Hit Comics #15
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeHit Comics #15 (September 1941) is a representative mid-run entry in Quality Comics' flagship anthology, showcasing the breadth of Golden Age storytelling under one cover at a moment when the American comics industry was expanding rapidly in the months before Pearl Harbor. Its chief historical interest lies in the interplay of pseudonymous authorship — multiple staff artists worked under house pen names, a widespread practice at Quality that obscured the contributions of creators like Reed Crandall and Jack Cole for decades. The issue also continues the long Hercules run by Crandall, whose figure-work on that strip exemplifies the high-craft illustration standard that set Quality apart from many of its competitors. As part of a 65-issue run that introduced characters later absorbed into DC Comics, every issue of Hit Comics contributes a chapter to the story of how Golden Age properties survived into the modern era.
Hit Comics #15 is an anthology featuring multiple stories. The "Red Bee" story involves the titular hero pursuing criminals involved in a murder and robbery scheme; the Red Bee intercepts the getaway car and engages in combat with the fleeing crooks while police close in on the scene. Additional features advertised on the cover include Don Glory, Betty Bates, The Jill of All Trades, Boby-Bob Swab, Hell Divers, and Neon Strange Twins, though the interior pages shown primarily depict the Red Bee adventure.
When a gang of crooks led by the tough—and surprising—outlaw Dead River Lou raids a ranch, Douglas Strange calls his brother Rodney for backup, only to find Rod has already crossed paths with Lou's operation in Chicago. Rodney infiltrates the gang with a cover story and a map, setting the stage for a clever trap that forces Douglas and a posse to move fast before the criminals scatter. It's a race against the clock as the Strange brothers work to corner one of the West's most dangerous—and unexpected—criminals.
Bob Masters and Swab Decker tangle with the enemy agents Boris and Morris, who've been using a ship's transmitter to spread mutinous propaganda throughout the Atlantic fleet. When the saboteurs decide to surrender and seek American citizenship, our heroes uncover the twisted truth behind their sudden change of heart—and deliver some salty justice of their own.
ComicBooks.com Value
Show all 18 grades ▾
Find on ebay
Read it digitally
Sell my copy
Have this issue — or a whole collection? Get a fair offer from us, skip the marketplace fees and the hassle.
We Buy Collections ▸History
Hit Comics was published by Quality Comics under the editorial stewardship of Everett M. Arnold and produced largely through the S.M. Iger studio, which packaged content for several Quality titles simultaneously. Reed Crandall had been brought directly onto the Quality payroll after Arnold reportedly noticed his fine-lined illustration work, and by the time of issue #15 Crandall was a fixture on the Hercules feature — signing his interiors under the house pseudonym 'Gregg Powers' rather than his own name. Jack Cole, already celebrated for creating Plastic Man, contributed a one-page Dan Tootin comedy strip under his own recurring pseudonym 'Ralph Johns,' a pen name he used across multiple Quality humor features throughout the early 1940s.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Cover date: September 1941; on-sale date: August 6, 1941, per the Catalog of Copyright Entries (GCD).
- The cover was penciled and inked by Lou Fine, though some secondary sources have attributed it to Reed Crandall — an attribution dispute noted by the Reed Crandall Appreciation Society.
- Reed Crandall drew the lead Hercules story ('Cave-In at the Wolf Gulch Gold Mine'), signing his work under the Quality house pseudonym 'Gregg Powers'; the Buzzard Gang (Jake Buzzard, Dead Eye Buzzard, and associates) make their first appearance in this story.
- Jack Cole contributed a one-page Dan Tootin comedy strip ('The Life-Speeding Pills'), signing it under his pseudonym 'Ralph Johns' — the same alias he used for other humor features at Quality.
- Al Bryant drew the Betty Bates story ('The Payroll Plunderers'), signing as 'Stanley Charlot' — another instance of Quality's routine pseudonymous crediting practice.
- Additional strips include 'Dead River Lou' (The Strange Twins, script by S.M. Iger, art by Alex Blum) and 'Boris and Morris' (Bob and Swab, script and art by Klaus Nordling).
- Hit Comics ran 65 issues (July 1940–July 1950); the title and its characters were acquired by DC Comics when DC purchased Quality Comics in 1956.
- Issue #15 contains no major lasting first appearances; all featured characters (Hercules, Betty Bates, Red Bee, The Strange Twins, Bob and Swab) were already established strips in the anthology at this point.
Full credits
Key issues in Hit Comics
Reviews
Reader reviews
No reader reviews yet.