Feature Comics #65

Feature Comics #65 (February 1943) captures the home-front tension of wartime America in a single comic scene: a rotund crook in a blue vest is siphoning fuel oil from a tank truck while a bound and gagged man is tied to a tree, as a woman in the doorway listens to the thief's brazen quip about oil ration cards. Cover art by Gill Fox frames the caper with character portrait medallions along the top — Poison Ivy, Swing Sisson, Zero, Spider Widow, Inferior Man, Spin Shaw, and Big Top — while starred insets on the left spotlight the issue's featured players: The Dollman, Rusty Ryan, Mickey Finn, and Blimpy. It's a lively 10-cent package that reflects the real scarcities and small-scale villainy Americans were navigating in 1943.