The Massive, Extravagant, Over-the-top Golden Age JSA Re-read

Welcome to our re-read of the first and greatest superhero team in comics ... and quite a bit more!

My plan is to re-read and discuss the Golden Age Justice Society of America, which ran from All-Star Comics #3 (Winter 1940) to All-Star Comics #57 (February-March 1951), and is currently being reprinted in DC's "DC Finest" line.

But, as ever, I am consumed by context. What events brought us to All-Star Comics #3? What characters did editor Sheldon Mayer and writer Gardner Fox have available from which to choose? What else was competing in the superhero space? To achieve that context, I plan to start the discussion at the publisher's beginning, when Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson launched National Allied Publications Inc. in 1935. That was the first step toward the Justice Society — and to DC Comics as we know it today.

So before we even get to the JSA, I'll re-read and open for discussion all the solo stories starring JSA members, mostly from DC's Archives and Famous First Edition series. Which is actually quite a lot! (Although not as much as I'd prefer. I want it ALL!) I'll be writing about non-JSA superheroes created by National, Detective Comics Inc. and All-American Comics Inc. too, like Crimson Avenger and Doctor Occult. I'll also be tipping my hat to some non-powered characters, principally those who managed to appear outside their parent title, like Slam Bradley and Hop Harrigan. That means no re-read for the likes of "Bart Regan, Spy" and "Speed Saunders." Sorry, fellas, but I had to draw the line somewhere — before I found myself doing a deep dive into the history of Ginger Snap.

But I will be re-reading reprints, or availing myself of online information where reprints don't exist, of 14 of the 17 Golden Age characters who launched or appeared in All-Star Comics #3-57. Those characters include:

The Atom: All-American Comics #19-46, 48-61, 70-72; All-Star Comics #3-26, 28-35, 37-57; Big All-American Comic Book; Flash Comics #80, 82-85, 87 89-95, 97-100, 102-104; Comic Cavalcade #22-23, 28; Sensation Comics #86.
Black Canary: All-Star Comics #38-57; Comic Cavalcade #25; Flash Comics #86-88, 90-104.
Doctor Fate: All-Star Comics #3-12, 14-21; More Fun Comics #55-98.
Doctor Mid-Nite: All-American Comics #25-102; All-Star Comics #6 (text story), 8-57.
The Flash: All-Flash #1-32; All-Star Comics #1-7, 10, 24-57; Big All-American Comic Book; Comic Cavalcade #1-29; Flash Comics #1-104, Flash Comics miniature (Wheaties)
Green Lantern: All-American Comics #16-102; All-Flash #14; All-Star Comics #2-8, 10, 24-57; Big All-American Comic Book; Comic Cavalcade #1-29; Green Lantern #1-38.
Hawkman: All-Star Comics #1-57, Big All-American Comic Book, Flash Comics #1-104, Flash Comics miniature (Wheaties).
Hourman: Adventure Comics #48-83, All-Star Comics #1-7, New York World's Fair Comics [#2].
Johnny Thunder: All-Star Comics #2-4, 6-35, 37-39; Big All-American Comic Book; Flash Comics #1-91; New York World's Fair Comics [#2]; World's Best Comics #1; World's Fair Comics #2-3; Flash Comics miniature (Wheaties).
Mister Terrific: All-Star Comics #24, Big All-American Comic Book, Sensation Comics #1-63.
Sandman: Adventure Comics #40-102, All-Star Comics #1-21, Boy Commandos #1, Detective Comics #76, New York World's Fair Comics [#1-2], World's Finest Comics #3-7.
The Spectre: All-Star Comics #1-23, More Fun Comics #52-101, a single panel in More Fun Comics #51.
Starman: Adventure Comics #61-102, All-Star Comics #8-23.
Wildcat: All-Star Comics #24, 27; Big All-American Comic Book; Comic Cavalcade #1-2; Sensation Comics #1-90.

