Leading Comics #11

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Graded population

CGC records 25 graded copies for Leading Comics #11 (1944). Population is the number recorded by this grading source, not the total print run or all surviving copies.

Seven Soldiers of Victory: "The Hard-Luck Hat"

Gang leader Handsome Harry realizes to his distress that an incompetent underling didn't bring him his lucky hat to wear as they made the rounds collecting the take from their various operations. Just as they pick it up, the Seven Soldiers spring a carefully-prepared trap and nail the entire gang. Except Harry himself, who slipped away, and whose hat goes rolling off in the confusion. | StoryTitle2 = Star-Spangled Kid & Stripesy: "The Banker and the Burglar" | Synopsis2 = The hat lands at the door of a hatter's shop. Banker Bilker comes in to buy a new hat, and hates everything except Handsome Harry's former chapeau. Soon Bilker receives a visitor from a Kingpin Kong, who wants to talk about all the money Bilker owes to cover debts incurred at Kong's gambling house. Kong proposes Bilker tell him how to rob the bank, which Bilker eventually agrees to. Mostly since he's also been embezzling from the bank, and Kong's gang robbing the vault would cast all blame onto the thieves.

Unfortunately for Bilker, just as he's about to leave to let the criminals do their work, Sylvester Pemberton's father shows up to try to cajole Bilker into giving him a job. This means Star and Stripesy are on hand to foil the robbery. When a teller reports half the funds in the vault are gone, even though none of the gang members got away with anything, Star realizes Bilker knows something with the hurry he was in to get away. The heroes corner Bilker at his house, just as Kong and the rest of his gang show up to get even for being double-crossed. All the criminals, including Bilker, get arrested. | StoryTitle3 = Vigilante: "Muggs at Mealtime" | Synopsis3 = The hat next comes into the possession of gangster Gas-Pipe Grogan when he buys Bilker's house at auction, along with everything in it. He reads in one of the ex-banker's books something that gives him an idea: they'll take control of the city's salt supply to extort the restaurants in town. Greg Saunders finds himself being charged extra for salt, and when he hears the story from the manager, decides to suit up and investigate as the Vigilante. He sneaks into Grogan's social club front in search of proof of wrongdoing, but is taken out by a bag of salt over the head of all things. They bury him in the back of a truck under a supply of their illicit salt to dispose of him quietly in the countryside, but Vigilante manages to start a fire in the back of the truck. When a fire engine douses it with water, it also dissolves all the salt and lets him escape. After capturing the gangsters, Vigilante impersonates Grogan to go back and get the evidence. Including wearing the hat, which is shot off his head before the hero gets what he came for. | StoryTitle4 = Crimson Avenger & Wing: "Absent-Minded Victim" | Synopsis4 = The hat finds a new owner when a crook named Bozo recognizes it as having belonged to his idol, Grogan, and snatches it from the can of a street cleaner. Soon the crooks carry out a plan to rob an antique dealer named Chumley, who's so absent-minded he keeps forgetting they work for him. They play upon this by telling Chumley that's the name of the antique dealer...but that he's somebody else, and Chumley's an intruder. Fortunately, Lee Travis was getting a haircut at the same barber Bozo had just gone to, and realizes their hats were switched by mistake. The bullet holes in it from the previous chapter prompt him to prioritize finding its owner. The ruse falls apart when it turns out the owner of the antique dealership really is a different man named Chumley...the brother of the one the crooks have been dealing with, who's so absent-minded he forgot. With their plan blown, the crooks decide to get rough, but Crimson Avenger and Wing beat them up. Afterward he throws the hat in the trash. | StoryTitle5 = Shining Knight: "The High-Hatted House" | Synopsis5 = Next the hat lands on the roof of a house belonging to a mild-mannered inventor. Not long after some escaped cons see the hat and think somebody's poised on the roof, but realize the roof of the house has a clear view of the area and would make an ideal hideout while they're waiting for the heat to die down. Shining Knight tracks the villains down, but falls into a trap when he goes to save one who pretends to be drowning in quicksand. Fortunately the inventor's son manages to escape by using one of his devices to dig through the cellar wall and save Shining Knight from the quicksand bog. The hero has Victory hold the hat in its mouth as it opens the door, tricking the crooks into thinking an attacker's coming from that direction, but Shining Knight climbs in a window to surprise the crooks. Again the hat's lost in the confusion. | StoryTitle6 = Green Arrow & Speedy: "The Dummy Director" | Synopsis6 = A picnicking family are the next to find the hat, with the father deciding to clean it up and use it on the mannequin he places outside his second-hand clothing shop. A Mr. Jordan comes and buys it...mannequin and all. As he carries it into a building, he's spotted by Oliver and Roy, who get suspicious and enter an adjacent office across the street to spy on the meeting Jordan's about to have with the directors of Amalgamated Rubber. It turns out he brought the dummy to make a showy exit from the organization; Jordan thinks the chairman, Ankers, is a thief, and the dummy is so Jordan can leave as he's already found someone (the dummy) to fill his chair. Ankers really is a crook, however, and has thugs detain Jordan so they can force him to get valuable stock certificates out of his safe. Having caught the gist, Oliver and Roy suit up to intervene. The criminals throw Jordan and the dummy off a bridge, but Green Arrow manages to save him before he drowns, then the archers capture the crooks. The only snag is the stock certificate they were after's gone, because Jordan hid it inside the hat, which was washed downstream during the action. | StoryTitle7 = Seven Soldiers of Victory : "Hat's Haven" | Synopsis7 = The hat washes up next to Handsome Harry, now a penniless hobo. He finds the stock certificate inside and determines it's his chance to get back on top. He sells it and uses the proceeds to open what appears to be an educational institute for hobos and beggars, but in reality enrolls them in his criminal enterprises. Star and Stripesy catch some of them in the act, but are flabbergasted when it turns out the cheap hoods have an extremely slick lawyer who easily gets the case tossed out. The other Soldiers have heard of similar cases, and convene again to investigate what's obviously a new crime syndicate. The heroes go undercover as new students at Hobo College, and recognize Handsome Harry, especially from his beat-up hat. They unmask themselves and beat up the criminal students, finally catching Handsome Harry himself. He throws away his "lucky" hat in disgust, since it brought him ruin at the Seven Soldiers' hands *twice*. It lodges in a tree branch and becomes a birds nest.

