All-American Comics #56 is an issue of the series All-American Comics (Volume 1) with a cover date of March, 1944.
Synopsis for Green Lantern: "The Reforming of Elegant Esmond"
Sophisticated gang boss "Elegant" Esmond announces to his followers he's quitting crime, and plans to reform. He's been a crook for so long, though, none of his attempts at doing good works satisfy him, until Esmond sees a man try to drown himself. After hauling the man back onto the street (after having to punch him out to do it), Esmond hails Doiby's cab and has him take them back to his old hideout. His gang recognizes something Esmond himself didn't: the man he saved is Ronny D'Wink, the cast-out heir to an insurance empire, who's been missing for a month. Ronny was apparently trying to kill himself over having no options left but destitution when he jumped. The insidious former heir plays this situation to his advantage, blackmailing Esmond's gang for a million dollars or else he'll tell the police the Esmond gang kidnapped him. Meanwhile, Doiby's also recognized his passengers, and tells Alan Scott where he dropped them off.
After charging up his ring, Lantern and Doiby hurry back to the deli Esmond used as his hideout, but Ronny knocks Green Lantern out with a wooden chair and Doiby with a sausage, not willing to let the do-gooders ruin his plans. The gang robs a series of valuables owned by millionaire J.B. Throttleneck, and as he examines the crimes, Green Lantern comes to a startling conclusion.
Finally, he and Doiby catch up to the gang aboard Throttleneck's yacht, which sinks when Esmond grapples with him and makes a beam from the power ring go astray, punching a hole through the hull. When the police arrive to slap the cuffs on Esmond, Green Lantern stops them, as no crime's actually been committed. The hero explains "J.B. Throttleneck" was the alter ego Esmond created for himself to use after he gave up crime. All of the wealth from the recent spree was only stolen from himself, and went to the bottom with his sunken yacht. Ronny D'Wink, on the other hand, masterminded the whole affair, and goes to prison. Esmond makes good on his promise to go straight and gets a new job tuning up airplane motors, making use of the skills he developed cracking safes.
Appearing in Green Lantern: "The Reforming of Elegant Esmond"
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- Ronny D'Wink
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- Elegant Esmond
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Synopsis for Atom: "The Friendship Dance"
The Baldy Gang, getting desperate with the law cracking down on their operations, comes up with a new scheme to make money...by giving it away.
Meanwhile, Al Pratt's having no luck getting a date with Mary, but a passing cop tells him about a Friendship Dance where attendees are actually given money for coming. With nothing better to do that night, and suspicious besides, Al decides to look into this "Friendship Dance". He gets even more suspicious when his trained crimefighter's eye notices all the orchestra members wearing "telescopic lenses", which Al figures is so they can spot who has the most money in their wallets to target them for robbery. He changes to the Atom to intervene, only to be pistol-whipped over the head by Baldy and taken out.
With the gang members leaving to mug their targets, Atom escapes by using a clothes hanger to pull the knots in his ropes loose. He goes after the gang and pounds them into submission. When trying once again to get a date with Mary later on, however, he's told off. Mary went to the dance too and saw him with another girl, and spurns him again.
Appearing in Atom: "The Friendship Dance"
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- Baldy
- Trigger
- The Baldy Gang
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- Telescopic glasses
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Synopsis for Doctor Mid-Nite: "The Tale of the Black Rain"
A strange black rain darkens "Chimes Square". Under cover of this darkness, a group of thieves count the steps from their getaway car to the store they're planning to rob. Across the street happens to be Dr. McNider, whose power of seeing in the darkness enables him to be the only person who can see what the criminals are up to. As Dr. Mid-Nite he attacks, and while he captures the thieves, the driver gets away, but luckily the hero caught the license plate.
The inventor of the machine that blacked out the area, dubbed the Cloud, isn't too pleased by Dr. Mid-Nite's interference, but isn't worried about further confrontations with the hero. Indeed, the Doctor can't be everywhere at once, and the following heists carried out by the Cloud's henchmen are successful, with them raking in dough, while Mid-Nite tries to figure a way to trace the artificial black rain. By chance he spots a pair of dolls in a window, buys them and takes them home. He keeps watch over them and notices their clothes changing color just before it rains, the signal the Cloud was using for his men on what stores to target.
Just as he'd expected, crooks are robbing the store, and Mid-Nite pounds them. He hitches a ride on the getaway car to tail the last one back to the Cloud's hideout, where he breaks the black rain machine over the mastermind's head.
Appearing in Doctor Mid-Nite: "The Tale of the Black Rain"
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- Black rain machine
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Synopsis for Scribbly: "Ma Hunkle's Singing"
Ma's singing can shatter glass. As the Red Tornado, she replaces the broken windows of a neighbor, but when she finds out he broke the window of the Hunkle grocery story thinking her kids had broken his own window with a baseball, she retaliates by shattering his new windows with bricks. The neighbor bemoans that more people aren't like the Red Tornado.
Appearing in Scribbly: "Ma Hunkle's Singing"
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- A Surly Neighbor
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Synopsis for Red, White, and Blue: "It's Tough to Be a Hero"
The trio all get letters from spies offering to pay well for classified information, and go along with it to catch the enemy operatives. Red has significant girl troubles in the process.
Appearing in Red, White, and Blue: "It's Tough to Be a Hero"
Featured Characters:
- Red, White, and Blue
- Red Dugan, USMC
- Whitey Smith, USA
- Blooey Blue, USN
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- Doris West, G2
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Synopsis for "Hop Harrigan: Bombs Away"
Hop and Tank are deployed on a secret mission to rescue a general and senator from Japanese captivity on an island base.
Appearing in "Hop Harrigan: Bombs Away"
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Notes
- Also appearing in this issue of All-American Comics were:
- Mutt & Jeff (newspaper strip reprints) by Al Smith
- Simp O'Dill (newspaper strip reprint), by Sol Hess and Wallace A. Carlson
- At this point in time, any non-metal objects could hurt Green Lantern, not only wood.
See Also
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