The obvious exceptions here are Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman. Superman and Batman, called "honorary members" in the text, appeared twice in All-Star Comics, but I don't plan to re-read all their adventures from 1938 to 1951. They are peripheral at best to the Golden Age JSA, and would overwhelm the discussion through sheer volume. This problem extends to Wonder Woman as well, who appears in four titles in the Golden Age (Sensation Comics, Wonder Woman, Comic Cavalcade, All-Star Comics). I'll re-read and report on her JSA adventures, but like Batman and Superman, I'll just note her solo stories in passing with a summary that I'll grab somewhere online. That will keep the discussion abreast of any major developments, like new supervillains, in Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman stories.

Here are their appearances that are concurrent with All-Star's run:

Batman: All-Star Comics # 7 (cameo), 36; Batman #1-63 (February-March 1951); Batman 3-D #1; Detective Comics #1-169 (March 1951); New York World’s Fair Comics [#2]; World’s Best Comics #1, World’s Fair Comics #2-50 (February-March 1951).
Superman: Action Comics #1-154 (March 1951); All-Star Comics #7 (cameo), 36; New York World’s Fair [#1-2]; Superman #1-69 (March-April 1951); Superman 3-D #1; Superman at the Gilbert Hall of Science; Superman Miniature; World’s Best Comics #1; World’s Fair Comics #2-50 (February-March 1951).
Wonder Woman: All-Star Comics #8, 11-22, 24-57; Big All-American Comic Book; Comic Cavalcade #1-29; Sensation Comics #1-102; Wonder Woman #1-46 (March-April 1951).

Fortunately, Jeff of Earth-J is already doing a re-read of the Golden Age Superman. Jeff isn't doing a re-read of all Batman books, but he is compiling "The Greatest Joker Stories Ever Told," by which he means "all of them." Recently he's begun re-reading other major Bat-villains, which he discusses in Batman vs. Penguin, Riddler — Prince of Puzzles, The Crimes of Two-Face and Catwoman: Nine Lives of a Feline Fatale.

I should note that my methodology changed over time, as realities required. For instance, I initially lumped books together by monthly cover date, but complications ensued for books without them, like quarterlies and one-shots. As the number of quarterlies and their importance increased, I ended up going by on-sale dates as the primary organizational tool. (Which aren't available for all books, but that's a lesser devil than chronologically misplacing Batman or All-Star Comics). Initially I only included mention of others strips in anthology books if they were of some importance, like Slam Bradley, but eventually I started including all of them. Here and there I would try to improve the format. And so forth. In some imaginary "someday" I'll go back through and make them all consistent.

I've tried to be comprehensive, relying on a variety of sources, from online to reprints to "companion" books. A tip of the cowl to a Luke Blanchard post in what amounts to an outline for this discussion. But I'm sure I've left out tons, especially stories I don't have or can't find, which may be at hand in your collection. I hope folks will do re-reads of stories I've left out, as well as comment on what I've written. So let's hear what I've missed Legionnaires — and what you think!

'NEW YORK WORLD’S FAIR COMICS' [#2]
Cover date: None
On-sale date: July 3, 1940
Cover: Superman, Robin and Batman in front of representations of the Trylon and Perisphere, by Jack Burnley. The JSA Compendium says this is "the first cover showing Superman and Batman (or any two super-heroes who had their own separate features) together, as if they were bosom buddies."

Superman and Batman don't appear together inside, of course, but as World's Fair specials morphed into World's Best Comics and then World's Finest Comics, the trio continued to appear on every cover. Eventually, as we all know, the Superman and Batman features were combined in the 1950s, creating the "World's Finest team" on the inside as well as the cover. This is where that all started, with DC simply featuring their most popular characters on the front of a special, with separate "Superman" and "Batman and Robin" stories inside.

This issue cost 15 cents, which was a lot for a kid in 1940. But they got a lot for their three nickels. New York World's Fair Comics [#2] was 100 pages, and was the second comic book (after All-Star Comics #1) to feature characters from two different publishers. Superman, Batman (and Robin), Zatara, Slam Bradley, Sandman and Hourman were Detective Comics Inc. characters. Johnny Thunder and Red, White and Blue came from All-American Publications Inc.

