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"Hercules: "The Burns Koffin Gang"": Pete Birch, (who was Joe Hercules's shrewd and helpful cellmate back in Hit Comics #1), gets out of jail on parole, and tries to go straight, but two old associates snatch him into a car, because The Boss wants to talk to him, but Pete yells for help and Joe

Quote1 We're being followed! Don't let 'em see us jump! Quote2
Casey Jones

Hit Comics #3 is an issue of the series Hit Comics (Volume 1) with a cover date of September, 1940.

Synopsis for Hercules: "The Burns Koffin Gang"

Pete Birch, (who was Joe Hercules's shrewd and helpful cellmate back in Hit Comics #1), gets out of jail on parole, and tries to go straight, but two old associates snatch him into a car, because The Boss wants to talk to him, but Pete yells for help and Joe is passing by just then, so Joe lifts the car, snatches out the bad guys, and punches them out. He then resolves to infiltrate Burns Koffin's gang, and smash it from the inside.

Koffin's offices are on the top floor of a swanky mid-town building; J.H. brushes past the receptionist, the secretary, and two gun-toting thugs; making an impression on Mr. Koffin, and getting hired on the spot. His first assignment is to plant some mines under the hull of the flagship of the Gunnall shipping line, in settlement of a delinquent account. Wearing a deep-sea diving suit, and not very closely supervised, Joe plants the mines, timed to go off at 8:00 that evening. But at 7:55 that evening, wearing an ordinary bathing suit, J.H. highdives off a pierside tower, swims down, unmoors the giant liner, and tows it out into mid channel, allowing the mines to detonate almost harmlessly beside the pier. (The pier gets blown up pretty badly.) Hercules swims back to the dock, where four thugs try to shoot him, and honestly it looks like one of them does shoot him right in the face, but he captures three of them, and hauls them off to jail over his shoulder, while a fourth one runs away. Then Joe revisits Koffin's office, chases the remaining thug and his boss into an elevator, breaks it open, then hauls them to jail also.

Appearing in Hercules: "The Burns Koffin Gang"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • Pete Birch

Antagonists:

  • Burns Koffin (Single appearance)

Locations:

Vehicles:

  • Koffin's Launch
  • Gunnall Shipping's Freighter


Synopsis for X-5, Super Agent: "Assignment: Spain"

In a beer garden in New York, Bothnian secret agent and National Guard armory thief, Fred Ricks suffers an attack of remorse, and blurts out some incriminating remarks before two burly waiters whisk him into a back room. This draws the attention of X-5, Super Agent, who then eavesdrops on their next conversation, and learns that they'll be embarking in the morning, on a particular ship. X-5 spends that night getting a Bothnian merchant marine uniform and some fake papers, and talks his way aboard the ammunition-laden foreign ship. There's a false alarm the next day, at sea, and X-5 thinks he's been spotted, but it turns out to be an enemy destroyer, which fires a shot across the freighter's bow. The nationality of this destroyer is never made clear; seemingly it's an enemy of the Bothnians. The freighter ducks into a fog bank and escapes, arriving safely at Bilbao, Spain. X-5 disembarks, visits the U.S. Legation there, and the U.S. Minister tries to have Mr. Ricks removed from the ship for repatriation, but he's by this time too intimidated to leave, and claims to want to return to his Fatherland, not America. The spies set about unloading the stolen American National Guard rifles into a truck and whisk Ricks away to an airport, bundling him aboard a single-engine plane; X-5 finds time to hire a plane, which is armed with wing-mounted machine guns, and return to the secret airbase, before the spies' plane takes off. They fly for several hours toward the warring nation of Bothnia, then there's an aerial game of chicken and a brief dogfight, in which the bad guys' plane is disabled and forced to land. X-5 lands, captures two spies plus Ricks, forces the spies to repair their plane, hands Ricks an unloaded tommy gun, and gets everybody back into the spies' plane to resume their flight. The bad guys rally and briefly gain control of the tommy gun, which is how we learn it was empty, then the good guys regain control of the flight, which continues until the secret Bothnian base comes into view. X-5 radios the U.S. Ambassador to send the Spanish police to that place (20 miles south of the Pyrenees and east of Juan River). That Bothnian ground team almost get away, because the Bothnian pilot make a prearranged "all clear" signal, but X-5 blocks their escape route by landing the plane on the road. Then they all wait for the Spanish Police to arrive.

