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"Joe Palooka": (newspaper strip reprints)

Quote1 That blasted imp has ruined my plans, but I got away! He can't get me! Quote2
Doctor Rodent, wearing a bowler hat with Doll Man sitting atop it

Feature Comics #28 is an issue of the series Feature Comics (Volume 1) with a cover date of January, 1940.

Synopsis for "Joe Palooka"

(newspaper strip reprints)

Appearing in "Joe Palooka"

Featured Characters:

  • Joe Palooka

Supporting Characters:

  • Knobby Walsh

Synopsis for Captain Fortune: "Captain Clegg"

In a tavern in Porto Bello, two scurvy rascals pick a fight with Captain Tyrone Fortune and crewman Pierre, in which Pierre is killed. The fight is interrupted by the arrival of Captain Clegg, commander of the murderous brawlers, but not before Fortune skewers one of them. Clegg konks Fortune unconscious with the butt of a pistol and pulls his remaining crewman away. When Fortune regains his wits, he vow to avenge Pierre, and returns to the "Revenge." He and Will Kentshire survey Clegg's sloop, the "Wolf."

That evening the Great Spanish Merchant Fleet weighs anchor and departs from Porto Bellow. The next morning, lookouts report that, during the night, the Wolf has also slipped out of port. Fortune surmises, correctly, that Clegg and his crew are pirates, and he pursues them at full sail. Far ahead of the Revenge, the Wolf has already picked off one Spanish ship, looted it, and burned it.

That night, the Revenge arrives at the scene of the Wolf's second attack on the Merchant Fleet; cannon are already thundering. He sends his crew to general quarters and the Revenge enters the fray. This prompts the outnumbered pirate ship to flee, but it's too late; the Revenge rams the Wolf and Fortune's crew swarms aboard. Captain Fortune personally kills the surviving brawler from the tavern incident, just as Captain Clegg lunges at him with a dagger, but Will Kentshire shoots Clegg dead before he can strike.

Appearing in Captain Fortune: "Captain Clegg"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • Will Kentshire, First Officer
    • "Revenge" Crew
      • Pierre (Dies)

Antagonists:

  • Captain Clegg (Dies)
    • "Wolf" Crew
      • Gaspare (Dies)
      • Luigi (Dies)

Other Characters:

  • tavern proprietor

Locations:

Vehicles:

  • English Privateer Galleon "Revenge"
    • Revenge's Longboat
  • Clegg's Sloop "Wolf"
  • Great Spanish Merchant Fleet (one sunk, one damaged)

Synopsis for "Big Top"

The new lion tamer is afraid of a mouse, and the new lion has fake teeth.

Appearing in "Big Top"

Characters:

  • Butch, clown
  • Myra, acrobat
  • Lola, lion tamer
  • Jeff, boss
  • Flip, clown

Animals:

  • mouse
  • circus lions
  • new lion

Locations:

  • Big Top Circus

Synopsis for "Ned Brant"

(newspaper strip reprints)

Appearing in "Ned Brant"

Featured Characters:

  • Ned Brant

Synopsis for "Dixie Dugan"

(newspaper strip reprints)

Appearing in "Dixie Dugan"

Featured Characters:

  • Dixie Dugan

Synopsis for Rance Keane: "The Decoy Robbery"


Appearing in Rance Keane: "The Decoy Robbery"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • Pee Wee Lee

Antagonists:

  • two bank robbers

Other Characters:

  • Simon Forks townspeople
  • Simon Forks sheriff

Locations:

Vehicles:

  • stage coach

Synopsis for "The Bungle Family"

(newspaper strip reprints)

Appearing in "The Bungle Family"

Featured Characters:

  • Bungle Family

Synopsis for The Clock: "The Bombing of Dan Nolen"

Just when Brian O'Brien's old friend D.A. Nolen is ready to retire he gets blown up by a bomb that was planted in his car. The Clock proves that Nolen's assistant, Clyde Neste, was bribed to kill him.

Appearing in The Clock: "The Bombing of Dan Nolen"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • Captain Kane

Antagonists:

  • Clyde Neste (Single appearance)

Other Characters:

  • Dan Nolen (Single appearance; dies)
  • Mrs. Nolen (Single appearance)

Locations:

Synopsis for "Jane Arden // Lena Pry"

(newspaper strip reprints)

Appearing in "Jane Arden // Lena Pry"

Featured Characters:

  • Jane Arden
  • Lena Pry (See Notes.)