All-American's contributions are surprisingly thin (and get no cover mention). In what world is "Red, White and Blue" a better choice than "Flash" or "Hawkman"? Luke Blanchard suggests that maybe M.C. Gaines didn't want to use his biggest guns to sell a Detective Comics Inc. publication, and that's as good an argument as any.

Superman
Untitled by Jerry Siegel and Jack Burnley (10 pages)

George Taylor assigns Clark and Lois to cover the World's Fair. In a restaruant, Clark spots Sarto, a notorious jewel thief (Clark and Lois know all notorious jewel thieves on sight, natch) and uses super-hearing to learn about their plan to steal the Madras emerald. He has it under control until Lois "accidentally" leaves her purse at the restaurant, and when Clark goes to retrieve it, she follows Sarto — only to be spotted and kidnapped. When Clark returns with the purse and Lois is missing, he goes after Sarto and his men. Then he rescues Lois and returns the emerald. When he returns as Clark, Lois crows about getting the story while Clark was "asleep at the switch," but he counters by saying he's already called it in.

As Jeff of Earth-J has mentioned, Lois is astoundingly venomous toward Clark in the early days. When the Daily Star editor gives her and Clark the assignment, she thinks, "I don't see why Taylor had to send Clark along — I could handle the story without his help! Anyway, this will give me a chance to show him up!" Then she pulls the purse stunt, which is just nasty. It plays on Clark's personal chivalry to steal a march on him professionally. But it is courageous in its way (it almost gets her killed), and shows her ambition and commitment to getting a story.

Clark and Lois have to fly to New York City, so Metropolis isn't in driving distance. That reinforces the widely accepted idea that Siegel and Shuster were using Cleveland as the model (and location) for the City of Tomorrow. Current mythology (including James Gunn's Superman) places Metropolis in Delaware. Google tells me it's 168 miles from Dover to New York City, which is certainly drivable — at least in the South. I don't know much about the Northeast corridor, and it may have tolls or traffic or other impediments that would discourage driving. But under normal circumstances and highway speeds, that's a two-hour drive.

The jewel thieves use poison gas to kill the emerald's guards, and Lois makes mention of "the Pinkertons" who are guarding the Fair. Do Pinkertons and poison gas seem too dated for this story, or is that just me? I think of poison gas to be an artifact of WWI — its production and use was banned in 1925. Where would you even get any in 1940? And I think of the Pinkertons as even older, an organization famous in the 19th century as detectives and enforcers. Wiki tells me that in the 20th century the company rebranded itself as "a personal security and risk management firm," which sounds low key. Pinkertons and poison gas are archaic references today, but I'd think they would be in 1940, too. Of course, I could be wrong.

Red, White and Blue
Untitled by Jerry Siegel and Harry Lampert (8 pages)

Once again a World's Fair story has little to do with the Fair. The boys investigate why soldiers are getting sick from tainted meat, and the adventure takes place in a rural town named Tapley, somewhere out West, not New York. For the record, the boys discover that a meat-supply company is sabotaging the company currently supplying meat to the Army, in order to get the contract for themselves. Red, White and Blooey ride horses in this story, and are surprisingly good at it.

Fun fact: Red reports to G-2 headquarters again. I'm beating a dead horse here, but DC/AA seem to use G-2 as a catch-all term for U.S. espionage, although technically it's just Army intelligence. Which means technically they'd have no authority over Red (a Marine) and Blooey (a Navy sailor). It bugs me every time, so it's probably for the best that I haven't read many "Red, White and Blue" stories.

Slam Bradley
Untitled by Jerry Siegel and Howard Sherman (10 pages)

Slam notices a signal from a yacht while riding the Parachute Jump. He investigates, as you do, leading to a complicated case involving the kindapped Princess Ileana of Robania, Slam impersonating a Robanian thug and a yacht disguised as a fishing boat. Slam saves the princess, and he and Shorty return to the Fair.

Fun fact: Only six panels at the beginning of the story and one panel at the end take place at the Fair.

