Clock (character)

[1] Created by cartoonist George Brenner, the Clock first appeared in the Comics Magazine Company publication Funny Picture Stories #1 (Nov 1936).

[2] According to Secondary Superheroes of Golden Age Comics: The Clock appeared on the first cover, wearing a hat, a tux, and a black handkerchief-style face mask, holding a cane, both arms up as he was frisked by a gang of bad guys...

He hung out in "a sub-cellar located below the heart of the city," and got a villain to talk by showing him some of the furnishings he had around: an iron maiden, a rack, and a thumb-hanging device.

[3] According to Jess Nevins' Encyclopedia of Golden Age Superheroes, "the criminals he fights are usually ordinary gangsters and Nazis, but there is also the occasional mad scientist and superhuman (like the massive, bullet-proof idiot Stuporman)".

[3] In 1937 the company was bought by Ultem Publications, which encountered financial difficulties and sold the Clock (and other characters) to Quality Comics.

[8] He was first assisted by Pat "Pug" Brady, a former boxer who looked exactly like Brian O'Brien; they met when picking each other's pockets in Crack Comics #1.

In 2013, Dynamite Entertainment published an eight-issue miniseries, Masks, with several pulp and comic-book characters fighting the Justice Party (which has taken over New York State).

Comic-book cover, with masked man pointing a gun at a villain
Quality Comics' Crack Comics #1 (May 1940)