All-Star Comics #18

(Fall 1943)

Insects Turn to Crime [introduction] (Table of Contents)

Justice Society of America / comic story / 3 pages (report information)

Credits

Script:

Gardner Fox

Pencils:

Joe Gallagher

Inks:

Joe Gallagher

Colors:

?

Letters:

?

Content Information

Genre:

superhero

Characters:

Justice Society of America [Hawkman [Carter Hall]; Sandman [Wesley Dodds]; Dr. Mid-Nite; Starman [Ted Knight]; Atom [Al Pratt]; Dr. Fate; Spectre [Jim Corrigan]; Johnny Thunder; Wonder Woman]

Synopsis:

Chairman Hawkman displays a wax exhibition of a miniature insect world for the JSA members to look at as they arrive and explains what a new master criminal is doing to use insect hormones to create a race of super men-insects to commit crimes! Johnny Thunder comes in late...walking on the ceiling and buzzing like a fly, which demonstrates to the members the urgency of their task to find this madman and defeat his minions.

Reprints: show reprint note before migration

• in All Star Comics Archives (DC, 1991 series) #4 (1998)

Insects Turn to Crime [chapter 1] (Table of Contents)

Justice Society of America / comic story / 5 pages (report information)

Credits

Script:

Gardner Fox

Pencils:

Sheldon Moldoff

Inks:

Sheldon Moldoff

Colors:

?

Letters:

?

Content Information

Genre:

superhero

Characters:

Hawkman [Carter Hall]

Synopsis:

Abner Mason writes to Hawkman about his son, who has been taken by a gang of termite men to the deserted Cartwheel house. The termite men were being used to rob banks, after disabling bank guards with a gummy substance. The Feathered Fury tracks down the gang, but is overcome by the gummy substance and left suspended over a fire that had been set to kill him in the house. But the heat melts the substance and Hawkman escapes, tracking down the thungs and termite men.

Reprints: show reprint note before migration

• in All Star Comics Archives (DC, 1991 series) #4 (1998)

Insects Turn to Crime [chapter 2] (Table of Contents)

Justice Society of America / comic story / 5 pages (report information)

Credits

Script:

Gardner Fox

Pencils:

Pierce Rice

Inks:

Arthur Cazeneuve

Colors:

?

Letters:

?

Content Information

Genre:

superhero

Characters:

Sandman [Wesley Dodds]

Synopsis:

Serge Astrakoff has discovered a way to make rubber from plants, and he tells Sandman that one evening, while working in his lab, he heard a strange noise and some men that looked like giant snails, bored up from underneath his lab and stole the synthetic rubber formula. The Sandman follows the trail of the "borer-men" and disables them with gas and captures the thugs and secures the formula.

Reprints: show reprint note before migration

• in All Star Comics Archives (DC, 1991 series) #4 (1998)

Insects Turn to Crime [chapter 3] (Table of Contents)

Justice Society of America / comic story / 5 pages (report information)

Credits

Script:

Gardner Fox

Pencils:

Bernard Baily

Inks:

Bernard Baily

Colors:

?

Letters:

Bernard Baily

Content Information

Genre:

superhero; occult

Characters:

Spectre [Jim Corrigan]

Synopsis:

The Spectre battles a man known as the Water Bug, who, in reality, is Chick Dempsey, world record holder in a dozen swimming events. Unable to get work after he graduated from college, Dempsey is approached by the King Bee and goes to work for him. He's glad when the Spectre nabs him and then helps the Ghostly Guardian to round up the rest of the gang.

Reprints: show reprint note before migration

• in All Star Comics Archives (DC, 1991 series) #4 (1998)

Indexer Notes

Letters credit from Craig Delich.

Insects Turn to Crime [chapter 4] (Table of Contents)

Justice Society of America / comic story / 5 pages (report information)

Credits

Script:

Gardner Fox

Pencils:

Howard Sherman

Inks:

Howard Sherman

Colors:

?

Letters:

?

Content Information

Genre:

occult; superhero

Characters:

Dr. Fate

Synopsis:

An airliner is attacked by hornet men, who force the plane down, and take it away, leaving the passengers stranded. Dr. Fate just happenes to pass by the area and is seen by one of the members of King Bee's gang, the Hasher! He reports back to the rest of his gang that Fate is in the area, and sends up the hornet men after him. Fate makes short work of them, then captures Hasher and his gang, then discovers paperwork from the King Bee, and heads out after him.

Reprints: show reprint note before migration

• in All Star Comics Archives (DC, 1991 series) #4 (1998)

Insects Turn to Crime [chapter 5] (Table of Contents)

Justice Society of America / comic story / 5 pages (report information)

Credits

Script:

Gardner Fox

Pencils:

Stan Aschmeier

Inks:

Stan Aschmeier

Colors:

?

