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in: Comics Published by Quality Comics, Everett M. Arnold/Executive Editor, Gill Fox/Cover Artist,
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Smash Comics Vol 1 16

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"The Ray: "The Revenge of Bela Jat"": A "Hindu Mystic" is released from a seven-year-stretch in prison, but as soon as he's out he gets right back into practicing his rituals, and targets the detective, judge, and D.A. who sent him to the big house. Jat sends a sinister idol to the detective, no

Quote1 Dad's right. You CAN'T do police work that way. Fear and leg work is what cracks cases. And this business is killing Dad. Fear. I wonder .. Seems I'm not thru with acting after all! I'LL DO IT! Quote2
— Barry Moore, the Scarlet Seal

Smash Comics #16 is an issue of the series Smash Comics (Volume 1) with a cover date of November, 1940.

Synopsis for The Ray: "The Revenge of Bela Jat"

A "Hindu Mystic" is released from a seven-year-stretch in prison, but as soon as he's out he gets right back into practicing his rituals, and targets the detective, judge, and D.A. who sent him to the big house. Jat sends a sinister idol to the detective, now the police commissioner, and as he sleeps, Jat appears in astral form and kidnaps him. When the mystic emerges from another such idol, sent to the judge, his last remaining target, he finds himself confronted by the Ray. The hero defeats Bela Jat in a physical confrontation, but as the Ray stands triumphant, his opponent suddenly disperses, having only been an astral projection.

After this clash with the powerful hero, Bela Jat decides not to wait until he all his captives to exact his revenge, and floods the cell where the commissioner and D.A. are kept. A grate from the street feeds light into the cell, allowing the Ray to transport himself down and save them. Bela Jat consults his crystal ball, but the Ray emerges from that next! Bela Jat's two henchmen attack the Ray, but are no match for his superhuman physique. The master tries to shoot the Ray from behind, but is felled by a knife thrown by his own former captives. With the villain seen to, the Ray disappears in a shaft of light.

Appearing in The Ray: "The Revenge of Bela Jat"

Featured Characters:

Antagonists:

  • Bela Jat, mystic (Dies)
    • Shimego, giant servant
    • Gar, dwarf servant

Other Characters:

  • Police Commissioner Healy
  • District Attorney
  • Judge Hardwell

Locations:

Items:

  • Bela Jat's Ecto-Fluid

Vehicles:

  • Hardwell's Yacht


Synopsis for Purple Trio: "Mystery of the Empty Theatre"


Appearing in Purple Trio: "Mystery of the Empty Theatre"

Featured Characters:

  • The Purple Trio:
    • Rocky Hill, strongman
    • Tiny Todd, midget
    • Warren, ventriloquist

Antagonists:

  • Old Willy (Dies)
  • Joshua's sister (Dies)
    • her two nephews

Other Characters:

  • Joshua, one-man audience (Dies)

Locations:

  • Sackenhack
    • Palace Theatre
    • Joshua's mansion

Synopsis for Chic Carter: "Mystery in the Bayou"


Appearing in Chic Carter: "Mystery in the Bayou"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • Daily Star Editor

Antagonists:

  • Counterfeitor
    • Voodoo Cult

Other Characters:

  • Mae "Scoop" Merrill
  • Sam, bayou boat man

Locations:

Vehicles:

  • Southern Limited passenger train

Synopsis for Scarlet Seal: "Origin of the Scarlet Seal"

Actor Barry Moore finishes his latest role as a Chinese villain in the film "Oriental Horror". He then quits show business to get a job in a police lab instead. However, he runs into some difficulty with the commissioner, a former social worker, forbidding violent methods and demanding they respect their suspects. This gets them nowhere with suspected murderer Bugs Marlone.

When Barry's father, a senior cop, vents his frustration with these futile methods, Barry decides to use what he learned making his last picture and become a disguised vigilante to get results. With a fake mustache, yellow makeup, and a Fu Manchu outfit, Barry masquerades as a Chinese man and calls himself the Scarlet Seal. He breaks into Bugs Marlone's top-floor apartment, knocks out both of his bodyguards with jiu jitsu, and threatens Bugs with torture, scaring him into confessing that he's got Lt. Bemis of the police on the take. But Bemis is right outside the door. By ducking to one side the Scarlet Seal lets the two rats gun each other down. He leaves a scarlet mark on Bugs' forehead as a calling card before ducking out. Pleased with his success, he decides to keep acting as the Scarlet Seal in the future.

