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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Nazi-Punchers CAPTAIN AERO COMICS "Introducing the Sensational Patriotic Character: The Flag-Man and His Faithful Assistant Rusty!"

 For Some Patriots, Being the President's Personal Special Investigator Just Isn't Enough!

They've got to go out on their own time to kick Nazi ass!

Interestingly, though he started this never-reprinted tale from Helnit's Captain Aero Comics #1 (1941) as Captain Hornet, he became Major Hornet by the end of the story!
He was Major Hornet from the second story onward.
Written by Allen Ulmer and illustrated by Ray Willner, the character appeared steadily in the back of Captain Aero Comics until the book was cancelled in 1944.

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Take That, Adolf!

Fighting Comic Books of the Second World War!

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Nazi-Punchers STORMY FOSTER: THE GREAT DEFENDER "Castle of Kinga Korman"

Though He Primarily-Fought Japanese Spies and Saboteurs...

...West Coast-based "superhero on a budget" The Great Defender took on anyone who tried to interfere with America's homefront wartime efforts!

Shy timid drug store clerk Stormy Foster would don an outfit of t-shirt, gym shorts, track shoes and cape made out of a tablecloth, replace his glasses with a fake mustache, take a super-vitamin pill that gave him super-strength, speed, and limited invulnerability and jump into battle, as you'll now see...

You'll note that drug store delivery boy Ah Choo doesn't recognize co-worker Stormy as The Great Defender.

Either the "replace glasses with mustache" disguise is better than I thought or the writers of this never-reprinted story illustrated by Max Elkan from Quality's Hit Comics #21 (1942) just didn't care.
Stormy's strip ran in Hit Comics from 18 to 34 (1944).
He fought Nazis several more times before the series ended.
He's never been reprinted or revived in new material since!

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Take That, Adolf!

Fighting Comic Books of the Second World War!

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Nazi-Punchers LIBERTY SCOUTS "The Sentinel: Who He Is and How He Came to Be!"

One of the Weirder Patriotic Nazi-Punching Characters of the Golden Age is This Guy...

...created from whole cloth by the Spirit of America herself!

This never-reprinted, pre-Pearl Harbor tale from Centaur's Liberty Scouts #3 (1941), illustrated by George Wilson, was one of many showing Americans were clearly worried about the Axis pulling us into the already-ongoing World War II.

A number of these new patriotic defenders of the USA were typical American citizens either possessed by, or given powers by, mystic entities embodying some aspect of America.
But this being (and Uncle Sam, who apparently was "The American Spirit" in physical form) were created out of thin air, without a human intermediary.
Unlike Uncle Sam, who's had a long existence in comics, from the Golden Age to the present via Quality Comics & DC Comics, The Sentinel made only three appearances before being drawn back into the ether!
Even when other characters from the Centaur Comics line like The Arrow, Man of War, and even The Ferret, were revived by Malibu Comics in the late 1980s, The Sentinel was nowhere to be found!
Note: the George Wilson who illustrated this comic story is not painter George Wilson who did hundreds of cover paintings for Dell and Gold Key comics as well as paperbacks featuring sci-fi/fantasy and super-heroes from the 1950s to the 1980s!
George Homer Wilson started out as a pulp magazine illustrator doing both cover paintings and pen and ink interior illustrations before adding comic books to his already-busy schedule from 1940 thru 1942!

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Take That, Adolf!

Fighting Comic Books of the Second World War!

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Russkie Smashers SOUTH SEA GIRL "Echoes of an A-Bomb"

Because Winter Has Returned in a Big Way...

...we're going to look at the tropical adventures of a sarong-clad heroine battling atom bomb-wielding Russkies in an airship!

This tale from Leader's Seven Seas Comics #6 (1947) was scripted by Manning Lee Stokes with art by legendary "good-girl" artist Matt Baker, who also illustrated most of the legendary Fox Comics Phantom Lady series (which we ran HERE).
Stokes was a pulp/paperback writer specializing in mystery and action.
His only comic book work was for various strips in Seven Seas Comics.
This strip ran for all six issues of Seven Seas Comics and some of the stories have been reprinted, usually renaming the heroine or changing the story title.
When it was reprinted in the 1950s, the heroine's name was changed to "Vooda", and her bare midriff was covered both on the new cover art and the modified story pages...

When it was reprinted in the 1960s, she was once more "Alani" and her tummy was uncovered (in the interior pages)...

...but not on the new cover art by Ross Andru and Mike Esposito!

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Divas, Dames & Daredevils

Lost Heroines of Golden Age Comics

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