THRILL COMICS #16

British publisher Gerald Swan was one of the leading wartime publishers of books, magazines, and comics, in part because he had a large stockpile of cheap paper on hand when paper began to be rationed.  His output was cheaply produced and the quality was normally substandard.

Thrill Comics ran for 35 issues between 1940 and 1950.  None of the issues were dated.  In an accidental bit of symmetry, issue #16 had 16 pages -- 16 basically forgettable pages.

We lead off with a one-pager about Nosey Ned.  It is supposed to be funny.

Then we have a story of Ivan the Wolf Boy.  Ivan is a Russian-style Tarzan who, with his wolves, have been causing the Germans all sorts of trouble.  A ploy allows the Germans to capture him (sans wolves) but just as they begin to torture Ivan with a swastika-shaped branding iron, guess who shows up to help save the day?

Before the next major story, we are inflicted with a one-pager about Professor Crackpot, Our Crazy Inventor.  Prof C discusses some of his tired and pun-ish inventions for our elucidation.

Now that we have cleansed out palate. we can move on to an adventure of The Invisible Spy.  Yep.  The guy's invisible, thanks to his invisible cloak.  And he's a spy.  Lucky for us he works for the good guys.   In this tale he has to destroy an enemy "inaudible" submarine somewhere off the island of Heligoland.  The Invisible Spy causes some havoc at the submarine base through his invisible tricks.  He also steals the plans from the Germans and destroys the sub -- all in four pages.

Sam the Sticker is tasked by his superior officer to find a rebel native  near their base in Africa.  I now you can see this coming.  World War II...British soldiers...African natives...Stereotypes up the wazoo!  An African native captures Sam and is about to put him into the cooking pot, then...well, never mind; these stereotypes weren't funny then and have not mellowed with age.

Then there's another one-pager, this time about The Boss, who is a sort of Mr. Moneybags from the game Monopoly, only without the mustache.  This one is also supposed to be funny, as when The boss tosses a bomb meant for a bank into a well, the explosion brings up a cat that someone was trying to drown.

Fear not, our torture is almost over.  The final story, Meet Our Batty Brains Trust, takes the form of a quiz who with inane questions and answers that might -- just might -- tickle a three-year-old.

File this one under:  I read it so you don't have to.

However, if you are a sadist, here's the comic book:

https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=76453&b=i