Appearing in X-5, Super Agent: "Assignment: Spain"

Featured Characters:

Antagonists:

  • Bothnian spies (Single appearance)

Other Characters:

  • Fred Ricks (Single appearance)

Locations:

Synopsis for Jack & Jill: "The Two Aunt Agathas"

A crook disguises himself as Jack's Aunt Agatha and frames him and his wife Jill in a jewelry robbery.

Appearing in Jack & Jill: "The Two Aunt Agathas"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:


Antagonists:

  • Criminals

Other Characters:

  • Officer Mike (Single appearance)

Synopsis for The Red Bee: "The Photographer's Murder"

A news photographer is murdered while taking pictures of a site under construction by Graff Construction company. The Red Bee later discovers that the company is using city supplies without permission. Henry Graff, owner of Graff Construction, tries to leave the country via train, but the Red Bee apprehends him.

Appearing in The Red Bee: "The Photographer's Murder"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • Tom Darrow
  • Michael (the Red Bee's bee)
  • two more bees

Antagonists:

  • Henry Graff (Single appearance)
  • Fred (Single appearance)

Locations:

Vehicles:

  • The Red Bee's bright red roadster, with an "automatic driving device" built in

Synopsis for The Strange Twins: "The Dope Pearls"

What started as an investigation into an opium smuggling ring, ends with Doug Strange finally arresting his criminal twin brother Rod Wing Low.

Appearing in The Strange Twins: "The Dope Pearls"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • Wendy Hale
  • Sari (Single appearance)

Antagonists:

  • Rod Strange
  • Wing Low
  • Vera De Vain (Single appearance; dies)

Locations:

Synopsis for Bob & Swab: "Spies in Puerto Rico"

Bob and Swab meet a beautiful Spanish hostess who also happens to be an enemy spy.

Appearing in Bob & Swab: "Spies in Puerto Rico"

Featured Characters:

Antagonists:

  • Luisa (Single appearance)

Locations:

Vehicles:

  • USS Scarab

Synopsis for Casey Jones: "The Chicago Run"

Casey is given an important haul for his train that needs to be delivered from Los Angeles to Chicago. Late that same night, he is approached by a gang of thugs, threatening him to give up his load at the midpoint stop or else. Casey has no intention of obeying, so he and his engine crew pull a switch, loading Engine 94's cars with the cargo, while leaving the expected Engine 77's cars empty. The crooks fall for it, and blow up the wrong train, and while they try to loot the cars, are caught in a knock-out-gas trap, pre-arranged by Jones. While they are reeling around and falling down, Casey Jonesand his crew roar past on their way to Chicago, where they arrive ahead of schedule. The gang is soon rounded up by the police, while Casey Jones gets a promotion and a raise.

Appearing in Casey Jones: "The Chicago Run"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • his fireman
  • his brakeman

Antagonists:

  • gang of robbers

Other Characters:

  • railroad officials

Locations:

Vehicles:

  • Engine 94, Casey Jones's favorite engine
    • trainload of important freight
  • Engine 77, an older engine. (destroyed)
    • #77 is a 4-6-2 "Pacific" type passenger engine

Synopsis for The Old Witch: "The Tale of the Ghost Cavaliers"

The Old Witch tells a tale about a rich old man who throws a ball for some guests. But as the guests soon find out, their host's mansion is haunted by four ghostly cavaliers.

Appearing in The Old Witch: "The Tale of the Ghost Cavaliers"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • Socialite's Daughter (Single appearance)
  • Ghostly Cavaliers (Single appearance)

Antagonists:

  • Unnamed Ball Host (Single appearance; dies)

Other Characters:

  • Ballroom Guests (Single appearance)
  • Guardsman (Single appearance)

Locations:

  • old mansion

Synopsis for Blaze Barton: "Voyage to the Center of the Earth"

Professor Solis bores a large hole into the earth to start an exploration mission that Blaze will head. Using Solis' invention, the gyrosphere, Blaze and Avis ride down into the depths. Many wonders are beheld by them at the bottom, where a jeweled city sparkles as its residents, all beautiful males and females, watch the duo with hesitation. Yet even down so far below, the Core Creatures attack. Now they have teamed up with the Rock-Men to rob the city of its jewels. Thanks to Blaze Barton's sending an S.O.S. to his team on the surface, the creatures are quickly driven off. In thanks, Beatica, queen of the underworld city, offers Barton riches, but he declines and instead leaves the queen with weapons for her people, should the creatures try another siege in the future.