Zatara
“Zatara the Master Magician at the World's Fair” is by Gardner Fox and Joe Sulman (10 pages)

This story takes place entirely at the Fair, where Zatara has opened a Magic Mansion. At first, though, he exposes a "dead man" to be a fake, used to stampede the crowd while pickpockets take advantage. Zatara turns in one such pickpocket to the police.

Zatara draws people into his Mansion with money on the ground (or the illusion of it, hard to say). He goes through a fairly standard magic act (making animals appear and disappear) when robbers appear and try to take the crowd's valuables. After Zatara flips them upside down and turns them over to the police, word comes that the "Rockanoff rubies" have been stolen. Zatara transports the crowd outside as the mansion flies into the sky. Zatara animates inanimate objects to tell him where the crooks are, and captures them.

Then he takes his audience for a ride to Mars. They see Martians and the ship nearly falls into the sun. After a near-miss of a crash land, Zatara says "Cigam eb revo!" He says the trip to Mars was basically fake. "All part of the show! It's something which I call 'mass magic,' which took us on adventures that really never happened at all!" So, mass hypnotism, then?

Fun fact: This one suggests there's a whole lot of crime at the Fair, which was probably not the intent!

The Hour-Man
"Hour-Man at the World's Fair" is by Ken Fitch and Bernard Bailey (6 pages)

Tyler's boss assigns him to entertain at the Fair with a chemical demonstration. He doesn't like to do it, though, because he thinks Tyler is "spineless" and needs more "gumption." By now, this is a standard line of insults from Tyler's boss. He's an HR review nightmare. Anyway, Tyler's performance is boffo, and rich guy Gerald Rochester invites Tyler to perform at his estate at the insistence of his little girl, Rose.

The next day Tyler is driving to the Rochester estate when a man stops him and asks for help, because his car is in a ditch. Actually, it just has a flat tire, and the man — he's one of three thugs — just wants Tyler's spare, because they have the same kind of car. The crooks slug Tyler and go to the Rochester estate, which they intend to rob.

Tyler follows the tire tracks (it's a dirt road and he knows what his own tire tracks look like, so I'll allow it) and arrives just as one of the thugs is kidnapping Rose. Tyler becomes Hour-Man and rescues Rose. Then he carries the thugs as he runs after the other houseguests, who are on an English-style hunt on horseback. The houseguests then chase one of the thugs as if he were a fox. Hour-Man has to leave, so he can return as Tyler to perform for Rose.

Not exactly a show-stopper. but what do you want for six pages? I'm awarding points because the crooks had an actual reason to single out Rex Tyler, thereby getting Hour-Man involved in the case, in that of all the cars on the road, Tyler's was the one most likely to have a matching spare tire. In Sandman stories, crooks keep finding their way to Wesley Dodds for no reason at all.

Sandman
"Sandman Goes to the World's Fair" by Gardner Fox, Creig Flessel and Chad Grothkopf (10 pages).

Once again the Fair isn't a significant location. Dian and Aunt Agatha go to the Fair, but are kidnapped while driving to their hotel. Sandman tracks them down for a little cat-and-mouse, and after the rescue, Dian and Aunt Agatha return to the Fair, this time with Wesley. The last four panels are Fair-related, but that's all.

Fun fact: A close-up of Sandman's hands reveal that his gloves extend up under his sleeve. It dawned on me that he might not wear ordinary gloves, but chemist's gloves. Which makes sense, as he concocts his sleep gas in his home laboratory. Later stories show him with ordinary gloves (albeit orange), so it may be a matter of who is drawing the strip.

Johnny Thunder
“Johnny Thunderbolt at the World's Fair” by John Wentworth and Stan Aschmeier (6 pages)

Johnny takes Daisy to the World's Fair, but is pickpocketed before he gets there and, without money, they can't get in. But Johnny has already said "Say you" and then wishes them both to the top of the Trylon. Terrified, he wishes they had parachutes. They float down and are given keys to the Fair for the spectacular stunt, and the attendant publicity.

Later, at an electricity demonstration, Johnny imagines what it'd be like to have his own private thunderbolt. Oh, the irony. He says he'd have his thunderbolt chase everybody else out so he and Daisy could be alone, which happens. And he wishes the pickpocket would appear and give him back his wallet, which happens. And he wishes the pickpocket would turn himself in, which happens. Then he and Daisy enjoy the Fair.

