Black X’s chief is wondering about all the corpses in their cells.
Smash Comics #9
E.M. Arnold (April, 1940)
I’ve been making a proper list of comics to avoid and which to keep reading. This so far has been good reading so I can pop it up on my “read” list, which is nice. Anthologies means you never know what you’re going to get or if it will be worth it. Imagine buying the comics at the 2026 equivalent of $2.39…wait, given what comics go for right now that would still be better. Still, pretend you’re a kid because they still made comics for kids, or you just want something for the train ride home or the dentist waiting area. The Great Depression is over but the fallout hasn’t quite cleared out and now you’re in a war where everything is precious.
You want something that is going to give you enough entertainment, and serialized storytelling in comics are limited while shared universes are nonexistent. You want your anthology to be more good stories than bad or you just waisted perfectly good money that could have gone to something more important. Let’s see if it was worth it this issue as well.
Espionage Starring Black X
Our white man everyone apparently knows investigates strange happenings in Alaska, tied to a man who uses poison that turns you into a skeleton trying to kill him. Proxoff wants to wait until World War II devastates Europe and then sweep in to take over the world, starting with…America. You know, the country where the war only takes place with spies, and that’s only according to fiction. Seems strange for him to capture Black X AND his assistant, kill the rest of his plane’s passengers because these guys are more suicidal than the Japanese at the time, and then tries to get X to join his team? Frankly, the way it opened I was expecting something more supernatural, but it’s just Batu hypnotizing people. It was an okay start.
Abdul The Arab
Robbers know the police are sending Abdul after him and set a trap. It doesn’t work as planned. Not much to summarize, and it comes up a bit short as there’s no drama to Hassan being shot when he isn’t killed and saves his master. So it could have been better, but it wasn’t a bad story for what they had time for. There have worse attempts and shoving a longer story into shorter pages.
Flash Fulton: Newsreel Ace by Paul Gustavson
A woman in Europe…somewhere…has papers that will expose a plot to overthrow the government during the war. Seems like a bad idea given what the Axis was like even then, but it does lead to a pretty good adventure. Another short summary but the story fits the page count quite well for once this issue.
Clip Chance At Cliffside by Scott Sheridan
Now Clip is on the track and field team…or from the look of things IS the track and field team. Eat your heart out, Bo Jackson. Clip is in every sport possible, like a scientist who knows all the sciences in fiction. If the track team doesn’t make money, the coach of every sport at Cliffside will have to not work for the track season, but crooks want the money. This could have worked if Clip wasn’t the whole team, but him winning all but one event AND stopping the crooks from stealing the box office money? Yeah, unless we’re going to learn Cliff has superpowers at some point, I’m not buying it.
Wings Wendall Of The Military Intelligence by Vernon Henkel
The Hawaii naval base is being spied on but the planes disappear before the military can get their planes up. A ship carrying anti-aircraft guns is sunk by a submarine. So it’s up to Wings to find these spies. Remember, this is a couple of years before the Pearl Harbor bombing drew the US into the war, so it’s almost a prediction even if the base isn’t named. Too bad the “aliens” aren’t actually space aliens. It wouldn’t fit the world of the story, mind you. Not sure what country they’re supposed to be from. Wings gets the required air battle but also gets to do some work on the ground. Pretty decent story.
Captain Cook Of Scotland Yard: “The Case Of The Roving Taxicab”
A man dies in the river, but was it the cabbie or the man’s friend? Considering the hidden clue makes trying to solve it difficult (and nobody noticed his clothes were wet, or did he dry off that quickly?) it’s just kind of a pain to keep track of. At least it is for me. You might have had better luck if you read along. I didn’t hate it but it didn’t work for me.
John Law: Scientective: “The Phantom Fog” by Harry Francis Campbell
Being exposed as “The Avenger” is stopping Albert Lewis, assuming that’s his actual identity. Now his game is making buses disappear in Philadelphia, and June decides to investigate because she’s tired of being left at the lab. It’s more interesting watching him solve the mystery than Cook because the clues are better presented, even if the tech is something out of old Scooby-Doo and Law frees everyone by going into MacGyver mode. Overall, a darn good story. Imagine what Campbell could have done with a full comic instead of just five pages.
Chic Carter: Ace Reporter
Doped cigarettes in a college town leads one kid to murder someone. We won’t learn what happens to him because Chic and the kid’s sister go after the drug operation. I couldn’t tell you if this was a “secretly laced with marijuana” deal or a full on drug deal, and Chic comes off more like a cop than a news reporter. He does get a new sidekick if they keep the hot girl…of course they will. A bit iffy but a decent read.
Invisible Justice by Art Gordon
Fake pirates interrupt Kent Thurston’s vacation, so the Invisible Hood is going to expose them. This comic has a lot of short summaries for plot, but it’s hit or miss how good the stories are for the run time. Fortunately this is one of the good ones.
Hugh Hazzard & His Iron Man by Wayne Reid
What’s funnier? That the blatantly obvious and cartoonishly evil Hitler stand-in is named Mottler or that his agents are “Goeing” and “Gonn”? I thought this was one of the serious comics? Anyway, the Double Cross sends them to stop a neutral country’s ambassador from making contact with the US. Somehow a man inside a robot isn’t the craziest thing to happen in this story. Oh, you’re just going to have to read it for yourself because I don’t want to spoil the fun.
Congratulations to Irving Levy for giving the winning name of this comic’s “upcoming” sister comic. Guess we’ll be reviewing Crack Comics at some point.
overall
This was an interesting little trip. The final story is a bit odd given real world events to come. The comics are still pretty good for the “runtime”, so I’ll be coming back to this title when it shows up in the rotation.
BW Media Spotlight 