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"Uncle Sam: "Smashing the Enemies of Free Speech!"": Senator Grover introduces a food safety bill in the Senate; from the gallery Uncle Sam and Buddy observe and approve. A behind-the-scenes boss sends two thugs to grab the elderly senator, and they work him over until he agrees to campaign agai

Quote1 Taking your own life won't help matters. The real job of a senator is to protect and aid the public, even at the cost of his life. Quote2
Uncle Sam

National Comics #2 is an issue of the series National Comics (Volume 1) with a cover date of August, 1940.

Synopsis for Uncle Sam: "Smashing the Enemies of Free Speech!"

Senator Grover introduces a food safety bill in the Senate; from the gallery Uncle Sam and Buddy observe and approve. A behind-the-scenes boss sends two thugs to grab the elderly senator, and they work him over until he agrees to campaign against his own bill, which is defeated in a close vote. Big Candy magnate J.P. Potter is behind all this, and is also paying off and bullying the newspapers, to suppress reportage of several hundred children's illnesses and deaths from tainted candy.

At the Candy City News, one idealistic reporter, "Scoop" Casey, quits in disgust over this, and goes into the handbill-publishing business, denouncing Big Candy. The same two thugs show up at the pamphlet shop and beat up Casey, then Uncle Sam punches his way into the room, through a wall, and beats up the two thugs. Then Sam leaves Buddy in charge of the presses and takes "Scoop" to visit Senator Grover; they arrive just in time to stop the old guy from blowing his own brains out. Somebody throws a bomb into the room; Unc just holds the whole explosion in his cupped hands, then tells Grover to go to a radio station and tell his story on the air. Then he visits the Candy City News, kicks in the door, orders the presses stopped, directs the printers to hold the first page open for an upcoming story, and orders the editor to send photographers to the Potter Building.

Uncle Sam scales the outside of the Potter Building, until he steps on a loose brick, falls a long distance, catches the side again, and resumes climbing, then barges into Potter's offices, where he scolds, chases, and thrashes the two henchmen; Potter meanwhile gets away. Sam displays the punched-out thugs to the arriving photographers (but later on is not visible in the photos), and asserts that "...a little investigation will put these two in jail for a long time." J.P. Potter tries to fly a single-engine high-wing plane out of the fogged-in airport; Uncle Sam catches the plane by its fixed landing gear; in the cockpit, Potter sees this and collapses and that's the last we see of him.

Senator Grover reintroduces his food-safety bill and this time it passes.

Appearing in Uncle Sam: "Smashing the Enemies of Free Speech!"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

  • J.P. Potter (Single appearance)
  • Potter's men (Single appearance)

Other Characters:

  • "Scoop" Casey (Single appearance)
  • Grovers's daughter (Single appearance)
  • Senator Grovers (Single appearance)
  • Mr. Editor (Single appearance)

Locations:

  • Candy City
    • The Potter Bldg (the only skyscraper in Candy City)


Synopsis for Prop Powers: "Wings of Death Over London"


Appearing in Prop Powers: "Wings of Death Over London"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • Co-pilot Jim

Antagonists:

  • three foreign officials
  • Major Fawcett
  • Captain Roy
    • his detail

Other Characters:

  • inventor with briefcase
  • horse-cart traveler

Locations:

  • hidden U.S. airbase
  • Clayton Air Terminal, England
  • island in the Hebrides, north of Britain
    • hidden enemy submarine base / airbase
      • w/ two subs and hundreds of dive bombers (five or more are shot down)
    • inland barren field
  • London (Mentioned only)

Items:

  • super-bomber blueprints
  • ray gun

Vehicles:

  • bright red civilian 2-engine passenger seaplane
  • hundreds of green Stukas
  • squadron of bright red RAF pursuit planes

Synopsis for Sally O'Neil, Policewoman: "The 'Death' of Barry Gilmore"

Sally O'Neil tells a room full of reporters that she was secretly married to the late Barry Gilmore, and does not tell them that he is secretly not dead. This is so she can set herself up to get kidnapped. She leaves enough clues, plus Barry, behind herself that the cops get the story and are able to figure out which way she and the gang went. Police chase the kidnap car, gunfire is exchanged, and the Boss of the gang is killed, but he's driving the car, so it veers off the road and crashes into a tree. Sally staggers out of the wreckage right away, the kidnappers don't.

