A guy like me -- I understand de psycholergee of muggs like Sam.. Lemme go see him! I'll bet I kin sell him two papers every mornin' -- One fer him an' one fer da bride! 
- — Scrapper
Star-Spangled Comics #33 is an issue of the series Star-Spangled Comics (Volume 1) with a cover date of June, 1944.
Synopsis for Newsboy Legion: "Case of the Baleful Bride"
While selling papers on his street corner, Gabby sees something that shocks him. He abandons his spot to run and tell the rest of the Newsboy Legion what he'd just seen! Sloppy Sam, a known tough guy, pickpocket, and all-around ne'er-do-well, is doing pretty well for himself today. He's apparently gone straight, with a fancy new suit and a wife back home who's an heiress to a fortune. He says goodbye to a few of his old chums down in Suicide Slum. They decide to mug him for all that he's carrying. To all their surprise, the Guardian steps in to interrupt, fighting the muggers off alongside Sam. The Guardian, or as he's known in his civilian identity, Officer Jim Harper, was just passing by in search of a crook, "Sissy" Daniels" who robbed a payroll and was hiding out here in his old neighborhood. Sam thanks the Guardian for his help and wanders off. Jim notices a wallet on the ground a few feet away from the mugging. It must be Sam's wallet. He makes a note to send it back to him after he's finished his search.
Over at the clubhouse, Gabby tells his friends all about how Sloppy Sam is now going straight. News of his marriage has spread, and Big Words comes up with an idea. They can go see Sam at his new place and see if he wanted to have the newspaper delivered to him? It'd both be a nice way to show their support for his turning from the life of crime, as well as a chance to earn new business in paper sales. Scrapper volunteers to be the one to talk to Sam, since he understands the "psycholergee" of men like Sloppy Sam. So, with a pack of newspapers under his arm, Scrapper heads out to the rich part of the neighborhood. Turning a corner, however, leads him bumping right into Sam, making him drop a set of clothes he was carrying. Sam notices the boy looking and tells him it was just the clothes from his old life. But Scrapper notices the pair of shoes was too small for Sam's feet. Whose shoes were those? Sam kidnaps the kid for asking too many questions! In his apartment, Sam introduces Scrapper to Sissy Daniels, the payroll bandit, currently masquerading as the "wealthy heiress" Sam was married to!
Meanwhile, Scrapper's friends are starting to worry he's been gone for too long. They decide to check over at Sam's place to see what was going on. They are greeted by Sissy, who they believe is Sam's wife, and are invited to come inside for some ice cream while they wait for Sam and Scrapper to get back. The boys happily oblige. However, the ice cream has a funny aftertaste, and their host says she doesn't like ice cream, which is weird since she keeps ice cream in her home. Sissy drops the act, removes his wig and points them towards the back room where Sam was waiting. Now the drugs in the ice cream were starting to take effect, as a minute later the boys are passed out.
At the police station, the Guardian asks for any information that might reveal Sissy Daniels whereabouts. Other than being told that Daniels stole a set of license plates off a taxi yesterday, there was nothing else the desk sergeant could offer. Continuing his search, the Guardian remembers he still had Sam's wallet. He could send it back now, if there was an address inside. A photo of the woman Sam married was sitting in one of the pockets, and there was something odd about the car she was standing next to. Finding the address, the Guardian decided his next stop would be Sam's apartment; it was time to question his path to the law-abiding.
At Sam's place, the Guardian finds Sissy Daniels in disguise as Sam's missus. The Newsboy Legion woke up early since they didn't eat enough ice cream to be out for long. They join in the scuffle, ganging up on Sissy while their pal the Guardian deals with Sloppy Sam. Once they've had enough, the Guardian reveals that the photo Sam took of his "wife" was what tipped him off. The car Sissy was next to had the stolen taxi license plates attached. Sam might not have known that only cabs have plates that start with the number "0".
Appearing in Newsboy Legion: "Case of the Baleful Bride"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Sloppy Sam (Single appearance)
- Sissy Daniel (Single appearance)
- Sniper (Single appearance)
Other Characters:
Locations:
- Metropolis
- Suicide Slum
- Pleasure Club
- Suicide Slum
Items:
Vehicles:
- Sam's car (In a photograph only)
Synopsis for Star-Spangled Kid: "The Fighter They Couldn't Floor"
As a boxer, "Iron-Jaw" O'Toole was a one-trick horse. He could take as many hits as his opponents can dish without being knocked out, but he can't dodge or land a punch to save his life! Every time he's in the ring, Iron-Jaw loses by the cards, or by how many hits are landed on him. His manager was tired of working for a washed-out, one-note gimmick man. Either Iron-Jaw wins the next fight, or he's dropping him.
