The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: Sparkler

  • REAL PERSON ROUND-UP 018

    World leaders and others. 

    Adolf Hitler: 

    I’m pretty sure that the “Navy Jones” strip is set in an undefined near-future time, which makes the Dictator of Europe here a future analog of Adolf Hitler rather than a stand-in for him. I’m almost certain that that’s the case. Anyway, he tries to invade the US with a fleet of amphibious tanks and gets his ass handed to him by Navy Jones and his fish men. (Weird Comics 008, 1940)

    Chiang Kai-shek and Soong Mei-ling: 

    Styled as Madame and Generalissimo “Kang Shy-check,” the former comes to adventurer Shanghai Sheridan for aid after the latter is captured by Japanese collaborator Wu Fang. (Top-Notch Comics 005, 1940)

    Clyde Beatty: 

    Famous animal trainer and circus mogul Clyde Beatty had a long-running strip across several Dell Comics titles, though given that the supporting cast and premise tended to reset to zero every time the strip changed hands it might be more accurate to say that he had a sequential series of features linked only by his presence. (Crackajack Funnies 001, 1938)

    Franklin Delano Roosevelt:

    A fairly off-model FDR chairs an emergency meeting to discuss what to do about an alien invasion. (War Comics 002, 1940)

    J Edgar Hoover: 

    The Sparkler accepts an assignment from “head G-Man”/his old college roommate’s dad M.L. Roover. (Wham Comics 002, 1940)

    Sténio Vincent: 

    I don’t necessarily trust the creators of the “Voodoo Man” feature to even remember that it is set in Haiti, let alone go to the trouble to accurately represent Haiti’s president on-panel, so I have to give it to them: this is an okay drawing of Sténio Vincent, the President of Haiti c. 1940. Was it done on purpose? Nobody can say. (Weird Comics 004, 1940) 

    Gaius Marius & Sulla: 

    It’s impossible to be certain if Marius and Sulla, the Roman figures associated with the origin of super-hero the Dart, are in fact meant to be Gaius Marius and Sulla, the political figures from the late Roman Republic, but the timeline almost matches up. Plus, there really weren’t that many Sullas running around Rome. (Weird Comics 005, 1940) 

    Mata Hari: 

    Just a notorious spy named Hattie Mary in the comedy melodrama comic strip “Hairbreadth Harry”. (Famous Funnies 074, 1940) 

    Winston Churchill: 

    Inspector Blake of Scotland Yard is called to 10 Downing Street to talk to the Prime Minister, and it sure doesn’t look like he’s Winston Churchill. I do like to roast comics for not getting the appearances of world leaders right, but when it’s somewhere like Madagascar you might at least have the excuse that finding a picture of the current leader of that country might be difficult in the US in 1940, but surely this not so for the Prime Minister of the UK.

    The other possible defense for this, of course, is that this comic came out in June 1940 and Churchill took power in April so Neville Chamberlain might still have been PM when this was drawn, but this is hampered somewhat by the fact that it doesn’t really look like him either. (Whirlwind Comics 001, 1940)

  • REAL PERSON ROUND-UP 018

    World leaders and others. 

    Adolf Hitler: 

    I’m pretty sure that the “Navy Jones” strip is set in an undefined near-future time, which makes the Dictator of Europe here a future analog of Adolf Hitler rather than a stand-in for him. I’m almost certain that that’s the case. Anyway, he tries to invade the US with a fleet of amphibious tanks and gets his ass handed to him by Navy Jones and his fish men. (Weird Comics 008, 1940)

    Chiang Kai-shek and Soong Mei-ling: 

    Styled as Madame and Generalissimo “Kang Shy-check,” the former comes to adventurer Shanghai Sheridan for aid after the latter is captured by Japanese collaborator Wu Fang. (Top-Notch Comics 005, 1940)

    Clyde Beatty: 

    Famous animal trainer and circus mogul Clyde Beatty had a long-running strip across several Dell Comics titles, though given that the supporting cast and premise tended to reset to zero every time the strip changed hands it might be more accurate to say that he had a sequential series of features linked only by his presence. (Crackajack Funnies 001, 1938)

    Franklin Delano Roosevelt:

    A fairly off-model FDR chairs an emergency meeting to discuss what to do about an alien invasion. (War Comics 002, 1940)

    J Edgar Hoover: 

    The Sparkler accepts an assignment from “head G-Man”/his old college roommate’s dad M.L. Roover. (Wham Comics 002, 1940)

    Sténio Vincent: 

