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"Hourman: "Minute Man Martin and the Minute Men of America"": Rex Tyler's boss, Mr. Bannerman, directs Rex to entertain his visiting niece, Regina. They visit the Zoo. A lion escapes its cage and charges towards a little girl. Rex runs, and completely by accident kicks a coiled hose at the lion,

Quote1 Hmm, I recall that during the Revolutionary War there were quite a few men ready to help their country at a moment's notice! They were called Minute Men! And that's what we'll call our club -- The MINUTE MEN of AMERICA! Fighting in the Hour-Man's army against crime and corruption! Quote2
Hour-Man

Adventure Comics #53 is an issue of the series Adventure Comics (Volume 1) with a cover date of August, 1940.

Synopsis for Hourman: "Minute Man Martin and the Minute Men of America"

Rex Tyler's boss, Mr. Bannerman, directs Rex to entertain his visiting niece, Regina. They visit the Zoo. A lion escapes its cage and charges towards a little girl. Rex runs, and completely by accident kicks a coiled hose at the lion, knocking it unconscious. Regina gives Rex a big kiss and tells him that he was "wonderful for a moment." Rex then resumes his normal demeanor of craven timidity. They have lunch.

Elsewhere in town, in Mr. Tareff's child-labor-exploiting factory, an undernourished overworked laborer dies, young Billy Martin, and he's the twelfth kid to perish this way. The company doctor, Doc Blades, explains these deaths as caused by "heart failure." And at the local newspaper, an editor gets suspicious about this pattern of events, and assigns a reporter to investigate the factory.

That evening, Rex and Regina dine together, and she tells him about the twelve odd deaths. That night, Hour-Man takes a Miraclo pill and investigates. And at the late Billy Martin's home, his mother and his brother debate contacting the district attorney about Billy's death. This conversation is interrupted by two thugs breaking in, to silence them, then this attempted double murder is interrupted by Hour-Man's arrival, and a very short fistfight. Jimmy tells Hour-Man about a man named Roberts, who had offered to buy Tareff's factory, and improve the conditions, but was refused. Hourman goes to Roberts' office, and pitches a plan for obtaining the factory.

The next evening, at Tareff's factory, the kids are again working overtime. Along with them is a new employee, Regina Paige, who suspiciously looks a bit "older than the rest." Tareff and his superintendent figure she's an undercover journalist, and menacingly approach her. Hour-Man appears and confronts them. But this ill-built old factory is not a good place for a violent discussion like this, and a huge part of the roof starts to collapse! Hour-Man catches and supports the falling ceiling, and tells Regina to evacuate the workers. He holds it together long enough for all of them to get out of the building's collapse, but Tareff and his enforcer also escape. They next show up at a local politician's office, but shortly later so does Hour-Man. At the end of the discussion which follows, the politician has forced Mr. Tareff to sell his factory to Mr. Roberts.

Afterward, Hour-man returns to the Martin family's home, to tell Jimmy how things turned out. There, he gets a new idea. Jimmy Martin is a ham radio operator, thus is potentially able to enlist the aid of hams all over the nation, to assist in Hour-Man's ongoing fight against crime. They should organize themselves, as the "Minute-Men of America." Hour-Man could build a miniature radio set and fit it in his belt!

And so, the next evening, the Man of the Hour conversed with young boys from all over the nation, who agreed to join the Minute Men. And by the next day, he has received letters from thousands of children, all announcing their interest in becoming Minute Men.

Appearing in Hourman: "Minute Man Martin and the Minute Men of America"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

  • Mr. Tareff (Single appearance)
    • Factory superintendent
    • Doc Blades
    • other thug

Other Characters:

  • zookeeper
  • little girl
  • Billy Martin (Single appearance; dies)
  • Mrs. Martin (Single appearance)
  • editor
  • reporter
  • Mr. Roberts, factory buyer (Single appearance)

Locations:

  • Appleton City (See Notes.)
    • Bannerman Chemical Co.
    • Zoo
    • Tareff's Factory (Damaged)
    • Tyler's Apartment
    • Martins' home
    • Roberts' office

Items:


Synopsis for Barry O'Neill: "Fang Gow's Daughter"

Fang Gow is still at large, and his agents wreak havoc on the French transportation system, sinking ships, blowing up bridges, and burning government buildings. The French Intelligence Ministry redoubles its efforts to catch him.