Elsewhere in the city, another fight is happening, as Sylvester and Pat, as the Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy, are about to break up an evening gathering of criminals led by Shifty Allen. The gang crumble as the duo pummels them each with jabs and haymaker punches. Shifty and his close associate, Gumbo, manage to sneak away from the heroes. The problem, as Shifty sees it, was Stripesy. The Kid wouldn't be as difficult to deal with if it weren't for his pal's brute strength to back him up. Their criminal gang needed a "Stripesy" of their own to match. Gumbo suggests to his boss that they could take in a boxing match happening tonight, for some R & R.
Tonight, Iron-Jaw faces his opponent in the ring, and once again he takes every hit without going down, but he loses the match! His manager's finally had enough and dumps him as a client. Shifty watches the whole exchange with an idea forming. This Iron-Jaw guy could be the kind of muscle his gang needed. While Iron-Jaw is feeling sorry for himself, Shifty steps in to offer him another fight. This time with the Star-Spangled Kid's sidekick, Stripesy. Shifty lies and says that Stripesy made a bet with him he could knock that "bum" Iron-Jaw out no problem. Fighting words if Iron-Jaw ever heard them! He agrees to the challenge after Shifty assures him it's all nice and legal.
Sylvester and Stripesy are flying above the city in the Star-Rocket Racer looking for any signs of trouble. They spot Shifty and a new gang outside the jewelry store and fly down to meet them. Iron-Jaw calls Stripesy over to fight, and the big lug obliges. But no matter how much, or how hard, he hits him, Iron-Jaw won't go down! The boxer is about to throw a punch when Shifty hits Stripesy from behind, knocking him down! Iron-Jaw didn't like that, saying he wanted a fair fight, but Shifty convinces him that he saw Stripesy about to pull a gun on him, so he stepped in to save his new pal. Sylvester and Stripesy get tied up, including a rope line tied across two trees and around each of their necks. When water is poured on the threads, the rope starts tightening. Shifty takes his gang to rob the jewelry shop while leaving the heroes to die.
Not willing to forfeit an unfinished fight, Iron-Jaw comes back and unties the Kid and Stripesy, raring for another round. But Sylvester convinces him to take them to where Shifty and the others were, because the bet wouldn't be any good if they didn't witness the fight. So together, the three of them go down to the Jewelry store and interrupt Shifty. Upon learning that Iron-Jaw released the duo, Shifty turns his gun on the washed-up boxer, and the Kid grabs his arm and makes him drop the weapon. Iron-Jaw knocks Shifty over to Stripesy, who kicks the bandit onto the ground. The three fighters team up to take out the rest of the thieves.
After the police collect the crooks and depart, Stripesy lets Iron-Jaw there's more to the sport of boxing than taking a hit. He then shows him how to dodge and weave and deliver a few hard jabs. in-between. A few months later, the heroes read the newspaper to find that Iron-Jaw O'Toole has started winning fights and is now a champ in the making.
Appearing in Star-Spangled Kid: "The Fighter They Couldn't Floor"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- "Iron-Jaw" O'Toole (Single appearance)
Antagonists:
- Shifty Allen (Single appearance)
- Gumbo (Single appearance)
Other Characters:
- Kayo Kid (Single appearance)
- Rocky (Single appearance)
Locations:
Vehicles:
Pen and his friends take a day off to go see the circus. A lion tamer is performing to a disappointed crowd who only see an already very tame lion. Pen, Bunny and Oxie talk to the tamer, Fred Feernot, after the people disperse. Feernot had no explanation for why Nero suddenly went tame. It happened shortly after a philanthropist, Mr. Sweete, helped him take out a life insurance policy with his relatives as beneficiaries. Pen smells a case, bidding Feernot farewell as he decides they need to check on this philanthropist for themselves.
