All-Star Comics #28

Issue Details

Synopsis

THE PAINTING THAT WALKED THE EARTH! In an unspecified future age, archeologists uncover several sealed jars of paint accompanied by a warning message from the Justice Society of America. The message tells the story of a painter / archeologist who discovered six jars of magical paint from Atlantis. These enchanted paints had the power to make anything illustrated with them come to life when struck by moonlight. The artist used it to create six paintings with the intent of exacting revenge on six college classmates. Soon afterwards, however, the artist was in a disastrous car accident that caused him to have a change of heart. From his deathbed, he contacted the Justice Society and alerted them to the dangers now facing his rivals, hoping they could save them from certain death.  One painting depicted a group of gangsters. Hawkman rescued a rival archeologist from these gangsters. The archeologist had just recovered a treasure trove of Atlantean artifacts and was unwilling to flee from the gangsters. But he and Hawkman learned the hard way that the gangsters are indestructible. Knowing the paintings had to be back in the canvas by morning, Hawkman took the canvas and led the mobsters away from their target victim until them.   Green Lantern contacted a big game hunter and warned him about the painting of archers. The hunter's rivals overheard Green Lantern's warning and opened the painting. They paid for their devious actions by being shot down by the archers in the painting. The screams gave the hunter time to escape and warn Green Lantern but his power ring was ineffective against them. The Lantern and the hunter fled. As dawn neared, Green Lantern took the canvas away, forcing the archers to chase him.   Doctor Mid-Nite warned a mine owner about the dangers of the painting of Medieval knights he received. The owner didn’t believe Mid-Nite's warning until he saw the knights in the painting attacking his miners. Dr. Mid-Nite jumped into the mine to fend off the knights, allowing the miners to escape. He then took off with the canvas on skis to lead the knights away from the mine.   Johnny Thunder and the Thunderbolt flew to an ocean liner to rescue a ship's captain. Unfortunately, the Captain had several paintings in his possession and Johnny couldn’t tell which painting was the problem, so he attacked one at random. Thinking he was crazy, the captain threw him in the brig. Later, a painting of seahorse cowboys came to life. The Thunderbolt broke Johnny out, but neither was able to stop them. Johnny grabbed the canvas and the Thunderbolt flew them away from the ship.   The Atom journeyed to the estate of an oil baron just in time to fight off the moors from his painting. He was eventually overwhelmed. After they’d defeated him, they began rampaging out in the oil field. Unable to find a way to stop them, the Atom flees with the canvas.   The Flash set out to save a circus owner from a painting of cavemen and prehistoric beasts. But the circus owner, determined to entice Flash into joining his circus, talked so much that the cavemen came to life before he was finished. The Flash dealt with them easily but simply they kept coming. Eventually, he was able to trap them using super speed, then took the canvas and ran away with it.   All the members converged at Justice Society headquarters with the blank canvases in their possession and painted figures in pursuit. After hanging up their canvases, the beings return to their paintings. Flash decided that the best plan was to scrape the paint back into the original jars. Hawkman welded the jars back together, Green Lantern sealed the jars with his ring, and Wonder Woman wrote the warning to all future people to not open the jars.