Fang Gow adopts a fake identity, as his own daughter, and posing as a stage magician, puts on an act at Le Chateau Mort nightclub. He leaks the story that this daughter has come to Paris searching for Fang Gow, with a message from her departed mother, and is desperate to find him. Inspector Le Grand and Barry O'Neill, also desperate to find him, visit the girl after her stage show, and helpfully take her into custody, figuring that Fang will now come looking for her. The old evildoer is of course also missing; none of his main henchmen have seen him for a few days.

Also, some of Fang Gow's assassins and burglars are now shrunk down to the size of dolls, and are more elusive than ever! One of them has gotten into "Miss Gow's" cell at the Military Prison, and brought her a note, from "her father" Fang Gow. The note is a fake clue, leading Barry and Le Grand into a set-up, at the Finance Minister's office, in which they get framed for the minister's murder! As the gendarmes attempt to arrest them, O'Neil spots and captures one of the doll-sized men, and the whole conversations changes. O'Neill barks some orders, mobilizing a platoon of gendarmes, and prepares lead them in a raid. "Miss Gow" is in the room and offers her personal car to Barry and Le Grand. It's a trap; they get in, and some big metal straps lever out of the seat, immobilizing them. The car proceeds to Fang Gow's hideout, in the Paris Sewer, and Barry and Le Grand are stuffed into a cabinet, attached to some arcane electrical equipment. The evil old scientist removes his rubber mask, gloating madly the whole time. But before he can reduce their size, Fang Gow is attacked, by another doll-sized man, armed with a poison dagger, and is forced to release them. Fang Gow scratches his attacker with a poisoned fingernail, killing him, then escapes by using a stage-magician's smoke bomb / trap door combo.

Appearing in Barry O'Neill: "Fang Gow's Daughter"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

  • Fang Gow, also as Miss Gow, his daughter
    • his many minions
    • his miniature minions

Other Characters:

  • Dietre, stool pigeon (Miniaturized) (Dies)
  • War Minister (Dies)
  • Finance Minister (Dies)
    • Ministry Gendarmes

Locations:

  • Paris, France
    • Montmartre
      • Le Chateau Mort, nightclub
    • Barry's Apartment
    • Sewer System
      • Fang Gow's fake hideout
      • Fang Gow's real hideout
    • War Ministry
    • Rue Maudanse

Items:

  • Fang Gow's Light Transmitter
    • (updated version of his Thought Machine)
  • Fang Gow's Miniaturization Cabinet

Synopsis for Mark Lansing of Mikishawm: "The Plot of Vas Onga"

Mark Lansing is a soldier of fortune, working in Africa with his faithful follower Koda the Silent One, when a small safari gets captured by a platoon of blue-skinned spearmen. Alerted to this abduction, Mark and Koda are led to find a cave leading underground, they explore it and knock out a few sentries along the way. At the other end of it, they find two of the safari party, a number of spearmen, and a subterranean warlord, Vas Onga. This deadly mastermind, from a strange dim world beneath the surface of the Earth, has developed some advanced weapons, before which he expects the Upper World to be helpless! On the other hand, his guards are armed with spears, so when Mark and Koda shoot their way into the room, he's soon the only blue man standing. But he has got an explosive acid bomb, and is ready to throw it, until Koda gets behind him and grabs him off the floor. Another troop of spearmen, the Blue Guard, rush in to the far end of the room, while Mark punches out Vas, and Koda uses the acid bomb to destroy Onga's internal vibration machine.

Many of the spearmen, and Vas Onga, are killed in the blast, and a chain of explosions gets going, shaking the entire place. The rescued couple from the safari, Tony and Kit, team up with Mark and Koda, and they all run for the tunnel, but it's already blocked. They meet a blue-skinned man who knows the way out, and join up with him. He's Jada, an engineer from Mikishawm, enslaved for years by the late Van Onga, and he's got access to a Tube Car. This brings them to the underground kingdom of Mikishawm.

Appearing in Mark Lansing of Mikishawm: "The Plot of Vas Onga"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • Koda, the Silent One (First appearance)
  • Jada, Mikishawmian Engineer (First appearance)
  • Tony, safari man (First appearance)
  • Kit, safari woman (First appearance)

Antagonists:

  • Vas Onga (Single appearance; dies)
    • Blue Guard, spearmen
    • other Subterraneans

Locations:

Items:

  • Van Onga's Internal Vibration Machine
  • Vas Onga's Explosive Acid Bomb

Vehicles:

  • Tube Car

Synopsis for Federal Men: "The Coast Line Limited Crackup"

A crack passenger train, the Coast Line Limited, is sabotaged, by a conspiracy of corrupt railroad executives, and crashes with many fatalities. A secret shipment of radium is missing from the express car. Steve Carson and the railroad president fly out to the scene of the crash, in the railroad president's plane. Carson interviews Mr. Blake, a "trouble-shooter" for the railroad company, and Mr. Sykes, a local witness with an odd story. He'd been detoured away from the place where the wreck was, by somebody claiming to be the police, before it even had happened.

