True Comics #17

The Brooklyn Dodgers earned their nickname "The Beloved Bums" through decades of colorful misadventures, from their earliest days as the Bridegrooms in the 1890s through their reputation for unconventional play under manager "Uncle Robbie" Robinson. When the team hit rock bottom in the late 1930s—losing games and nearly half a million dollars—new owner Larry MacPhail brought in manager Leo Durocher and star players to turn things around, transforming the scrappy underdogs into National League champions by 1941. Today, as they battle for the 1942 pennant, Brooklyn's faithful embrace their team's quirky legacy as much as their winning ways.

A young Australian seaman's childhood fascination with Captain Bligh's legendary log becomes his salvation when his ship is torpedoed in the South Atlantic and he's cast adrift with fellow survivors. Drawing on Bligh's own techniques for navigation and survival, he guides the lifeboat across 1,535 miles toward Brazil, proving that knowledge passed down across 150 years can mean the difference between life and death. This remarkable true account shows how the ghost of one man's courage reaches across time to help another find his way home.

True Comics presents the colorful and often misunderstood history of the Gypsies, tracing their mysterious origins in India centuries ago through their wanderings across Europe, Asia, and beyond. From their development of the Romany language to their skills as entertainers, traders, and craftspeople, this story explores how Gypsy tribes adapted to life in different lands while facing suspicion, prejudice, and constant displacement. By 1942, many Gypsies had made their way to America, where they continue their traditions while contributing to the war effort.

Born blind in South Wales in 1910, Alec Templeton became a master musician who learned piano by ear and composed original works without ever seeing a sheet of music, eventually winning competitions and touring across Europe and America. This biography follows how his family treated his blindness matter-of-factly, allowing him to develop his extraordinary gift for music and mimicry—including his ability to identify people by assigning them musical keys. By the time he settled in Chicago, Templeton had found in music what sight could never give him: color, movement, rhythm, and a career that inspired thousands through radio broadcasts and live performance.

During the Napoleonic Wars, French ships repeatedly escaped British blockades by slipping through the passage between Diamond Rock and Martinique—until Admiral Hood devises an audacious plan to transform the nearly 600-foot rocky outcrop into a functioning warship, complete with cannon and a garrison of sailors. For seventeen months, H.M.S. Diamond Rock terrorizes French frigates and dominates the strait, until overwhelming odds finally force its small crew to make an impossible choice. This true tale from 1942 celebrates one of naval history's most unconventional—and unforgettable—fortifications.

This is a factual history lesson about Mexico spanning from ancient civilizations through the early 1940s, covering Spanish conquest, independence movements led by figures like Miguel Hidalgo and Benito Juárez, French intervention, internal strife, and Mexico's modern emergence as an ally of the United States in World War II. The narrative traces how Mexico fought for liberty across five centuries, from indigenous empires through colonial rule to its present-day partnership with America against Axis powers.

Bread has nourished humanity since prehistoric times, but it took an accidental discovery in ancient Egypt—when leftover dough caused a batch to rise mysteriously—to transform it from hard, cracker-like flatbread into something far more palatable. Centuries later, when English millers learned to refine wheat flour until it turned white, the world became obsessed with this pristine loaf, unaware that the refining process stripped away vital vitamins and minerals. This True Comics story traces bread's evolution from wild grain to modern enriched loaf, showing how nutrition experts and American bakers joined forces to restore what had been lost.

Father Lacombe, a chaplain at a Canadian Pacific Railroad construction camp in 1870s Alberta, works to bridge the divide between the railroad workers and the Blackfeet Indians who oppose the project's expansion through their land. When tensions escalate and attacks threaten to derail the entire operation, Father Lacombe uses his trusted relationship with Chief Crowfoot to broker peace and allow the railroad to proceed. His diplomatic efforts prove so crucial to the CPR's success that he earns a remarkable honor from the company's leadership.