GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 031

GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 031

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They’re not good people and they’re not good at what they do and yet they still have a certain charm.  This guy is exclusively called “the Fiend” in narration boxes even though he is introduced as “the Great Master” and “Mako”. He practices voodoo and just sort of generically terrorizes the Haitian countryside until Yarko the Great comes at the behest of the intriguingly named Doctor Medico to settle his hash. And speaking of names, this issue features multiple characters…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 877: TWISTO THE RUBBER MAN

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 877: TWISTO THE RUBBER MAN

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(Zip Comics 009, 1940)  The Tingling Bros Circus is in trouble! Someone has been killing the performers, mid-act, with throwing knives, and it has caused enough financial disruption to the show that owner Jack Tingling is on the verge of bankruptcy! As you might have surmised from the fact that this entry is about him, the person responsible for the murders is sideshow attraction Twisto the Rubber Man, and we’ll get to his motivations in a second because they are…

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DIVINE ROUND-UP 021

DIVINE ROUND-UP 021

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Just scads of gods. Yum Chac:  These Mayan priests have tied a recent drought to some archaeological excavations in the Yucatan and have decided that the only thing for it is to revive the practice of human sacrifice to Yum Chac, aka just Chac, god of rain. They of course do this just in time for Zambini the Miracle Man to show up and wreck their whole operation. The really interesting thing about this whole episode is that it takes…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 876: THE CULT OF ANKKAMAN

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 876: THE CULT OF ANKKAMAN

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(Zip Comics 006, 1940) Zambini the Miracle man is visiting his old friend the archaeologist Professor Lorenz when he learns that Lorenz is potentially filled with curse-energy thanks to an ancient tomb he violated. The Professor is dismissive of these concerns, even though both his daughter Greta and Zambini himself reckon that there might be something to them. Sure enough, the very instant that Zambini has left the Lorenz house, two members of the Cult of Ankkaman show up and…

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NOTES – NOVEMBER 2025

NOTES – NOVEMBER 2025

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Honours – Captain Marvel:  Not only does Billy Batson win the award for Outstanding Radio Work of the Year, but he has his ver own fan club! (Whiz Comics 015, 1941)  Honours – Smasher Spy: Spy Smasher, turned evil and sometimes but mostly not known as Smasher Spy, is doing such a good job of sabotaging America that he is offered a medal and a position from the euphemistically-named War Lord by two Nazi stereotypes. If there’s one thing that…

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ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 023

ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 023

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A fine batch of aliens for ye this day, sor!  Inferians:  The wandering planet Inferno threatens to destroy the Earth with its heat, and the magician Zambini (plus some lady and the mad astronomer Professor Stargaze) travel to its surface in an attempt to cool it down. There they find the Inferians, charmingly can-shaped aliens made out of heat-resistant glass. We learn more information than usual about this alien culture from a handy text box: the nearby Inferian city is…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 875: THE RED CIRCLE

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 875: THE RED CIRCLE

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(Zip Comics 006, 1940) As Nevada Jones and his pal Little Joe are passing through the town of Copper Bluffs one day, they find themselves smack in the middle of a criminal conspiracy: someone is murdering people as part of a scheme to buy up key portions of the town’s land before the railroad comes through town, and the sign that someone is about to be killed is that a red circle is painted on the shaving mug when they…

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DIVINE ROUND-UP 020

DIVINE ROUND-UP 020

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Human sacrifice is the order of the day with this bunch of deific bad-boys.  Shem:  Shem, the Sun God, is worshipped in the Land of Shem by the Shemmites, aka the Men of Shem. It’s a very well-branded religion.  The Shemmites capture and attempt to sacrifice Kalthar, king of the jungle, but fail to reckon with his tendency to grow to fifteen feet tall and be invulnerable to harm, and are ultimately driven from their lands.  God Style: Invoked (Zip…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 874: MAGI

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 874: MAGI

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(Zip Comics 004, 1940) The villain for today is called Magi, and is the chief magic-user to a race of Mermen and Mermaids. Magi and his pal Torno have come to the surface world on a mission to retrieve the last descendant of the Mer-folk on land. Some notes: -Magi gets no small amount of points for recognizing Zambini as his greatest threat among the surface world people and moving to neutralize him in advance of the mission. -These points…

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ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 022

ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 022

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Top-quality aliens, fresh-baked!  Unnamed Species: This unnamed species has that most delightful and implausible of features, an organic wheel that they use to locomote around! Other than that they’re your typical underground dwelling species: they live far enough under the surface or have an extensive enough range that one can enter their kingdom in the Himalayas and exit in Iran; they have a captured surface woman named Rina as their queen but the real power lies with “He”, who is…

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