The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: panel fun

  • NOTES – JUNE 2026

    Comics Crossovers:

    In one of Golden Age comics’ rare but casual crossovers, Judy Jackson, rival of reporter-hero Scoop Mason, is attending the same Governor’s ball in the Bahamas as Newsreel cameraman Speed Martin. (The Funnies 051, 1941)

    Then in the very next issue, Scoop Mason himself shows up to take in a football game! (The Funnies 052, 1941)

    ADDENDUM: I just realized that the team that they’re watching is Elmhurst College featuring star player Wally Williams, from his own feature in Popular Comics. Layers upon layers!

    the Looming Spectre of Death:

    Perhaps the most understated Looming Spectre of Death of all time, from the Philo Vance story “Murder Rings the Bell.” (The Funnies 059, 1941)

    Another, very cheeky Death, very appropriately wearing a mask. (The Funnies 062, 1941)

    Presented Without Comment: 

    (The Funnies 062, 1941)

    Honours:

    Both the Purple Zombie and Chico, creator of the Mechanized Skeleton(s) receive medals for defending an unspecified European nation from the death ray of an unspecified fascist nation, while Chico’s skeleton troops get a hero’s burial. (Reg’lar Fellers Heroic Comics 006, 1941)

  • NOTES – MAY 2026

    Panel Fun:

    Don’t know how I could’ve skipped this the first time I read through these comics, but here we are: Amazing-Man suplexing an angry bull. (Amazing-Man Comics 012, 1940)

  • NOTES – MAY 2026

    Panel Fun:

    Don’t know how I could’ve skipped this the first time I read through these comics, but here we are: Amazing-Man suplexing an angry bull. (Amazing-Man Comics 012, 1940)

  • NOTES – AUGUST 2025

     

    Big Head Futurites:

    Just a fun illustration of the concept of future humans being big-headed weirdos, from the “Brick Bradford” Sunday strip for 5 December, 1937 

    Honours – Thor, God of Thunder: 

    Grant Farrel, aka Thor, God of Thunder, gets a medal in his role in defending the US from invasion by fascist Gratnia. Note that it is Grant and not Thor who gets the medal, because Grant does a lousy job of protecting his secret identity. (Weird Comics 003, 1940)

    Honours – Typhon: 

    Honoured at the Inter-Ocean Congress for stopping the dastardly Menar. (Weird Comics 006, 1940)

    Panel Fun: 

    Just good clean fun with bad spelling as Thor heads to Tibet to warn the Grand Llama about an impending bandit attack. (Weird Comics 004, 1940)

  • IT’S CALLED “NO, AND”

    (Target Comics v1 007-008)

    The of these two selections is from the end of the Bull’s-Eye Bill story in Target Comics v1 007 and the second is from the beginning of the story in 008, and while the artist is clearly different it’s a bit hard to tell if the writer has also changed. Anyhow, shout out to whichever member of the team looked at that absolute 100% lead-in to an adventure in an underground prehistoric enclave, said “I don’t want to write and/or draw a bunch of cowboy vs dinosaur shit” and had them just walk back out of the cave into a story about Hollywood location scouts instead.

    (I haven’t read far enough to see if lone African American cast member Happy ever reappears after unceremoniously being left out of the second issue but if he doesn’t I’m going to assume that he at least heeded the call to adventure and is off somewhere riding a quetzalcoatlus and having fun instead of punching cows all day)

  • NOTES – MAY 2025

    Cops Shooting at Fleeing Suspects: 

    The Raven, a nonviolent thief who crucial only steals ill-gotten gains from the wealthy and powerful, draws a lot of police fire over the course of his activities. (Sure-Fire Comics 002, 1940)

    Treasury agent blazes away at a fleeing diamond smuggler in the middle of NYC. (Target Comics v1 004, 1940)

    A Good Line to Exit A Burning Building With:

    Especially if you have no intention of being a waffle. (Sure-Fire Comics 002, 1940)

    Insufficiently Advanced: 

    This “aging machine” has to be the most low-rent bit of alien tech ever featured in any bit of fiction. Just locking someone up for fifty years isn’t a particularly impressive feat of extraterrestrial engineering, so-called King of the Brainmen. (Sure-Fire Comics 003b, 1940)

    The March of Progress:

    A fun exercise in just how recent the Satanic Panic and its preoccupations were: this puzzle, in which a goat-man demonstrates how to draw an inverted pentagram, is presented as a fun activity for kids, something that would have caused an American parent from c.1987 to spontaneously combust with the speed at which they would have been travelling to contact the authorities/the news media/the evangelical church. (Famous Funnies 054, 1939)

  • NOTES – MAY 2025

    Cops Shooting at Fleeing Suspects: 

    The Raven, a nonviolent thief who crucial only steals ill-gotten gains from the wealthy and powerful, draws a lot of police fire over the course of his activities. (Sure-Fire Comics 002, 1940)

    Treasury agent blazes away at a fleeing diamond smuggler in the middle of NYC. (Target Comics v1 004, 1940)

    A Good Line to Exit A Burning Building With:

    Especially if you have no intention of being a waffle. (Sure-Fire Comics 002, 1940)

    Insufficiently Advanced: 

    This “aging machine” has to be the most low-rent bit of alien tech ever featured in any bit of fiction. Just locking someone up for fifty years isn’t a particularly impressive feat of extraterrestrial engineering, so-called King of the Brainmen. (Sure-Fire Comics 003b, 1940)

    The March of Progress:

    A fun exercise in just how recent the Satanic Panic and its preoccupations were: this puzzle, in which a goat-man demonstrates how to draw an inverted pentagram, is presented as a fun activity for kids, something that would have caused an American parent from c.1987 to spontaneously combust with the speed at which they would have been travelling to contact the authorities/the news media/the evangelical church. (Famous Funnies 054, 1939)

  • NOTES – NOVEMBER 2024

    Honours: 

    Wonder Boy is generically honoured by all of Europe for stopping a Mongol invasion. (National Comics 001, 1940)

    Panel Fun:

    I don’t normally have enough time or inclination to read the text portions of old comics but I do often enjoy the illustrations accompanying them, especially including this cake man who menaces the Yankee Doodle Boy, whoever he is. (National Comics 006, 1940)

  • NOTES – APRIL 2024 PART II

    NOTES – APRIL 2024 PART II

    Ran out of tags again.

    Cops Shoot: 

    The cops in whatever city Inferno lives in are trying to kill him because they think he did a robbery and is running away. (Blue Ribbon Comics 018, 1941)

    The cops try to kill Captain Flag twice in this issue! This time he’s breaking jail after being arrested for murder, but still. (Blue Ribbon Comics 019, 1941)

    Panel Fun:

    “Dixie Dugan” Comic, 1932

  • NOTES – APRIL 2024 PART II

    NOTES – APRIL 2024 PART II

    Ran out of tags again.

    Cops Shoot: 

    The cops in whatever city Inferno lives in are trying to kill him because they think he did a robbery and is running away. (Blue Ribbon Comics 018, 1941)

    The cops try to kill Captain Flag twice in this issue! This time he’s breaking jail after being arrested for murder, but still. (Blue Ribbon Comics 019, 1941)

    Panel Fun:

    “Dixie Dugan” Comic, 1932