The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: Ibis the Invincible

  • DEMONIC ROUND-UP 004

    Look out! It’s the hordes of Hell!

    Storm-Demon: 

    Summoned by the evil magic-user Trug to destroy Ibis the Invincible and Taia, the Storm-Demon proves to be no match for the god Osiris, summoned by Ibis in self defense. Really appreciate the route one, “guy made out of storm clouds,” aesthetic of this fellow. (Whiz Comics 016, 1941)

    She-Devil:

    Despite the failure of his first demonic minion, Trug employs this She-Devil to lay in wait for Ibis and Taia along the path to his lair. I sincerely hope that this actually is a demon and not just a magically disguised fist-fightin’ lady hired by Trug to beat the tar out of them, because while Ibis is completely fooled by the “lady in distress” act, Taia is not so trusting and uses the Ibistick to light her up. (Whiz Comics 017, 1941)

    Unnamed Demon: 

    This unnamed demon, summoned by villainous magician the Half-Man as a
    weapon of mass destruction against his country’s enemies, is a bit generic but
    not every demon needs to be a star. Much more interesting is the Ancient Egyptian-themed being summoned by Taia to counter it. Just what is his deal and where did he get that cool flail? (Whiz Comics 024, 1941)

    Lucifer: 

    Though this version of Lucifer buys souls, lives in a place alternately called “Hades” and “the Inferno” and is, you know, named Lucifer, the text consistently refers to him as a “genii” rather than a demon. Who knows why but it’s a fact. 

    Never seen, this Lucifer has already bought the Claw’s soul at some point in the past and now lends him further power so that he can make one last attempt at destroying Daredevil. Why do this seemingly for free? Perhaps removing Daredevil from the playing field, rather than helping the Claw, is the goal. Or maybe Lucifer is just nice! 

    The Claw does not in fact manage to defeat Daredevil and is thereafter confined to the continent of Asia for his failure. For, like, one issue. (Silver Streak Comics 011, 1941) 

    Lucifer’s Minions: 

    In addition to the draconic Guard of the Gate of the Inferno above, Lucifer supplies the Claw with a variety of demonic beings to help him in his quest. A brief rundown: 

    Winged Beasts!

    Poison-Fanged Eagle-Men! 

    The Three-Headed Dragon! 

    Gigantic Snakes! (these ones are my favourites)

    And a general demonic rabble that includes a few of the types we saw before but more importantly that cool caveman-demon!

    Ultimately, the forces of Hades prove no match for Daredevil and his boomerang. Most of them end up buried under an avalanche, and while my RPG-influenced mind assumes that that means that they are all then banished back to Hell it’s entirely possible that they are just dead. (Silver Streak Comics 011, 1941)

  • DEMONIC ROUND-UP 004

    Look out! It’s the hordes of Hell!

    Storm-Demon: 

    Summoned by the evil magic-user Trug to destroy Ibis the Invincible and Taia, the Storm-Demon proves to be no match for the god Osiris, summoned by Ibis in self defense. Really appreciate the route one, “guy made out of storm clouds,” aesthetic of this fellow. (Whiz Comics 016, 1941)

    She-Devil:

    Despite the failure of his first demonic minion, Trug employs this She-Devil to lay in wait for Ibis and Taia along the path to his lair. I sincerely hope that this actually is a demon and not just a magically disguised fist-fightin’ lady hired by Trug to beat the tar out of them, because while Ibis is completely fooled by the “lady in distress” act, Taia is not so trusting and uses the Ibistick to light her up. (Whiz Comics 017, 1941)

    Unnamed Demon: 

    This unnamed demon, summoned by villainous magician the Half-Man as a
    weapon of mass destruction against his country’s enemies, is a bit generic but
    not every demon needs to be a star. Much more interesting is the Ancient Egyptian-themed being summoned by Taia to counter it. Just what is his deal and where did he get that cool flail? (Whiz Comics 024, 1941)

    Lucifer: 

    Though this version of Lucifer buys souls, lives in a place alternately called “Hades” and “the Inferno” and is, you know, named Lucifer, the text consistently refers to him as a “genii” rather than a demon. Who knows why but it’s a fact. 

    Never seen, this Lucifer has already bought the Claw’s soul at some point in the past and now lends him further power so that he can make one last attempt at destroying Daredevil. Why do this seemingly for free? Perhaps removing Daredevil from the playing field, rather than helping the Claw, is the goal. Or maybe Lucifer is just nice! 

