Smash Comics #41

Henry Doaks and his friend Elmer spend their days collecting scrap metal for the war effort, using an ingenious giant magnet to gather even the smallest pieces—until their hard-won pile mysteriously vanishes overnight. When they discover that Percy has stolen their collection, help arrives from an unexpected source: Hugh Hazzard and his mechanical Iron Man offer to deliver the scrap to the junk yard and ensure the boys get paid for their efforts. What starts as a patriotic mission takes a wild turn when Henry and Elmer get an idea about their new mechanical friend that even he finds a bit too ambitious.

In "null," McGinty and the Jester find themselves in a desperate scramble after reading McGinty’s own obituary—only to narrowly evade Lady Satan, the enforcer for a woman who targets wealthy husbands for their life insurance. The story unfolds in a tense, high-stakes chase through the shadows of a world where death is just another business transaction.

When stunt man Larry Noble takes a job driving a car off a cliff for Paragrand Studios, he discovers the veiled "dummy" in the back seat is actually the kidnapped heiress Dinah Shane—and the brakes have been sabotaged. Now stranded at the cliff's edge with the missing heiress and a gang of would-be killers closing in, Noble must use his wits and nerve to survive and expose the real mastermind behind the kidnapping plot.

Rookie Rankin, an ambitious young cop, tangles with the Spider—a brutal underworld tyrant who runs a protection racket through the city's poorest neighborhoods, using torture and murder to enforce his extortion scheme. When Rankin starts investigating the Spider's operation, he finds himself caught in a deadly game where the criminal's own methods may be his undoing. This 1943 tale from Smash Comics #41 is a hard-boiled showdown between a determined lawman and a ruthless crime boss whose web of violence finally catches up with him.