Russkie-Smashers BLACKHAWK "Winged Menace!"

Better Russkie-Smashing Through Technology!!!

The Dark Knights utilize real-world technology in their final, never-reprinted, appearance from Quality Comics!

When this tale by writer Robert Bernstein, penciler Dick Dillin and inker Chuck Cuidera appeared in Blackhawk #107 (1956), the deLackner HZ-1 Aerocyle was undergoing tests by the Department of Defense!

Sadly, this rather kool-looking device failed the tests, as detailed HERE.

BTW, a "backpack helicopter" had been posited back in the 1940s, but was deemed not feasable as a weapon.

But that didn't stop sci-fi magazine and comic creatives from utilizing it in their stories!

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Blackhawk

by William Rotsler
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Russkie-Smashers BLACKHAWK "Red Timetable of Treachery"

Russkies and other Commies were everywhere in the 1950s...

...including the Near East, as shown in this never-reprinted story from Quality's Blackhawk #107 (1956)...the final, but not truly final, issue!

DC didn't miss a month when it bought the rights to Blackhawk from Quality Comics, which was closing their business.
Quality's final issue, #107, was published in December, 1956!
DC's premiere issue, #108 rolled off the presses one month later, January, 1957 with material already prepared for publication by Quality as shown HERE!
BTW, Quality also featured Russkies in other Near East countries like Iran...

Check out this Russkie-Smashing tale from Quality's T-Man #3 (1952)!

But, that's not all!

There's also this sanitized-for-your-protection, Comics Code-modified reprint from Quality's T-Man #31 (1956), which waters down all the kool hard-boiled elements from the original tale...and makes the Russkies into generic "Communists"!

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Blackhawk

by William Rotsler

Russkie-Smashers BLACKHAWK "Threat from the Abyss!"

For a bunch of aviators...

...Blackhawk and his team spend a lot of time underwater, as this adventure from their first DC issue demonstrates!

In fact, all three of the stories in this issue, DC's Blackhawk #108 (1957), feature aquatic, not aerial, action!

DC didn't miss a month when it bought the rights to Blackhawk from Quality Comics, which was closing their business.

Quality's final issue, #107, was published in December, 1956!

DC's premiere issue, #108 rolled off the presses one month later, January, 1957!

Quality had several completed and almost-completed stories ready to go, and DC used them in this issue to meet the already-established deadline with the printer!
Trivia: those "inventory" tales were the last ones featuring the Blackhawks singing triumphantly at the end of the story!
DC dropped that, along with almost all Communist-clobbering plotlines until the final issue of the original run, as we showed HERE, HERE, and HERE!

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Blackhawk

by William Rotsler

Read Christmas Comics on Christmas Day!

After You've Opened Your Presents, Enjoy These Yuletide SuperHero Tales...

GIANT SUPERHERO HOLIDAY GRAB-BAG
"Tis the Season..."

CAPTAIN MARVEL ADVENTURES
"Plot Against Christmas"

GREEN LAMA
"Turn of the Scrooge"

WITHIN OUR REACH
"Spider-Man in 'A Wolf at the Door"

Merry Christmas!

(We're taking New Year's Day off, but we'll be back to Russkie-Smashing on January 8th!)

CountDown to Halloween 2023 Rutland Halloween Parade Comic Book Tales CheckList

Here's a list of stories we've thus far presented...in chronological order...

1970

(The first Rutland Parade story in any comic!)

Marvel's Avengers #83

Come On In...the Revolution's Fine!

Part 1

Part 2
We haven't run the 1971 tale from DC...yet!

1972
There are actually four comics set in Rutland, more than any other single year!
One of the Marvel stories is a standalone, not linked to the other three.
We haven't run that one...yet!

The other three (two Marvel and one DC, are linked, Rashamon-style, showing the same events from different viewpoints, and featuring different characters...though the characters don't realize it!

Marvel's Amazing Adventures (The Beast) #16
...and the Juggernaut Will Get You...If You Don't Watch Out!
Part 1
Part 2

DC's Justice League of America #104
A Stranger Walks Among Us!
Part 1
Part 2

Marvel's Mighty Thor #207
FireSword!
Prologue
Part 1
Part 2

1974

Marvel's Avengers #119

Night of the Collector!

Prologue

Part 1

Part 2

1975

Gold Key's Occult Files of Doctor Spektor #18
Masque Macabre
Prologue
Part 1
Part 2
There were two separate DC Parade tales in 1976...which we haven't run...yet!

1977

DC Super-Stars (Phantom Stranger & Deadman)
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
After 1977, there are only occasional stories set in Rutland, none of which we've run...yet!
Bonus:
Introduction to the Rutland Parade in Comics!
The Real-Life Rutland Halloween Parade!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
SEE YOU NEXT YEAR!

Countdown to Halloween 2023 DC SUPER-STARS "Phantom Stranger & Deadman in 'Chapter 3' " Plus "Story Behind the Story"

We Have Witnessed...

Cover art by Jim Aparo

...The Phantom Stranger, Deadman, and Doctor 13 all journeyed to Rutland, Vermont on Halloween and battled mystic menaces...but the threat isn't over...yet!

Bonus: here's a kool behind-the-scenes feature about the story you just read...

NEXT MONDAY...this story didn't end two years ago!

Be Here as Rutland Faces Yet More Halloween Horror...this time from one of the Marvel Multiverse's Non-Magical Menaces!

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DeadMan Omnibus

(which reprints this tale)