Russkie-Smashers SPY CASES "Smashing the Iron Curtain!"

"A secret agent is not some mythical being born on the comic page..."

...and raised to glory on the silver screen!"

How "meta" can you get?

Though the tale is closer to Mickey Spillane than Ian Fleming, it's still a rousing adventure that proves you don't need tights and a cape to smash Russkies!

Doug Grant was the star of the ongoing (and usually cover-featured) lead strip of Atlas' Spy Cases anthology comic.
This intro tale from #27 (actually #1, but they were continuing the numbering from a different comic, The Kellys) is scripted by Robert Bernstein and illustrated by Al Hartley.
He lasted for 39 stories, longer than any other Atlas-era secret agent except for The Yellow Claw's nemesis Jimmy Woo!

Next Week:

The legendary Man of Bronze takes on the Nazis at the 1936 Olympics as they put up an athlete who was trained from birth using the same techniques that Dr Clark Savage Sr used for Doc in this never-reprinted, almost 40 year-old extra-long tale!

Guest appearances by historical figures including Jesse Owens and Adolf (You Know Who)!

See the Nazi-Punching action at

Hero Histories and Medical Comics and Stories

Russkie-Smashers BLACKHAWK "Flying Tank Platoon!"

Let's Get Back to Some Serious Russkie-Smashing...

...as the Blackhawks tackle what was then state-of-the-art technology!

Unlike an earlier tale we presented about 1950s high-tech, this never-reprinted story from Quality's Blackhawk #106 (1956) was not based on actual experimental prototypes!

Writer Robert Bernstein, penciler Dick Dillin, and inker Chuck Cuidera created this whole thing from their fertile imaginations!

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Blackhawk

by William Rotsler

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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