Blackhawk #29

From Quality Comics' February 1950 issue, this entry in the long-running Blackhawk series promises to "unmask an unknown horror" — specifically the dread secret of the Basilisk. Cover pencils by Bill Quackenbush and inks by Chuck Cuidera deliver a striking image: a red-cloaked, masked figure grapples with a uniformed man against a bold circular backdrop dominated by a giant hawk's silhouette, with rockets and a pistol scattered around the struggle. The teaser copy — "What was the dread secret of the Basilisk? Why did it strike terror in everyone's heart?" — sets an ominously atmospheric tone that makes this ten-cent issue hard to put down.