Searching the area, Carson finds a dynamite detonator, and before he can inspect it, a man comes along, talking to himself out loud, picks up the detonator and carries it away, complaining the whole while about having to pick up after whoever had left it. Carson quietly follows him, and soon he reaches a shack in the woods. But he gets jumped by a masked thug and whacked in the head. He stays conscious, so he observes as another masked man slips into the hideout, and their conversation tips him off to who both of them are. Steve rallies up and talks some smack to them but then a third tough guy joins the fight, and Carson is in real trouble. Then Mr. Sykes shows up, with a rifle, and gets the situation under control. Soon the wreck-causers are arrested and the radium is recovered.

Appearing in Federal Men: "The Coast Line Limited Crackup"

Featured Characters:

Antagonists:

  • Mr. Helman, railroad vice-president (Single appearance)
  • Mr. Blake, railroad trouble-shooter (Single appearance)
  • third thug

Other Characters:

  • Mr. Miller, railroad president
  • Mr. Sykes, motorist

Items:

  • Radium Shipment

Locations:

Vehicles:

  • Coast Line Limited (Destroyed)
  • wreck-clearing work train
  • Miller's private plane

Synopsis for Cotton Carver: "The Women Warriors"

With their makeshift sailcloth hot-air balloon punctured, Cotton and Lupa plunge toward the Earth far below. Grabbing two big flaps of it and holding them together by sheer strength, Carver manages to use the canvas as a parachute; they land on a sandy beach, alive. There, they are attacked by a band of snake-haired spearmen, armed with blunt-headed "capture spears." Lupa gets hit in the head by one of these and is knocked out. Carver and his pistols keep them at bay, as he loads her over her shoulder and retreats. They stop following him when he arrives at an enormous structure, seemingly a temple, completely deserted. He carries Lupa inside.

They explore the quiet temple. A trap door dumps them into an icy underground stream, which leads them to another temple, where they surface in a still pool. A helmeted spearwoman walks in, and rings a gong, calling in a platoon of women warriors. Carver's guns are wet, and Lupa recognizes these Amazons as legendary warriors. The two of them are tied up and marched away, then dumped in a pit, but not guarded, to await sacrificial execution at the rising of the full moon. At Cotton's direction Lupa moves one of his pistols to his waistband, where at the right time, he can reach it. When they are dragged into the main temple, he shoots thru the ropes binding his arms, and the sacrificial knife out of the priestess' hand. The spear-armed women are just starting to notice how dangerous Carver's guns are when he sees, right behind them, a startling sight!

Appearing in Cotton Carver: "The Women Warriors"

Featured Characters:

Antagonists:

  • Snake-Haired Men
  • Amazon Moon Cult

Other Characters:

  • Lupa, Wolf People Queen
  • Qwar, Ugoran Admiral (Mentioned only)

Locations:

Vessels:

  • Galleys of Ugor (Mentioned only)

Synopsis for Steve Conrad, Adventurer: "Shanghaied"

Strolling along the wharf one night, Steve Conrad gets jumped, and bludgeoned with a blackjack, and he falls into a ship's hold, thus accidentally stowing away on a ship. It turns out to be a gun smuggling freighter. Steve finds an unguarded bundle of flares, lights them, and hoists them up on a loading crane. Soon a patrol boat arrives and boards the gun-running ship, arresting all the smugglers.

Appearing in Steve Conrad, Adventurer: "Shanghaied"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • Chang

Antagonists:

  • Captain of the Mariposa
    • his gun-runner crew
  • Mendoza, Revolutionist
    • his band

Other Characters:

  • Patrol Boat Crew

Locations:

Vessels:

  • S.S. Mariposa, tramp steamer
  • Patrol Boat

Synopsis for Socko Strong: "The Great I: Part 2 of 3"

In the underground lair of the invisible villain known as the Great I, Socko and Jerry are splapped out unconscious on the floor, next to the sputtering fuse of a bomb. Socko wakes up and yanks the fuse out of the bomb then wakes up Jerry. Using a bench for a battering ram, they knock down the locked, heavy door, then follow the tunnel back to the hidden entrance out in the woods.

