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Issue Details

Issue #27
Published June 1953
Cover Price 0.10 USD
Pages 36
Editing Stan Lee (?)

Cover Details - "Rocket to the Moon!"

Pencils Carl Hubbell
Inks Carl Hubbell

9 page Bob Brant and the Trouble-Shooters story "The Faceless Man!"

Synopsis The teens are in school, in a class taught by Prof. Paul Klein, a German who had been sent to a concentration camp by the Nazis during WWII. Invited to Prof. Klein's house for tea after school, the group meets his nephew Kurt. While they are there, Bob's father arrives on business for the U.N. Security Police. He tells Prof. Klein that many Nazis escaped capture after the war and were working together to once again threaten civilization, under the leadership of the Faceless Man. Mr. Brant believes Prof. Klein is in danger, because the Faceless Man was once heard to say that Prof. Klein was the only man alive who had ever seen his face. Prof. Klein protests that he has no idea what that could mean and declines protection. The professor is soon captured by the Faceless Man and his neo-Nazis, and taken to an abandoned subway branch. Bob and the Troubleshooters follow, and learn that the neo-Nazis plan to dynamite all the pipes and cables running under the city, bringing it to its knees; in the confusion, they will rise up and seize power. The boys attack the conspirators, rescuing the professor and revealing that the Faceless Man was actually his nephew Kurt.
Pencils Carl Hubbell
Inks Carl Hubbell

5 page Lance Brant story "Death Is a Spy's Reward"

Synopsis Top secrets are being examined and microfilmed in the very office where Lance works. His boss suspects an agent named Stevens; however, that man is murdered before he can be questioned. Lance leaves for a weekend of pheasant hunting with his dog Spot, leaving the agency's other top man, Elliott, to investigate the espionage and murder. Lance bags a bird, but finds it is a Chinese Crested Pheasant instead of the more common species; incredibly, a band on its leg contains not conservation information but a roll of microfilm! He follows a similar bird to a field of cultivated Chinese rice in which is a bird trap. When Lance is captured by enemy agents, he learns that is was actually Elliot who has the traitor. Quick action saves his life and leads to Eliot's death and the capture of his gang of spies.
Pencils Sam Kweskin
Inks Sam Kweskin

2 page text story "Dark Adventure"

Pencils Joe Maneely (illo)
Inks Joe Maneely (illo)
Letters Typeset
Reprinted from Spellbound (Marvel, 1952 series) #7 [illo only, from the story "The Crank"]

9 page Bob Brant and the Trouble-Shooters story "Rocket to the Moon!"

Synopsis Russians are building a spaceship at a hidden base in the Australian jungle. Once they have flown to the moon and claimed it for Russia, they will set up rocket stations with guided missiles, forcing the western democracies to capitulate. At the request of the U.N. Council, Lance Brant flies to Australia in his private airplane to investigate. Unbeknownst to him, Bob and the Troubleshooters are hidden on board. Landing in Australia, Lance finds the Russians' launch site, but is captured by them. When savage aborigines attack the group, Lance is locked in a small steel dome with the captured American scientist who helped build the spaceship. The Russians board the rocket, followed by Bob and the gang. After blastoff, they attack and subdue the commies and land on the moon. Planting a hastily crafted American flag on its surface, they claim the moon for the United States. Upon their return, they manage to release Lance and the American scientist and return home without ever being seen.
Pencils Carl Hubbell
Inks Carl Hubbell