Police Comics #40 is an issue of the series Police Comics (Volume 1) with a cover date of March, 1945.
Synopsis for Plastic Man: "Who Put the Overalls in Mrs. Murphy's Chowder?"
The owner of Woozy's boarding house, full of wannabe performers, finds a pair of discarded overalls in that night's dinner just before one of the boarders turns up murdered. Plastic Man gets involved, impersonates the victim trying to scare the killer into the open, and ultimately points the finger at the landlady: she pretended to be painting chairs while committing the murder, saw bloodstains on the overalls afterward and threw them into her own stew pot in a panic. She then screamed and pretended to have no idea how they got there to cover her tracks.
Appearing in Plastic Man: "Who Put the Overalls in Mrs. Murphy's Chowder?"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Mrs. Murphy
- Mostelo
Other Characters:
- J. Farthingale Dillingweather (First appearance)
- Percy (First appearance)
- Francesca Bibi (First appearance)
- Old Man Timkins (Appears only as a corpse)
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Synopsis for Manhunter: "Music Hath Charms"
Genius violinist Sonjak jumps in the way of a truck to save a young admirer, but the surgeon operating to save his life makes a rash decision and amputates his left hand. Driven mad by this loss, Sonjak attaches a hook to his stump, takes over a mob and starts a crime wave with the ultimate aim of taking that surgeon's hand to replace his own. Officer Dan Richards hauls in one of Sonjak's drunken henchmen for picking a fight with him, but after hearing about Sonjak kidnapping the surgeon he'd targeted and taking him to a secret lab, Richards hands off the drunk and suits up as Manhunter to investigate.
Sonjak's other henchmen plan to kill him while he's under for the surgery, indignant that even with all the money they've been making under his leadership, he's been diverting it all to equip this illegal surgery. They plan instead to hold the surgeon he's kidnapped to perform the surgery for ransom. In the course of the fight that erupts when Manhunter shows himself, he punches Sonjak in the head, which un-warps his mind. Repulsed by the evil act he'd almost committed, Sonjak reforms and becomes a famous conductor.
Appearing in Manhunter: "Music Hath Charms"
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Antagonists:
- Sonjak
Other Characters:
- Dr. Kimber
- Dr. Barry
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Synopsis for Candy: "The War Ace Cuts a Rug"
Appearing in Candy: "The War Ace Cuts a Rug"
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Synopsis for Human Bomb: "The Hand of Justice"
Miser J. Pilbeam Highbinder, stricken with poor health his entire life, visits Roy Lincoln's lab looking for some kind of experimental remedy. Some crooks burst in looking to kidnap him. They knock out Roy and in the scuffle, Highbinder accidentally swallows some 27QRX. This gives him back his vitality, and when he wakes up he joins the Human Bomb in cleaning up the crooks, before he invites them to find some pretty girls and go dancing!
Appearing in Human Bomb: "The Hand of Justice"
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Other Characters:
- J. Pilbeam Highbinder
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Synopsis for Flatfoot Burns: "The Stolen Electric Chair"
Appearing in Flatfoot Burns: "The Stolen Electric Chair"
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Synopsis for The Spirit: "Invasion from Argo"
Coming home after a long day of work and depressing headlines, ordinary Sam Smith's shocked to find aliens from the planet Argo in his apartment. Initially figuring this for a lodge initiation prank, Smith's driven to despair when he hears they plan to colonize Earth when they return in another thousand years. The police don't believe Smith, who starts calming down when he realizes he won't be around to suffer through some horror happening in a thousand years. However, another lunatic he's locked up with tells him about a man who died on the cross for people he'd never know, riling Smith up all over again.
He escapes by clubbing a guard, and runs into the Spirit when the hero swerves off the road to avoid hitting him. Convinced something strange is going on when Smith shows him a glove that would fit no human hand and made of a material the Spirit's never seen, he agrees to help. Smith directs the Spirit to a plot in a graveyard where he thinks he sees the Argosians turning invisible, and blows himself up with nitroglycerin in a suicide attack.
Trying to get some answers, the Spirit confers with an astronomer, who says yes there really is a wandering planet named Argo, whose orbit comes near Earth's every thousand years, and which just did so like Sam Smith said. However, no living thing could survive on the conditions of that planet. The scientist also takes a look at the glove, which he identifies as being made of a metal found only on the planet Argo. Baffled by the whole affair, Spirit turns to the reader and asks what they think.
Appearing in The Spirit: "Invasion from Argo"
Featured Characters:
- The Spirit
- Sam Smith
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
- Jesus (Mentioned only)
Locations:
- Argo
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Notes
- Al Stahl replaces Janice Valleau on Flatfoot Burns.
- Plastic Man: Who Put the Overalls in Mrs. Murphy's Chowder? is reprinted in Plastic Man Archives Vol. 4.
- Also appearing in this issue of Police Comics were:
- Dewey Drip by Bernard Dibble
- Burp the Twerp: "Prestoni the Hypnotist" by Ralph Johns
- Dick Mace: "Stung" (text story)
See Also
Links and References