Fun fact: The Thunderbolt is depicted as a lightning bolt until the electricity demonstration, when it takes on an anthropomorphic look. It's crude, but hints at the Thunderbolt we Silver Age fans know so well.

Batman and Robin
“Batman and Robin Visit the 1940 World's Fair” is by Bill Finger, Bob Kane and George Roussos (13 pages)

Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson visit the Fair and tout its wonderfulness for a few panels. But then a bridge elsewhere dissolves and they leave to investigate. Dick interrupts a kidnapping of a young woman, who escapes, and her kidnappers pretend they were police taking her to jail. Meanwhile, Bruce visits Gordon and discovers someone is threatening more bridges unless he's paid off.

Batman and Robin visit the bridge that's being threatened next, and discover thugs placing a box in the structure. They take them out and examine the box, as the young woman from the previous scene arrives and provides an exposition dump. She's the niece of a Doctor Vreekill who has learned how to "decompose the elements that make up steel" with a "shortwave ray," and plans to extort steel companies. After she fled, he sent the thugs after her. Now, she says, he plans to release the prisoners of the penetentiary, and destroy the Monarch Building (under construction).

Batman and Robin take the Batplane to the prison, where they drop gas bombs on escaping criminals and physically capture the rest. Then they fly to the Monarch building, where they capture the thugs planting Vreeland's receiver. Then they go to Vreeland's lab, where the scientist accidentally electrocutes himself. "He saved the state the job," the Dark Knight says grimly.

Fun fact: In the last panel, Bruce and Dick break the fourth wall to encourage readers to visit the World's Fair.

'DETECTIVE COMICS' #42
Cover date: August 1940
On-sale date: July 3, 1940
Cover: Robin catches a crook while a smiling Batman looms, by Bob Kane and Jerry Robinson

Batman and Robin
Untitled is by Bill Finger, Bob Kane and Jerry Robinson (13 pages).
Where I read it: Detective Comics #441 (June-July 1974).

GCD: "A business man heavily in debt buys up pictures of an artist at cheap prices, then tries to increase their value by murdering those pictured in the portraits.

Continuing: Spy, Red Logan, Crimson Avenger, Speed Saunders, Steve Malone, Cliff Crosby, Slam Bradley.

Replies

- The Baron > Captain Comics September 18, 2025 at 11:45am
  
  Every time I see the title "More Fun Comics", I imagine that it started as "Less Fun Comics", but it wasn't selling, so they brainstormed it and came up with "More Fun Comics", and that made all the difference.
  
  Be funnier if they'd gone to Dover, Massachusetts, which is about an hour's drive southwest of Salem.
  
  As an old Bay Stater, I'm amused at the description of Salem as "ghost-haunted", when it's basically just a small city on the North Shore that trades on the Witch Trials to lure in tourists.
- Philip Portelli > The Baron September 18, 2025 at 1:35pm
  
  Like Sleepy Hollow in New York!
  
  The body count is rising in both series and probably will continue for about a year!
Jeff of Earth-J September 18, 2025 at 1:53pm

I imagine that it started as "Less Fun Comics"

Or perhaps "More Fun Comics" is the intermediary step between "Fun Comics" and "Most Fun Comics."
- Richard Willis > Jeff of Earth-J September 20, 2025 at 8:18pm
  
  I realize we’re kidding, but More Fun began with issue #7. The first six issues were titled New Fun. Credit to Mike’s Amazing World.
- JD DeLuzio > Richard Willis September 20, 2025 at 8:56pm
  
  I'm trying to imagine the sort of loser characters who would populate Less Fun Comics.
- The Baron > JD DeLuzio September 20, 2025 at 9:01pm
  
  Tedioso, the Boring Man! (Actually, Johnny Storm may have fought him back during the 60's.)
- Philip Portelli > JD DeLuzio September 20, 2025 at 11:10pm
  
