Another party tonight, among selfish society fools. I'd rather rest here tonight with my pet, Cheetah. 
Slam-Bang Comics #7 is an issue of the series Slam-Bang Comics (Volume 1) with a cover date of September, 1940.
Synopsis for Zoro, the Mystery Man: "Pakro's Apprentice"
About to head to a dull society party, Zoro instead follows the sound of gunshots to find a gang committing a robbery. When they escape, he stays to tend to the beat cop who was shot trying to stop them. However Zoro grabs a young man observing the scene, who admits he was part of the gang. The mystery man offers to let the young man go if he'll give up crime, but instead he returns to his boss, Pakro, who "adroitly praises" the youth, Chick, for his performance. Pakro comes up with a plan to trap Zoro so he won't be able to interfere with them again, by running him off the road when they spot his car.
At first, Zoro acquits himself in the ensuing brawl, but Chick brains Zoro from behind. Pakro plans to throw Zoro to a vicious gorilla at the zoo to finish him off, a fate so cruel it shakes Chick's faith in his boss. This only gets him coldcocked and thrown to the ape along with Zoro. Fortunately, Zoro's cheetah had been following them and attacks the ape to protect his master. This gives Zoro the opening to wrench a sharp wooden sliver from a signpost and use is to stab the gorilla to death through the heart. Zoro, Cheetah and Chick track Pakro to his lair, and the remaining crooks are quickly subdued. This experience has convinced Chick there's no honor among thieves.
Appearing in Zoro, the Mystery Man: "Pakro's Apprentice"
Featured Characters:
Animals:
- Cheeta, Zoro's cheetah (First appearance)
- Gorilla (Dies)
Villains:
- Pakro (First appearance)
- his gang
- Chick
Locations:
- Earth-S
- big city
- Municipal Zoo
- Municipal Zoo
- big city
Synopsis for Diamond Jack: "Curse of the Green Dragon"
Appearing in Diamond Jack: "Curse of the Green Dragon"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Villains:
- The Tarvans (Single appearance; dies)
- Their Queen (Single appearance; dies)
- The Green Dragon (Single appearance; dies)
Other Characters:
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for Jim Dolan: "Murder in State Prison"
Appearing in Jim Dolan: "Murder in State Prison"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Villains:
- Grogan (Single appearance; dies)
- Mullins (First appearance)
- Crocker (First appearance)
Other Characters:
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for Lucky Lawton: "Zeke Willan's Range War"
Appearing in Lucky Lawton: "Zeke Willan's Range War"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Pal, Lawton's Collie
Villains:
- Zeke Willan (First appearance)
Other Characters:
Locations:
Synopsis for Hurricane Hansen: "The Unknown Kazilian Base"
Appearing in Hurricane Hansen: "The Unknown Kazilian Base"
Featured Characters:
- Hurricane Hansen (Final appearance)
Supporting Characters:
- Appleby, First Mate (Final appearance)
- Allied Admiral
Villains:
- Kazilian Navy (Final appearance)
Locations:
Vehicles:
- HMS Surprise (Final appearance)
- Catapult-launched Scouting Seaplane
- two or more Kazilian surface warships (Destroyed)
- Kazilian Flagship (Destroyed)
Synopsis for Mark Swift and the Time Retarder: "Napoleon and the Gypsies"
In Spain, in 1808, Rodney Kent persuades Napoleon and his French Army to team up, for one day, with the British Army, against a predatory band of peasant-terrorizing Gypsy "foragers".
Appearing in Mark Swift and the Time Retarder: "Napoleon and the Gypsies"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Rodney Kent
Villains:
- Gypsy Chief
- Gypsy Foragers
Other Characters:
- Napoleon Bonaparte
- his army
- British General
- his army
- Spanish Army
Times:
Locations:
Vehicles:
- The Time Retarder, "History Express"
Synopsis for Tom Sharp, War Bird: "The Coming of Manfred"
Appearing in Tom Sharp, War Bird: "The Coming of Manfred"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- the Major, French Army
- Eagle Squadron, French Air Corps
Antagonists:
- Baron Bruht, Sermian Air Force (Dies)
- his soldiers, airmen, spies, etc.
