Hit Comics #2
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeHit Comics #2 (August 1940) is the second chapter of one of Quality Comics' most creatively ambitious anthology titles of the Golden Age, continuing the early runs of both Neon the Unknown and the Red Bee mere months after their debuts in issue #1. As the second appearance of the Red Bee — written by Toni Blum, one of the very few women working as a comics writer during this era — the issue documents the rapid serialization of a character whose insect-themed gimmick and law-enforcement alter ego represented a distinctive variation on the Green Hornet archetype then dominating the emerging superhero genre. Neon's continued strip, set in a thinly veiled stand-in for Nazi-occupied Europe, is among the earliest American superhero narratives to directly engage with the horrors of Axis totalitarianism, including a story confronting concentration-camp imagery. Both characters were later absorbed by DC Comics after Quality ceased operations in 1956.
In "A Town's Ransom," the Red Bee faces a crisis that hits closer to home than any villain: a deadly influenza outbreak sweeping through the city, worsened by a corrupt political machine led by Al Snead that has drained public funds. Written by Toni Blum and illustrated by Charles Nicholas, this 1940 Quality Comics standout blends social commentary with pulp heroism, with Lou Fine’s dynamic cover capturing the urgency of a city on the brink.
When a mysterious extortionist threatens to blow up the Couver Dam and flood the town of Meadowlane unless paid half a million dollars, Hercules finds himself caught between a duplicitous town board member named Crinch and a kidnapped science teacher, Mr. Portle, forced to aid the criminals. With the town council's ransom money in play and the dam literally cracking under pressure, Hercules must race to stop the sabotage, rescue his friend, and bring the crooks to justice before the valley is destroyed.
A young man seeking shelter in a London lodging house stumbles into something far stranger when phantom sounds from a long-ago execution ground begin to haunt the night, pulling him into a spectral reenactment of witchcraft trials. As he tries to help an innocent woman accused of sorcery, he discovers the house's dark history is far more entangled with his own bloodline than he ever imagined. The Witch spins a tale that blurs past and present in ways that defy easy explanation.
In "The Hospital Grafters," the Red Bee races to stop an influenza outbreak gripping the city, where hospitals are forced to turn away patients due to a scandal of political corruption—led by the ruthless Al Snead, who has siphoned funds meant for care. With lives hanging in the balance, the hero must confront a crisis that’s as much about greed as it is about disease.
When Tommy and Mary Lou are mysteriously swept into an underwater kingdom, they discover King Neptune's hospitality—but back on land, the mysterious villains Snipp and Snapp have stolen Max, a toy lion, from the Professor's shop. Max recognizes his captors and springs into action with surprising determination. This playful two-pager blends adventure and humor as a toy lion becomes the unlikely hero of the day.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
Hit Comics was produced largely through the Eisner & Iger studio, the influential Manhattan-based comics packaging shop co-founded by Will Eisner and Jerry Iger, which supplied finished anthology content to Quality publisher Everett 'Busy' Arnold. Toni Blum — a staff writer at Eisner & Iger since 1938, daughter of artist Alex Blum, and one of the earliest women professionals in the medium — wrote the Red Bee strip for this issue, with the interior art attributed to the house pseudonym 'B. H. Apiary,' whose true identity remains disputed (possibly Charles Nicholas/Wojtkoski). The Neon the Unknown strip was scripted under the pen name of S. M. Iger and drawn by Alex Blum, continuing the formula established in issue #1. Lou Fine, widely regarded as one of the premier cover artists of the Golden Age, provided cover art for the early run of Hit Comics, lending the series a visual prestige that its interior anthology format otherwise varied widely in quality.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Hit Comics #2 was published in August 1940 by Quality Comics, cover-dated one month after the title's launch issue.
- Both Neon the Unknown and the Red Bee debuted in Hit Comics #1 (July 1940); this issue contains their second published appearances.
- Neon the Unknown was created by Jerry Iger; his strips were drawn by Alex Blum and ran continuously from Hit Comics #1 through #17.
- The Red Bee was created by writer Toni Blum and artist Charles Nicholas; Blum was one of the first women to work as a professional comics writer, employed at the Eisner & Iger studio from 1938.
- The Red Bee story in this issue was written by Toni Blum and drawn under the pseudonym 'B. H. Apiary' (an apiary being a collection of beehives); the true identity of the artist behind this pen name is not definitively established.
- Neon the Unknown's story in Hit Comics #2, titled to involve the fictional nation of 'Dunland,' was among the earliest superhero narratives to depict a concentration camp analog, with the villain 'Radolf the Dictator' serving as a transparent Hitler stand-in.
- The Red Bee's secret identity is Rick Raleigh, an assistant district attorney in Superior City, Oregon, who fights crime with trained bees (including his prize bee, Michael, kept in his belt buckle) and a stinger gun firing tranquilizer darts.
- After Quality Comics ceased operations, DC Comics acquired the characters; the Golden Age versions of both Neon and Red Bee have since entered the public domain. A second Red Bee (Jenna Raleigh, grandniece of Rick) later appeared in DC's Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters #5 (2007).
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Reprinted in Men of Mystery Comics #89 (2013), Crypt of Horror #18 (2013), Men of Mystery Comics #109 (2018)
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