Russkie-Smashers BLACKHAWK "Jet Menace!"

Behind This Rather Kool Dick Dillin/Chuck Cuidera Cover...

...(never-reprinted, BTW) lurks a tale (also never-reprinted )of Russkie sabotage and treachery!

Scripted by Robert Bernstein and penciled by Dick Dillin, and inked by Chuck Cuidera, the cover-featured story from Quality's Blackhawk #104 (1956) brings up an interesting,but obviously false, concept: if you have to bail out of a supersonic jet, you're incapable of flying one ever again!
If that was the case, Hal (Green Lantern) Jordan and literally all the Blackhawks would've been grounded pretty early in their jet-age careers!
Note: we're doing a Halloween-themed schedule for October, featuring super-heroes vs...

You'll see both well-known characters (and a couple of obscure ones) go up against various not-quite extinct giant lizards in hand-to-claw combat!

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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!

Russkie-Smashers BLACKHAWK "Lost Island"

You've Seen Blackhawk and His Men Smash Russkies All Over the World, and Even on The Moon...

...now witness them doing so on an island with a time-lost population!

Written by Robert Bernstein, penciled by Dick Dillin, and inked by Chuck Cuidera, this never-reprinted tale from Quality's Blackhawk #101 (1956) brings back the shadow of European imperialism as everybody (including America) tries to claim an island which is already inhabited!

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Russkie-Smashers DOLL MAN "Man with the Iron Face!"

Russkie-Smashers Come in All Shapes and Sizes...

...even if they're only as big as an action figure...or a doll!

Created by Will Eisner and Lou Fine in Quality's Feature Comics #27 (1939), Doll Man had a longer career than many other Golden Age characters, continuing in Feature Comics until #139 (1949) and his own book from the first issue in 1941 to #47 in 1953!

During that stretch, he battled Nazis, gangsters, monsters, aliens, ghosts, and finally Russkies, as shown in this never-reprinted story from Quality's Doll Man #45 (1953), written by Bill Woolfolk, penciled by Chic Stone, and inked by Chuck Cuidera.

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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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Russkie-Smashers BLACKHAWK "Nightmare Cruise"

We're Winding Up a Month of Russkie-Smashing with the Busiest Russkie-Smashers of All...

...awww, you guessed!

Scripted by Robert Bernstein, penciled by Dick Dillin, and inked by Chuck Cuidera, this never-reprinted story from Quality's Blackhawk #105 (1956) showed no matter what environment (air, land, or sea), nothing stops the Dark Knights (yes, they were referred that way long before a certain Caped Crusader) from defending democracy!

Next Week: We're Back to Nazi-Punching...with Blackhawk and his team!
(He was around a loooong time!)

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