Number 851

Target: Hitler

The Target was a superhero who usually ran with a posse, the Targeteers. The Targeteers are missing from this story, from Target Comics Volume 4 Number 1, 1943. The artist puts himself into the story, talking to the Target, who tells a strange and allegorical tale about Hitler. The Target is telling a hallucinatory tale, or else the artist is hallucinating about the Target hallucinating.

Superheroes getting to Hitler was no big deal in the comic books of World War II, fairly common, actually. But those stories were mainly of the smash-into-the-bunker-and-punch-Hitler's-lights-out variety. This has religious overtones, not unheard of, but unusual for the comics of the era.

Surprise! Another story from Target Comics tomorrow: the one and only Basil Wolverton and a Spacehawk adventure.