(Exciting Comics 009, 1941) Dr Zinn feels like a character who is somehow aware of my classification system and who is desperate not to be relegated to the ranks of the Generic Costumed Villain (yes, the “costumed” part has lost all meaning, I know) and so has shoehorned as many extra details into his appearance as possible to force me to give him Minor Super-Villain status. “what if I wasn’t just a super tall hypnotist, but also obsessed with snakes? And what…
Fictional books, fictional movies, fictional stage shows: it’s media in comics time! Books: Dexter, a friend of Ellsworth “the Sphinx” Forrester, has written a book titled Who’s Who in Murder which is one of those grand exposes that causes everyone in crimedom to attempt to kill the author before they can publish. That’s gotta be great publicity. (Exciting Comics 010, 1941) While Guns Make Dust is very plot relevant in this Ellery Queen mystery, as a doped-up stamp thief hides his…
(Exciting Comics 008, 1941) This fellow expends an awful lot of effort setting up and facilitating a city payroll robbery by gang boss Owney Biggers. He is eventually revealed to be City Treasurer Robert V. Shaw, who has set the whole thing up, double-crossed Biggers, faked his own death and murdered several people in order to cover up the fact that he had been embezzling city funds. The most annoying thing about this annoying man (seriously, just an irritating character. True…
Today we present some of the many aliens of Jupiter. Ganymede Pirates: After facing the upsetting menace of Orro, Ted Hunt and Jane Martin, the Star Rovers, are captured by space pirates and taken to their home base on Ganymede. Whether they are native to Ganymede is hard to say, as the Space Rover Solar System is one that is populated mostly by aliens that look like white guys. This could be a completely heterogeneous group of Ceresians, Martians, Venusians, Jovians and…
(Dynamic Comics 002, 1941) It’s a story as old as comics and then some: an inventor has come up with a cool superscientific gizmo – in this case an invisibility serum – and no sooner are they done than some gangsters come stiffing around looking to exploit it. This particular gang is headed by an unnamed and trigger-happy fellow who guns down the scientist and then his own men in order to get his mitts on the single available dose…
Everybody gets shot now and then. the Bronze Terror: The Bronze Terror is shot in the left arm during his first adventure by the wicked Scar Thornton, which gives him an excuse to show off his penchant for knocking out crooks’ teeth. (Daredevil Comics 002, 1941) Whiz, King of Falcons: Whiz is shot through the left wing by a Lord Haw-Haw analog, and since this is the one issue in which he has the power of speech, he gets to…
(Dynamic Comics 002, 1941) In probably the cheekiest campaign of terror ever, American defense officials are being murdered and then their shrunken skulls are being sent along to places where people are waiting for them with notes reading “Don’t wait for me any longer, here I am.” You may have noticed that all of the skull deliveries involved a man named Professor Curran, and being seasoned comics readers you rightly would have suspected that he was involved in the scheme somehow. It…
We’re simply up to our eyeballs in minor super-heroes! K-9: K-9, an injured German Shepherd (they call him a police dog but I think that that’s as an alternate breed name due to the war, like how the British call them Alsatians) nursed back to health and given a terrible name by scrappy teen Tip Starr, is given ample opportunity to fight crime thanks to his association with Tip’s brother, Police Detective Dick Starr. (Dynamic Comics 001, 1941) Categorized in:…
(Dynamic Comics v1 001, 1941) Unlike most Professors in comics, this fellow is seemingly not named that because he is a scientist but rather because he is a clever criminal. He and his powerful companion Hugo are hired by the evocatively-named Hell Gang to intercept and destroy some key evidence while it is en route from the District Attorney’s office to the courthouse where Hell Gang leadership is on trial. It’s not fair to blame the Professor for this because there’s no…
Those who also ran, we salute you. Karl the Hermit: Karl, as his name implies, is a mean ol’ hermit who lives atop a mountain. He has has got himself a critter called the Thing that Walks Like a Man that he uses to act out his misanthropic impulses, such as when he sends it to kill his cousin Rushman. What is his motivation for doing all this? Don’t worry about it – he’s a crazy old hermit! Karl’s actions…