  The Spectator, Doctor Late, Johnny Sick, Aquarium Man and Mean Arrow!
- JD DeLuzio > Philip Portelli September 21, 2025 at 5:27am
  
  In #21, Tedioso loses his keys again and grumbles as he tries to find them. His sidekick helpfully offers, "they'll be in the last place you look."
Captain Comics September 18, 2025 at 5:35pm

If they had made it all the way to Most Fun Comics it might have lasted longer.
Captain Comics September 19, 2025 at 12:18pm

'NEW YORK WORLD’S FAIR COMICS' [#2]
Cover date: None
On-sale date: July 3, 1940
Cover: Superman, Robin and Batman in front of representations of the Trylon and Perisphere, by Jack Burnley. The JSA Compendium says this is "the first cover showing Superman and Batman (or any two super-heroes who had their own separate features) together, as if they were bosom buddies."

Superman and Batman don't appear together inside, of course, but as World's Fair specials morphed into World's Best Comics and then World's Finest Comics, the trio continued to appear on every cover. Eventually, as we all know, the Superman and Batman features were combined in the 1950s, creating the "World's Finest team" on the inside as well as the cover. This is where that all started, with DC simply featuring their most popular characters on the front of a special, with separate "Superman" and "Batman and Robin" stories inside.

This issue cost 15 cents, which was a lot for a kid in 1940. But they got a lot for their three nickels. New York World's Fair Comics [#2] was 100 pages, and was the second comic book (after All-Star Comics #1) to feature characters from two different publishers. Superman, Batman (and Robin), Zatara, Slam Bradley, Sandman and Hourman were Detective Comics Inc. characters. Johnny Thunder and Red, White and Blue came from All-American Publications Inc.

All-American's contributions are surprisingly thin (and get no cover mention). In what world is "Red, White and Blue" a better choice than "Flash" or "Hawkman"? Luke Blanchard suggests that maybe M.C. Gaines didn't want to use his biggest guns to sell a Detective Comics Inc. publication, and that's as good an argument as any.

Superman
Untitled by Jerry Siegel and Jack Burnley (10 pages)

George Taylor assigns Clark and Lois to cover the World's Fair. In a restaruant, Clark spots Sarto, a notorious jewel thief (Clark and Lois know all notorious jewel thieves on sight, natch) and uses super-hearing to learn about their plan to steal the Madras emerald. He has it under control until Lois "accidentally" leaves her purse at the restaurant, and when Clark goes to retrieve it, she follows Sarto — only to be spotted and kidnapped. When Clark returns with the purse and Lois is missing, he goes after Sarto and his men. Then he rescues Lois and returns the emerald. When he returns as Clark, Lois crows about getting the story while Clark was "asleep at the switch," but he counters by saying he's already called it in.

As Jeff of Earth-J has mentioned, Lois is astoundingly venomous toward Clark in the early days. When the Daily Star editor gives her and Clark the assignment, she thinks, "I don't see why Taylor had to send Clark along — I could handle the story without his help! Anyway, this will give me a chance to show him up!" Then she pulls the purse stunt, which is just nasty. It plays on Clark's personal chivalry to steal a march on him professionally. But it is courageous in its way (it almost gets her killed), and shows her ambition and commitment to getting a story.

Clark and Lois have to fly to New York City, so Metropolis isn't in driving distance. That reinforces the widely accepted idea that Siegel and Shuster were using Cleveland as the model (and location) for the City of Tomorrow. Current mythology (including James Gunn's Superman) places Metropolis in Delaware. Google tells me it's 168 miles from Dover to New York City, which is certainly drivable — at least in the South. I don't know much about the Northeast corridor, and it may have tolls or traffic or other impediments that would discourage driving. But under normal circumstances and highway speeds, that's a two-hour drive.

The jewel thieves use poison gas to kill the emerald's guards, and Lois makes mention of "the Pinkertons" who are guarding the Fair. Do Pinkertons and poison gas seem too dated for this story, or is that just me? I think of poison gas to be an artifact of WWI — its production and use was banned in 1925. Where would you even get any in 1940? And I think of the Pinkertons as even older, an organization famous in the 19th century as detectives and enforcers. Wiki tells me that in the 20th century the company rebranded itself as "a personal security and risk management firm," which sounds low key. Pinkertons and poison gas are archaic references today, but I'd think they would be in 1940, too. Of course, I could be wrong.

