| Issue | #4 |
| Published | May 1940 |
| Frequency | monthly |
| Cover Price | 0.10 USD |
| Pages | 68 |
| Editing | Martin Goodman |
| Notes | DARING MYSTERY COMICS published monthly by Timely Publications, 8 Lord Street, Buffalo, N. Y. Entered as second class matter at the Post Office at Buffalo, N. Y. under act of March 3, 1879. Entire contents copyright by Timely Publications, 330 W. 42nd St., N. Y., N. Y. Vol 1, No. 4, May 1940. Yearly subscription $1.00. Printed in U. S. A. |
| Characters | Don Gorman |
| Genre | crime |
| Pencils | Alex Schomburg |
| Inks | Alex Schomburg |
| Reprinted | in Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age Daring Mystery (Marvel, 2008 series) #1 |
| Letters | typeset |
| Notes | Found on the inside front cover. |
| Characters | The Purple Mask [Dennis Burton]; Whalen (villain, introduction); Whalen's gang (villains, introduction) |
| Synopsis | A daring bank robbery leads the Purple Mask after the gang responsible and he discovers that the bank's President is involved with the crime. |
| Genre | superhero |
| Script | Will Harr ? |
| Pencils | Maurice Gutwirth [as M. Gutwirth] (signed) |
| Inks | Maurice Gutwirth [as M. Gutwirth] (signed) |
| Notes | Last Golden Age appearance. |
| Reprinted | in Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age Daring Mystery (Marvel, 2008 series) #1 |
| Characters | Sky Devils [K-4; Lt. Ronald Wolverstone; Lt. Rene D'Auvergne]; the Nazis (villains) |
| Synopsis | K-4 and his assistants are assigned the job of tracking down an enemy zeppelin that is being used to drop mines by parachute over vital installations. |
| Genre | aviation |
| Pencils | Maurice Gutwirth |
| Inks | Jack Alderman ? |
| Reprinted | in Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age Daring Mystery (Marvel, 2008 series) #1 |
| Characters | Monako; Josie; Mr. Muro (villain); Tashu (villain; introduction) |
| Synopsis | Monako must go up against his old enemy, Muro, who is attempting to gain control of the Pacific and west coastal areas of the Americas, specifically the Panama Canal. |
| Genre | occult |
| Pencils | Larry Antonette (signed) |
| Inks | Larry Antonette (signed) |
| Reprinted | in Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age Daring Mystery (Marvel, 2008 series) #1 |
| Characters | Whirlwind Carter (introduction); Brenda Hale (introduction); the Martians (villains, introduction) |
| Synopsis | Carter rescues an Earth girl, Brenda Hale, who is agent of the Space Army, Women's Division, 4th Regiment and whose ship has been grounded by the Martians, and he learns that Mars intends on invading the Earth to make it one of her colonies. |
| Genre | science fiction |
| Script | Fletcher Hanks |
| Pencils | Fletcher Hanks |
| Inks | Fletcher Hanks |
| Letters | Fletcher Hanks |
| Notes | First line of text reads: "Whirlwind" lives on the highly civilized planet of Venus..." |
| Reprinted | in Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age Daring Mystery (Marvel, 2008 series) #1; in You Shall Die by Your Own Evil Creation! (Fantagraphics, 2009 series) #[nn] |
| Characters | Marvex; Jim Hansen (introduction); Clara Grandall; Spike Green (villain, introduction) Spike's gang (villains, introduction) |
| Synopsis | Marvex looks into the troubling case of a man sitting on death row awaiting execution for a crime in which witnesses in his favor disappeared mysteriously before the trial. |
| Genre | superhero |
| Pencils | Hal Sharp |
| Inks | Hal Sharp |
| Reprinted | in Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age Daring Mystery (Marvel, 2008 series) #1; in All Select Comics 70th Anniversary Special (Marvel, 2009 series) #1 |
| Characters | Don Gorman (introduction); Betty Nestor (introduction); Anson Dictor (villain, introduction); Nazis (villains) |
| Synopsis | Foreign agents attempt to steal the secret super-charged engine invented by test pilot Don Gorman, an invention allowing airplanes to achieve speeds over 1000 mph! |
| Genre | aviation |
| Pencils | Jack Alderman ? |
| Inks | Dick Briefer |
| Notes | Only appearance. |
| Reprinted | in Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age Daring Mystery (Marvel, 2008 series) #1 |
| Characters | Breeze Barton; Ann; Frenchy (introduction); a band of savages (villains, introduction), their chief (villain, introduction, death) |
| Synopsis | Breeze has made good his escape from Miracle City with Ann and enter into the civilized world, where they are informed by Frenchy that civilization as they knew it had been destroyed by the War of 1945. |
| Genre | aviation; adventure |
| Pencils | Jack Binder [as Binder] (signed) |
| Inks | Jack Binder [as Binder] (signed) |
| Reprinted | in Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age Daring Mystery (Marvel, 2008 series) #1 |
| Characters | Sheriff Holcolm; Cougar Karns (villain); "Mile Away" Morgan (villain) |
| Synopsis | Sheriff Holcolm intends on cleaning out the criminal activities in Ambush Canyon. |
| Genre | western |
| Script | Rex Evans (signed) |
| Letters | typeset |
| Reprinted | in Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age Daring Mystery (Marvel, 2008 series) #1 |
| Characters | Trojak; Balu (the tiger); Edith Alton; Jerry Alton (introduction, Edith's brother); the Nazis (villains) |
| Synopsis | Edith's brother, a member of the Nazi forces, convinces Edith to keep Trojak out of their invasion attempts, not knowing it's all a plan to capture Trojak. |
| Genre | jungle |
| Script | Joe Simon ? |
| Pencils | Joe Simon ?; Arnold Hicks ? (see notes) |
| Inks | Joe Simon ?; Arnold Hicks ? (see notes) |
| Notes | There is considerable confusion over who drew this story. Harry Mendryk reports on atlastales.com that he showed the story to Joe Simon and Simon was "very insistent" that he did it. Dr. Michael Vassallo, after examining that art along with that in Daring Mystery Comics #5 does not think that Simon did it, although he may have had some involvement, and does not know who it might have been. Henry Andrews speculates that most of the art looks more like Arnold Hicks (who drew the feature in Daring Mystery Comics #5) but some of the close-ups on Trojak's face look very different, and more like Joe Simon's work. An extra-large question mark should be applied to the art credits here. |
| Reprinted | in Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age Daring Mystery (Marvel, 2008 series) #1 |
| Letters | typeset |
| Notes | Found on the inside back cover. |
| Letters | typeset |
| Notes | Found on the back cover. |