Appearing in Scarlet Seal: "Origin of the Scarlet Seal"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • Captain Pat Moore (First appearance)
  • Police Commissioner (First appearance)

Antagonists:

  • Spider, squealer (Dies)
  • Bugs Marlone (Dies)
    • two thugs
  • Lt. Bemis (Dies)

Other Characters:

  • Sam, Superba Studio, President

Locations:

  • Hollywood, California
    • Superba Studio
  • Center City
    • Police Department
    • Moore's secret lab, w/ store front "WEN AU CHUNG, Importer, Chinese Goods"
    • Marlone's top-floor apartment

Synopsis for Invisible Justice: "The Power of Tutkamen"


Appearing in Invisible Justice: "The Power of Tutkamen"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • Prof. James, leading archaeologist
  • Prof. Hill, archaeologist (Dies)

Antagonists:

  • Dr. Robb (Apparent Death)
    • Mike, gunman
    • other gunman

Locations:

  • a great city
    • State Hotel (disappears into space)
  • Egypt
    • Tomb of Ra Tutkamen
  • Pacific Ocean
    • Robb's Island
      • tower laboratory

Items:

  • Jeweled Case of Ra Tutkamen, antigravity device (seemingly destroyed)

Vehicles:

  • Twentieth Century Limited, passenger train (disappears into space)
  • Stratoliner, passenger airplane (disappears into space)
  • USS Columbia, battleship (disappears into space)
  • Thurston's 1-engine dual-open-cockpit airplane
  • Pacific Clipper, 4-engine amphibious mailplane

Synopsis for Espionage, Starring Black X: "Invasion of Mexico"

Three ocean liners bearing the colors of an oriental power drop anchor, midstream in the Gaillard Cut of the Panama Canal, after quickly and methodically murdering their American pilots and military escorts, and then send troops ashore to cut communication lines. This unidentified oriental power has agents in Nicaragua, who now secretly control a supply of munitions there. In response to this amphibious invasion in Panama, Black X is dispatched to Mexico and told to watch out for the dangerous parachute troops. Soon, in Pachuca, Hidalgo, Mexico, by using the old "sombrero snoozer" gag, Black X overhears word that General Tsu Fee has set up shop there, and is awaiting two hundred parachute troops.

That night Black X meets in a cantina with Senor Rod Pasquala of the Mexican Espionage; the felina-whirly dancer spots them as espionage agents and leaves them a note tipping them off to some rifles in the fort and a tunnel under the wall. Rod Pasquala recruits a bunch of peons and they meet Black X at the fort, and there IS a tunnel, and it's not a boobytrap; they steal a bunch of rifles and arm the local peons. Black X has a side-fight with some officer-uniformed enemy, grabs a submachine gun, and joins the main fight, as the paratroopers arrive from above. These guys all land in the same yard, in the fort, which leaves them bunched up all wrong, so Black X charges in and mows down a bunch of them. Then a divebomber attacks that same yard, and all the paratroopers suddenly vanish, plus stop shooting, and Black X wins a shoot-out with the divebomber, which is flying directly AT him when the pilot is killed, and Black X inexplicably is not annihilated in the ensuing crash.

He then shinnies up the fort's flagpole, and continues to shoot it out with the paratroopers, until the rifled-up peons arrive. Black X bends back the flagpole and uses it to fling himself out of the fort, just before the peons get into the fort, and just AS Black X's burning fuse (not mentioned nor shown until now) sets off the powder in the armory, discombobulating the paratroops, who then get quickly overrun by the peons. This news frees up the rest of the Mexican Army to swing into a devastating counterattack, elsewhere, against the still-not-identified invaders. Later, back at the cantina in Pachuca, Black X and Rod Pasquala share a toast.

Months later in Washington, the Major has a new job for Black X...

Appearing in Espionage, Starring Black X: "Invasion of Mexico"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • Col. Atwater

Antagonists:

  • General Tsu Fee (Behind the scenes)
  • hundreds of soldiers of an unidentified seagoing oriental power

Other Characters:

  • Rod Pasquala, of the Mexican Espionage

Locations:

Vehicles:

  • Oriental warships

Synopsis for Magno: "The Labor Racketeers"

Tom Dalton's workplace, the Acme Electric plant, gets reorganized by a new union, one run by "Big Tim" Fink and his Chicago racketeers, which immediately goes on strike. Tom and his friend Mike Harvey don't go along, so a swarm of union goons gets ready to beat them down. Mike stands up to them, but Tom knocks out Mike with a head-punch from behind. While the goons are still laughing about that, Tom confronts Tim Fink, and warns him that he'd better leave town. The goons pile onto Tom for a beat-down, but receive one instead. Out of the dogpile of punched-out thugs emerges Magno, the foe of all evil. A lot of other workers gather around, and roundly boo and jeer at Magno, for beating up their supposed union "brothers," and Magno doesn't want to fight them, so he leaves the scene, magnetically levitating himself to an overhead catwalk.

Magno decides the only way to convince his co-workers that these labor racketeers are bad news is with the Chicago Police Department's "rogue's gallery" photos, so he magnetically hitch-hikes, by car, train, and airplane, to Chicago, where he visits the Police Department. There he punches out one cop, steals a pile of official records, and heads back home. Back in his own town, he visits the local newspaper office, and makes a deal with the publisher. Meanwhile the union is living down to Dalton's expectations, and squeezing the workers for more money.

The next morning at nine o'clock, the strikers prepare to storm the plant, and Magno alone has to hold them back until the newspaper trucks arrive, but when they do, and when the workers see the mug shots and rap sheets printed on the front page of their morning papers, they change their minds about the whole business. The main union leaders try to slip away, but now a very large number of very angry workers have some matters to discuss with them first. Seeing things about to return to normal, Magno changes back to Tom Dalton, and tries, with not much initial success, to patch things up with his pal Mike Harvey.

