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in: Comics Published by Quality Comics, Everett M. Arnold/Executive Editor, Lou Fine/Cover Artist,
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National Comics Vol 1 4

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"Uncle Sam "The Floating Islands"": The military leaders of an Asian nation decide that they are ready to conquer the world, and to start with the United States. They embark massive ground and air forces aboard a group of mobile fake islands and deploy them to the American West Coast.

Quote1.png Come on, Sue, let's get out of here quick! Quote2.png
— Cyclone, on his way out

National Comics #4 is an issue of the series National Comics (Volume 1) with a cover date of October, 1940.

Synopsis for Uncle Sam "The Floating Islands"

The military leaders of an Asian nation decide that they are ready to conquer the world, and to start with the United States. They embark massive ground and air forces aboard a group of mobile fake islands and deploy them to the American West Coast.

Meanwhile Uncle Sam and Buddy Smith are returning stateside from another adventure, transiting the tropics in a small sailboat. The wind dies out, but Unc just rares back and blows those sails forward, and they make good time. But that evening a typhoon crosses their path, capsizes their craft, and departs. They float the wreck to a small group of small islands, then prepare to sleep out under the stars. Buddy thinks it feels like the ground is moving but Sam scoffs. But then a modern warplane arrives and lands on the island. Two pilots climb out, and Unc stealthily trails them as they enter the fake island's superstructure, and make their scouting report. According to them, the U.S. Pacific Fleet is carrying on a distant training exercise, far from the mainland, so now is the time to strike. Uncle Sam steps into the room and punches out all the sailors and airmen in it, then works his way through more compartments, including a barracks full of troops, and punches out all of them also. He gets into the control room and figures out how to detach some of the occupied compartments, and sends those to the bottom. Then he runs back to where he left Buddy, puts him on a remote-control enemy plane, and sends it flying to America.

Aboard the High Command island, the leaders detect this, and deploy enough remote-control transmitters to override Buddy's plane's controls and recapture it, and Buddy. Then they transmit a warning to Uncle Sam, who currently is working his way thru the crew of a second island: desist or else! Sam makes no reply, dives, swims back to the first moving island, ascertains that it has "enough fuel to sail it around the world," and sends it southward, toward the U.S. Pacific Fleet's ongoing wargames. Days later, it arrives there, bumps a few things, and gets captured and inspected. The fleet soon is retracing the course by which the phony island arrived.

Meanwhile the mobile fake islands have taken positions off the U.S. West Coast, and soon all coastal cities and military bases are under attack from squadron after squadron of bombers. Ground-based gunnery and airborne interceptors are inadequate for the enormous aerial invasion, and the islands themselves are anchored outside of coastal artillery range. Uncle Sam dives again, and swims around grabbing and towing the anchor chains of the fake islands, assembling them all in one area. Dive bombers are sent after him, in vain, with one being destroyed by a spinning anchor chain. About then the Pacific Fleet sails into the area and brings some heavy naval gunnery to bear.

Sam meanwhile smashes his way into the High Command's flagship control room, and frees Buddy, whom he conveys to shore aboard a borrowed torpedo. He then returns the torpedo to its rightful owners, at full speed. Once the invaders are driven within range of the shore artillery, it's only a matter of time before all the "islands" are destroyed.

Appearing in Uncle Sam "The Floating Islands"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

Locations:

Vehicles:

  • enemy artificial mobile islands, at least six (Destroyed)
    • (combination troop bases and airplane transport centers)
  • enemy 2-engine plane (w/ automatic controls) (& remote controls)
  • U.S. Pacific Fleet
  • enemy bombers & dive bombers, many squadrons (some destroyed)


Synopsis for Sally O'Neil, Policewoman: "Barry Gilmore Returns"


Appearing in Sally O'Neil, Policewoman: "Barry Gilmore Returns"

Featured Characters:

Antagonists:

  • Jason
    • his L.A. gang (packing Thompson guns)
    • his Chicago gang: Cabbie, Joe, others

Other Characters:

  • Barry Gilmore, movie star
  • William Taylor, President of A.B.K. Company
    • (packs a concealed handgun)
  • LAPD cops

Locations:

Vehicles:

  • "super transport plane"
    • 2-prop-engine passenger liner, NYC to LA in 16 hours
  • chartered sport plane

Synopsis for Kid Patrol: "The Paperweight Championship"

The "Paper-Weight Championship of the East Side" is fought, between "Sunshine" Jones, representing the Kid Patrol, and "Brass Knuckles" representing the Dead Street Boys. Despite some heavy cheating by the Dead Street Boys, Sunshine wins the bout.

