Slam-Bang Comics #2

From Fawcett's early anthology lineup comes this April 1940 number — Slam-Bang Comics #2, with a cover by Gus Ricca that wastes absolutely no time: Jim Dolan, the "Two-Fisted Crime-Buster," has a goggled pilot in a fierce headlock right on top of what appears to be an aircraft fuselage, a mounted machine gun blazing away beside them amid a shower of spent cartridges. The raw energy of that red-and-yellow composition perfectly sets the tone for the featured story, "The Challenge of Count Shano," written by Manly Wade Wellman with art by Jack Binder. For anyone who loves the bold, no-nonsense spirit of 1940 pulp-action comics, this issue delivers that atmosphere in full.