When they get back to New York and try to tell the Police Commissioner about the invisible maniac, he isn't buying it at all, then that conversation gets interrupted by the abrupt arrival of Professor Watson, who just happens to have recently received a threatening note, promising murder by torture at 8 o'clock that night, from "THE GREAT I, (formerly Prof. Rosencrantz)." Okay then, the Commissioner involves himself personally, and directs Strong and Indutch to meet him, at Watson's study, at 7:45.

That evening, they meet up, and the Commissioner is still extremely skeptical. Watson tells them about Prof. Rosencrantz's history of genius and insanity. Then Jerry sets off a flashbulb and takes a photo, momentarily blinding the others. There in the room with them is a floating bottle being poured into a floating glass, while a voice from nowhere taunts them! The Commissioner reaches for his pistol but gets whapped with the wine bottle, hard, in the face, and falls down. But then the lights go out, and now the Commissioner can see Rosencrantz; he gets off one shot. When the lights come back on, it becomes clear that the Commissioner had shot at a mirror, reflecting the Great I, who had now gotten away. Jerry has brought along a special photo developing formula, and he now develops the shot he took. It reveals the Great I, looking just as he had when Strong and Indutch last saw him. Watson identifies him as Rosencrantz. Socko makes a plan to set a trap for the Great I, using an automatic camera and some mirrors. Oh, and a big net, and some soft tar.

Then they split up for the night. Socko stays over at Professor Watson's place, and the Commissioner gives Jerry a ride home in his chauffeured police car. Along the way Jerry brags about Socko and somebody laughs, but both of them are sure it wasn't either of them! But it's not until Jerry gets out that the Commissioner realizes that the Great I had been riding along with them!

Appearing in Socko Strong: "The Great I: Part 2 of 3"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • Jerry Indutch

Antagonists:

Other Characters:

  • New York Police Commissioner
  • Professor Watson, of Colentria University (First appearance)

Locations:

  • Maine Woods
    • Jerry's Friend's Hunting Lodge
    • Great I's underground laboratory
  • New York City
    • Police Commissioner's Office
    • Colentria University

Items:

  • Great I's Ray-Tube

Synopsis for Sandman: "The Loan Sharks"


Appearing in Sandman: "The Loan Sharks"

Featured Characters:

Antagonists:

  • Gorilla Gus (Single appearance; dies)
    • Slick Sam (Single appearance)
    • Gunny (Single appearance)
    • five more thugs

Other Characters:

  • Ma Jenks (Single appearance)
  • Bill Jenks (Single appearance; dies)
  • Dolly (Single appearance)
  • NYPD Cops

Locations:

Items:

Vehicles:

Notes

  • Published monthly by Detective Comics, Inc.
  • Barry O'Neill's hair, which was red in Adventure Comics #51 then black in #52, is back to being red.
  • In Cotton Carver, some spellings have changed since last issue. "Ugar" is now "Ugor," "Qwuar" is now "Qwar," and the "Sleeoos" are now "Slooes."
    • "Kalkar" is the deity of Lupa's people.
    • Palm trees grow in the seaside country of the snake-haired men.
    • The rising of the Moon, or of a moon, is visible from the temple of the Amazons. How this is possible is unexplained.
  • In Federal Men, Steve Carson gets whacked in the head with a blunt instrument, and he doesn't black out but he does fall down.
  • Hour-Man:
    • Per page 1 panel 1, Hourman lives in Appleton City, which has only a minimum amount of crime. Two issues from now, in Adventure Comics #55, he will be said to live and work in the thriving city of Cosmos.
    • Girls have always frightened Rex.
  • First issue for Mark Lansing of Mikishawm by Howard Purcell.
    • Mikishawm is an underground planet, with two moons.
  • Sandman: "The Loan Sharks" is reprinted in the The Golden Age Sandman Archives Vol. 1
    • Per page 3 panel 3, Wes Dodds smokes cigarettes.
    • Sandman gets punched out, and later gets his gas gun shot out of his hand, Lone Ranger style, by the boss villain.
  • Socko Strong:
    • Socko and Jerry get from the Maine woods to New York City in "a few hours."
    • The New York Police Commissioner is identified unambiguously, but only by his job title.
  • Steve Conrad gets head-whacked unconscious, with a blackjack.
  • Also appearing in this issue of Adventure Comics were:

Trivia

  • Mark Lansing smokes a pipe.


See Also


Links and References

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