Red, White and Blue
Untitled by Jerry Siegel and Harry Lampert (8 pages)

Once again a World's Fair story has little to do with the Fair. The boys investigate why soldiers are getting sick from tainted meat, and the adventure takes place in a rural town named Tapley, somewhere out West, not New York. For the record, the boys discover that a meat-supply company is sabotaging the company currently supplying meat to the Army, in order to get the contract for themselves. Red, White and Blooey ride horses in this story, and are surprisingly good at it.

Fun fact: Red reports to G-2 headquarters again. I'm beating a dead horse here, but DC/AA seem to use G-2 as a catch-all term for U.S. espionage, although technically it's just Army intelligence. Which means technically they'd have no authority over Red (a Marine) and Blooey (a Navy sailor). It bugs me every time, so it's probably for the best that I haven't read many "Red, White and Blue" stories.

Slam Bradley
Untitled by Jerry Siegel and Howard Sherman (10 pages)

Slam notices a signal from a yacht while riding the Parachute Jump. He investigates, as you do, leading to a complicated case involving the kindapped Princess Ileana of Robania, Slam impersonating a Robanian thug and a yacht disguised as a fishing boat. Slam saves the princess, and he and Shorty return to the Fair.

Fun fact: Only six panels at the beginning of the story and one panel at the end take place at the Fair.

Zatara
“Zatara the Master Magician at the World's Fair” is by Gardner Fox and Joe Sulman (10 pages)

This story takes place entirely at the Fair, where Zatara has opened a Magic Mansion. At first, though, he exposes a "dead man" to be a fake, used to stampede the crowd while pickpockets take advantage. Zatara turns in one such pickpocket to the police.

Zatara draws people into his Mansion with money on the ground (or the illusion of it, hard to say). He goes through a fairly standard magic act (making animals appear and disappear) when robbers appear and try to take the crowd's valuables. After Zatara flips them upside down and turns them over to the police, word comes that the "Rockanoff rubies" have been stolen. Zatara transports the crowd outside as the mansion flies into the sky. Zatara animates inanimate objects to tell him where the crooks are, and captures them.

Then he takes his audience for a ride to Mars. They see Martians and the ship nearly falls into the sun. After a near-miss of a crash land, Zatara says "Cigam eb revo!" He says the trip to Mars was basically fake. "All part of the show! It's something which I call 'mass magic,' which took us on adventures that really never happened at all!" So, mass hypnotism, then?

Fun fact: This one suggests there's a whole lot of crime at the Fair, which was probably not the intent!

The Hour-Man
"Hour-Man at the World's Fair" is by Ken Fitch and Bernard Bailey (6 pages)

Tyler's boss assigns him to entertain at the Fair with a chemical demonstration. He doesn't like to do it, though, because he thinks Tyler is "spineless" and needs more "gumption." By now, this is a standard line of insults from Tyler's boss. He's an HR review nightmare. Anyway, Tyler's performance is boffo, and rich guy Gerald Rochester invites Tyler to perform at his estate at the insistence of his little girl, Rose.

The next day Tyler is driving to the Rochester estate when a man stops him and asks for help, because his car is in a ditch. Actually, it just has a flat tire, and the man — he's one of three thugs — just wants Tyler's spare, because they have the same kind of car. The crooks slug Tyler and go to the Rochester estate, which they intend to rob.

Tyler follows the tire tracks (it's a dirt road and he knows what his own tire tracks look like, so I'll allow it) and arrives just as one of the thugs is kidnapping Rose. Tyler becomes Hour-Man and rescues Rose. Then he carries the thugs as he runs after the other houseguests, who are on an English-style hunt on horseback. The houseguests then chase one of the thugs as if he were a fox. Hour-Man has to leave, so he can return as Tyler to perform for Rose.

