(OK Comics 001, 1940) “The Further Adventures of Ulysses” is a feature that posits that Ulysses/ Odysseus, after a gruelling twenty year journey home from Troy to Ithaca, immediately got bored and left again upon hearing a rumour that one of his men had been left behind on the island of the Cyclopes and still lived. This is a fun idea and very in keeping with both the lifestyles of the Greek heroes and a particular 1940s idea of manly…
It’s a bumper crop of real people (and famous fictional ones) showing up in comics! Adolf Hitler: This is very, very tenuous but this adventure story is concerned with a hunt for mythical man-goat lycanthropes known as “weredolfs” and I’ll be danged if I can think of a reason for them to be called that other than as a very oblique jab at Adolf Hitler. (Hyper Mystery Comics 001, 1940) Less tenuous: when Cartho (one of the seemingly limitless number…
(National Comics 006, 1940) Here’s what Baron Hoff brings to the table: 1. Scale. Hoff’s goal in this comic is to rob one (1) bank, and as a distraction from that crime he sets the entire island of Manhattan on fire. 2. Look. Not only does he have a striking face and a killer grin but Baron Hoff has a real flair for villainous fashion. Some might balk at accentuating an aviator’s outfit with a monocle and jodhpurs and big…
Just a few more minor super-heroes. Paul Bunyan: What’s better than a regular two-fisted lumberjack protagonist? Paul Bunyan himself, that’s who. This version of Bunyan works in a modern-day lumber camp and has been toned down a bit with the suggestion that he’s just some guy who was born in Maine and grew to a mere ten feet tall. His adventures aren’t that much different than those of other lumberjack heroes, but there is something about an enormous man with…
(National Comics 006, 1940) Madamoiselle Morgue is an interesting case, because technically she does not exist. I mean, technically none of the characters I write about here exist, but even within the fictional world within the story, she is a false person. See, Scar Celleni, big time New York gang boss, has decided that the key to success is to wage all-out war on the police and that the optimal first move in this war is to assassinate prominent police…
(Action Comics 001, 1938) Does this first version of the explosion of Krypton really fit the category of minor super-villain? Absolutely not. “The planet got too old and blew up” is a natural disaster, albeit an extreme one. The second appearance of the Explosion of Krypton, in Superman v1 001, 1939, doesn’t even blame the explosion on old age. It just happens. So why categorize it such? Because basically every time it shows up going forward (and it’s going to…
(National Comics 003, 1940) Cyclone is an extremely minor Quality Comics future spaceman hero of the year 3000 who, in National Comics 001, participates in a competition between the planets of the solar system to see which one gets to colonize the newly discovered planet Vito. He wins of course, and the remainder of his four appearances are spent dealing with various threats to the new colony, including at least one civilization native to the planet, because colonialism. Do they…
(National Comics 001, 1940) Once Jock Kellog decides to turn his back on his playboy ways and put his inherited magic cloak to use as Merlin the Magician, he really goes for it. He hits the battlefields of WWII to aid the beleaguered soldiers of the front and ultimately rises into the realm of the gods to confront Mars, God of War and Destruction himself. Mars turns out to be a huge jerk bully who is inciting nations to fight…
Great guns! More of them? the Masked Angel: Steve Oakes, wealthy playboy just so happens to also be the Masked Angel, vigilante feared by the underworld and wanted by the police. Steve’s father Detective Inspector John Oakes was murdered by crooks, so the Masked Angel act is his way of getting back at the criminal fraternity. It also seems to be a way to troll his brother, Detective Inspector John Oakes II, who is an asshole and who hates the…
Once again we must discuss the fascists. The Black League are a pretty regular-style gang of fifth columnists with two points of distinction: 1) they call one another “Black One”, which is kind of fun and 2) they are trying to steal this completely awesome WWII mech suit and get beat up by Dick Cole, Wonder-Boy for their efforts. (Blue Bolt v1 011, 1941) The nation of Bundonia deploys this crack squad of idiots, the Bundsters, to Hollywood to prevent…