National Comics #51

Four grinning cartoon faces peek out from between the red-and-white striped panels of a circus tent on Jack Cole's cheerful cover for this December 1945 issue — a smiling fellow in a fedora, a round-faced woman with blue hair, a cigar-chomping figure in a bowler hat, and a bald, wide-eared character who looks like he's in on the joke. The banner below promises that The Barker finds "The Missing Link" in a chain of strange events, setting up what sounds like a wonderfully offbeat carnival mystery. It's a warm, lively snapshot of Quality Comics' mid-1940s humor-adventure blend, rendered with Cole's unmistakable cartoony energy.