    The Claw does not in fact manage to defeat Daredevil and is thereafter confined to the continent of Asia for his failure. For, like, one issue. (Silver Streak Comics 011, 1941) 

    Lucifer’s Minions: 

    In addition to the draconic Guard of the Gate of the Inferno above, Lucifer supplies the Claw with a variety of demonic beings to help him in his quest. A brief rundown: 

    Winged Beasts!

    Poison-Fanged Eagle-Men! 

    The Three-Headed Dragon! 

    Gigantic Snakes! (these ones are my favourites)

    And a general demonic rabble that includes a few of the types we saw before but more importantly that cool caveman-demon!

    Ultimately, the forces of Hades prove no match for Daredevil and his boomerang. Most of them end up buried under an avalanche, and while my RPG-influenced mind assumes that that means that they are all then banished back to Hell it’s entirely possible that they are just dead. (Silver Streak Comics 011, 1941)

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 911: RAMESES

    (Whiz Comics 025, 1941)

    We open in Egypt, where a group of partisans led by a fellow with the unlikely name of “Girbo, the Mad Mullah”* are brainstorming ways in which they might expel both the Germans and the British from their country, and Girbo has an innovative solution: he has procured the mummy of the Pharaoh Rameses, along with a vial of mummy-resurrection juice, and is going to bring the ancient king back to life to lead them. And it works!

    The problem that I am faced with here is that Egyptian history features a full eleven different rulers named Ramesses and just which one this was is not specified here. I was all fired up and ready to dig through the history of each one (on Wikipedia, at least), when I realized that there was a clear and obvious front-runner in the person of Ramesses II, ol’ Ozymandias himself, if only because he loomed largest in the public consciousness of the time as the presumed Pharaoh of the story of Exodus. 

    *while I’m not going to claim that the depiction of Egyptian Muslims in this story is good or even particularly sympathetic, you must believe me when I say that (aside from Girbo) these guys get about as sympathetic a depiction as you get in comics the 1940s, or indeed into the 80s. It’s a low bar but they cleared it.

    Rameses begins his campaign on a high note, with a raid on a British fort that establishes both his ruthlessness and complete invulnerability to bullets. One must pity his poor horse, however.

    Things take a turn when a Nazi officer shows up with the intention of allying with this new faction against the common British for, only to be slain at Rameses’ command. This violation of the flag of truce raises some concern amongst his followers but what really gets the talking is his assertion that he should be enough of a god for them and that they should abandon their faith to serve him.

    Having driven away his followers with his evil ways, Rameses drives home his point with magical snakes. 

    The loss of his followers means nothing to the undead Pharaoh, who simply raises an army of the dead to assist him in his next assault on the British forces. Meanwhile, Girbo attempts to slay Ibis the Invincible to prevent his further interference in their plans but is himself killed when Ibis proves his better in swordplay.

    Rameses’ undead forces, though formidable, are vulnerable to sunlight, something that the Ibistick can easily provide even though the mechanics of how it might have done so are troubling. But what to do with an eight foot tall megalomaniacal mummy-man? Things look hopeless until Rameses himself lets slip the fact that the only thing capable of containing him is his own tomb that Ibis is able to defeat him, by simply moving said tomb over top of the villain.

    Though Rameses is left to stew in the darkness, he is in fact one of Ibis the Invincible’s few recurring villains. We will see his bony face and weird mummy tonsure again.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 911: RAMESES

    MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 911: RAMESES

    (Whiz Comics 025, 1941)

    We open in Egypt, where a group of partisans led by a fellow with the unlikely name of “Girbo, the Mad Mullah”* are brainstorming ways in which they might expel both the Germans and the British from their country, and Girbo has an innovative solution: he has procured the mummy of the Pharaoh Rameses, along with a vial of mummy-resurrection juice, and is going to bring the ancient king back to life to lead them. And it works!

    The problem that I am faced with here is that Egyptian history features a full eleven different rulers named Ramesses and just which one this was is not specified here. I was all fired up and ready to dig through the history of each one (on Wikipedia, at least), when I realized that there was a clear and obvious front-runner in the person of Ramesses II, ol’ Ozymandias himself, if only because he loomed largest in the public consciousness of the time as the presumed Pharaoh of the story of Exodus. 

    *while I’m not going to claim that the depiction of Egyptian Muslims in this story is good or even particularly sympathetic, you must believe me when I say that (aside from Girbo) these guys get about as sympathetic a depiction as you get in comics the 1940s, or indeed into the 80s. It’s a low bar but they cleared it.

    Rameses begins his campaign on a high note, with a raid on a British fort that establishes both his ruthlessness and complete invulnerability to bullets. One must pity his poor horse, however.

