After Christman left "Scorchy Smith", a succession of artists handled the strip, including Howell Dodd and Frank Robbins, who began signing the strip on May 22, 1939. Robbins, who had never had a feature of his own before, soon developed a solid reputation for creating comic-strip adventure. A wartime sequence set in Russia drew the following comment."..."formidable reality: it creates the sense of deep snows, it is full of bitter, bloody struggle"". In 1944, he was hired by King Features Syndicate, where he created "Johnny Hazard", another pilot-adventurer. Robbins' last strip ran March 12, 1944.