Exciting Comics #55

This May 1947 issue from Pines puts the Black Terror — the skull-and-crossbones-emblazoned "Nemesis of Crime" — front and center in a tense standoff, shrugging off a point-blank gunshot to the chest with a defiant grin that says everything about his reputation. Alex Schomburg's cover art stages the confrontation with real punch, the oversized gun barrel aimed straight at the reader drawing you immediately into the action. A circular inset in the corner also teases the arrival of Judy of the Jungle, knife in hand amid lush foliage, making this a particularly well-stocked issue from the golden age of ten-cent thrills.