(The Comics 002, 1937) The Gorgon is not the most spectacular villain but does provide us with a couple of interesting contrasts to our last few entries. Firstly, we can contrast him with the Masked Czar and note how his lack of major identifying features enhances the anonymity afforded by a simple black mask. I assume that he was called the Gorgon because “anyone who has seen his face is now dead” but it would have been nice to have…
(The Comics 001, 1937) The Falcon is a mercenary spy and Doctor Doom’s opposite number in the conflict between the kingdoms of Returia and Merovia. It’s somewhat debatable whether a couple of spies-for-hire can be classified as either heroes or villains in such a situation, but the story certainly presents them as such, with Merovia being vaguely Nazi German and Doctor Doom being proudly American to underline things. The Falcon’s espionage is also a bit more dastardly than Doctor Doom’s,…
A pretty motley collection this time. the Ermine: A frontier vigilante who wears a reversible ermine skin outfit (white for winter wear, brown for regular), leaves an ermine tail as his calling card and can communicate/ is friends with with all the creatures of the forest (except for the ermine, presumably). The Ermine would be an interesting character if he wasn’t explicitly and murderously racist against Native peoples. He’s classed as a minor hero here because all of his recorded…
(The Comics 001, 1937) The Masked Czar is a very minor masked gang boss who provides an object example into why most masked gang bosses are fairly physically average specimens. Villains like the otherwise-unnamed Czar here – the tall, the short, the fat, the thin, the bald or the exceptionally hirsute – tend to go in for different ways of concealing their identities that might stand a better chance of working than a thin strip of fabric. Or they go…
Management not responsible if some of the villains are not technically costumed. This fellow, known as the Boss, was the masked publisher of a newspaper known as the Weekly Tattler which functioned as a vehicle for his blackmail business: pay up or get your secrets printed in the next edition. He turned out to be the husband of one of the paper’s victims, which makes little enough sense that I reckon that they got to the end of the story…
(The Funnies 030, 1939) The Black Widow is a sinister femme fatale spy chief in the classic mode, complete with cigarette holder, tight red dress and imperious attitude. A few things that make her fun: -the vague European country she works on behalf of is Bosylvania, a country about which nothing is revealed aside from the fact that it has the best geographical suffix: -sylvania -the Black Widow is in fact Princess Maxine of Bosylvania so her activities have an…
(The Funnies 030, 1939) This fellow is from a story starring Gene Autry, singing cowboy. It’s printed in a comic put out by Dell that mostly features reprints of comic strips and that’s probably what this is? Even though online sources suggest that the first Gene Autry comic strip started in 1940 and this came out in 1939? Ultimately, these are mere details. The important fact is that this is my most favourite style of putting a film cowboy actor…
(Wonderworld Comics 008, 1939) We open on Dr Fung and his pal Dan making the acquaintance of write Corey Crews on a transcontinental flight. Crews claims that he is about to expose “the biggest phony cult in Frisco” and then is promptly murdered. The telegram that he received just before said murder reads: “you have failed Scorpio… fate is in your hands”. Whether there actually is a cult or not is never resolved but seems dubious, as Scorpio turns out…
(Wonderworld Comics 007, 1939) Like the Walking Mountains before after them, the Kickoos are part of a population of superhumans living in an obscure part of the world (Asia, it’s always Asia) seemingly with no actual will of their own, brought back to the US by a criminal in order to facilitate their crimes. Specifically, the Kikoos are from the Gobi Desert and their superhuman nature is explained as, essentially, them being all dried out. They’re all hundreds of years…
(Wonderworld Comics 008, 1939) As part of Yarko the Great’s second encounter with Death, he and the hapless Madame Punai journeyed to a sort of pastiche underworld (e.g., their journey took them through the Biblical Valley of Death but also involved this unnamed boatman ferrying them across the River Styx). And as with any good underworld pastiche there are some allegorical foes to get past before their goal is reached – the Harbingers of Death! Like I said, these guys…