Letters:

?

Content Information

Genre:

superhero

Characters:

Dr. Mid-Nite

Synopsis:

Fred Norman grew up with a fear and hatred of spiders, due to the fact that his friend Jim, whom he had been camping with, was killed by one ten years earlier. Working late one night in a bank, Fred was startled to see some human spiders invading the bank to steal some loot. Later, Dr. Mid-Nite convinces Fred that he can beat his phobia and together they head out to fact these minions of the King Bee. After throwing his blackout bomb into the area to frighten the spider-men, Fred runs out, reconsiders and comes back in to sock one of the thugs whom he thought to be one of his spider enemies, thus over-coming his fear.

Reprints: show reprint note before migration

• in All Star Comics Archives (DC, 1991 series) #4 (1998)

Hop Harrigan at New Guinea (Table of Contents)

Hop Harrigan / text story / 1.5 pages (report information)

Credits

Script:

?

Pencils:

?

Inks:

?

Colors:

?

Letters:

typeset

Content Information

Genre:

aviation

Characters:

Hop Harrigan; Tank Tinker

Insects Turn to Crime [chapter 6] (Table of Contents)

Justice Society of America / comic story / 5 pages (report information)

Credits

Script:

Gardner Fox

Pencils:

Pierce Rice

Inks:

Arthur Cazeneuve

Colors:

?

Letters:

?

Content Information

Genre:

superhero

Characters:

Starman [Ted Knight]

Synopsis:

The city faces the threat of ant-men who have the power to crush a car in their bare hands. They are being used by the King Bee's thugs to rob local banks, and when the Astral Avenger arrives, he tries to figure out a way to handle them safely without killing them. When Starman discovers that the ant-men are controlled by a microphone through antennas on their heads, Starman pounds the thugs and brings the ant-men under control with that microphone.

Reprints: show reprint note before migration

• in All Star Comics Archives (DC, 1991 series) #4 (1998)

Insects Turn to Crime [chapter 7] (Table of Contents)

Justice Society of America / comic story / 5 pages (report information)

Credits

Script:

Gardner Fox

Pencils:

Joe Gallagher

Inks:

Joe Gallagher

Colors:

?

Letters:

?

Content Information

Genre:

superhero

Characters:

Atom [Al Pratt]

Synopsis:

An emerald necklace called the Green Glacier tells the story of how it was stolen by Grasshopper Men from Carteret's House of Jewels. Arriving on the scene, the Atom directs the grasshopper thieves into a field of grain while he overcomes the human criminals and takes the Glacier into his safe-keeping.

Reprints: show reprint note before migration

• in All Star Comics Archives (DC, 1991 series) #4 (1998)

Insects Turn to Crime [chapter 8] (Table of Contents)

Justice Society of America / comic story / 5 pages (report information)

Credits

Script:

Gardner Fox

Pencils:

Stan Aschmeier

Inks:

Stan Aschmeier

Colors:

?

Letters:

?

Content Information

Genre:

superhero; humor

Characters:

Johnny Thunder; Johnny Thunder's Thunderbolt

Synopsis:

Already under the influence of the fly hormone, Johnny goes to the diner where he ate the funny tasting bologna laced with that hormone. He is immediately forced to eat soup also containing the ingredient, and is given a set of wings so he can fly with the rest to commit yet more crimes. Johnny has enough presence of mind to suggest ways to capture the group and the Thunderbolt handles the details...then they head for the King Bee's residence.

Reprints: show reprint note before migration

• in All Star Comics Archives (DC, 1991 series) #4 (1998)

Indexer Notes

Johnny never once says "Cei-U," but the Thunderbolt acts as if he had.

Insects Turn to Crime [conclusion] (Table of Contents)

Justice Society of America / comic story / 5 pages (report information)

Credits

Script:

Gardner Fox

Pencils:

Joe Gallagher

Inks:

Joe Gallagher

Colors:

?

Letters:

?

Content Information

Genre:

superhero

Characters:

Justice Society of America [Hawkman [Carter Hall]; Johnny Thunder; Johnny Thunder's Thunderbolt; Dr. Fate; Spectre [Jim Corrigan]; Dr. Mid-Nite; Sandman [Wesley Dodds]; Starman [Ted Knight]; Atom [Al Pratt]]; The King Bee (villain)

Synopsis:

After hearing the details of the origin of the King Bee, ala Elmer Pane, bug exterminator, the JSA shows up at Pane's residence and overpowers him. They find the antidote for the hormones and will use it on the King Bee's innocent victims to restore them to their real selves.

Reprints: show reprint note before migration

• in All Star Comics Archives (DC, 1991 series) #4 (1998)

Indexer Notes

Wonder Woman does not appear in the conclusion.