Appearing in Magno: "The Labor Racketeers"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • Mike Harvey

Antagonists:

  • Big Tim Fink
    • many union goons

Other Characters:

  • Acme Electric Workers
  • Chicago Police
  • Morning Paper Editor

Locations:

  • "the Acme Plant's town"
    • Acme Electric plant
    • Morning Paper plant
  • Chicago
    • Police HQ

Synopsis for Abdul the Arab: "The Sheik's Power Play"

In Badukshan a camel train makes its way through the city and out the gates into the open desert. It belongs to Karu-Bali, an enemy of Abdul Ibn Bey, and it carries a large shipment of repeating rifles for his tribesmen.

Forty kilometers away, Abdul and Hassan are out riding, and they encounter a runaway horse, dragging a half-dead man by one stirrup. He lives just barely long enough to gasp out a warning that Leader Karu-Bali's caravan of illicit munitions is approaching from the south. Abdul and Hassan turn south to go attack it. Abdul dresses in the ragged clothing of the dead messenger, and infiltrates the caravan's camp. Abdul meets, and bandies words with his hated enemy Karu-Bali, who does not recognize him. After most of the camp is asleep, Abdul lights a lamp and signals Hassan, then fights and kills a giant swordsman. Hassan opens fire from the camp's north side, while Abdul uses a whip to drive the loaded camels out of the camp's south side. Abdul corners, fights, and kills Karu-Bali. Then Abdul and Hassan mount up and chase the camels, catch them, and turn the captured rifles over to the government.

Appearing in Abdul the Arab: "The Sheik's Power Play"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • Hassan, the Turk

Animals:

  • Bethsheba, Abdul's favorite horse
  • many camels

Antagonists:

  • Sheik Karu-Bali (Single appearance; dies)
    • his horde of riffs:
      • Yakub, giant swordsman
      • many others

Other Characters:

  • half-dead messenger

Locations:

  • Arabia
    • Badukshan, city
    • desert

Synopsis for Wings Wendall: "The Fifth Column"

Over one night, several East Coast cities, including Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, are invaded by a large, well-armed force of fifth columnist traitors. Civil authority is nearly wiped out, and private industries are being looted. As Military Intelligence is evacuating its New York Base, Wings Wendall remains behind, in order to find and defeat the leader of the "Black Troops," Colonel Puget. Wendall finds and invades Puget's headquarters, arrests him, hostage-marches him to the piers, commandeers a U.S. seaplane, and flies away. Puget pulls out a concealed grenade and threatens Wendall with it, so Wendall flips the plane over and he falls out. Also his grenade goes off.

Appearing in Wings Wendall: "The Fifth Column"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • Military Intelligence

Antagonists:

  • Colonel Puget (Dies)
    • two public brawlers
    • one enforcer
    • many Black Troops

Other Characters:

  • Cafe Proprietor
  • Cops
  • Cabby

Locations:

Vehicles:

  • several stolen cargo ships
  • several U.S. battleships
  • amphibious U.S. biplane

Synopsis for Bozo the Robot: "Turgin's Fifth Column"


Appearing in Bozo the Robot: "Turgin's Fifth Column"

Featured Characters:

Antagonists:

  • Turgin (wears a monocle) (Dies)
    • his Fifth Column: Boris, others (two die)

Other Characters:

  • Bill Sears, G-man (Dies)
  • Jeff Sparks, G-man, ally of Hazzard
  • Chief, G-man

Locations:

  • Turgin's House, on Route 3 @ Sawmill Road, city's outskirts
  • Route 5, @ Canal Bridge, on Ten Mile Road
  • Washington, D.C. (destination)

Items:

  • Plans for the Fifth Column Defense

Notes

  • Espionage:
    • Batu again is absent.
    • Internal and previous timeline evidence in the Black X series suggest that this issue's story takes place circa 1940-Aug.
    • Central America is invaded by an unidentified seagoing oriental power. This is the Quality Universe version of Earth, where Mongolia has already emerged as a military superpower. General Tsu Fee has a Chinese-looking name, which while not Mongolian is also not Japanese.
  • Invisible Justice:
    • The Jeweled Case of Ra Tutkamen is an ancient Egyptian antigravity device, "a power that could pull gravity from an object," capable of sending buildings and other large objects into outer space. It is ineffective against an invisible enemy.
    • Over the course of four days, a famous urban hotel, a top-tier passenger train, an advanced passenger plane, and an American battleship are flung into outer space. Afterwards this is never mentioned again.
  • Magno: Tom Dalton's employer is the Acme Electric Company. Tom's town is not named.
  • First issue for the Scarlet Seal by Manning de Villeneuve Lee.
  • New York City, Philadelphia, and Boston are invaded by agents of an unidentified European power. Afterward this is never mentioned again.
  • Also featured in this issue of Smash Comics were:

Trivia


See Also


Links and References
Superboy Vol 4 69
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