The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: Fawcett Comics

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 170: THE BLACK SPIDER

    (Bulletman 001, 1941)

    What makes them a super-villain? The Black Spider is Jules Rey, a French crook who got caught in NYC and shipped back to France, where he was thrown in a dungeon, went blind, befriended the spiders in his cell and escaped. Now he’s back for revenge on those he blames for his circumstances, including Jim “Bulletman” Barr and his coworker and future father-in-law Sergeant Kent. Plus he dresses in a kind of low-rent Batman costume.

    What is interesting about them? Mostly that there is no actual indication in-comic that this guy is either blind or French, other than when they say he is late in the comic. Also he dies for no real reason, just a “he’s dead!”.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 170: THE BLACK SPIDER

    (Bulletman 001, 1941)

    What makes them a super-villain? The Black Spider is Jules Rey, a French crook who got caught in NYC and shipped back to France, where he was thrown in a dungeon, went blind, befriended the spiders in his cell and escaped. Now he’s back for revenge on those he blames for his circumstances, including Jim “Bulletman” Barr and his coworker and future father-in-law Sergeant Kent. Plus he dresses in a kind of low-rent Batman costume.

    What is interesting about them? Mostly that there is no actual indication in-comic that this guy is either blind or French, other than when they say he is late in the comic. Also he dies for no real reason, just a “he’s dead!”.

  • NOTES – SEPTEMBER 2022

    Places: 

    The Chandler Building, seen here, is “half a mile high”. In other words, about the same height as the Burj Khalifa! What a win for not-yet-Fawcett-City-but-not-quite-New-York-City! Even if the top does get blown off in this story! (Captain Marvel Adventures 003, 1941)

    Decoration:

    Really really excellent custom motivational poster hanging in Dr Sivana’s hideout. (Captain Marvel Adventures 005, 1941)

    WWI vets: Richard “Madam Fatal” Stanton (Crack Comics 002, 1940)

  • NOTES – SEPTEMBER 2022

    NOTES – SEPTEMBER 2022

    Places: 

    The Chandler Building, seen here, is “half a mile high”. In other words, about the same height as the Burj Khalifa! What a win for not-yet-Fawcett-City-but-not-quite-New-York-City! Even if the top does get blown off in this story! (Captain Marvel Adventures 003, 1941)

    Decoration:

    Really really excellent custom motivational poster hanging in Dr Sivana’s hideout. (Captain Marvel Adventures 005, 1941)

    WWI vets: Richard “Madam Fatal” Stanton (Crack Comics 002, 1940)

  • HONOURS – CAPTAIN MARVEL

    (Captain Marvel Adventures 002, 1941)

    Captain Marvel gets a statue!

  • TROPHY ROOM – CAPTAIN MARVEL

    (Captain Marvel Adventures 001, 1941)

    Captain Marvel has a whole-ass spaceship that he took off a guy (though it does get blown up this ish).

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 128: THE ANT QUEEN

    (Slam-Bang Comics 006, 1940) 

    If there’s one thing that leavens my disdain for jungle comics, it’s that there are some real fun villain tropes in ’em, and one of the best is “human raised by animals who disdains civilization”, and the Ant Queen is one of the most fun

    She was raised by giant ants! That’s so great! She controls them with her lil antennae! I love her!

    I mean I guess you could look at the “traitor to your own kind” stuff that the Jungle King is spouting in that last panel as a version of the white supremacy that old jungle and adventure comics were rife with, wherein the greatest crime was e.g. a white person taking the side of another race over that of other white people, but maybe we’ll leave that for another time – the White Renegade is coming up in a few months, anyway. No for now let’s just enjoy how much the Ant Queen rules.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 127: THE SKY DEMON

    (Slam-Bang Comics 006, 1940) 

    The Sky Demon is a heretofore-unseen old enemy of Diamond Jack who starts strong with an overall Satanic look and a little skull on the front of his trunks – just the right amount of accessorizing to make a pretty basic super-outfit pop.

    I also love his plot to conquer Earth and/or wipe out humanity: get some gorillas, give them wings and revolvers and let them loose. I can’t say whether or not his plan would have succeeded because he was fatally prevented from carrying it out by Diamond Jack.

    Gorilla-based schemes aside, I really like the parallel of Diamond Jack the magic ring-powered hero vs the Sky Demon and his little magic cape. A sub-ecosystem of heroes and villains weilding magic items of various kinds sounds like it could be interesting comics fodder!

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 127: THE SKY DEMON

    (Slam-Bang Comics 006, 1940) 

    The Sky Demon is a heretofore-unseen old enemy of Diamond Jack who starts strong with an overall Satanic look and a little skull on the front of his trunks – just the right amount of accessorizing to make a pretty basic super-outfit pop.

    I also love his plot to conquer Earth and/or wipe out humanity: get some gorillas, give them wings and revolvers and let them loose. I can’t say whether or not his plan would have succeeded because he was fatally prevented from carrying it out by Diamond Jack.

    Gorilla-based schemes aside, I really like the parallel of Diamond Jack the magic ring-powered hero vs the Sky Demon and his little magic cape. A sub-ecosystem of heroes and villains weilding magic items of various kinds sounds like it could be interesting comics fodder!

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAINS 126: THE WITCH-MASTER

    (Slam-Bang Comics 005, 1940) 

    An early entry in the grand tradition of comic book characters that indirectly make the assertion that the Salem Witch Trials were entirely justified, since Salem was crawling with actual, factual witches such as this dapper fellow.


    See? Witches were real and they summoned fire devils and tried to sacrifice pure-hearted time-travelling children to them!

    The foils to this dastardly and historically accurate fiend are teacher Rodney Kent and his pupil/ ward Mark Swift, two prime examples of a comics type: time travelers who have precisely zero concept of not leaping in to express good old 20th Century American values no matter what time period they find themselves in.