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To give you a feel for the flow of the story, here is the complete page 10. The story has already reached its climax -
the fight with the gang - and there isn't any post-spanking rubbing or other interesting developments past this point.
The artwork, by Reed Crandall, is very good with a fine line and solid figure drawing. Crandall later went on to other
things for Quality like Blackhawk and Dollman, and also contributed to EC's most brilliant period during the 50's.
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© Quality Publications.
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Firebrand made his debut in the first issue of the oddly-titled Police Comics, along with Plastic Man, Phantom Lady,
The Human Bomb, and several lesser-known characters. Here's the front cover of issue #7 (February 1942). Plastic Man
became the most famous of them, displacing Firebrand on the cover beginning with issue #5, although Phantom Lady later
achieved a sort of notoriety, becoming emblematic of "headlight comics" (touched on in the discussion of
Frontier Romances #1).
Firebrand reminds us a little of the Scarlet Pimpernel, and of course there were other super-hero types in the same mold
like Zorro and Batman. But where Zorro made it to the movies and Batman went further to became a cultural icon,
Firebrand flamed out with the thirteenth issue of Police Comics. At least he burned long enough to warm one bad
girl's behind.
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