I became a Blackhawk fan back in the '60s when my barber had a bunch of coverless Blackhawk comics. By the 1980s, when Mark Evanier and Dan Spiegle were doing their great Blackhawk revival, I was able to start collecting Golden Age issues when they were still fairly affordable in lesser condition. This was one of the very first ones I bought.
We posted a great Liberty Belle story in 2011 and then the exact same one in 2016! Here, though, we offer a different one at last! Liberty Belle would have been an also-ran if not for her great "second act" in Roy Thomas's ALL-STAR SQUADRON several decades later.
We haven't had Merlin the Magician here in six years and he's fighting Batman, yet! Well, A Batman. GCD says it's Guardineer and sure looks like it to me but GCD adds that "Lance Blackwood" was a pseudonym for golden age artist Dan Zolnerowich so take that as you will.
The company that brought you Mr. Tawky Tawny, the talking tiger who is a friend to the World's Mightiest Mortal, also gave us another talking tiger here, Sir Stripe, the antagonist here to Sir Spot, "the Lion-Hearted Leopard."