Smash Comics #56

Midnight and his pals—including his wisecracking monkey Gabby and the self-proclaimed detective Sniffer Snoop—take on the case of the Laughing Killer, a madman whose uproarious cackle marks each of his brutal crimes. When the killer brazenly calls Dave Clark during a radio broadcast to taunt Midnight, the chase is on, and the masked hero finds himself matched against an opponent with a twisted sense of humor and no shortage of cruel pranks. As the bodies pile up and the Laughing Killer stays one dangerous step ahead, Midnight must find a way to turn the tables on a killer who thinks murder is the ultimate joke.

Rookie Rankin arrives at the Revue Theatre to investigate a murder at a musical revue introducing Mel Marvel's new composition, "The Boogie Woogie Dirge"—only to discover the body of a dope addict named Gus Getti. As Rankin digs into the case, he uncovers a web of drug dealing and debts that points toward Marvel himself, but a second murder throws the investigation into sharp relief and forces Rankin to reconsider everything he thought he knew. With the killer still loose in the theatre and everyone under suspicion, Rankin must piece together the truth before the final curtain falls.

When Daffy arrives at the Vanderast estate to train Cobina for her upcoming wedding, she finds the young heiress terrified by a phantom that's threatened to prevent her from marrying Percy Harlow—just as it has stopped every Vanderast woman before her. As mysterious supernatural incidents escalate and Percy's nerve wavers, Daffy rolls up her sleeves to uncover what's really behind the hauntings and the phantom's sinister warnings.