| Appearing1 = **Featured Characters:** * Seven Soldiers of Victory) **Crimson Avenger) ** Green Arrow) **Shining Knight) **Speedy) **Star-Spangled Kid) **Stripesy) **Vigilante) **Supporting Characters:** * Wing) * Winged Victory) * John Pemberton) **Antagonists:** * Handsome Harry ** Shifty ** Sam ** Bull ** other thugs * King-Pin Kong ** his gang * J. Billington Bilker * Gas-Pipe Grogan ** his gang * Bozo * Tommy ** two other thugs * Bopper ** two other escaped convicts * Mr. Akers ** his gang **Other Characters:** * hat salesman * Mr. Chumley * John Harrison * Mary Harrison * Jimmy Harrison * Wilbur Timmins * Mrs. Timmins * young Timmins * Mr. Jordan * Mr. Dresser **Locations:** * **Items:** * Trick Arrows **Vehicles:** * Arrowcar * Star-Rocket Racer

| Notes = * *The Hard-Luck Hat* is reprinted in The Seven Soldiers of Victory Archives Vol. 3 (Collected). | Trivia = | Recommended = | Links =

Creative credits

Writers: Joe Samachson

Interior art: Arthur Cazeneuve

Source records & attribution

Panel Profits keeps each source identity attached to its edition record.

COMICBASE: comicbase:650750

GCD: 3697

PANEL PROFITS: 24200