Don’t be too impressed. On his first try he broke the header logo.
Police Comics #12
Comic Magazines, Inc (October, 1942)
Plastic Man’s dominating the next few covers so we’ll just discuss one of the other characters. What happened with Chic Carter? Granted the Sword wasn’t much of a hero identity, though the idea of a fencing superhero could have worked. I have to wonder if the creator(s) wanted another superhero, couldn’t figure out what to do with him, and just gave up the costume thing and simply let Chic be another action reporter? They must have been doing okay with him since as Chic alone he’s part of this series and another future Quality Comics title, Smash Comics.
And yet, if DC bought him as well I don’t know of them doing anything with him or The Sword. The DC Database doesn’t even bother doing anything other than acknowledge he was part of Quality Comics when DC bought the rights to many of the characters. His story may be a mystery even he couldn’t solve. Anyway, let’s see what he and the other not-police characters do in Police Comics.
Plastic Man by Jack Cole
When Plas turns the tables on a blackmailer who knows of an actresses’ secret baldness (wouldn’t be an issue these days), he swears revenge. His fortune teller, who says that Plastic Man obscures the stars or some gobbledygook, suggests getting rid of Plastic Man, so the blackmailer puts out a bounty. Determined not to let the jerk win, he gets some help from the actress herself in foiling his plans for keeps, including somehow growing her hair. This was a fun little adventure.
711 by George E. Brenner
I don’t know how Dan found out about a Nazi spy team stealing some unknown information, but he goes to get it back. It almost gets comedic how #711 learns the admittedly clever method of getting the information out. Ironically, it takes the fun out of the story. And for those of you who go to read it and see what appears to be a quote, I asked Google AI (nice “guy”), who caught it as a quote from “The Prisoner’s Song”. Might look that up for Sing Me A Story someday. Who knows?
The Firebrand
Slugger is grazed in a fight with Nazis trying to blow up the dock and ends up in the hospital where Joan works. Another nurse is part of a spy ring, pumping the patients for information. Both Joan and Slugger find out about it (the hard way for Slugger), and Firebrand has to save his friend and shut down the ring. If this story had more pages it probably would have been a better story but it wasn’t too bad as is. It just gets cut off just before the good guys get to beat up the ring, though at least there’s the fight where Slugger got hurt.
Steele Kerrigan by Al Bryant
Crooks steal a diamond that’s about to be cut by an expert. Steele knows the guy and tries to trick him into giving up the diamond, but when it goes wrong he has to stop the criminals from hurting the expert. It’s another story that needed a couple more pages at least to tell the story, but up to the end it’s not bad.
Manhunter
What the hell, this story? Ignoring that Dan really needs a better girlfriend, at least she’s not a pain in this story. Granted it’s because she and a group of kids she’s showing how they make candy are kidnapped by the shop owner…and here’s where it gets weird…because their family owes slaves to Turkey due to their grandfather not being able to complete a contract. They send the kidnappees to them in a remote controlled boat, they have a misshapen giant, the dude refers to his wife as “my pretty”, there’s an employee not involved with this…the story is just a total mess. I was not a fan of this one.
The Spirit by Will Eisner
The Spirit matches wits with a lady defense attorney whose very good at keeping her very guilty client out of jail, or at least out of prison when the Spirit gets involved. Was the recorded confession enough to not invoke double jeopardy? At least we have a story that fits the page time without being cut short and isn’t silly. This is also where Ebony White officially becomes The Spirit’s driver as he keeps popping up when our hero calls for a cab. Yes, he’s a black stereotype of the day and I know that will bother some modern day readers, but we’ll see if there’s more than the speech patterns that make him problematic.
Phantom Lady by Arthur Peddy
Sandra goes undercover at a tank factory to find saboteurs. She also makes a new friend who somehow can’t tell Sandra is Phantom Lady despite her not wearing a mask or even altering her hairstyle and getting good looks at both identities. And everyone complains about Clark Kent and Prince Adam while this goes on. Otherwise a good story.
Chic Carter by Vernon Henkel
Hey, he’s based in Metropolis and he’s not even in the same universe as Superman. Although it’s not like he, Gay, or Monahan were needed for this story. A whaler from the Civil War somehow ends up in 1942. I can’t tell if he was frozen in hibernation while his crew died or what. Despite whaling being pretty much over by this period he tricks or kidnaps a crew into going back into it and our trio get to be kidnapped after Chic’s earlier encounter. Like I said, they didn’t need to be here. The villain defeats himself in a very inept way for a long time whaler. This is a standalone story they shoved our cast into just to get it printed, and it’s not even a good one.
The Mouthpiece “And The Waterfront Monster” by Fred Guardineer
The Mouthpiece tackles fifth columnists who murder dockworkers repairing boats, but they’re just in it for the money. I don’t know why the killer in the aqualung takes the hero back to his base when we know he’s willing to kill other than to have them learn his identity (a cheap mask, but it’s still more than Phantom Lady) other than to not kill off the main character, but they don’t live to tell anyone anyway. It’s an okay story. It fits the space but it’s still kind of quick, if that makes sense to you.
The Human Bomb by Paul Carrol
Roy somehow found out that music played at a particular restaurant was being used by Nazi spies to send coded messages and keeps staking the place out…with the fiance he can’t even tell that to. You know, Roy, I understand why you aren’t telling her you’re the Human Bomb, even if I don’t agree with it, but she could have at least been told about this. Are you sure you want to marry her? Otherwise a good finish to the issue.
overall
And this comic needed a decent end because it’s been a mixed bag all issue. Some good stories, some mediocre stories, and not enough good stories to offset it. At least there were some. There must have been a few off days by the creators because the comic’s usually better than this.
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