Data courtesy of the Grand Comics Database under Creative Commons license.

Issue Details

Issue #53
Published 1944
Cover Price 0.10 USD
Pages 52
Editing ?
Notes Indicia title is "WASH TUBBS, No. 53." No code number. Copyright 1939, 1940 by NEA Service, Inc.

Cover Details

Characters Wash Tubbs; Captain Easy
Genre adventure
Pencils Roy Crane (signed)
Inks Roy Crane (signed)
Reprinted from Wash Tubbs (NEA Service) newspaper strip from 1939.09.09 [partial panel]

6 page Wash Tubbs story "Miss Fitt, Send for Washington Tubbs!"

Characters Wash Tubbs; Captain Easy; J. P. McKee; Carol McKee; Mr. Squeege; Captain Johnson
Synopsis Wash and Easy are sent by McKee Industries to the remote South Seas island of Hippa-Hula, to find out the secret of how the women there preserve their beauty. At Singapore they board a sailing ship, which also has a passenger bound for Hippa-Hula for the same reason they are.
Genre adventure
Script Roy Crane (signed)
Pencils Roy Crane (signed)
Inks Roy Crane (signed)
Notes Starts with last panel of June 20 strip, ends with July 5. Dates are on some, but not all of the strips. Strips are edited, panels omitted and re-arranged.
Reprinted from Wash Tubbs (NEA Service) daily newspaper strips from June and July 1939

8 page Captain Easy Soldier of Fortune story "Send for Captain Johnson"

Characters Wash Tubbs; Captain Easy; Mr. Squeege; Captain Johnson; Mr. Van Scamp
Synopsis The ship makes its way to Hippa-Hula, where the mysterious Mr. Squeege demands they land at night. Easy and Wash stay at the Golden Palace hotel, which is also where a Mr. Van Scamp is staying. Van Scamp is the object of much interest by Squeege. Van Scamp negotiates to tell Squeege the secret of the Hippa-Hula women's long-lived beauty in order to save his life.
Genre adventure
Script Roy Crane (signed)
Pencils Roy Crane (signed)
Inks Roy Crane (signed)
Notes Dates are on some of the strips. All panels presented in proper order, none omitted.
Reprinted from Wash Tubbs (NEA Service) newspaper strips from 1939.07.06-1939.07.24

8 page Captain Easy Soldier of Fortune story "Ah! The hotel business bein' wot it is nowadays..."

Characters Wash Tubbs; Captain Easy; Mr. Squeege; Mr. Van Scamp; J. P. McKee (cameo); Francis Ruby
Synopsis Wash and Easy try to find the secret of the island's women's beauty. Meanwhile Francis Ruby, who had been a partner of Squeege and Van Scamp, before the latter framed him and had him sent to prison, arrives on Hippa-Hula.
Genre adventure
Script Roy Crane (signed)
Pencils Roy Crane (signed)
Inks Roy Crane (signed)
Notes Last panel of July 29 omitted; panels three and four of August 8 are reversed.
Reprinted from Wash Tubbs (NEA Service) daily newspaper strips from 1939.07.24-1939.08.11

7 page Captain Easy Soldier of Fortune story "Ha! They're up to something!"

Characters Wash Tubbs; Captain Easy; Francis Ruby; Mr. Van Scamp
Synopsis After shooting Squeege, Ruby demands that Van Scamp get the Hippa-Hula beauty secret from his wife. His wife refuses and Ruby is about to kill Van Scamp when the hotel proprietor offers to sell Van Scamp the beauty secret for $10,000. Meanwhile, Wash and Easy learn that the beauty secret is part of the island's religion and the women all make a pilgrimage to the top of the volcano once a year.
Genre adventure
Script Roy Crane (signed)
Pencils Roy Crane (signed)
Inks Roy Crane (signed)
Notes Some panels omitted.
Reprinted from Wash Tubbs (NEA Service) daily newspaper strips from 1939.08.11-1939.08.29

7 page Captain Easy Soldier of Fortune story "Hooray! The Hippa-Hula beauty secret--It's ours!"

Characters Wash Tubbs; Captain Easy; Francis Ruby; Mr. Van Scamp
Synopsis Ruby gets the hotel proprietor to admit the beauty secret he sold them was a fake. He gives them a map to a back trail up the volcano, where the secret is guarded by "monsters." Meanwhile the volcano is acting up and the island's women go to the crater to preform rituals to quiet the rumblings. Ruby and Van Scamp and Wash and Easy all get to back trail of the volcano at the same time. Wash and Easy disguise themselves as Holy Men and learn the real Hippa-Hula beauty secret.
Genre adventure
Script Roy Crane (signed)
Pencils Roy Crane (signed)
Inks Roy Crane (signed)
Notes Cover image is part of third panel on page four of this sequence. (Last panel of the strip for September 9, 1939.) Some panels feature implied female nudity. Some panels are cropped.
Reprinted from Wash Tubbs (NEA Service) daily newspaper strips from 1939.08.30-1939.09.16

8 page Captain Easy Soldier of Fortune story "Oh man, what a break!"

Characters Wash Tubbs; Captain Easy; Francis Ruby; Mr. Van Scamp; Lulu Belle (cameo)
Synopsis Ruby and Van Scamp follow the disguised Wash and Easy before discovering they've been tricked. The four fight it out before the real Holy Men break in and capture them. They are sentenced to death, but during the ceremony the volcano erupts and all scatter for safety. Wash and Easy rescue two of the Holy Men who have been overcome by fumes. When they get back to their hotel, they find it was demolished by a tidal wave. Later the Holy Men decide to give Easy and Wash the beauty secret, only to find that a crucial ingredient was destroyed by the volcano's eruption.
Genre adventure
Script Roy Crane (signed)
Pencils Roy Crane (signed)
Inks Roy Crane (signed)
Notes Last three panels features Lulu Belle; Wash, and Easy with World War II reminders about saving tires, watching careless talk, and persistence in the war effort.
Reprinted from Wash Tubbs (NEA Service) daily newspaper strips from 1939.09.18-1939.10.10

7 page Captain Easy Soldier of Fortune story "Say John, how'd you like to make $5?"

Characters Wash Tubbs (cameo); Captain Easy; Fauntly Gilroy; Milly
Synopsis After being scared by a classmate, Fauntly Gilroy bets he can make any man in town run just as easily--even if the man is Captain Easy. Gilroy fixes up a mountain lodge with trap doors and other house of horrors material and hires actors to play parts in the scheme. Gilroy and his friend take Easy to the cabin on a rainy night, then leave him stranded. To complicate matters, two real escaped convicts come to the cabin, which had been their old hideout.
Genre adventure
Script Roy Crane (signed)
Pencils Roy Crane (signed)
Inks Roy Crane (signed)
Notes Story continues on inside back cover in black, red, and white and concludes on back cover in color. Two panels are omitted from October 20; three panels omitted from October 27; one panel omitted from November 3; one panel omitted from November 10; two panels omitted from November 24; and two panels omitted from December 1. Some panels are cropped and captions removed.
Reprinted from Captain Easy (NEA Service) Sunday newspaper strips from 1940.10.20-1940.12.01