(Funny Picture Stories v1 003, 1936) These guys are a bunch of dipshits, but they’re kind of lovable. They kidnap reporter Red Dolan to keep him from exposing their murder operation and basically give him a guided tour of exactly how to own them. Look, here’s some tear gas! Now we’ll all go into a different room while you overpower your guard. Buncha goofs.
Fascist, Smascist The Volunteers for Peace are another group that advocates for the US not to get involved in WWII as shorthand for them being full-on fascist fifth columnists setting the country up for an invasion by the evocatively-named Nation X. Don’t worry, not even Golden Age Superman has any trouble beating down a bunch of pseudo-Nazis (Action Comics 036, 1941) Another batch of Yellow Shirts, this time with a space! This bunch are some more bundists and they have…
(Crackajack Funnies 021, 1940) Another Ed Tracer foe. The Scarlet is a freelance spy notable for a) his fantastic name and b) the fact that he uses a reverse disguise – a toupee to disguise his baldness in civilian life.
Police Attempted Murder: The Green Mask broke an accused murderer (innocent, framed) out of jail so the NYPD attempt to murder him and Domino the Miracle Boy (Mystery Men Comics 020, 1941) The police (behind the green car) attempt to gun down the Blue Beetle with no regard for the innocent witness standing next to him (Mystery Men 027, 1941) Future History: A stark vision of the state of the mortuary industry in the far-off year 2000, courtesy of Rex…
(Crackajack Funnies 010-017, 1939) The Piranha is a mysterious gang boss operating out of New York City and known for the gruesome way he dealt with his enemies, of which we will return to in a second. The Piranha is actually the wealthy Senõr Romez, a society luminary known for his fabulous parties and the many unsolved murders that happen at his fabulous parties. He also dresses exactly like the Piranha but with hair and a mask – a lot…
(Blue Beetle Comics 009-010, 1941) The Gorilla is actually Jack Castle, a drunken lout who happens to be the lab assistant to the unhinged Dr Brock. Castle pushes his employer a bit too far and ends up on the wrong end of an ape brain transplant. Dr Brock meanwhile has forgotten one of the major things about brains and so ends up like so many other mad scientists do after transplanting an unwilling one: murdered by his own creation. Castle…
(Amazing Man Comics 008, 1939) The worst thing about Minimidget is obviously his name. The best thing about him and his partner Ritty is the fact that unlike your Doll Mans or Atoms or Ants Men they are a) permanently six inches tall and b) proportionally as strong as a six-inch human being – they’re just lil’ guys wearing jodhpurs. A lot of their adventures are not so much about going out and finding excitement as dealing with the problems…
(Amazing Man Comics 008, 1939) Dr Magno is your classic elemental evil opposite: a man with magnetic hands pitted against a man with an iron skeleton. He’s a wild-card ex-foe of the Iron Skull freshly broken out of the asylum to loot Chicago of its jewels and get revenge on his traitorous ex-cronies. He’s also, weirdly, an evil equivalent, as both he and the Iron Skull owe their powers to debilitating injuries suffered in the Great War of 1950, but…
(Amazing Mystery Funnies v2 012, 1939) The Ten Knights of Doom! Like the Brain of the Robot, more an excuse to talk about their foe than anything else! But here we have to front-load it because you can’t get into these guys without setting things up by talking about Speed Centaur. Speed Centaur is great because he’s one of the very first super-heroes and yet he’s still also one of the weirdest super-hero concepts that isn’t some sort of psychedelic…
(Amazing Mystery Funnies v3 003, 1940) Just a cheeky super-hero for you today: the Headless Horseman! The Headless Horseman is an utterly standard western hero except for their lack of a head. They made maybe two appearances in Centaur comics before fading into the mists of history. A shame, because I really like the simple spin a fake supernatural Western hero gives things – I can’t think of too many of them other than the various Ghost Riders. The cowboy…