Adventure Comics # 58, January, 1941

 I love the car--both of them actually--but note the absence of any real background including the road!

 A nice splash for BARRY O'NEILL

 And a colorful one at least for Mark Lansing!

 FEDERAL MEN, for the first time, does not list Jerry Siegel as its writer!

 But that's okay as Siegel gets unprecedentedly singled out as the writer of THE SPECTRE in this ad for MORE FUN COMICS.

 This issue sees the debut of PAUL KIRK, MANHUNTER. The experts will tell you that this is NOT the same Paul Kirk, manhunter, who would later appear in his own series by Simon and Kirby. I say it is. It's as much the same Manhunter as it's the same Sandman once he starts hanging around with Sandy and wearing the purple and yellow costume! Just because you drastically change the format, doesn't mean its a brand new character.

 Here we go with ALL-STAR COMICS # 3. In only a slight variation from the previous issues, this issue sees the major DC heroes (other than Superman and Batman) gathering to tell their own stories of their latest solo adventures. Future issues would tie the individual stories together with a framing sequence featuring them all fighting a menace. After that, their would be pairs of heroes in each story/chapter and then, eventually, the whole darn team would tackle menaces. A little at a time, the first supergroup was born! And the ADVENTURE COMICS duo of the Sandman and The Hour Man were there right from the start.

Adventure Comics # 57, December, 1940

 By this point, Ol' Tick Tock is essentially becoming what The Guardian would later be to The Newsboy Legion and Daredevil would be to The Little Wise Guys. He even shows up at their clubhouse to recite their loyalty pledge, a bastardization of The Pledge of Allegiance.

 Chad gives us a rather odd looking new logo n the now-venerable FEDERAL MEN.

 More nice artistic effects on SANDMAN.

 Fred Harman's Red Ryder probably earned more cash over the years shilling for Daisy than he did as a newspaper strip and movie cowboy!

Adventure Comics # 56, November, 1940

 The prolific Bernard Baily was quite a good artist and developed his own studio early on. Covers, however, were not his forte. Here's another sparse and fairly dull HOURMAN cover.

 One of the earliest licensed SUPERMAN products, this came form Daisy, the BB gun company that would be a staple advertiser on the back covers of comic books for decades. Although ostensibly a "gun" it was actually a film projector. Does anyone know what the films were?

 GCD says this is the first appearance of Minuteman Thorndyke, he with the too high collar in the above shot. He doesn't do much...and, as it happens, he appeared last issue, also, again not named and not doing much. He'll become more prominent later, though, so keep an eye on him.

 As the following three pages show, the strips in ADVENTURE were getting more and more...well...adveturous. More fantasy elements were added, the art was getting better and the writing more exciting.

 There were still pointless, unfunny filler humor strips, though.

 A nice artistic effect in the Sandman panel below. GCD credits the excellent art from this period to art to Flessel and Chad.

 And see what I meant about the baby Ruth bars? They take over the back cover here and will maintain a  full page presence throughout the War years.

Adventure Comics # 55-- October, 1940

 The Hour Man feature gets its longest opening yet as seen below. Wow.

 Read the Important Announcement. They actually thank the readers who voted certain characters (ULTRA MAN for example) that were in the first issue out of the second. This was the final issue featuring a standard anthology format as the following issue used the wraparound of the Justice Society of America.

 The BARRY O'NEIL feature has been getting more and more into the fantasy elements and this episode is the most fantastic yet as the evil Fang Gow continues his insidious insidiousness!

 Below is FEDERAL MEN, this month featuring a Sandman near-lookalike as the villain!

 Sandman gets another great splash logo but once again appears in his odd skindiving outfit!

Adventure Comics # 54, September, 1940

Simon and Kirby often get the credit for introducing the so-called "kid gang" to comic books but, as you can see here, there's a kid gang, and S&K were still about six months away from even debuting CAPTAIN AMERICA at Marvel. Maybe the Minute Men of America weren't the most standardized kid gang ever but it definitely amounted to a prototype. And after the previous issue's debut appearance, they were certainly played up in this one.

The Man of the Hour's super-strength and agility come as the result of Tick Tock Tyler's invention of the Miraclo pill. Throughout the series there are a number of panels of him taking or pining for his pill that look more than a tad uncomfortable in the wake of the years of drug abuse. In the more "relevant" era of comics that would follow, I believe it was Roy Thomas who did retcon in an addiction for our hero.