    Things take a turn when a Nazi officer shows up with the intention of allying with this new faction against the common British for, only to be slain at Rameses’ command. This violation of the flag of truce raises some concern amongst his followers but what really gets the talking is his assertion that he should be enough of a god for them and that they should abandon their faith to serve him.

    Having driven away his followers with his evil ways, Rameses drives home his point with magical snakes. 

    The loss of his followers means nothing to the undead Pharaoh, who simply raises an army of the dead to assist him in his next assault on the British forces. Meanwhile, Girbo attempts to slay Ibis the Invincible to prevent his further interference in their plans but is himself killed when Ibis proves his better in swordplay.

    Rameses’ undead forces, though formidable, are vulnerable to sunlight, something that the Ibistick can easily provide even though the mechanics of how it might have done so are troubling. But what to do with an eight foot tall megalomaniacal mummy-man? Things look hopeless until Rameses himself lets slip the fact that the only thing capable of containing him is his own tomb that Ibis is able to defeat him, by simply moving said tomb over top of the villain.

    Though Rameses is left to stew in the darkness, he is in fact one of Ibis the Invincible’s few recurring villains. We will see his bony face and weird mummy tonsure again.

  • GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 034

    Since we’re currently reading Whiz Comics for 1941, it’s time yet again for another load of unscrupulous people to get their hands on the Ibistick and then kill themselves with it. And here they are:

    the Widow Zorn:

    Ibis lends the Ibistick to old Professor Grubb  for scientific study after Grubb finds it outside of an exploded building and uses its magic to restore the building and everyone inside – which included both Ibis and Taia, along with their their young ward Tommy – to wholeness and life. This isn’t a bad idea per se, as Grubb is an honest man, but he is also in love with the scheming Widow Zorn, who vamps it away from him in about two seconds flat.

    Zorn’s main interest is in conjuring up hunks to fight for her attention, so the damage potential in her having the Ibistick is a bit lower than some (although she does vaporize poor old Prof Grubb when he kicks off about it). She does of course try to kill Ibis with his own wand and ends up on the Moon for her trouble, but fortunately for her the reconstituted Grubb advocates for not letting her explode or whatever and she ends up falling for him after all. (Whiz Comics 012, 1941)

    Trug: 

    Trug gets his own super-villain entry, the jerk. 

    the Chief: 

    The Chief isn’t a villainous figure per se, but his role in the comic is close enough that I’ll say that he counts. The leader of an Inuit group subjugated by Trug, the Chief recovers the Ibistick after Trug loses it in a magical air raid and turns the tables on the villain by imprisoning him in his own palace.

    The Chief lives through the process of confronting Ibis by simply being a fair fighter and not deigning to use magic where fists will suffice. Fair-ish, at least – he is nine or ten feet tall at the time. Still, Ibis manages to win their fight and reclaims his wand. The Chief and his people are returned to their original sizes (as the latter had been shrunk by Trug to ensure obedience) and get to keep Trug’s palace to boot. (Whiz Comics 014, 1941)

    A Spider: 

    When Ibis and Taia leave the Chief and his people they are given a stone as a gift, and after having it appraised and finding out that it is an enormous and valuable ruby Ibis decides to give it back. Rimson, the appraiser, objects to this and attempts to claim the ruby for himself, and to that end he shoots out the couple’s car tire, causing them to crash into a gorge.

    Ibis and Taia survive thanks to the magic of the Ibistick, but the wand is dropped in the shuffle and chanced upon by a colourful and anatomically dubious spider that manages to envision its desires well enough to become both enormous and intelligent. 

    The arch-cad Rimson soon falls to the spider’s fangs, and Ibis is forced to battle it lest he and Taia likewise be eaten. He manages to mortally wound it with an improvised spear and then it finishes itself off by wishing for Ibis to fade to nothingness. It’s a sad end for what I reckon might be our very first animal villain. (Whiz Comics 015, 1941)

    Mudge: 

    Mudge was already wanted for murder, minus a soul thanks to a deal with Satan (actually the villain Trug in disguise – not sure if that affects the validity of the soul sale) and afflicted with a donkeys ears thanks to Ibis when he acquires the Ibistick after it has been dropped in a a struggle. If any villain could use a break like this it’s him, but he immediately screws up his chance by trying to afflict Ibis with chains. (Whiz Comics 020, 1941)

    Unnamed Fascist:

    This unnamed officer in the army of the War Lord not only speed-runs the process of reckless Ibistick use leading to disaster but manages to take down an entire invasion force with him thanks to his grandstanding, as he tries to wipe out Ibis and the entire army he’s with all in one go.