The trio walk to Mr. Sweete's mansion to ask him about Feernot's policy. But Sweete turns them away in his foyer. Then, when Pen tells him he'll get a court order to see it, Sweete drops the act and sends his goons after them. Oxie, Bunny, and Pen are soon overwhelmed and tied up together. Sweete tells his boys they now needed to move up the timetable, as Pen overhears them say tonight had to be Feernot's last show. After Sweete leaves, Bunny tricks their guard into checking her finger for a diamond ring to swipe. She kicks the big bruiser in the jaw, knocking him out. Now that nobody was watching them, Pen escaped his ropes and untied Oxie and Bunny. Oxie accidentally makes himself hungry when he Bunny for kicking that guy's chops. Like pork chops. He then says, "I'll be switched, lyin' on the cold floor spoiled my appetite." But Pen only hears "Switched", and "Lyin'". Switched Lion. That was the answer! Sweete switched out the ferocious Nero with a tame lion, which he was going to switch out tonight so that Feernot would be mauled to death! Then Sweete could collect his life insurance, which Pen bet was left with him as the primary beneficiary instead of Feernot's family.
Back at the circus, tamer Feernot is about to step into Nero's cage with a plate of cream puffs and a feather duster. Pen manages to tackle him before the cage is opened. He quickly explains the racket to Feernot, who suddenly feels very relieved not to be lion chow. Bunny spots Sweete running away and gives chase, while Pen and Oxie are left to deal with the thuggish riff-raff. With the help of a powerful strongman and an ostrich's kick, two thugs are sent colliding with each other in the air. The rest are easily taken care of with a few of Oxie's heavy hitting punches and Pen's improvising methods using a squirt bottle to the face and an elephant and its drink trough. Bunny returns after the police show up. Sweete didn't get away, she showed them by firing the cannon. The crooked philanthropist hid inside, and just now came flying out for the police.
In thanks for saving his hide, Feernot goes to grab their one-thousand dollar reward! ...In play money. Given to him by the circus clown, Feernot was sure they'd have all kinds of fun fooling their friends with it.
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- S.O. Sweete (Single appearance)
- Butch (Single appearance)
Other Characters:
- Fred Feernot (Single appearance)
Animals:
- Nero the Lion (Single appearance)
Locations:
Synopsis for Liberty Belle: "The ABC of Victory"
Libby Lawrence was given the honor by her network company to act as announcer for a racetrack, in which men of different allied nations compete in a foot race. A friendly competition set up by the United Nations to promote greater unity and cooperation to fight the Axis. After the race, Rick Cannon takes Libby out to dinner to help her relax after a stressful job.
The restaurant's waiter brings Libby her order, a simple bowl of alphabet soup. But after a moment, he returns, flustered, insisting he brought her the order meant for a gentleman at another table. He claimed the soup was spiced a different way than normal, promising to bring Libby her own order soon. It was strange because Libby had already tasted the soup, and she swears it didn't have any unusual spice in it. What's more, she recognizes the man whom the waiter served the soup to as Horace Hardin, who works for a rival network. Rick jokes that the waiter's a foreigner, so he may have trouble understanding American Alphabet soup. But the waiter overheard the first part of Rick's joke and suddenly grew concerned.
Later that night, as Rick escorts Libby back to her hotel, he doesn't notice he's being shadowed. Libby, does, however, and when Rick leaves, she changes to her other identity, Liberty Belle, to protect him. She grabs one of the ambushers from behind, getting Rick's attention. He quickly helps fight off the thugs until the start to flee. Liberty and Rick give chase but are forced to hit the ground when gunfire fills the air! With his standard issue pistol, Rick fires back, mortally wounding one of the men while the others escape in a waiting car. One of them is left behind. As Liberty and Rick approach, they see it's the waiter who served them. He tells Rick he overheard him talking about having intelligence on him. Rick tries to tell him it was a joke, but the man dies before he can hear it. Searching his body reveals a set of letters that look like they came out of the alphabet soup, albeit a darker color. It was staring to make sense. By dropping a few of the letters into the soup, he could transmit a simple coded message to the recipient; Horace Hardin!
The next day at the racetrack, Rick keeps an eye on Hardin, while Liberty Belle waits unnoticed near a corner aisle. At the sound of the starter pistol, the runners are off. Each racer was there as a representative of his nation, and not just of the US, but also China, Russia, and Britain, with each man wearing their countries' army attire, including all equipment right down to the rifles strapped to their backs. The course had obstacles they'd have to skip and leap over.
The race is on, but in the midst of the excitement, Liberty hears more gunshots going off, and the racer from China falls down, injured! She leaps into action, running towards the fence and jumping over to find an armed pair of thugs. She knocks them out with minimum effort. Meanwhile, Rick catches Horace Hardin, who was acting as announcer and spreading anti-Chinese propaganda disguised as honeyed words for the runner being too weak to continue. Rick desks the Nazi sympathizer with a sock on the jaw. Moments later, he and Liberty meet up, with Rick telling her that he got a full confession from Hardin. The coded message from the waiter was telling Hardin which runner to shoot at in the next race, via their position. It was simple to decipher; "3 REAR" meant that during the third race, the designated victim would be in last place.