Synopsis for Doll Man: "Dr. Rodent and the Harbor Bombings"

Dr. Rodent trains rats to carry bombs aboard cargo ships, detonates them, and then loots the sunken ships with a crew of divers, and a harbor-bottom-crawling armored tank, with windows. These rats are strapped with traditional-design, small, spherical, black bombs, with long fuses, and they just run up the ropes to the ships. These bombs are each small enough to be carried by a rat, so there must be a lot of them expended on each ship attack, of which there have already been five in this month.

Doll Man figures out what's going on, rides a rat into the scene of the next bombing, disrupts the bombing, and arrests Dr. Rodent. The police confiscate his underwater tank.

Appearing in Doll Man: "Dr. Rodent and the Harbor Bombings"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

Other Characters:

  • Inspector Valent (Single appearance)

Locations:

Vehicles:

  • Doctor Rodent's harbor-bottom-crawling armored tank, with windows

Synopsis for "Lala Palooza"

(newspaper strip reprints)

Appearing in "Lala Palooza"

Featured Characters:

  • Lala Palooza

Supporting Characters:

  • Vincent Palooza

Synopsis for Reynolds of the Mounted: "The Mysterious Light on Beaver Island"


Appearing in Reynolds of the Mounted: "The Mysterious Light on Beaver Island"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

  • Sam, desk clerk
    • smuggling gang

Other Characters:

  • Ross, hotel owner

Locations:

  • Canada
    • Beaver Island
    • Nolan Creek

Vehicles:

  • 2-engine seaplane
  • speedboat

Synopsis for Slim and Tubby: "Episode 28"

(newspaper strip reprints)

Appearing in Slim and Tubby: "Episode 28"

Featured Characters:

  • Slim
  • Tubby

Synopsis for Charlie Chan: "The Kidnapping of Donna Grant, Part 1 of 2"

(newspaper strip reprints)

Appearing in Charlie Chan: "The Kidnapping of Donna Grant, Part 1 of 2"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • Kirk Barrow, assistant
  • Gina Lane

Antagonists:

  • Berzelius Keeno
    • three kidnappers: Doc, Mike, Frog
    • Maggie, cook

Other Characters:

  • Mrs. Oliver Force Grant
  • Donna Grant, steel heiress
    • her dog Magoo (Dies)
  • Ivan Komroff, M.D.
  • Harrison Meade
  • Mrs. Meade
  • Willie Soo, cook

Locations:

Synopsis for "Mickey Finn"

(newspaper strip reprints)

Appearing in "Mickey Finn"

Featured Characters:

  • Mickey Finn

Supporting Characters:

  • Uncle Phil

Notes

  • Published monthly by Comic Favorites, Inc.
  • Starting this issue, Big Top now features new material, signed by John Devlin, replacing Ed Wheelan. Format stays the same; it's two one-page joke stories in a row.
  • Bungle Family and Lala Palooza are also two one-page joke stories in a row.
  • Doll Man
    • Darrel Dane uses a hypodermic injection to get small.
    • Doctor Rodent has heard of the Doll Man, and this is only his second published adventure, so word is already getting around about him.
  • Also featured in this issue of Feature Comics were:
    • "Barrel Rolls and Tail Spins" (text story) by A.L. Allen
    • Good Deed Dotty by J.P. McEvoy and J.H. Striebel, running across the top 1/5 of of all three of their Dixie Dugan pages.
    • Lena Pry by Monte Barrett and Russell E. Ross, running in the bottom-left 1/4 of all 4 of their Jane Arden pages.
    • Little Brother by H.J. Tuthill, running across the top 1/5 of both of his Bungle Family pages.
    • Mortimer Mum by Bill Sakren, across bottom halves of both "Toddy" pages.
    • Nippie ("He's Often Wrong") by Lank Leonard, running across the top 1/5 of all 4 of his Mickey Finn pages.
    • Off The Record (1-panel gags) by Ed Reed, in two places in this issue.
    • Rube Goldberg's Side Show, by Rube Goldberg, in one place in this issue.
    • Statement of Ownership, Management, Circulation, Etc.
    • They're Still Talking: "...About Bill Carr's All Time Olympic Record", by Bob Zuppke and R.W. Depew
    • Toddy by George Marcoux, across top halves of both "Mortimer Mum" pages.
    • Twisted Tales by Rube Goldberg, running across the bottom 1/5 of his Side Show page.

Trivia


See Also


Links and References

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