Not exactly a show-stopper. but what do you want for six pages? I'm awarding points because the crooks had an actual reason to single out Rex Tyler, thereby getting Hour-Man involved in the case, in that of all the cars on the road, Tyler's was the one most likely to have a matching spare tire. In Sandman stories, crooks keep finding their way to Wesley Dodds for no reason at all.

Sandman
"Sandman Goes to the World's Fair" by Gardner Fox, Creig Flessel and Chad Grothkopf (10 pages).

Once again the Fair isn't a significant location. Dian and Aunt Agatha go to the Fair, but are kidnapped while driving to their hotel. Sandman tracks them down for a little cat-and-mouse, and after the rescue, Dian and Aunt Agatha return to the Fair, this time with Wesley. The last four panels are Fair-related, but that's all.

Fun fact: A close-up of Sandman's hands reveal that his gloves extend up under his sleeve. It dawned on me that he might not wear ordinary gloves, but chemist's gloves. Which makes sense, as he concocts his sleep gas in his home laboratory. Later stories show him with ordinary gloves (albeit orange), so it may be a matter of who is drawing the strip.

Johnny Thunder
“Johnny Thunderbolt at the World's Fair” by John Wentworth and Stan Aschmeier (6 pages)

Johnny takes Daisy to the World's Fair, but is pickpocketed before he gets there and, without money, they can't get in. But Johnny has already said "Say you" and then wishes them both to the top of the Trylon. Terrified, he wishes they had parachutes. They float down and are given keys to the Fair for the spectacular stunt, and the attendant publicity.

Later, at an electricity demonstration, Johnny imagines what it'd be like to have his own private thunderbolt. Oh, the irony. He says he'd have his thunderbolt chase everybody else out so he and Daisy could be alone, which happens. And he wishes the pickpocket would appear and give him back his wallet, which happens. And he wishes the pickpocket would turn himself in, which happens. Then he and Daisy enjoy the Fair.

Fun fact: The Thunderbolt is depicted as a lightning bolt until the electricity demonstration, when it takes on an anthropomorphic look. It's crude, but hints at the Thunderbolt we Silver Age fans know so well.

Batman and Robin
“Batman and Robin Visit the 1940 World's Fair” is by Bill Finger, Bob Kane and George Roussos (13 pages)

Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson visit the Fair and tout its wonderfulness for a few panels. But then a bridge elsewhere dissolves and they leave to investigate. Dick interrupts a kidnapping of a young woman, who escapes, and her kidnappers pretend they were police taking her to jail. Meanwhile, Bruce visits Gordon and discovers someone is threatening more bridges unless he's paid off.

Batman and Robin visit the bridge that's being threatened next, and discover thugs placing a box in the structure. They take them out and examine the box, as the young woman from the previous scene arrives and provides an exposition dump. She's the niece of a Doctor Vreekill who has learned how to "decompose the elements that make up steel" with a "shortwave ray," and plans to extort steel companies. After she fled, he sent the thugs after her. Now, she says, he plans to release the prisoners of the penetentiary, and destroy the Monarch Building (under construction).

Batman and Robin take the Batplane to the prison, where they drop gas bombs on escaping criminals and physically capture the rest. Then they fly to the Monarch building, where they capture the thugs planting Vreeland's receiver. Then they go to Vreeland's lab, where the scientist accidentally electrocutes himself. "He saved the state the job," the Dark Knight says grimly.

Fun fact: In the last panel, Bruce and Dick break the fourth wall to encourage readers to visit the World's Fair.

'DETECTIVE COMICS' #42
Cover date: August 1940
On-sale date: July 3, 1940
Cover: Robin catches a crook while a smiling Batman looms, by Bob Kane and Jerry Robinson

Batman and Robin
Untitled is by Bill Finger, Bob Kane and Jerry Robinson (13 pages).
Where I read it: Detective Comics #441 (June-July 1974).

GCD: "A business man heavily in debt buys up pictures of an artist at cheap prices, then tries to increase their value by murdering those pictured in the portraits.

Continuing: Spy, Red Logan, Crimson Avenger, Speed Saunders, Steve Malone, Cliff Crosby, Slam Bradley.

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