Not with that gun! BELIAL BELPHEGOR! 
Nickel Comics #5 is an issue of the series Nickel Comics (Volume 1) with a cover date of July, 1940. It was published on June 28, 1940.
Synopsis for Bulletman: "Case of the Crooked Contractor"
Bulletman takes on a shady building contractor (Leo Durgan) who is using shoddy materials, in a conflict that ends with him completely destroying (brand new, still empty, badly built) City Hall.
Appearing in Bulletman: "Case of the Crooked Contractor"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Leo Durgan (Single appearance)
Other Characters:
- Tim Strange (Single appearance; dies)
Locations:
- New York City (not yet identified)
Items:
Synopsis for Warlock the Wizard: "The Island Empire of John Kell"
Warlock deals with an island dictator who has taken over a mining operation from a pretty girl.
Appearing in Warlock the Wizard: "The Island Empire of John Kell"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Hugin, the Raven
Antagonists:
- John Kell
Other Characters:
- girl
- girl's father (Appears only as a corpse)
Locations:
- Kell's Island Mine
Items:
- Golden Hand
- Lamp of the Gods
Synopsis for Jungle Twins: "Sneed Strikes Again"
Bill takes his savage brother Steve to New York, while the villainous Sneed plots to steal Steve's ruby.
Appearing in Jungle Twins: "Sneed Strikes Again"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Sneed
Other Characters:
Locations:
Items:
- Steve's Ruby
Vehicles:
Synopsis for Cap't. Venture and the Planet Princess: "The Spider People"
Leaving Saturn, Captain Venture and his beautiful partner Zyra speed their rocket-ship into outer space. Venture theorizes that an undiscovered planet probably exists in a certain part of space, and wants to prove it. It's there, and from the outside it's dark, which is why all the astronomers missed it, but once they enter the atmosphere, it's all blazing bright. They get out and walk around in the abundant plant life. A giant dragonlike animal attacks them; Venture shoots it in the face with his ray gun; it grows two heads; he shoots off one of these; the problem gets worse. They run away, into an area with enormous spider webs. The dragon stops chasing them, but they soon are caught by the immense Spider People.
The Big Spider speaks to them in English, to their surprise, and plans to transplant some Spider People brains into their human bodies, to use as anti-human spies. Zyra dupes the Big Spider by apparently selling out Captain Venture and leading the big bug to "a great secret of conquest," inside Venture's space ship. Her act fools Venture, and he's plenty indignant, but more importantly it fools the Spider, who is able to subdue the three-headed dragon by using gas on it. She then lures the Spider inside the space ship and tricks it into electrocuting itself.
Meanwhile Captain Venture, left tied up and unsupervised in the Spider laboratory chamber, squirms and struggles and escapes. The perimeter is heavily guarded so to escape the area he builds a fire and uses the plentiful webs to capture the hot gas from it, and form an escape balloon. This works, but the Spider People come swarming in pursuit of him. They catch up, and as he hunkers down to fight them hand-to-hand, Princess Zyra shows up, shooting Spiders with a ray gun and handing one off to the Captain. They scatter the Spiders, and set fire to their web structures, then take off.
Appearing in Cap't. Venture and the Planet Princess: "The Spider People"
Featured Characters:
Antagonists:
- Spider People King (Dies)
- Spider People (many die)
Locations:
- Saturn (Mentioned only)
- Planet of the Spider Kingdom
Vehicles:
- Venture & Zyra's Space Ship
Synopsis for The Red Gaucho: "The Amdah Treasure"
- In 1540 in South America, the golden civilization of the Amdah Indians was wiped out by European conquerors. The Amdah high priest directed his minions to seal their treasure room, which then remained concealed for centuries.
In 1940, in Portello, South America, General Hortez decides that his government needs the long-lost Amdah treasure. A foreign renegade spy, Tad Cromer, learns of this, and resolves to get to that treasure ahead of Hortez's troops. The Red Gaucho meanwhile has been spying on Cromer's gang, and he chuckles at Cromer's delusional expectation of stealing that gold. He rides to the Amdah ruins, deep in the hills, and warns his friends about the coming raiders.
But Tad Cromer has gotten there ahead of the Red Gaucho, albeit as a captive. He points out that an army detachment has followed the Red Gaucho into Amdah country, and frames up Gaucho as their leader. Diblo, the chief, falls for this, and he attacks the Gaucho with an ax, but is lassoed and toppled with a well-wielded bullwhip. He almost escapes from the chief's chambers but a window ledge collapses out from under him and he falls a long way.
Red Gaucho wakes up in the dungeon, hanging by this thumbs. Tad Cromer lashes him with his own whip, but Gaucho makes no sound. Then Diblo and Cromer head out to set up an ambush for Hortez and his troops. Once they leave, Chief Diblo's daughter Maria sneaks in and sets the Red Gaucho free. True to form, Tad Cromer has sneaked back into the Amdah ruins and is searching for their treasure; Red Gaucho catches him and punches him out.
Meanwhile out in the hills, things get bloody, as Diblo's braves and Hortez's troopers fight it out. Into this melee rides the Red Gaucho, dragging along Cromer, and yelling to stop the fighting. He's able to talk to both leaders, who then are able to talk to each other. It turns out that the army column was bringing food and other supplies, to trade for part of the Amdah treasure. Peace is made, Cromer is turned over to Hortez, the Gaucho has a hearty laugh, and rides away.
Appearing in The Red Gaucho: "The Amdah Treasure"
Featured Characters:
Antagonists:
- Tad Cromer
- his ruffians
Other Characters:
- General Hortez, of Portello
- his adjutant
- Chief Diblo
- Amdah Tribe
- Maria Diblo
Locations:
- South America
- Portello
- Hills, Amdah Country
- Portello
Items:
- Treasure of the Amdah
Notes
- Bulletman
- Susan Kent gets kidnapped, for the 3rd time.
- Bulletman, like Doll Man and Superman before him, is wildly violent in these earliest months of his career. Doll Man might rip apart a jail here and there, and Superman once vigilante-demolished an entire neighborhood of slum housing, but even he never smashed apart City Hall.
- Captain Venture is spelled "Cap't. Venture" on the splash panel. Last issue also was like that. Later in the series, the title changes to a more conventional abbreviation for Captain. But for now, the spelling reflects that of the source material.
- Also appearing in this issue of Nickel Comics were:
- "True Bravery" (text story)
See Also
Links and References
