Nazi-Punchers PAT PARKER: WAR NURSE ""Disease from the Depths"

Few non-superpowered World War II heroines had as active a career as...

 ...who went through three different incarnations during the conflict!

Introduced in Harvey's Speed Comics #13, British nurse Patricia Parker kicked the butts of spies, saboteurs, and medical black marketers in plainclothes for two issues before donning her costume and identity at the end of this never-reprinted story from Speed #15 (1942).

She was as proficient at Nazi-clobbering in costume as without one.

You'll note Pat didn't need a guy to assist her.

But, as of Speed Comics #23, she teamed up with several women from other countries (China, Russia, and America) to form the Girl Commandos, a distaff version of the multi-national Blackhawks...

...and dropped the "War Nurse" identity for the remainder of her run!
Note: If the art seems a tad un-detailed, even for a Golden Age comic, that's because the book wasn't normal sized (7.75" x 10.5"), but the smaller digest magazine-size (4" x 6.75")!
We just ran it at the same size as regular comics on this blog for your viewing ease!

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Divas, Dames & Daredevils

Lost Heroines of Golden Age Comics

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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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Plastic Man 80-Page Giant

Featuring classic tales from each of his eras (Golden Age/Silver Age/Bronze Age)

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Nazi-Punchers NATIONAL COMICS "The Return of Your Uncle Sam!"

When People Used to Say "Don't Mess with Uncle Sam!"...

...you damn well listened to them!
And here's why...

Appearing almost a year before Captain America punched out Hitler on the cover of Timely's Captain America Comics #1 (1941)

...but a few months after MLJ's The Shield debuted in Pep Comics #1 (1940)...

...Uncle Sam premiered (as you've just seen) in Quality's National Comics #1 (1940), written, laid out and inked by Will (The Spirit) Eisner and penciled by Dave Berg.

America wouldn't enter World War II for almost a year and a half, so the character couldn't take on the Germans or Japanese directly at this point.
Instead he battled American neo-Nazis inspired by Adolf Hitler!
But, of course, all that would change after December 7, 1941!

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Take That, Adolf!
Fighting Comic Books of the Second World War!
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Russkie-Smashers PHANTOM LADY "Television Spies!" 2.0

The Phantom Lady Usually Punched Nazis, but in This Case...

...she did so in a totally-redrawn version of a previous Phantom Lady tale! which now has her taking on Russkie spies!

In the original 1948 version of this tale, the tv images were in full glorious color, and television was just beginning to enter American households, so few people had actually seen a tv screen!

But, by the time of this story in Ajax/Farrell's Phantom Lady #3 (1955), almost half the households in America had tvs, but they were almost all b/w sets.

As a result, the tv screens shown in this version of the story were b/w, the way most Americans experienced video at the time.
Plus, in the original tale, it wasn't made clear if it was industrial spying or international spying!

The artist (or artists) of this tale are unknown, but the writer is probably editor Ruth Roche, as usual.

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Phantom Lady

Crime Never Pays!

(With a new Adam Hughes cover!)

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Nazi-Punchers MILITARY COMICS "The Coming of...Blackhawk!"

Before He Became the Ultimate Russkie-Smasher...

...he was the premier Nazi-Puncher!
Now witness his first bombshell appearance in Quality's Military Comics #1 (1941)

Written by Will (The Spirit) Eisner & Bob Powell and illustrated by Chuck Cuidera, the initial appearance of Blackhawk and his crew is slightly-different from all later stories!

• No trademark Grumman XF5F Skyrockets...which will premiere in the next issue! The planes we do see are rather...generic!
• The uniforms are different. Blackhawk doesn't have his distinctive hawk-head insignia on his chest, and all the Blackhawk uniforms are almost solid black, rather than blue.
• The Blackhawks themselves are not yet identified, and the only one who speaks has a British accent!

But all-in-all, a well thought-out first story, setting up the basis for the ongoing series!
We'll be rotating Blackhawk's Russkie-Smashing tales with his earlier Nazi-Punching adventures, so watch for them!

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Blackhawk

by William Rotsler

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