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Category: 1941

GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 016

GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 016

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 Bless ’em, they’re trying. The first few adventures of Hydroman, a character I have an inexplicable affection for, are concerned with what at first seems like some real standard Yellow Peril bullplop (“Oriental invaders” and so forth) but then there are gangsters involved and the two factions variously mention a higher-up named “the Great One” and “the Big Boss”, respectively. Still later, the whole operation seems to be run by this collection of pseudo-Nazis on a yacht in New York…

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REAL PERSON ROUND-UP 005

REAL PERSON ROUND-UP 005

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You can’t deny that they were real people. Adolf Hitler: This unnamed leader of the unnamed forces that the Flying Trio are battling on behalf of the little nation of Sylvania is a real Hitlerian fellow (Crash Comics Adventures 005, 1940)  Amelia Earhart: Two variations on a theme: using the story of the disappearance of Amelia Earhart as fodder for a damsel-in-distress story. The first (Amazing-Man Comics 018, 1940) involves the Shark rescuing Amelia Reinhardt from an old man who…

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MAD AND CRIMINAL SCIENTIST ROUND-UP 009

MAD AND CRIMINAL SCIENTIST ROUND-UP 009

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You know how it is with these guys. Their science is mad and/or criminal! Felix Zurich, lab assistant to Professor Trent, has hidden the professor away in a castle improbably located in the middle of the jungle in Africa, all so that Zurich can force him to perfect his invention of the ever-popular engine-killing ray. This is a Blackstone the Magician story so of course Zurich is also an accomplished stage magician and there is a pivotal duel of illusions….

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GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 012

GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 012

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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…

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REAL PERSON ROUND-UP 003

REAL PERSON ROUND-UP 003

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Once more they ride: the REAL PEOPLE OF COMICS Abraham Lincoln: Lincoln’s shadow is used to symbolize the power of the US exerting a calming effect on the European belligerents. (Smash Comics 005, 1939) Adolf Hitler: Chancellor Rudolf of Wurtberg here is a more dynamic than usual Hitler analog (Smash Comics 004, 1939) Misc minor appearances: Getting some bad news about Nazi operations in Yugoslavia (Blue Ribbon Comics 015, 1941) Captain Kidd: For no particular reason this aviator/ adventurer is…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 544: DR VON THORP & THE IRON MONSTER / MINOR SUPER HERO: HUGH HAZZARD & BOZO THE IRON MAN

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 544: DR VON THORP & THE IRON MONSTER / MINOR SUPER HERO: HUGH HAZZARD & BOZO THE IRON MAN

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(Smash Comics 001, 1939) We open on a city (later established as almost certainly NYC) in the grip of terror. A robot known as the Iron Monster is wantonly robbing and murdering and also stealing one or more babies for reasons that are never made clear. Seriously, we never find out what the deal was with those babies. The Iron Monster is the creation of Dr von Thorp, your classic scientist rejected from society for his outre beliefs, though considering…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 532: THE DEVIL

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 532: THE DEVIL

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(Blue Ribbon Comics 019, 1941) This is the same guy as the Dictator but on his time off, I guess? Mr Justice kind of gave up on him after the Green Ghoul incident – maybe he just couldn’t get up the energy to keep running a Nazi Germany analog. I think he continues to pop up and empower Mr Justice foes but more importantly he has some very cute little trident-wielding imp goons. No hell-dimension is complete without them!

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 531: THE EVIL EYE

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 531: THE EVIL EYE

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(Blue Ribbon Comics 019, 1941)  I wonder if high schools in comic book universes hold some sort of assembly to teach kids not to yell about selling their souls to the Devil when life has them down? Because as far as I can tell it’s got a pretty high chance of working, like it does for weird little scientist Ribo here. Ribo does indeed get to see again but he also gets a demonic makeover – he’s even more of…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 530: THE MAD BOTANIST

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 530: THE MAD BOTANIST

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(Blue Ribbon Comics 019, 1941) The Mad Botanist is an assassin “in the employment of a foreign power” which in 1941 as good as means that he was working for the Axis. His nom de guerre comes from the fact that his preferred method of murder is via deadly plant life, including the African Tentacle Vine, the Mediterranean Poison Cornflower and of course the insidious Man-Eating Clam-Plant. The Botanist’s somewhat bizarre physical appearance is never commented upon in the comic…

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