Appearing in Kid Patrol: "The Paperweight Championship"

Featured Characters:

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

Supporting Characters:

  • Officer Pat Malone

Antagonists:

  • Dead Street Boys
    • Brass Knuckles
    • Nip
    • Tuck

Locations:

Synopsis for Prop Powers: "Plane Sabotage"


Appearing in Prop Powers: "Plane Sabotage"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • Mr. Wallace, airline boss
    • Wallace's transport company
      • June, pilot (First appearance)
      • Prop's pilot pals

Antagonists:

  • Rival Air Firm President
    • saboteur
    • three security thugs

Other Characters:

  • Ajax Company
  • Police, lots of them

Locations:

  • Wallace Air Port
    • President Wallace's office
    • testing grounds
  • rival company's air plant

Vehicles:

  • new transport plane (Destroyed)
    • 6 engines, fixed landing gear
  • Powers' fighter plane (Destroyed)
    • 1 engine, fixed landing gear
  • rival firm's leader's biplane (Destroyed)
  • borrowed fighter plane

Synopsis for Pen Miller: "Steckar's Insurance Racket"


Appearing in Pen Miller: "Steckar's Insurance Racket"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • Niki, Asian valet
  • Pen's Publisher (First appearance)

Antagonists:

  • Joe Steckar
    • Louie the Lout
    • other henchman

Other Characters:

  • John, Pen's friend
  • Mary, John's wife
  • Police Chief

Locations:

  • New York City
    • 144 Spruce Blvd., apartment building
    • Pen's Publisher's Office

Vehicles:

  • Steckar's sedan

Synopsis for Wonder Boy: "Dinosaurs Out West"

A small western town in the foothills of the Rockies is attacked, at night, by a pack of carnivorous dinosaurs. Wonder Boy grabs a rope and gets aboard one monster, and cowboys the rest of them out into the open country and away from the ravaged town. Out on the prairie he encounters a second pack of dinosaurs. It's a severely uneven contest, and Wonder Boy just mops up the area with the giant lizards. Some are lured into falling into a crevasse and some are bottled up in their own cave by an enormous boulder.

Some dinosaur eggs are left behind; one hatches; Wonder Boy adopts the baby dinosaur that emerges.

Appearing in Wonder Boy: "Dinosaurs Out West"

Featured Characters:

Other Characters:

  • cowboys and town folks

Animals:

  • broncos and other horses
  • bulls and steers
  • Dinosaurs

Locations:

  • Rocky Mountains Foothills
    • Bar-Q Ranch
    • Rodeo
    • small town

Items:

  • eight unhatched dinosaur eggs

Synopsis for Cyclone: "The Man from 1940"

Cyclone and his mate use a rocketship to explore several asteroids which orbit about Planet X. On one such moonlet, they encounter a lone human, a deserter from World War II, who had improvised a rocketship and fled to this world, back in 1940. Something in the air on this tiny moon has kept him alive for all those years. Large carnivorous plants, leopard-like predators, and enormous one-eyed animals live on this planetoid, and the elderly survivor attempts to use these to murder Cyclone and his girl, but this fails, and the man ends up joining them and returning to Planet X to rejoin human society.

Appearing in Cyclone: "The Man from 1940"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • Sue, formerly Mary, formerly Sue, formerly Joy Daye

Antagonists:

  • unnamed old deserter

Locations:

  • Planet "X", formerly Planet "Vito"
    • small asteroid orbiting Planet X

Vehicles:

  • Cyclone's rocketship

Synopsis for Kid Dixon: "A Bout of Homesickness"


Appearing in Kid Dixon: "A Bout of Homesickness"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • B. Galsworthy "Bottle" Topps, Dixon's Manager
  • Cal "Plootz" Noddin

Antagonists:

  • "Tiger" Tom Griffin

Other Characters:

  • Mrs. Higgins
  • Katherine Higgins
  • fight promoter

Locations:

Synopsis for Paul Bunyan: "Stone's Big Score"

An extremely unscrupulous rival logging company rigs up an artificial log jam, stopping Paul's company's logs from getting downstream. Paul breaks up the jam single-handedly and can readily do so again, so the outlaw loggers get ready to deal with him, what ever way they have to. One logger is shocked by this, quits and gets fired in the same conversation, then is shot in the back on his way out, too. He lives long enough to roll down the mountainside to Bunyan's company's camp, where Paul and Cookee fix him up as best they can. He rats out his boss, Stone, and his gang.