Appearing in Sally O'Neil, Policewoman: "The 'Death' of Barry Gilmore"

Featured Characters:

Antagonists:

  • The Boss (Dies)
    • his gang: Joe, Tony, one other (Apparent Death)

Locations:

Vehicles:

  • Boss's big sedan (crashed)

Synopsis for Pen Miller: "The Unkillable Man"


Appearing in Pen Miller: "The Unkillable Man"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • Niki, Asian valet

Antagonists:

  • Tony Torpedo
    • his gang

Other Characters:

  • Milligan, derelict, seemingly unkillable
  • Tony's girlfriend, insurance investigator

Locations:

  • New York City
    • 144 Spruce Blvd., apartment building
    • unsavory downtown district
      • Tony's storefront hideout
  • Nobb Hill
    • Old Post Road

Vehicles:

  • oil truck (stolen by Pen Miller)
  • gangster sedan (crashes)

Synopsis for Kid Patrol: "The Evictor"

Kid Patrol's impoverished neighbor, Widow Morgan, gets evicted from her slum apartment on the Lower East Side. The kids raise as much money as they can as quickly as they can, but her furniture is already on the sidewalk before they even find out about it. Officer Pat accompanies them and their money to visit the hard-hearted landlord Mr. Meagre, who is a complete jackass about everything. Then they help Mrs. Morgan move into her home and clean it up.

Sunshine makes friends with a midget who has a big booming voice, and this guy teams up with Teddy to play a prank on mean old Mr. Meagre, one which leaves him re-thinking his old way of doing business.

Appearing in Kid Patrol: "The Evictor"

Featured Characters:

  • Kid Patrol
    • Teddy
    • George Washington Abraham Lincoln "Sunshine " Jones
    • Porky
    • Spunky
    • Suzy

Supporting Characters:

  • Officer Pat Malone

Antagonists:

  • Quincy Meagre, landlord

Other Characters:

  • Primo Andriola, infant
  • Mrs. Morgan, widow
  • Teddy's new midget friend

Locations:

Synopsis for Wonder Boy: "The Pirates and the Buddha's Eyes"

As Wonder Boy is feted in Paris for defending Europe against the Mongolian attack, a Mongolian apple vendor sells him a poisoned apple, and he's abducted, flown to China, and sold to some inland pirates on the Yangtze River.

Wonder Boy recovers consciousness, just as the pirate junk is approaching a whirlpool; he dives overboard and tows the junk to safety. Wonder Boy and the pirates converse, with them pretending to be "the merchant Sing" and his crew, who rescued the lad from the evil Mongols. They tie up at a small city, and trek several miles inland, through bleak, uninhabited country, until they reach an ancient temple, hidden in an obscure mountain pass, containing a giant Buddha with blazing jewels for eyes. The pirates want Wonder Boy to get those gems, and before he can reply, an angry priest runs into the room, and gets gunned down. Wonder Boy punches out all of the pirates, then contains them under the hollow base of the big Buddha statue, which he simply lifts into place. But the whole statue is hollow, not just the base, and the pirates clamber up into the head and steal "the holy eyes that knew all secrets" from the inside, then find a way out of the statue, and flee. Wonder Boy pursues. He tips over the pirate crew's junk and dumps them out of it into the river and punches them all out again, recovers the jewels, and returns them to the temple in time to stop the high priest from killing his daughter in a human sacrifice ritual.

Appearing in Wonder Boy: "The Pirates and the Buddha's Eyes"

Featured Characters

Antagonists:

  • Mongolian top leaders
    • kidnap team
  • Sing, a river pirate captain
    • his crew
  • Mongolian Priest

Other Characters:

  • Buddhist Priest (Dies)
  • Mongolian Priest's Daughter

Locations:

Items:

  • "holy eyes" of Buddha

Vehicles:

  • Chinese Pirate Junk

Synopsis for Cyclone: "The Winged People"

Cyclone and Sue explore their Earthlike planet. Gravity is lighter than on Earth. They meet a Native population of large, winged people. Zarxas, the vengeful King of Mars, is still around, and he attempts to foment a rebellion among the winged people against the Republic of Earth's colony. He and his Martians build a great fortress in a hidden valley, then take Native women and children hostage, to bully the winged people into doing Zarxas's bidding.

The revolt is successful, and Cyclone and Sue are captured and dragged before Zarxas, who gloats and smirks about going back on his deal with the Natives; he does not release his hostages, but instead enslaves the male winged humans. They put up with that for a little while, but then revolt against Zarxas, freeing Cyclone and Sue in the process. Cyclone grabs Zarxas for a hostage, and they escape in his royal rocketship. Soon Cyclone is able to arm the Natives with Martian weapons, and after that the war is a short one. Zarxas and his entourage flee the planet Vito. The winged people and the humans cooperate to form a stable society.

Appearing in Cyclone: "The Winged People"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • Sue, (formerly Joy Daye)

Antagonists:

  • King Zarxas, of Mars (formerly King Murdo)
    • his Martian troops

Other Characters:

  • tribe of winged people

Locations:

  • Planet Vito
    • Little Colony of Space Pioneers
    • Mountains, home of Winged Natives

Vehicles:

  • Martian Spaceship

Synopsis for Kid Dixon: "Bout With Slugger Sweeney"

Wandering destitute in the countryside, Kid Dixon and "Bottle" Topps bum a night's lodging from a farmer, Mr. Barley, and his daughter Jennie. The Barleys are about to lose their farm to the mortgage company. Kid, Bottle, and Jennie ride into town in the Barleys' mule-drawn buckboard wagon, and are surprized to see big signs welcoming a hometown hero, "Slugger" Sweeny, a champion prizefighter. Topps fast-talks his way into an impromptu prize-fight, that Saturday, at Picnic Park.