    I don’t necessarily trust the creators of the “Voodoo Man” feature to even remember that it is set in Haiti, let alone go to the trouble to accurately represent Haiti’s president on-panel, so I have to give it to them: this is an okay drawing of Sténio Vincent, the President of Haiti c. 1940. Was it done on purpose? Nobody can say. (Weird Comics 004, 1940) 

    Gaius Marius & Sulla: 

    It’s impossible to be certain if Marius and Sulla, the Roman figures associated with the origin of super-hero the Dart, are in fact meant to be Gaius Marius and Sulla, the political figures from the late Roman Republic, but the timeline almost matches up. Plus, there really weren’t that many Sullas running around Rome. (Weird Comics 005, 1940) 

    Mata Hari: 

    Just a notorious spy named Hattie Mary in the comedy melodrama comic strip “Hairbreadth Harry”. (Famous Funnies 074, 1940) 

    Winston Churchill: 

    Inspector Blake of Scotland Yard is called to 10 Downing Street to talk to the Prime Minister, and it sure doesn’t look like he’s Winston Churchill. I do like to roast comics for not getting the appearances of world leaders right, but when it’s somewhere like Madagascar you might at least have the excuse that finding a picture of the current leader of that country might be difficult in the US in 1940, but surely this not so for the Prime Minister of the UK.

    The other possible defense for this, of course, is that this comic came out in June 1940 and Churchill took power in April so Neville Chamberlain might still have been PM when this was drawn, but this is hampered somewhat by the fact that it doesn’t really look like him either. (Whirlwind Comics 001, 1940)

  • GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 026

    A wretched and motley crew for ye this day. 

    Mikal, leader of the undersea pirates, is an evocative figure who exists only to pad out the Typhon story that he appears in by a couple of pages. In an attempt to aid his ally, the king of the Sea Demons, he gets off one good hydro-jet blast at Typhon’s submarine before he and his entire undersea fortress are annihilated by the sub’s hydro-ray. (Weird Comics 005, 1940)

    Friends, I am 100% sure that “the War Maniac” is just being used as a standard 1939-1941 paper-thin obfuscation of the fact that they’re talking about Hitler, and yet it’s such an excellent villain name that I am compelled to make note of it as if it were describing an armoured giant from a 60s Jack Kirby comic. (Weird Comics 007, 1940)

    The Boss, leader of a gang that targets the members of a private club that the Eagle belongs to in his secret identity of Bill Powers, turns out to be Rider, the club secretary, who might have been a great gang boss but really should have thought to keep his huge and distinctive wrist scar covered up in at least one of his identities. (Weird Comics 008, 1940)

    Queen Marie is a gang boss who styles herself as royalty, which just barely lines up with her diamond-smuggling concerns. I would call it a 100% charming affectation if her definition of queendom didn’t include having a throne room dotted with African slaves. Queen or not, her gang beat up by the Sparkler and she gets shipped off the the hoosegow. (Wham Comics 002, 1940)

  • GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 026

    A wretched and motley crew for ye this day. 

    Mikal, leader of the undersea pirates, is an evocative figure who exists only to pad out the Typhon story that he appears in by a couple of pages. In an attempt to aid his ally, the king of the Sea Demons, he gets off one good hydro-jet blast at Typhon’s submarine before he and his entire undersea fortress are annihilated by the sub’s hydro-ray. (Weird Comics 005, 1940)

    Friends, I am 100% sure that “the War Maniac” is just being used as a standard 1939-1941 paper-thin obfuscation of the fact that they’re talking about Hitler, and yet it’s such an excellent villain name that I am compelled to make note of it as if it were describing an armoured giant from a 60s Jack Kirby comic. (Weird Comics 007, 1940)

    The Boss, leader of a gang that targets the members of a private club that the Eagle belongs to in his secret identity of Bill Powers, turns out to be Rider, the club secretary, who might have been a great gang boss but really should have thought to keep his huge and distinctive wrist scar covered up in at least one of his identities. (Weird Comics 008, 1940)

    Queen Marie is a gang boss who styles herself as royalty, which just barely lines up with her diamond-smuggling concerns. I would call it a 100% charming affectation if her definition of queendom didn’t include having a throne room dotted with African slaves. Queen or not, her gang beat up by the Sparkler and she gets shipped off the the hoosegow. (Wham Comics 002, 1940)

  • MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 046

    Enjoy these ancient delights!

    the Black Spider:

    Mild-mannered district attorney Ralph Nelson, like many comic book lawmen, sallies forth at night in order to deal with criminals that the law can’t touch. Nelson is despised by his colleague Police Inspector Stern for being too soft on crime/ dedicated to the letter of the law to allow the cops to torture confessions out of people, while the Black Spider is hated by Stern for showing up the police by being so good at torturing confessions out of people. It’s a real dichotomy!

