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"Hour-Man: "The Boy's Week Crimes"": The synopsis for this issue has not yet been written.

Quote1 Sorry I had to do that, boys - - but I've got to clear my name! Quote2
Socko Strong

Adventure Comics #55 is an issue of the series Adventure Comics (Volume 1) with a cover date of October, 1940.

Synopsis for Hour-Man: "The Boy's Week Crimes"


Appearing in Hour-Man: "The Boy's Week Crimes"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • Minute Men of America
    • Jimmy Martin, Boys' Week Chief of Police
    • John Greene, Boys' Week Mayor
    • Burton Macy, Boys' Week Fire Commissioner
    • Thorndyke Thompkins
    • Tommy Cosgrove, shipping clerk at Bannerman Chemical
  • Mrs. Martin, Jimmy's mother
  • Mr. Bannerman, Rex's boss

Antagonists:

  • gang:
    • Chief
    • Dopey
    • Joe
    • others

Other Characters:

  • the Mayor
  • reporters & photographers
  • cops

Locations:

  • Cosmos (See Notes.)
    • cheap boarding house
    • City Hall
    • Jimmy Martin's home
    • Bannerman Chemical Co.
    • River Warehouse
    • Apex Theatre
    • Bank
    • Lyceum Theatre

Items:


Synopsis for Barry O'Neill: "Fang Gow's Terror"

In a lonely temple in the jungles of an island off the coast of French Guiana, Fang Gow completes another terrible science project. He has turned an ordinary thug into a monstrous giant, easily 20 feet tall. Fang Gow orders the ogre to rove the countryside, killing Native and Colonial French people alike, and over the next few days he destroys quite a lot of villages and even a small city.

The French Government sends Inspector Le Grand and Barry O'Neill to Guiana. They get their first sight of the monster from their airplane, and can't believe it. On the ground they confer with Major Rochemont, while hiding in the ruins of a shattered city. Most of Rochemont's troops are dead and all but one of his cannons have been smashed. Outside, the pilot that brought in Le Grand and O'Neill now tries to flee. He makes it to the plane and takes off, but the giant grabs the plane out of the air with one hand, and smashes it, then proceeds to twist the last remaining coastal cannon into useless scrap.

Fang Gow has been directing the monster's rampage, using an "Audio Ray." He now recalls the giant, to return to the temple. Barry and Le Grand quietly follow along, and thus find the location of Fang Gow's lair, but as they approach it, Le Grand stumbles into some mud which turns out to be quicksand! O'Neill uses a tree limb to help him out of it, and the villains don't detect their presence. They send an SOS to the French Military, then sneak into the temple, and confront Fang Gow, who is delighted to see them. Barry levels a pistol at the old evildoer's heart, and Fang Gow orders the giant to go out into the courtyard. Once outside, they see an incoming wave of carrier-based dive bombers swooping toward the temple. Fang Gow scoffs, believing his monster to be invulnerable, while O'Neill and Le Grand leave the scene very quickly. At first, machinegun fire and bombs aren't killing the monster, who manages to catch and destroy one plane, but soon he's blinded by the incessant shower of bullets, and stumbles into the quicksand, and sinks from sight. Fang Gow, meanwhile, has quietly slipped away.

Appearing in Barry O'Neill: "Fang Gow's Terror"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

  • Fang Gow
  • Abu the Giant (Single appearance; dies)

Other Characters:

  • Major Rochemont (Single appearance)
  • French Pilot (Dies)

Locations:

Items:

  • Fang Gow's Giant-Making Formula
  • Fang Gow's Audio Ray

Vehicles:

  • French Military Observation Plane, antique model
  • French Aircraft Carrier
  • French Dive Bombers
  • French Medium Bombers

Synopsis for Mark Lansing: "Battle To the Death"

In the "Tournament of the Doomed," Mark Lansing fights with cutlass and shield against a larger, stronger, pointed-headed Trad Man, and is getting cut up pretty badly at first. He rallies up and grapples the giant, hoists him up and flings him to the ground, dead. The crowd cries out for the Earthling to be freed, per Moko's earlier promise. Moko has no intention of honoring his word, and simply stalls, while Lansing collapses onto the sand, from blood loss.

