BLACK HOOD COMICS #15 (SUMMER I945)

When policeman Matthew "Kip" Burman was framed for burglary by The Skull, he became the Black Hood to prove his innocence.  This all happened when Bob Montana and Al Camy (some say Harry Shorten There Oughta Be a Law! fame created the character as the book's editor) created his first adventure in Top-Notch Comics #9 (October 1940).  The Black Hood soon became the most popular character in MLJ Comics (later Archie Comics, as if Bob Montana's name wasn't a giveaway) masked crime fighter/superhero line-up.  By issue #28, the company purged all their other hard-fisted characters, keeping only Black Hood, added humorous stories, and re-titled the comic Top-Notch Laugh Comics.  Eleven issues later, even the Black Hood was gone and the title underwent another name change to Laugh Comics.

But the Black Hood endured.  In 1943 he got his own title and had his own radio program from 1943 to 1944.

(Over the years, there have been many Black Hoods.  In 1979, Thomas "Kip" Burman was ahnded down the role from his Uncle Matthew, who also reviewed that there have been many Black Hoods in the Burland family over the ages.  Sadly, Thomas was gunned down by police officer Gregory Hettinger in 2015.  Hettinger would later become the Black Hood himself.  Before that, in 2010, Matteo Burland became Black Hood.  Matteo was a criminal whose sister was killed by drug dealers.  After Matteo got his vengeance, it became a question whether he became a hero or a villain.  And, beginning in 1991, DC Comics put forth a number of various Black Hoods and added a mystical element to the saga.  It seems the Black Hood was originally an executioner's mask.  Each wearer of the Black Hood was fated to die and when that happened the hood would mysteriously find its way to the next Black Hood.  Lately the Black Hood appears as a serial killer in the television show Riverdale, killing (among others) Miss Grundy and Midge Klump and wounding Archie's dad and Moose Mason.  SPOILER ALERT!   The TV Black Hood was Betty's father.)

In Black Hood Comics #15, we follow Matthew Burman through three adventures taken from "The Confiodential Files of Black Hood."

• "The Case of the Blood-Red Rubies"
• "The Case of the Beautiful Corpse"
• "The Case of the Friendly Murders"

In addition Black Hood appears in a two-page text story, "A Nickel's Worth of Murder."

And in a change of mood there's a tale of Gloomy Gus the Homeless Ghost, "A Millionaire's Life."

Enjoy.

https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=73098