Nazi-Punchers CAPTAIN AMERICA "Adventures of Captain America" Conclusion

When Last We Left Our Patriotic Heroes...

A flashback to 1944 reveals how Captain America and Bucky were sent to investigate rumors that Nazis were attempting to sabotage production of the (real-life) Adventures of Captain America movie serial!
When the actor playing Cap is shot and wounded during filming, the real CA steps in to take his place!
And it turns out, the rumors were TRUE...

Dekker had gotten away, and survived until the "present day" (1977) where he...well that's a story for another time.

Story by movie serial expert, animation scripter, and occasional comic book writer Don Glut.

Art by Marvel stalwarts Sal Buscema and Joe Sinnott.

Here's a special Hero Histories bonus; a feature from 1964's HTF Warren Publishing's On the Scene Presents SuperHeroes! one-shot magazine about the real reel-life Captain America...

Who Sez Comics Ain't Educational?

Nazi-Punchers CAPTAIN AMERICA "Adventures of Captain America" Part 1

Poster from the 1944 movie serial!

We're presenting a slightly-different story this week, a fictional tale on the real-life filming of the reel-life Captain America serial from 1944!

Movie serial authority (and occasional comic book writer) Don Glut pitched a story to Marvel about how Captain America and Bucky ended up working on the Republic Pictures movie serial in order to stop a plot by the Red Skull to sabotage the film's production!

The story, told in flashback, began as Private Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes went on leave...

"Democracy Pictures" = Republic Pictures

"Sundown Dawson" = Sunset Carson, noted 1940s Western b-movie actor.

"Lyle Dekker" = Howard  & Theodore Lydecker, Republic Pictures' SFX wizards

"Glenn Reeper" = stuntman Dale Van Sickel.
"Whit Spencer" = directors William Whitney & Spencer Bennett. Everything (except the reason for no Bucky in the serial) is true!

"Tim Irons" = stuntman Tom Steele

"Jet-Man" poster in panel one refers to the King of the Rocket Man serial which, in the real world, was produced in 1949, a half-decade later!

Tune in next Monday for both

1) the astounding conclusion
2) some more background info about the movie serial!

The real Lydecker brothers were not Nazi Agents!
We're ending today's entry on (what else?) a cliffhanger you'll have to come back next week to see resolved!

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Captain America
The 1940s Movie Serial
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Nazi-Punchers HIT COMICS "Ghost of Flanders in 'Snatching Spies!' "

The Golden Age Character Who Fought Nazis Using an Identity Based on a World War I Poem Returns...

...and if you're confused by that statement, click HERE for an explanation!

Then come back and enjoy the story!

Written and illustrated by George Brenner using the pen-name "Wayne Reid", this never-reprinted story from Quality's Hit Comics #20 (1942) adds a new wrinkle to the series, a German virtual Übermensch...a physically-perfect man, not unlike our own Doc Savage!

But righteous patriotic anger powers our hero, who manages to defeat the stronger enemy, like a David taking-down a Goliath!

Ghost of Flanders Will Return!

Nazi-Punchers SEÑORITA RIO "Trapped in the Swastika Web"

We Start June Off with One of the Hottest Nazi-Punchers You'll Ever See...

"Señorita Rio" was the code-name given to popular Hispanic-American film actress Rita Farrar (real name: Consuela Maria Ascencion De Las Vegas), as she spied on against Axis agents in Central and South American countries during World War II.

She was proficient with weapons, and could handle herself in perilous situations, requiring rescue by male associates far less frequently than most heroines of the Golden Age of Comics.
Based on real-life actress and World War II pin-up queen Rita Hayworth, whom most people don't realize was Hispanic/Irish-American (Her real name was Margarita Carmen Cansino), Señorita Rio started as a backup feature in Fiction House's Fight Comics #19 in 1942, and took over the cover slot as of #37 for a year.
After that, she remained as a backup until #71 (1951), as the series ended with her retiring from espionage and returning full-time to her acting career.
The first few Señorita Rio stories, including this premiere tale, were illustrated by noted Golden and Silver Age artist Nick Cardy (using his full name Nick Viscardi), but the bulk of her tales were rendered by one of the few female comic book artists of the era, Lily Renee, who did spectacular work in every comics genre: sci-fi, adventure, superhero, war, western, horror, and romance!

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Fight Comics featuring Senorita Rio Volume 1
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Nazi-Punchers CAT-MAN COMICS "BlackOut: Who He Is and How He Came to Be!"

You've already read the final adventure of BlackOut HERE...

...now you'll witness how and why jaded Berlin-based reporter Jack Wayne became such a dedicated fighter for freedom!

Though not an aviator, the multi-talented ex-reporter operated throughout Germany in Holyoke's Cat-Man Comics #10 through #24, proving equal to any challenge presented, except cancellation!
This origin tale from Cat-Man Comics V2N15 aka #10 (1942) was illustrated (and possibly written) by Robert Brice, but nobody knows for certain!
Later in his career, Brice was credited with scripting his own horror, romance, and war stories, so I'm willing to attribute BlackOut to him as a solo, all-in-one creation!

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Take That, Adolf!

Fighting Comic Books of the Second World War!

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Nazi-Punchers BLACKHAWK "Coward Dies Twice"

Last Week We Brought You Russkie-Smashing Blackhawk and his team...

...this week we bring you his younger self...when he and his crew were first organized to do some serious Nazi-Punching!

Added bonus: the first appearance of their distinctive aircraft, the Grumman Skyrocket!

Scripted/laid-out by Will Eisner, and penciled/inked by Chuck Cuidera, the second appearance of Blackhawk, from Quality's Military Comics #2 (1941) clears up a number of aspects, including the fact the team isn't operating openly as a part of the Allied forces!

(America hadn't entered the war at this pre-Pearl Harbor point in history,)
Besides the core group, we're introduced to Boris (Ukrainian/Russian) and Zeg (country unknown) along with numerous other unidentified personnel.
Zeg appeared several more times during the Golden Age, but Boris disappeared after this issue, popping up again in the Bronze Age as a one-shot villain seeking vengeance against the Blackhawks!
Trivia: Though this was the only appearance of the split-tail Skyrockets in the Golden Age strip, when the Blackhawks made their debut in the animated Justice League series in "The Savage Time", an episode set in post D-Day Europe, the original version of the aircraft was front and center!
(DC's 1980s revival of the WWII version of Blackhawk restored the split-tailed version to pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths continuity, helping to define which WWII stories were Earth-One and which were Earth-X)!

Director/Animator Dan Riba even constructed a custom maquette of the Skyrocket and sent it to the Korean animation house for reference in animating aerobatics with the distinctive ship properly!

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Blackhawk

by William Rotsler

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