In the crowd is an enemy of Moko's, a visiting king, Talon the Terrible, a mighty emperor from beyond the sea. He and Mokan have a short, curt conversation, in which custody of Lansing is turned over to Talon. When he meets Koda and Tony and Kit, Talon takes a liking to Kit, Tony's girlfriend, and tells her that Mark will get medical care aboard Talon's flagship, and that they'll be departing soon.

They depart for Talon's kingdom, in his stut boat, and are covertly followed, above, by Mokan's Rocket Ship. The two-man crew prepares to fire two torpedoes at the royal ship.

Appearing in Mark Lansing: "Battle To the Death"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • Koda
  • Tony
  • Kit

Antagonists:

  • The Mokos
  • Mokan the Monster
  • the Trad Man (Final appearance; dies)

Other Characters:

  • King Talon (First appearance)
  • Vulcan (First appearance)
  • Manchuk (First appearance)

Locations:

Synopsis for Federal Men: "The Aircraft Plant Robberies"

At Gargan Aircraft, a masked, caped safecracker has stolen some important blueprints, but Steve Carson busts him.

Appearing in Federal Men: "The Aircraft Plant Robberies"

Featured Characters:

Antagonists:

  • Ben Watkins, assembly line foreman (Single appearance)

Other Characters:

  • Robert Glendon, CEO of Gargan Aircraft Corp. (Single appearance)
  • Paddy Quinn, night watchman (Single appearance)

Locations:

Synopsis for Cotton Carver: "Revolution In Ugar"

Cotton and his friends find themselves in the path of an elephant stampede. They stand on one another's shoulders, forming a human column, and the stampede splits and rejoins itself around them. Nora faints. When she recovers, Cotton accompanies Jim and Nora on their hike back to Nora's father's camp. Mr. Blake gives Carver a rifle, and Carver hikes back to Ugar, hoping to pick up Lupa, then return to her Wolf People and hook back up with Deela and Red Mike.

In the jungle, Carver is ambushed and captured by a Ugaran gladiator-recruiting team. He is carried to Ugar tied to a long stick, and tossed into a holding cell at the gladiatorial arena, and left unwatched. There he meets a Ugaran with surprising news: the Ugaran government was overthrown, just the previous night. The king and his nobles are imprisoned, awaiting execution, tomorrow. Also this guy has brought along Carver's gun belts and firearms.

The next day, at execution time, Carver shoots the lock out of his cell door, and heads for the arena, stopping in the unguarded armory to recover his rifle, and an armload of swords. In the arena, a lion has been released before the doomed aristocrats; Carver puts it down with one shot, then hands out the swords. One prisoner points out the usurper, Carlos the Cruel; Carver pops him too. Then there's a melee in which Carver, the condemned nobles, and a large part of the gathered crowd overwhelm the junta and their men at arms. Carver races into the prison, saves King Partik from a last-minute execution attempt, and frees Lupa.

Some time later, in a grand ceremony, Cotton Carver is inducted into the Royal Order of King Knights. A week later he and Lupa sail away in a Ugaran galley, across the Sea of Soul, and two weeks after that they go ashore onto the great plain, and then to the Valley of the Wolf, where they are reunited with Red Mike and Deela. They throw a party that night, then Deela asks when they can return to Barlunda. Carver replies that they'll start out the next morning.

Appearing in Cotton Carver: "Revolution In Ugar"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters: Antagonists:

  • Carlos the Cruel (Single appearance; dies)
    • his Rebels (Most or all die)

Other Characters:

  • Nora Blake (Final appearance)
  • Jim Kent (Final appearance) (See Notes.)
  • Mr. Blake (Single appearance)
  • King Partik (Single appearance)
  • Lupa
  • Red Mike
  • Deela

Animals:

  • herd of elephants
  • arena lion

Locations:

Synopsis for Socko Strong: "Framed!"

Racketeer "Silk" Morello fakes his own murder, in his own house, and frames Socko Strong for it. Two cops are called in and take him away. Socko needs to prove his innocence, so he knocks out both of the cops, escapes from their car, hikes back to Morello's house, and breaks in. There he re-examines the physical evidence at the scene, and finds things wrong with it. The phone rings and he answers it, and learns that Morello's girlfriend Maizie Vamour is absent from her job. Figuring to find Silk and Maizie together at Maizie's place, Socko looks up Maizie's address, then goes there in a taxi. Out front he finds Morello's bodyguard, punches him out, runs upstairs, then gets very lucky and finds an unlocked back door into the kitchen of Miss Vamour's apartment. Morello walks in; Strong grabs him and chokes a confession out of him. He then drags him into a police station, and proves that the murder of Morello didn't even happen.

