Leading Comics #19

This June/July 1946 DC offering spotlights Nero Fox — billed right on the cover as "the Jive-Jumping Emperor of Ancient Rome" — in what promises to be a gloriously silly musical romp titled "Barrelhouse on the Down-Beat!" Ed Dunn's cover art sets the tone perfectly: a helmeted, toga-clad Nero looks on in dismay as a reindeer-like character belts out an enthusiastic "OOOHLEEOHLAYEEE" from inside a "Reduco Steam Cabinet, while a mechanical saxophone nearby blats and screes on its own. The gag-cartoon style and cheerful chaos make this an endearing snapshot of mid-1940s funny-animal comics at their most entertainingly absurd.