My friend Maya is working on a 50's period story where she will be making reference to a comic book. She knows nothing about comics, let alone comics from the 1950's, but she wants any period references to be hyper-accurate. Are there any collectors on this BBS who are familiar with that era?

Specifically, she needs to be able to make accurate references to a super-hero or spy comic where the main character uses a decoder ring. This will feature prominently in the story and will even be related to the story's title.

Googling hasn't helped her yet, so I'm falling back on the BBS...