Appearing in Socko Strong: "Framed!"

Featured Characters:

Antagonists:

  • Silk Morello, racketeer (Single appearance)
    • Spiro, bodyguard (Single appearance)
  • Maizie Vamour (Single appearance)
  • Spiro (Single appearance)

Other Characters

  • cops
  • Hyatt, Stage Director (by telephone)

Locations:

  • New York City
    • Morello's mansion
    • The Empire, nightclub (by telephone)
    • 31 Alger Place, Miss Vamour's apartment
    • Police Headquarters

Synopsis for Steve Conrad, Adventurer: "Mediterranean Kidnapping"


Appearing in Steve Conrad, Adventurer: "Mediterranean Kidnapping"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • Chang

Antagonists:

  • pirate crew

Other Characters:

  • Colonel Crawford
  • Miss Ruth Crawford

Animals:

  • train of camels

Locations:

Vessels:

  • Crawford's yacht
  • small pirate sloop
  • Crawford's motor launch

Synopsis for Sandman: "The Star of Singapore"


Appearing in Sandman: "The Star of Singapore"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • Detective Brophy (Single appearance)

Antagonists:

  • Jed Jones, hoodlum (Single appearance)
  • Hank Harris, safecracker (Single appearance)

Other Characters:

  • Mrs. Hecker, gem owner (Single appearance)
  • Mr. Benson, banker (Single appearance)
  • bank guard
  • Detective Brophy
    • Officer Kelly, Harbor Police
  • Harbor Cops
  • chartered yacht captain
    • chartered yacht crew

Locations:

Items:

Vehicles:

  • Sandman's Red Roadster
  • Chartered Yacht (Destroyed)
  • Harbor Police Boat

Notes

  • Published monthly by Detective Comics, Inc.
  • In Cotton Carver the spelling of some names is still changing. Jim Bent is now Jim Kent.
    • Cotton gets head-konked unconscious, with a spear.
    • Carver's blond hair is now brown.
  • The masked, caped safecracker in Federal Men wears a green business suit with a purple cape, and except for the gasmask looks very much like the Sandman.
  • Hour Man:
    • On the splash page, the spelling of the hero's name changes again, now dropping the hyphen. But then the hyphen comes back, in all of the captions.
    • Per page 1 panel 1, Hour-Man lives and works in the thriving city of Cosmos. But two issues ago in Adventure Comics #53, also on page 1 panel 1, he was said to live in Appleton City, which had a minimum amount of crime. No explanation or mention of this change is made, ever.
  • Sandman: "The Star of Singapore" is reprinted in the The Golden Age Sandman Archives Vol. 1.
    • The introductory caption includes: "The police are after him (though he never committed a crime)." Last issue, the D.A. had called off the manhunt for Sandman, but in this story, the police make sure to promise "police protection" when advertising for the Sandman's help.
    • Sandman gets another bullet wound, in the right shoulder. This is at least his fifth bullet wound.[1]
  • Socko Strong's sidekick Jerry Indutch doesn't appear in this episode.
  • Steve Conrad gets head-konked unconscious, with a blunt instrument, twice.
  • Also appearing in this issue of Adventure Comics were:
    • "Here It Is -- Better Than Ever!" (full page ad for the current issues of All-American, Adventure, Flash, More Fun, and especially All-Star Comics #2)
    • Fantastic Facts by George Papp
    • "Junior Federal Men Club" (promotional text, full page)
    • "For Swell Vacation Reading" (1/2 page ad for the current issues of New York World's Fair Comics #2 and Mutt & Jeff #2)
    • "Superman is on the Radio!" (1/2 page ad for The Adventures of Superman (radio series))
    • "Just Like Junior"
    • "Jungle Justice" (text story) by George Shute
    • Monthly Book Review: "The Story of the Iliad" or "The Trojan Horse"
    • Silly Situations by Hal Sherman
    • "The "Big Six" Comic Magazines Still Lead the Field!" (full page ad for the current issues of Action, Adventure, All-American, Detective, Flash, and More Fun Comics)

Trivia

  • Barry O'Neill's hair has now remained black for two issues in a row.
  • Wes Dodds smokes a pipe, and wears an ascot with his smoking jacket.


See Also


Links and References

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