Russkie-Smashers PLASTIC MAN "Incredible Sleep Weapon"

 Though the Villain of This Tale is Named The Sandman...

...the foul fiend doesn't use sand or knockout gas, as DC's Golden Age hero did!

So, the one-shot Sandman, who used hypnosis, from Quality's Plastic Man #51 (1955) was a sandwoman!

Such a gender-swap has been a moderately-common trope in comics, usually detectible by any or all of the following...
A) villain wearing bulky or shapeless costume.
B) villain using voice-altering mask/filter.
C) villain usually not performing any sort of hand-to-hand combat.
In this story, written by Dick Wood, pencilled by Charles Nicholas, and inked by Chuck Cuidera...it was all three!

Russkie-Smashers PLASTIC MAN "Red Wreckers of Rangistan!"

With One of the Most Alliterative Titles I've Ever Seen in Comics...

...this never-reprinted Russkie-Smashing tale is one of the weirdest Plastic Man stories you'll ever see...and that's saying something!

Written by Joe Millard and illustrated by Paul Gustavson, this feature from Quality's Plastic Man #41 (1953) was part of an editorial change from the goofy Golden Age to an era which saw the character become "grim and gritty" battling Communists, aliens, and monsters of various types from dinosaurs and giant ants to zombies!

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Russkie-Smashers PLASTIC MAN "Dazzla, Daughter of Darkness!"

Behind this cover by penciler Charles Nicholas and inker Chuck Cuidera...

...lurks a pretty kool tale of Commie menace written and illustrated by Plaz's creator, Jack Cole!

This story appeared in Quality's Plastic Man #53 (1955).

But it's actually a reprint, since the tale first appeared in Quality's Plastic Man #30 (1951).

There's no re-working/re-editing required by the Comics Code as was done to some other Plaz tales such as the one shown HERE!

So why did we run the reprint?

Because the tale wasn't cover-featured during initial publication, but was the second time around!

There is method to our madness!

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Russkie-Smashers PLASTIC MAN "Monster of Flame"

He's not creator Jack Cole's wacko version of the Ductile Detective...

...but he is the Russkie-Smasher Quality Comics' editors thought we wanted in the 1950s!

Written by Joe Millard and illustrated by Al Luster, this tale from Quality's Plastic Man #43 (1953) was typical for the era, emphasizing Commies and monsters over the surreal humor Jack Cole had embedded into the series' concept!

BTW, when the story was reprinted only a couple of years later in Quality's Plastic Man #60 (1956), the newly-created Comics Code Authority insisted on a title change...

...as well as minor alterations in a couple of panels renaming the FBI the "NBI" and cutting back on violence and name-calling!

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Russkie-Smashers PLASTIC MAN "Trio of Tyranny"

What does comics legend Jack Cole's best-known creation look like without Jack Cole?
Like this never-reprinted cover by Quality Comics stablemate Blackhawk's Dick Dillin and Chuck Cuidera, and the following never-reprinted story by scripter Dick Wood and illustrator Charles Nicholas!

This tale from Quality's Plastic Man #50 (1954) was typical of the direction the book took after Jack Cole left.

Plas and sidekick Woozy battled Commies (as we also showed HERE), monsters, and aliens in the lead stories by a plethora of writers and illustrators while the rest of the book was filled with reprints of Jack Cole's earlier tales.
A couple of issues later the book went entirely reprint (except for new covers and one-pagers) until it was cancelled with #64 when Quality closed its' doors and sold its' inventory (both published and unpublished) to DC in 1956.
DC continued publishing Blackhawk, G.I. Combat, Heart Throbs and the short-lived Robin Hood Tales and left the other characters and strips unused until the mid-1960s when Plas was revived in 1966 in all-new stories in a short-lived series!
(Note: around the same time, IW/Super Comics reprinted several issues of Plas's Golden Age book since they had purchased the actual printing plates from a printer where they had been abandoned by Quality. The timing appears to have been a coincidence.)
Since then, he's been revived and revamped several times in the humorous spirit of Jack Cole by a variety of creatives including Kyle Baker and Phil Foglio, and eventually incorporated into the DC mainstream universe...whatever its' current incarnation is as of this year!

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