National Comics #39

Alex Kotzky's cover for this February 1944 Quality Comics issue says it all: Uncle Sam — top hat, star-spangled suit, and all — is hurling a Nazi-armbanded figure through the air while a second villain sprawls defeated at his feet, the whole scene radiating wartime defiance. The cover blurb promises that Sam will drive "the RAT out of RATIONING" and put black market operators in their place, a story rendered inside by the triple-threat talents of writer-artist-inker Fred Guardineer. At a dime a copy, National Comics #39 captures the patriotic energy of 1944 with real punch.