National Comics #48 (1945)

In the midst of a chaotic circus setup, the Jerkis Brothers—Mayor Sam and Chief of Police Hack—leverage their absurd authority to extort money from Colonel Lane’s Mammoth Circus, only to escalate their antics when the circus is abruptly relocated to a derelict lot near a city dump. As the circus troupe faces one obstacle after another—including a fake danger sign and a rigged "fine"—Carnie Calahan, the Barker, plots a clever revenge, turning the brothers’ own schemes against them in a series of escalating, slapstick confrontations.

In this lighthearted 1945 tale from National Comics #48, a splashy mishap involving Lassie, Laddie, and Roberta sets off a chain of misunderstandings when Roberta’s breakup note to her boyfriend Roger gets torn in half—leaving him convinced she’s ending their romance, all while Roberta herself is completely unaware of the mix-up.

Rube Simpson, a well-meaning but gullible man, stumbles into a web of deception after falling for a confidence man’s latest scam, only to find himself targeted again when a familiar crook resurfaces. As police officer Sally O’Neil tries to protect him from a new con, the truth behind a long-buried betrayal begins to unravel. The line between victim and villain blurs when the real mastermind reveals a plan years in the making.