Super Comics #103

This December 1946 Dell anthology packs a remarkable lineup onto a single cover — portrait thumbnails of Dick Tracy, Smitty, Orphan Annie, Tiny Tim, Winnie Winkle, and Harold Teen line the right-hand side, promising plenty of strip variety inside. Center stage, though, belongs to Dick Tracy himself, rendered by Chester Gould, as the square-jawed detective bodily hauls a limp, orange-pinstripe-suited figure through a doorway while flames erupt dramatically in the background. At just a dime, this is a vivid snapshot of mid-1940s comics at their most entertaining.