    Nelson’s secretary Peggy Dodge has a classic “love one identity and hate the other” relationship with the Black Spider and her boss that gets resolved when she learns his secret during the first Black Spider adventure. It’s a nice change of pace from your standard Lois/Clark arrangement, plus Peggy has the distinction of being one of the few noncostumed super-heroic aides to remember to wear a mask while on crime-fighting duty! (Super-Mystery Comics 003, 1940)

    Davey: 

    One day while fighting crime, Magno rescues Carole Landis and her kid brother Davey from a bombed-out building and learns about the crime that they were investigating and also that Davey is such a big Magno fan that he has his own Magno costume and also would Magno like to see it? Magno of course gives the kid the old brush-off.

    Seeing as he first met this kid after he had tagged along with his sister on a dangerous assignment, it should not have surprised Magno to find Davey chasing him down the street in full Magno cosplay. The two get mixed up in various life-or-death situations before Magno can get rid of Davey and by the time things calm down they have formed a battle-bond or something. Magno figures out how to temporarily give Davey a portion of his powers for about an hour (the time limit gets dropped eventually, presumably because bookkeeping isn’t very fun) and becomes the latest in a long line of super-heroes to have a sidekick with no code name. (Super-Mystery Comics v1 004, 1940)

    the Sparkler: 

    Red Morgan’s father has invented an invisibility suit, but what he should have been working on was a don’t-blab-your-secrets-all-over-town suit, because the local gang boss Baldy Spade has heard that there’s some big scientific discovery in the works and has sent a guy to kill Morgan Senior and steal it. A vengeance-minded Red dons the suit and exacts justice on Baldy before going on to have a handful of adventures as the Sparkler, so named because the suit flashes and sparks as it returns to its user to visibility. (Super Spy 001, 1940)

    the Night Hawk: 

    Horse Rancher John Rogers was murdered some time ago, and his unnamed son has seemingly wandered the West ever since, doing vigilante justice while looking for murderer Baldy Crane. In his one recorded adventure he finally locates and guns him down before riding into the sunset. (Super Spy 002, 1940)

  • MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 046

    Enjoy these ancient delights!

    the Black Spider:

    Mild-mannered district attorney Ralph Nelson, like many comic book lawmen, sallies forth at night in order to deal with criminals that the law can’t touch. Nelson is despised by his colleague Police Inspector Stern for being too soft on crime/ dedicated to the letter of the law to allow the cops to torture confessions out of people, while the Black Spider is hated by Stern for showing up the police by being so good at torturing confessions out of people. It’s a real dichotomy!

    Nelson’s secretary Peggy Dodge has a classic “love one identity and hate the other” relationship with the Black Spider and her boss that gets resolved when she learns his secret during the first Black Spider adventure. It’s a nice change of pace from your standard Lois/Clark arrangement, plus Peggy has the distinction of being one of the few noncostumed super-heroic aides to remember to wear a mask while on crime-fighting duty! (Super-Mystery Comics 003, 1940)

    Davey: 

    One day while fighting crime, Magno rescues Carole Landis and her kid brother Davey from a bombed-out building and learns about the crime that they were investigating and also that Davey is such a big Magno fan that he has his own Magno costume and also would Magno like to see it? Magno of course gives the kid the old brush-off.

    Seeing as he first met this kid after he had tagged along with his sister on a dangerous assignment, it should not have surprised Magno to find Davey chasing him down the street in full Magno cosplay. The two get mixed up in various life-or-death situations before Magno can get rid of Davey and by the time things calm down they have formed a battle-bond or something. Magno figures out how to temporarily give Davey a portion of his powers for about an hour (the time limit gets dropped eventually, presumably because bookkeeping isn’t very fun) and becomes the latest in a long line of super-heroes to have a sidekick with no code name. (Super-Mystery Comics v1 004, 1940)

    the Sparkler: 

    Red Morgan’s father has invented an invisibility suit, but what he should have been working on was a don’t-blab-your-secrets-all-over-town suit, because the local gang boss Baldy Spade has heard that there’s some big scientific discovery in the works and has sent a guy to kill Morgan Senior and steal it. A vengeance-minded Red dons the suit and exacts justice on Baldy before going on to have a handful of adventures as the Sparkler, so named because the suit flashes and sparks as it returns to its user to visibility. (Super Spy 001, 1940)

    the Night Hawk: 

    Horse Rancher John Rogers was murdered some time ago, and his unnamed son has seemingly wandered the West ever since, doing vigilante justice while looking for murderer Baldy Crane. In his one recorded adventure he finally locates and guns him down before riding into the sunset. (Super Spy 002, 1940)