Wow, the Spectre makes a guy's head vanish so he can more directly read his thoughts! This is from All-Star Comics #1, the first issue of what would become the birth place of the world's very first super team, the Justice Society of America. But that just happens in issue 3! For the first two issues, the aptly-named All-Star was meant to be an anthology series (weren't they all back then?) that featured new stories from readers' favorite strips from across the whole of the books put out by All-American Comics (one of the branches that would become DC). In lieu of mind-reading, the publishers took their cue from fan letters. Superman and Batman already having their own dedicated quarterlies in addition to appearing in Action and Detective, respectively, the other big stars appear to be Hourman and Sandman (from Adventure Comics), the Spectre (above, from More Fun Comics), the Flash and Hawkman (from Flash Comics), and, uh, Gary Concord and Red, White and Blue (from All-American Comics, I guess it's too soon for Green Lantern, he's barely been in costume!).
Here are a couple of those future JSA members in their home books...
I think Creig Flessel is my favorite early Golden Age artist. I love his style. And I love how he manages to draw a silly cartoon chase in the middle of the Sandman's noir gangland story and still make it work.
Looking at these early Hawkman strips, one thing jumps out at you: Dude loves to KILL. Maybe it's the ancient weapons. In his All-Star story, he murders some 14 dudes (6 more than the bloodthiristy Spectre in the same issue), and meanwhile in his usual monthly strip, he uses a bola to strangle not only the golem-like "Czar", but the sculptor who crafted him. By Horus!
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