The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: Fawcett Comics

  • GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 006

    MORE! MORE!

    Another Nazi spy-cell headed by a guy in a cloth mask called the Leader, this time in Switzerland for a bit of variety. (Captain America Comics 009, 1941)

    Having just read a year’s worth of Jumbo Comics, I can tell you that this guy here, name of Sam Bradford, is the closest thing to a super-villain in them and it’s mostly because of the decent outfit. He’s an agent who kills a producer or something because of professional reasons – strictly snoozeville. (Jumbo Comics 033, 1941)

    This creep is Mark Giddings, who kidnaps Eve Scott, daughter of NYC Mayor Scott because she turned down his advances. Somehow he thought that extorting the mayor to resign via threats of dismembering his daughter would net him both the job and the girl but in reality he just got socked by Bulletman. (Master Comics 011, 1941)

    This fella answers to the name of Operator G-6, and he’s the very first foe faced by patriotic hero Minute-Man. Also the first person summarily thrown off a train to his death by Minute-Man. (Master Comics 011, 1941)

  • GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 006

    MORE! MORE!

    Another Nazi spy-cell headed by a guy in a cloth mask called the Leader, this time in Switzerland for a bit of variety. (Captain America Comics 009, 1941)

    Having just read a year’s worth of Jumbo Comics, I can tell you that this guy here, name of Sam Bradford, is the closest thing to a super-villain in them and it’s mostly because of the decent outfit. He’s an agent who kills a producer or something because of professional reasons – strictly snoozeville. (Jumbo Comics 033, 1941)

    This creep is Mark Giddings, who kidnaps Eve Scott, daughter of NYC Mayor Scott because she turned down his advances. Somehow he thought that extorting the mayor to resign via threats of dismembering his daughter would net him both the job and the girl but in reality he just got socked by Bulletman. (Master Comics 011, 1941)

    This fella answers to the name of Operator G-6, and he’s the very first foe faced by patriotic hero Minute-Man. Also the first person summarily thrown off a train to his death by Minute-Man. (Master Comics 011, 1941)

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 345: THE WHITE ARROW

    (Master Comics 008-011, 1940-1941)

    A regular-style Old West outlaw chief with the somewhat lyrical name of Santos Figaro, the White Arrow’s main distinction is that he was a multi-issue rather than one-off foe of Marshal Buck Jones.  

    Jones himself is far more interesting than poor Santos Figaro, being a real-life cowboy actor cast as an Old West lawman (probably – I think I’ve mentioned before that the media of the 1930s-40s doesn’t draw a lot of distinction between the Old West and the contemporary West and that sometimes the only way you find out that a series is one or the other is 50 instalments in when the protagonist hops a plane to Chicago). Jones replaced former marshal Bill Crane in Master Comics 006 in a sadly lost-to-history adventure that might contain clues as to whether he was the Buck Jones or just a Buck Jones. 

    Regardless, the “Buck Jones, Frontier Marshal” feature closed its doors after the real Buck Jones died in 1942. Given that, it is somewhat ironic that Master Comics was one of the books to eventually carry the adventures of Old West cowboy Tom Mix based on the Western actor who had died in 1940.

    UPDATE: I finally got to read Master Comics 006, in which Buck Jones takes over for Bill Crane, and it’s almost but not quite as unclear about the time period as the issues I already had access to. Buck Jones is a famous actor moving to what is effectively the past for a bit of a break from modern life and when Crane is wounded he is sworn in as the new marshal. Jones is simultaneously a recognizable celebrity and living in a place with no technology more modern than the steam engine. Baffling!

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 344: THE HORNED MASKS

    (Master Comics 009, 1940)

    Like the Blue Devils before them, the Horned Masks dressed up in robes and cowls and took over a small town. In the Masks. case, it’s a very small town up in the Ozarks and they go about things less like a gang and more like an offshoot of the Klan with all sorts of nonsense ceremony to what amounts to extortion on a grand scale. Unlucky for them that Zoro the Mystery Man happens to pass through town, leading to their dissolution.

  • MINOR SUPER-HERO 041: ZORO THE MYSTERY MAN

    (Slam-Bang Comics 006-007, Master Comics 007-022, 1940-1942)

    It’s easy to quantify Zoro because his name says it all: he is a Mystery Man – nobody knows anything about him: nation of origin, real name, nothing. He has an amazing outfit and a sword cane and a pet cheetah named Cheeta. 

    Zoro hangs out a swanky clubs and parties and visits his swanky friends and occasionally gets involved in the mysteries that crop up in such circles. Does he have super powers? Maybe! Or maybe he’s just a gifted illusionist – who knows? He’s a MYSTERY MAN.

    (Zoro should absolutely be BRUNG BACK with absolutely no explanation of what he’s been doing for the last 80 years. I HAVE SPOKEN)

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 343: THE TWISTER

    (Master Comics 008, 1940)

    Not a particularly distinguished entry today: the Twister is a gang boss who employs child pickpockets and keeps them in line with the threat of some semi-eponymous neck-twisting. No idea why he bothers with the robe and cowl – El Carim doesn’t even bother to unmask him.

