Production on these Media in Comics showcases must sadly slow down now, for I have worked my way through my backlog. As evidence of this, today we are showcasing some magical books, which are genrally unique items that fall under nobody’s definition of mass media but which I want to include anyway, for fun’s sake.
Books of Magic:
You all remember the fabled Black Book of Sorcery that the wicked Egyptologist Ford committed all those murders for, well here it is! Until Mr Justice wipes its pages with a convenient self-destruct spell contained within it, that is.
Origin: Ancient Egyptian
Status: Destroyed (Jackpot Comics 003, 1941)
The Lost Book of Thoth, containing all the magics of sunken Atlantis, is supposed to rest on the bottom of the Nile under the watchful eye of an immortal serpent. The plans of mice and men and whoever is in charge of everlasting snakes often go astray, alas, and the book is stolen by an unnamed mage and nearly used to destroy the world. Having solved that particular problem, Dr Fate doesn’t take any chances and reduces the book to a powder.
Origin: Ancient Atlantis
Status: Destroyed (More Fun Comics 058, 1941)
The Secrets of the Priests of Zoraster (sic) might not be the official title of the book used by Haldane the Sorcerer, but it’s a pretty good title for a made-up book of magic and we have no other options. This one gets left behind in a secret passage rather than being destroyed, so it’s technically up for grabs.
Origin: Persian?
Status: Extant (More Fun Comics 063, 1941)
Though Sin Khaii is an apostate Tibetan Buddhist, the Book of the Dead that he is referencing here is more likely to be the Egyptian on than the Tibetan, as he is using it to research the Black Pharaoh. He also casts spells out of it later!
Origin: Ancient Egyptian
Status: Extant (Silver Streak Comics 014, 1941)
Theatre:
Detective Larry Steele is called to the set of Jealousy to look into threats against star Laverne James, and then stays to solve the murder of Laverne James. More interesting than the murder mystery, however, is the mystery of just what is going on in this production.
We don’t actually see any of the on-stage action, but the costuming is extremely intriguing: James’ co-stars John Temple and Jan Gabrielle are dressed like off-model commedia dell’arte characters, while she looks more like a character from a Southern Gothic. Finally we have Peggy, who is part of the chorus line and is dressed like she is in a high-budget napkin advertisement. It’s a baffling selection. (Detective Comics v1 047, 1941)
Swastika Over Europe is a play designed to rally American support for the beleaguered nations of the Continent and as such is a target for sabotage by Nazi fifth columnists, as seen here when lead actor Opperman is murdered on-stage. (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 023, 1941)
Here we have The Creep, a play written expressly to warn the people of NYC about the threat of Crime & Corruption, Inc. I guess it works, because Johnny Thunder slapsticks them out of existence. (Flash Comics 013, 1941)
Ordinarily getting such a good view of the stage would be very exciting to me as it would be a chance to divine some information about the production. Alas, this is an opera called The Masked Ball and so the only thing we can learn is that someone at the titular ball has come dressed as a police officer. (More Fun Comics 067, 1941)
The Superstition Murders is of course the play written by Johnny Glim the alter ego of the villainous Masked Man, who commits a series of superstition-themed murders in the hopes of tanking the production and thus securing the movie rights for his work. Though the motivation for the fictional killer is unrevealed, this seems to essentially be what the play is about as well. (Batman Comics v1 008, 1941)
Though there are many fine plays about the lives of the wealthy, there is no way The Vandgilts, about a real-life family who are on good enough terms with the production to lend them half a million dollars worth of jewellery, isn’t complete sycophantic mush. Luckily the Joker spices things up by robbing the actors mid-performance. (Batman Comics v1 008, 1941)