- Captain Manfred (First appearance)
Locations:
Vehicles:
- French fighter planes
- Sermian fighter planes
Synopsis for Lee Granger, Jungle King: "The Plot Against Thora Brandon"
A great metropolitan newspaper dispatches star feature writer Thora Blandon to Africa, to interview Lee Granger, the Jungle King. She ventures inland with a caravan, but her guide and his bearers plot to murder her at midnight, and steal all her goods. Eric the Talking Lion overhears them plotting, and runs to tell the Jungle King. Lee and Eric sneak into Thora's camp, awaken her, sneak her out of the camp, and arrange a surprise for the safari mutineers. When the white guide and two black spearmen arrive at midnight in Miss Blandon's tent, they meet Eric the Talking Lion, and flee in terror! For the time being, Granger lets them run. He escorts Miss Blandon to the Pygmy settlement.
The next morning the guide and his pals have gotten over their fright, deciding it was all just a trick, and they start tracking Thora, which leads them toward the Pygmy town, but also into a series of ambushes. One by one the invaders are captured alive by the Pygmies. The guide again confronts the Talking Lion and again flees in terror, with Granger again allowing it. The Pygmies have captured five mutineers.
The renegade leader stumbles away through the brush, until he encounters a fellow villain, a deposed local former monarch, driven from his own kingdom by the mutually-hated Lee Granger. They team up. His new friend has a plan that he's been working on for quite some time, to flood the Pygmy town, by diverting a waterfall into a new channel. But to do all this they need an elephant, to do most of the work, so they set an elephant trap. They catch one, but the Jungle King and the Talking Lion show up, and they team up with the elephant. The former tyrant is captured alive, and the renegade caravan boss again flees on foot.
This time he runs back to Thora Blandon's now-abandoned camp, where there's a supply of gunpowder. He runs a trail of this stuff along the pathway leading into the camp, then plants explosive charges along the powder trail. The Lion smells the powder and the King figures out what it's for, so they simply break the powder trail, and Granger sets fire to the part of it leading to the renegade, who is still laying down the powder, pouring directly from a barrel carried in both hands. The resulting explosion kills him.
Thora Blandon returns to civilization, ruefully certain that her editor will never believe her account. Lee admits to Eric that he sometimes misses the modern world, but must remain because his people need him.
Appearing in Lee Granger, Jungle King: "The Plot Against Thora Brandon"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Eric the Talking Lion
Villains:
- traitorous guide (Dies)
- traitorous bearers
Other Characters:
- Thora Blandon, Star Feature Writer
- Miss Blandon's Editor
- Pygmy Ambushers
Locations:
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Pygmy Town
Notes
- Diamond Jack and Lucky Lawton both next appear in Wow Comics #1
- Hurricane Hansen does not appear again.
- Jim Dolan next appears in Nickel Comics #8
- Zoro, Mark Swift, War Bird, and Jungle King all next appear in Master Comics #7
- War Bird
- After appearing in almost every episode in this series, Baron Bruht, the main villain, is shot down and killed. In their final dogfight, Baron Bruht and Captain Sharp are both shot down, but Sharp survives and Bruht does not.
- His relative, and replacement, Captain Manfred, is shot down and captured by the War Bird the first time they meet. Manfred and Sharp spend the rest of this episode capturing and escaping from each other, have a fistfight in the cockpit of an airborne plane, and both survive the resulting crash (Sharp with a parachute and Manfred by remarkable luck and with severe injuries).
- Then they have a hand-gun shoot-out, and War Bird gets a bullet wound, in the shoulder, the first of his career.
- Zoro gets head-konked unconscious, for the first time, with a pistol butt.
- Zoro kills a gorilla, using a splinter from a broken wooden sign.
- Zoro's cheetah is named "Cheetah", with the H, in this issue.
Trivia
- Mark Swift's history teacher, Rodney Kent, apparently carried no gun at the outset of this issue's story, although a Gypsy confederate gave him a crude 3-shot handgun. In their next appearance, Kent packed a revolver.
See Also