The Least Hardboiled P.I. Ever!!

Hey, kids, it's time for another adventure with...

See, when WWII ended, Alan Armstrong, the Spy Smasher, was without a job...because obviously, there was no need to smash spies during the cold war!

So Fawcett simply changed him to Crime Smasher, and made him a private detective, to leap aboard the growing crime comic craze.

But Alan was not your typical Sam Spade type...

Awww...

Well, Armstrong gets sidetracked into investigating Killer King, and manages to make an escape. But not in a particularly hard-nosed way...

WHEEEEE!!!!

Anyway, he eventually catches King, and collects the reward. But he still has a case to solve...

Awww....

From Crime Smasher #1 (1948), as reprinted in Badge Of Justice #22 (1955)

If They Were Smart, They Wouldn't Be Criminals

The world's greatest private detective, Crime Smasher, walks into a deadly trap set by underworld goons:






D'oh!!

Now, this Crime Smasher guy is something of a mystery. Late in his original career, the Fawcett hero Spy Smasher changed his name to Crime Smasher, and started smashing crooks instead of spies.

This story is from Charlton's Badge Of Justice #22 (1955). Some sources suggest that this story does feature the renamed Spy Smasher, while other sources say no, this is a completely different character with a coincidental name who made only the once appearance.

The story itself is no help, as the guy is never referred to by name...even his dame just refers to him as Crime Smasher!

So is this Alan Armstrong? Someone else? Or, as one website suggested, is this guy just the Earth-4 counterpart of Earth-S's Spy/Crime Smasher?? God, it's great to be a nerd...

Anyway, now it's later in the same story, and the hoods have an even more inescapable death trap:




Kids--stay in school and at least take basic physics before becoming a crook!!