Hardin and his Nazi goon squad are arrested, and the winning racer, from Russia, is given a hearty congratulations by the others.
Appearing in Liberty Belle: "The ABC of Victory"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Horace Hardin (Single appearance)
- Foreign Waiter (Unnamed) (Single appearance; dies)
Other Characters:
- Red Farmer (Single appearance)
Locations:
Synopsis for Super-Sleuth McFooey: "Case 1971250"
The DA puts McFooey on a case involving a man selling phony three-dollar bills. McFooey talks to one of the poor saps who traded his eggs for one of the bills. He gives out a descripting, a man wearing a green checked suit, with a cane and spats. McFooey puts an ad in the newspaper calling for anyone fitting the description to come to his address and ask for Charlie; he'll get to take part in a business venture that'll bring in millions. The trap was set, now all McFooey had to do was go home and wait. That evening, a crowd of men in green checked suis, holding canes, and wearing spats arrived at his building asking for "Charlie". Might've been a little wrinkle in his plan. McFooey takes cover, running upstairs to the roof and hiding inside the water tank. It'll be fine, he'd just need to stay up there until everyone got tired and went home.
Appearing in Super-Sleuth McFooey: "Case 1971250"
Featured Characters:
- Super-Sleuth McFooey
Supporting Characters:
- District Attorney
Antagonists:
- Man in a checked suit (Unnamed) (Single appearance)
Other Characters:
- Mr. Snaffle (Single appearance)
- Phineas Llewelyn Abercrombie Moth, Jr. (Single appearance)
Locations:
Items:
- Counterfeit 3-Dollar Bill
Synopsis for Robotman: "A Sniff in Time"
Robbie, Robotman's faithful robot dog, gets an unwanted surprise; a disguise he can wear outside, that'll make him look like an ordinary pooch. He voices his discontent with being forced to play a common dog where he won't even be allowed to speak, but he begrudgingly goes along with it.
Meanwhile, a mail carrier visits the pawn shop with a special delivery. The owner, cooking up a meal of soup for one, doesn't expect to be robbed by a postman, but he's happy to share his soup with him, tossing it in the thieves' face. But the crook pulls an instrument off the shelf and hits the owner over the head, knocking him down. Moments later, the phony postman leaves the scene, not unnoticed by Robbie, or his scent detector. He tells Robotman that the mail carrier didn't smell right. He smelled more like a waiter or someone who works in a restaurant, than a postman. Robotman gets persuaded to investigate, checking in the pawn shop the man just left. There, they find the owner sprawled on the ground with an empty soup pot, which explains the restaurant smell. The owner says that the crook stole some weapons, revolvers, automatic pistols, and tommy guns, off the shelves. More than likely to be used for a much bigger heist.
Robbie's nose leads them to the waterfront, where a string of gunshots rings out. They follow the sound to a docked ship, where the crew had been murdered by a small gang of armed thugs. The bullets don't affect Robotman's steel body, but during the fight, Robbie is kicked overboard! His metal body drags him down to the seafloor, so Robotman has to dive down to rescue him, allowing the killers to escape.
After they resurface and climb back aboard, the metal duo try to help any survivors among the crew, but they only find one. The injured man reveals that they were diamond smugglers, and when Softshoe Sam found out about it, he and his gang murdered them and stole all their cargo. The man then dies in Robotman's arms.
Softshoe Sam and his goon squad are eventually trailed to a wooded area. Robotman gets in close by uprooting a tree and moving it closer while he hides behind it. When they finally notice, Robotman gives them some proper incentive to just surrender by tossing the tree over their heads. It works. The gang is put in jail where they belong, and the robot duo head home to rest.
Appearing in Robotman: "A Sniff in Time"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Softshoe Sam (Single appearance)
Other Characters:
- Pawn Shop owner (Unnamed) (Single appearance)
Locations:
Notes
- First time Robbie the Robot Dog wears a disguise in this issue.
- Also appearing in this issue:
- "Hank the Yank", a one-page humor strip by Ray Houlihan.
- "Handy Andy", a one-page humor strip by Jack Farr.
- "Reward From Heaven", a two-page text story by Al Gerz.
Trivia
- The Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy created special "maneuvers". These moves are mostly illegal for anyone who isn't a costumed crimefighter to use.
- "Maneuver X-144": Stripesy tosses the Star-Spangled Kid into a group of thugs to break up their formation.
See Also