Appearing in Blaze Barton: "Voyage to the Center of the Earth"

Featured Characters:

  • Blaze Barton

Supporting Characters:

  • Professor Solis
  • Avis Solis

Antagonists:

  • Core-Men
  • Rock Men (First appearance)

Other Characters:

  • Beatica, Queen of the Jeweled Caves (First appearance)

Locations:

  • Solis City
  • The Jeweled City

Vehicles:

  • Gyrosphere

Synopsis for Tommy Tinkle: "Treasure on Koko's Island"

Tommy and the Professor find an old treasure map left by Tommy's uncle. Snipe overhears, and comes up with a plan to get the treasure after they find it. Thanks to a group of local parrots and monkeys, however, Snipe and Pokem are left only with coconut-sized headaches.

Appearing in Tommy Tinkle: "Treasure on Koko's Island"

Featured Characters:

  • Tommy Tinkle

Supporting Characters:

  • Professor Grump

Antagonists:

  • Sam Snipe
  • Pat Pokem

Other Characters:

  • Koko Island animals

Locations:

  • Koko Island

Vehicles:

  • Sailboat

Synopsis for Neon the Unknown: "The Savage Land"

Polar explorer Sir Humphrey Walker, and his submarine, go missing in the Arctic, for several weeks. Neon the Unknown investigates, flying northward on a flashing neonic distance beam, his uncanny power guides him to a spot within a few miles of the magnetic pole. Boring a shaft through solid ice, Neon lands in a strange cavern, in the midst of a fertile tropical isle. He finds a band of screeching savages, who have captured Sir Humphrey, and lets himself get captured also, then discharges powerful rays from his finger-tips, causing great chunks of the ice ceiling to fall onto the wild natives, who flee into the dense woods. But while they're still tied up, some large animals charge toward them. Neon burns his way loose, darts among the beasts with lightning speed, and decapitates some of them with his neonic rays, and reduces others to harmless timidity. But now the gibbering savages return with their crude stone-age mallets. Neon creates a ray ladder, which Walker is able to climb, into a treetop, then turns to confront the natives. Neon is pretty much invulnerable, and quite dangerous, so the natives fall down and start to worship him. Sir Humphrey starts to talk seriously about retiring to this veritable paradise, but suddenly the overhead glacier starts crumbling, as it has apparently done many times before, sending huge deadly hunks of ice crashing onto the ground. Caption: "Neon's powers enable him to understand the jumbled sounds of native speech." Using heat rays and flight, Neon gets the explorer to his submarine, and the ice-locked sub to the surface. They return to civilization, and pretend to have found nothing but snow and ice at the pole.

Appearing in Neon the Unknown: "The Savage Land"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • Sir Humphrey Walker (Single appearance)

Antagonists:

  • Savage Natives (Single appearance)

Locations:

Vehicles:

Notes

  • In the Quality Universe, the Axis Powers included: Aryania, Austria, Barbaria, Bothnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Darmania, Dunland, Germany, Govania, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Jarmania, Kampfland, Latavia, Nordicha, North Germany, Romania, Tokoya, Tuvania, and others.
  • Last issue for Casey Jones by Pad Docke.
    • A 3-man train crew surreptitiously unloads an entire freight train and packs the cargo in different cars, then covertly fires up a different steam engine, hooks that onto the unscheduled train, and hauls that train from Los Angeles to Chicago.
    • The crooks all know Casey's name.
    • Final panel hypes a new feature starting next issue: Betty Bates.
  • The Red Bee
    • At one point in this story, the Red Bee is tied to a chair in a burning building, and escapes by releasing three bees from the pouch on his belt. Caption: "Seeing their master's plight, the bees instinctively fly for the razor blade ..." which they then carry to t.R.B. who uses it to escape.
  • This issue includes a text story, "The Cat's Ninth Life", by Toni Blum.

Trivia


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