Next day Paul's loggers find a big crater, where their ice road has been blown up. Paul fixes this by using a very long logging chain to lasso a nearby mountain top, topple it, and drag it to the crater. Shortly after that the shooting starts, and one thug with a tommy gun tries to use it on Bunyan, who grabs it away from him and wraps it around his head. But another hood draws a bead on Babe, the Blue Ox, and tells Paul it's time to stop fighting or else. But once it becomes clear that these creeps are going to shoot Babe anyway, Paul loses his temper and throws a large log cabin at them, crushing them. Afterwards Paul feels bad about doing so.

Appearing in Paul Bunyan: "Stone's Big Score"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • Babe, the Blue Ox
  • North American Timber Company
    • Charlie, logger
    • Chuck, logger
    • Cookee, cook
    • Pete, logger

Antagonists:

  • Stone (Dies)
    • his gang (Dies)

Other Characters:

  • Johnson, Stone Company deserter

Locations:

  • North Woods

Synopsis for Merlin the Magician: "Forty Thieves"

A wealthy British lady's valuable gem is stolen from a locked safe. Merlin magically ascertains that the gem has probably been returned to its original owner in Arabia. He walks into a slum area of the city and encounters a big thief beating up a small thief, magically turns the tables between them, then recruits the small thief to lead his gang on a trip to recover the stolen gem. The gang all stand on Merlin's cloak and he transports them and himself to Arabia in 500 BC. There, Merlin's forty thieves surprise and outfight Ali Baba's forty thieves, and take their places. Merlin conducts them to the fabled Cave of Ali Baba. Merlin loses and regains his cloak, gets trapped in a plugged cave, and deals with an insurrection among his thieves, along the way to finding and retrieving the Ophar Jewel, back to 20th Century London.

Appearing in Merlin the Magician: "Forty Thieves"

Featured Characters:

Antagonists:

  • Limey Joe, bully
    • Whitehall Boys, 40 Cockney thieves
    • 40 Arabian thieves

Other Characters:

  • Lady Hartley, gem owner
  • Scotland Yard, baffled

Locations:

Items:

  • Merlin's Magic Cloak
  • Ophar Jewel

Vehicles:

  • Merlin's Magic Cloak

Concepts:

Notes

  • Last issue for Cyclone by Tony Rawlins.
    • In four issues, Cyclone's girlfriend's name changed three times, the primary villain's name changed once, and the planet where they lived changed names once.
  • Kid Dixon gets knocked out in the ring.
    • The character who introduced himself as "Cal Noddin" last issue, with the boutonnière and the monocle and the long cigarette holder, is now introduced by Bottle Topps as "Plootz."
    • Jim Slick is absent.
  • Pen Miller gets head-konked unconscious, with a club.
  • Prop Powers gets shot down, with an antiaircraft cannon, and crashes, then is stunned with a blow to the head. Combat aviation is dangerous.
  • Sally O'Neil's movie-star boyfriend Barry Gilmore was introduced in National Comics #2.
  • Uncle Sam "The Floating Islands"
    • Several cities and military bases on the U.S. West Coast are heavily damaged in bombing raids. Afterward this is never mentioned again.
    • The enemy nation is never named. It's 1940. Elsewhere in the Quality Universe, such heroes as Wonder Boy and the Red Torpedo are encountering massive military aggression from "Mongolian" forces.
    • Enemy insignia is a black not-quite-swastika, on a white background; it appears on their many aircraft. Enemy aircraft are generic warplanes except the dive bombers, which look like Stukas. All officers and crewmen are bald, and all speak with military formality and no comical accents.
  • Also featured in this issue of National Comics were:

Trivia

  • Starting this issue, Bill Newcombe signed his Windy Breeze strip as "Tom Taylor."


See Also


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