    More fun than the Twister himself, in fact, is that his old gang is loyal enough to try to take revenge on El Carim in the next issue – a rare bit of continuity for the Golden Age.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 342: THE MASTER

    MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 342: THE MASTER

    (Master Comics 007, 1940)

    Once more we find ourselves with a cult on our hands, and it’s my favourite kind of cult: a) completely fictional and b) just a bunch of bored rich people taking what probably started as an excuse for some light swinging or BDSM way too seriously. It’ the Cult of Jama the Devil-God, folks! Officially broken up by the US government in 1919, they have in fact been lurking in the shadows of the probably-New York upper crust since then, with a particular focus on molding wealthy orphan Imelda Loree (born on the Feast Day of Jama, parents possibly murdered by the cult) into a living goddess figure. This process seems to require either virginity or some sort of spiritual isolation because the main thing tat they do to prepare her is to murder any man who even seems like he might be interested in her.

    And of course this is where my favourite Golden Age adventurer Zoro the Mystery Man comes in, because if there’s a society event where people are trying to hook up, it’s a fair bet that he’ll be there. He witnesses the fourth “keep Imelda Loree from getting any” murder and it’s at that point that the cult is finished.

    But what of this Master character, you ask? Why he’s Murdock Daw, leader of the cult and huge creep. In classic cult leader fashion, Daw has been duping the Jama cultists for decades in order to enrich himself, and in true creep fashion he seems to have been angling to marry Imelda Loree since she was roughly two years old, and even if I’m reading things wrong he has absolutely been having her suitors murdered in order to make her desperate enough to marry him – real creep behaviour, if you ask me.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 341: THE LEOPARD MEN/ MINOR SUPER-HERO 040: NEDDA, QUEEN OF THE ELEPHANTS

    (Master Comics 007, 1940)

    The Leopard Men are whatever. Groups of evil African (or South American or Indian or Native American etc etc) warriors who dress up like big cats or other animals are a dime a dozen in jungle adventures and I usually don’t find them noteworthy enough for inclusion here (also the racism inherent in the whole Jungle Adventure genre kind of dampens the ol’ enthusiasm).

    Why include them here? Why because they are the arch-foes of Nedda, Queen of the Elephants, of course! If there is one thing I like enough to take some of the bad Jungle Adventure taste out of my mouth, it’s the hint of a larger world inherent in one hero crossing paths with another. Like in Halloween 4, when Doctor Loomis hitches a ride with what is clearly another man on his way to confront a different evil in another, unseen movie. Or in this case, Lee “Jungle King” Granger finding himself in the middle of a Nedda, Queen of the Elephants story.

    I think I like Nedda, Queen of the Elephants a disproportionate amount precisely because she only appeared this once. She was raised by elephants, she battled the Leopard Men because they were after her herd’s tusks, she teamed up with Jungle King and Eric the Lion. FINIS. No additional baggage. Never bring her back because it can only go downhill from there.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 341: THE LEOPARD MEN/ MINOR SUPER-HERO 040: NEDDA, QUEEN OF THE ELEPHANTS

    (Master Comics 007, 1940)

    The Leopard Men are whatever. Groups of evil African (or South American or Indian or Native American etc etc) warriors who dress up like big cats or other animals are a dime a dozen in jungle adventures and I usually don’t find them noteworthy enough for inclusion here (also the racism inherent in the whole Jungle Adventure genre kind of dampens the ol’ enthusiasm).

    Why include them here? Why because they are the arch-foes of Nedda, Queen of the Elephants, of course! If there is one thing I like enough to take some of the bad Jungle Adventure taste out of my mouth, it’s the hint of a larger world inherent in one hero crossing paths with another. Like in Halloween 4, when Doctor Loomis hitches a ride with what is clearly another man on his way to confront a different evil in another, unseen movie. Or in this case, Lee “Jungle King” Granger finding himself in the middle of a Nedda, Queen of the Elephants story.

    I think I like Nedda, Queen of the Elephants a disproportionate amount precisely because she only appeared this once. She was raised by elephants, she battled the Leopard Men because they were after her herd’s tusks, she teamed up with Jungle King and Eric the Lion. FINIS. No additional baggage. Never bring her back because it can only go downhill from there.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 340: THE SEA-DEVIL

    (Master Comics 007, 1940)

    Let’s start with the good things about the Sea-Devil: he’s part of one of my favourite super-villain traditions: the guy who dresses up like a creature in order to play off of local superstitions. Nothing specific in this case – he’s just banking on the local oyster divers not wanting to contend with a mysterious horned humanoid while they’re trying to earn an already dangerous living. To that end, his costume isn’t the most elaborate fake sea monster in comics, though it does have a certain minimalist charm.

    The rest of the story is depressingly familiar. The Sea-Devil is a guy named Sam Mindoro, his motivation is to drive off the white guy who owns his ancestral lands and of course this makes him the worst kind of villain despite him not actually killing anyone while disrupting the extraction of wealth from the area. I mean he does try to kill Shipwreck Roberts and Deep Sea Doodle, which is a crime, but “wants his land back” and “inconveniences a white guy” are treated as much worse ones. Depressing stuff.

    ADDENDUM: Forgot to mention that this fellow is our first Filipino super-villain, for what it’s worth.