Matt Baker!
Why did editor Stan Lee make these particular choices?
Did the artists themselves suggest it as a change of pace?
Did Lee want to test to see how they'd do in unfamiliar roles?
I'd note there's also speculation Baker re-penciled certain panels, particularly the ones focused on the female spy!
What's the truth?

We'll never know the answer!

Just enjoy the result!

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Matt Baker

Art of Glamour

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Nazi-Punchers SUPER-AMERICAN "Hordes of the Secret Dictator"

Those Who Stand up to Nazis are Not Just True Americans...

...They Are, Like This Man, Super-Americans!

Note that since this premiere appearance of this costumed crusader in Fiction House's Fight Comics #15 (1941) pre-dates America's entry into World War II, the obvious Nazis and their leader are not identified as such.
After December 7th, 1941, every comics publisher showed the swastika and identified Adolf and his buddies as Nazis!

With his rather unique back-story (being a super--powered American from the future come to help us in the present, kool costume and action-packed artwork by Don Zolerowich, you'd think the Super-American strip would last, at least, to the end of the war!
In fact, it ended after only four chapters, in mid-1942, just as the war effort got into high gear!

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Take That, Adolf!
The Fighting Comic Books of World War II
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Nazi/Russkie-Smashers BLACKHAWK "Hitler's Daughter"

With Don da Con and Muskrat's pseudo-Nazis seizing power...

...we're modifying our format to alternate between Russkie-Smashers and Nazi Smashers starting with this re-presentation!

World War II had ended only a decade earlier when this tale appeared in Quality's Blackhawk #97 (1958), and, if anybody did the math, Hitla (who appears to be in her mid-20s) would've been born around 1930-32...when Hitler wasn't married...but he was involved with Eva Braun...who was never pregnant!
Curiously, at that time in real life, Adolf's half-sister, Angela Raubal, and her 21 year-old daughter Geli, moved into Hitler's home.
Adolf's's relationship towards Geli, while initially kindly, eventually bordered on the obsessive, fueling rumors that they were romantically linked...which Hitler denied.
In late 1931, Geli was found dead at Hitler's flat in Munich.
Verdict: suicide.
Did writer Joe Millard know about this, and could he have used it as a cover story for the imposter daughter in this Dick Dillin-penciled and Chuck Cuidera-inked story?

We'll never know!

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Blackhawk
by William Rotsler
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