Some out-of-town gangsters want to get control of Barley's Farm, and they lure Dixon and Topps into a trap, and tie them up, so they'll miss the bout. Then they leave them unsupervised. Kid Dixon breaks his chair and gets himself untied, then frees Topps. They sprint into town and tell the fight crowd what's going on. The gangsters pile into their station wagon and escape. the fight goes on, and Slugger Sweeny is winning, but then Kid Dixon rallies up and punches him out. The reward money pays off the Barleys' mortgage, and the boys meet up with Jim Slick, a big promoter from New York. They team up and head for the big time.

Appearing in Kid Dixon: "Bout With Slugger Sweeney"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • B. Galsworthy "Bottle" Topps, Dixon's Manager
  • Jim Slick, big promoter from New York

Antagonists:

  • Slugger Sweeney
    • Slugger's manager
  • three gangsters

Other Characters:

  • Jennie Barley
  • Mr. Barley
  • Barley's farm hand

Locations:

Vehicles:

  • Barley's mule-drawn buckboard
  • gangsters' station wagon

Synopsis for Paul Bunyan: "Fight With Mike Disogra"

Paul and his boss are scouting out a new tract of timber when they are attacked by two Indian braves with bows and arrows. It's a case of mistaken identity; they mistook Paul for One-Eyed Mike Disogra, a giant tyrant who compels the Indians to work for nothing. Paul promises to catch this giant, and a few days later he does so. They fight; Disogra tries to shoot Bunyan with a rifle but Bunyan slaps his palm over the muzzle, making the rifle backfire in Disogra's face. He survives that and they keep duking it out until Paul flings Mike for a long distance at a high altitude. The next day Mike comes back, with a knife, and tries again. This time Paul uses a bent-down pine tree to fling him even farther away at a higher altitude.

Appearing in Paul Bunyan: "Fight With Mike Disogra"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

  • Mike Disogra

Other Characters:

  • Chief Eagle
    • Indians

Locations:

  • North Woods

Synopsis for Merlin the Magician: "In the Land of the Dead"

In London, at dusk, a transparent man, several hundred feet tall, wearing Eastern clothing, moves across the rooftops, as if searching for something. In the brightly-lit home of Lord Elliot and his daughter Sybil, amid a dinner party, Lord Elliot steps out of the room for a moment, and is struck dead. While the guests are still stunned by this, Sybil Elliot vanishes before their very eyes.

Next morning in his hotel room, Jock Kellogg aka Merlin, heir to a medieval magical power, reads about all this in the newspaper. He puts on his cloak and meditates, and astral-travels to the palace of Lord Elliot's former friend Rajah Singh Abeem, in India. The image enters the palace and confronts the prince, who has indeed done the murder and abduction; Elliot and Sybil are both in the land of the dead, Sybil as a still-living being. Merlin recalls his astral image and creates a magic boat, then journeys long and far into the strange world of the supernatural, reaching the River Styx, he launches the boat and navigates it into the land of the dead. There Merlin meets the vengeful spirit of Rajah Singh Abeem's son (slain years earlier by Lord Elliot), and these two get into a swordfight, followed by some spooky theatrical supernatural jurisdictional ruling, by a number of Abeem's dead ancestors, the upshot of all of which is that the prince and Sybil both vanish from that part of the netherworld, leaving dead Lord Elliot and living Merlin behind. Meanwhile in the land of the living, Rajah Singh Abeem decides to enter this fray; he casts a spell upon himself and his giant slave Abdul. They appear in the underworld palace of Abeem's son, and since Abdul is a living person, he's able to fight Merlin, so they fight; Abdul gets punched out; Sybil gets returned to the land of the living.

Appearing in Merlin the Magician: "In the Land of the Dead"

Featured Characters:

Items:

  • Merlin's Magic Cloak

Antagonists:

  • Singh Abeem
  • Hindu Prince
    • Abdul

Other Characters:

  • Lord Elliot
  • Sybil Elliot

Locations:

  • London
  • World of the Supernatural
    • River Styx

Notes

  • Cyclone
    • Joy Daye's name has now changed to "Sue," and King Murdo's name has now changed to "Zarxas."
  • Kid Dixon gets konked unconscious when a hoodlum breaks a footstool over his head.
  • Paul Bunyan and his ox Babe spend their mornings stretching short logs into forty-foot lengths.
  • The Pen Miller story is based on the true case of Michael Malloy (1933).
    • Pen steals a tanker truck full of oil and uses it to create an oil slick on the Old Post Road.
  • Prop Powers
    • Prop gets head-konked unconscious with a pistol butt.
    • Prop's civilian air-transport company employer still is not named.
  • Sally O'Neil
    • Sally has survived her first vehicle crash.
    • Sally's movie-star boyfriend Barry Gilmore will return in National Comics #4.
  • Also featured in this issue of National Comics was:



See Also


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