National Comics #55

When a mysterious figure called the Hawk begins terrorizing circus stunt men—threatening them with both his deadly bird and extortion schemes—The Barker steps in to protect the newly arrived Wills Brothers from becoming his next victims. As the dreaded Hawk attempts to sabotage their performances at Colonel Lane's Circus, Carnie Callahan must outwit a villain who can transform between man and beast to keep the show alive. It's a battle of wits and nerve under the big top, where one carny barker refuses to let fear—or a supernatural threat—bring down the curtain.

Detective Steve Wood takes on a high-stakes case when a mysterious client hires him to recover the famous Punjab Diamond, stolen from its hiding place in Italy and now aboard the freighter Columbo bound for American waters. Suspecting foul play but eager for the substantial fee, Wood boards the ship at Pier 31, where he discovers the diamond is in the hands of criminals including the notorious Louie Scanelli—and must outmaneuver them to claim his prize. It's a race against customs agents and hardened crooks to see if Wood can pull off the recovery and collect his payment.

Tinker Tom's picnic quickly turns into a comedy of misfortunes when a sudden storm rolls in and one disaster after another befalls the poor fellow and his companions. What starts as an attempt to enjoy a simple outdoor meal becomes a cascading series of mishaps that keeps piling on until the only way home is a sputtering drive back in their battered little car. It's a lighthearted tale of the kind of day where everything that can go wrong absolutely does.

Quicksilver trails a master hi-jacker named Rodsby to his penthouse, only to learn that a modernized criminal outfit called the Air Gang—led by a young man named Cribb with an autogyro—has muscled in on the rackets. When Quicksilver discovers Cribb's plan to raid the Kickshaw Building by dropping down on its unguarded roof, he races to warn the building's owner, but finds himself locked in a rooftop battle against Cribb's gang and their arsenal of high-tech gadgets. With the Air Gang's theft in motion and Quicksilver outnumbered, he'll need every trick up his sleeve to stop the aerial criminals and protect Kickshaw's treasure.