Boy Commandos #26

This March–April 1948 DC title packs 92 pages of action into a dime, and the cover — penciled by Curt Swan and inked by Steve Brodie — pulls you straight onto the racetrack, where two jockeys on galloping horses jostle fiercely down the stretch while anxious onlookers lean over the rail in the foreground. The banner announces the featured smash action story, "The Jockey from Flatbush," promising the kind of gritty, street-smart adventure the Boy Commandos delivered so reliably in the postwar years. It's a wonderfully energetic snapshot of mid-century comics at their most entertaining.