    Please also note Ibis foe Half-Man in the above panels, who is remarkable for being the only villain to date to avoid this kind of thing by not using the Ibistick at all. Presumably he is wise enough to keep tabs on how other villains have met their downfalls. (Whiz Comics 024, 1941) 

  • GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 034

    Since we’re currently reading Whiz Comics for 1941, it’s time yet again for another load of unscrupulous people to get their hands on the Ibistick and then kill themselves with it. And here they are:

    the Widow Zorn:

    Ibis lends the Ibistick to old Professor Grubb  for scientific study after Grubb finds it outside of an exploded building and uses its magic to restore the building and everyone inside – which included both Ibis and Taia, along with their their young ward Tommy – to wholeness and life. This isn’t a bad idea per se, as Grubb is an honest man, but he is also in love with the scheming Widow Zorn, who vamps it away from him in about two seconds flat.

    Zorn’s main interest is in conjuring up hunks to fight for her attention, so the damage potential in her having the Ibistick is a bit lower than some (although she does vaporize poor old Prof Grubb when he kicks off about it). She does of course try to kill Ibis with his own wand and ends up on the Moon for her trouble, but fortunately for her the reconstituted Grubb advocates for not letting her explode or whatever and she ends up falling for him after all. (Whiz Comics 012, 1941)

    Trug: 

    Trug gets his own super-villain entry, the jerk. 

    the Chief: 

    The Chief isn’t a villainous figure per se, but his role in the comic is close enough that I’ll say that he counts. The leader of an Inuit group subjugated by Trug, the Chief recovers the Ibistick after Trug loses it in a magical air raid and turns the tables on the villain by imprisoning him in his own palace.

    The Chief lives through the process of confronting Ibis by simply being a fair fighter and not deigning to use magic where fists will suffice. Fair-ish, at least – he is nine or ten feet tall at the time. Still, Ibis manages to win their fight and reclaims his wand. The Chief and his people are returned to their original sizes (as the latter had been shrunk by Trug to ensure obedience) and get to keep Trug’s palace to boot. (Whiz Comics 014, 1941)

    A Spider: 

    When Ibis and Taia leave the Chief and his people they are given a stone as a gift, and after having it appraised and finding out that it is an enormous and valuable ruby Ibis decides to give it back. Rimson, the appraiser, objects to this and attempts to claim the ruby for himself, and to that end he shoots out the couple’s car tire, causing them to crash into a gorge.

    Ibis and Taia survive thanks to the magic of the Ibistick, but the wand is dropped in the shuffle and chanced upon by a colourful and anatomically dubious spider that manages to envision its desires well enough to become both enormous and intelligent. 

    The arch-cad Rimson soon falls to the spider’s fangs, and Ibis is forced to battle it lest he and Taia likewise be eaten. He manages to mortally wound it with an improvised spear and then it finishes itself off by wishing for Ibis to fade to nothingness. It’s a sad end for what I reckon might be our very first animal villain. (Whiz Comics 015, 1941)

    Mudge: 

    Mudge was already wanted for murder, minus a soul thanks to a deal with Satan (actually the villain Trug in disguise – not sure if that affects the validity of the soul sale) and afflicted with a donkeys ears thanks to Ibis when he acquires the Ibistick after it has been dropped in a a struggle. If any villain could use a break like this it’s him, but he immediately screws up his chance by trying to afflict Ibis with chains. (Whiz Comics 020, 1941)

    Unnamed Fascist:

    This unnamed officer in the army of the War Lord not only speed-runs the process of reckless Ibistick use leading to disaster but manages to take down an entire invasion force with him thanks to his grandstanding, as he tries to wipe out Ibis and the entire army he’s with all in one go.

    Please also note Ibis foe Half-Man in the above panels, who is remarkable for being the only villain to date to avoid this kind of thing by not using the Ibistick at all. Presumably he is wise enough to keep tabs on how other villains have met their downfalls. (Whiz Comics 024, 1941) 

  • DIVINE ROUND-UP 026

    I’ve finally caught up on my god backlog so these are all piping fresh deities for you to peruse.

    Itzalotahui:

    On an expedition to Guatemala to locate their missing friend John Malcolm, Billy Batson and Whitey Murphy make camp in the lost temple of the monkey god Itzalotahui and are awoken from their slumber by the god himself, flaming and steaming and flailing about.

    After an initial panic and an in-retrospect-embarassing fistfight, Captain Marvel discovers the truth: Itzalotahui is not alive but is in fact a cunningly-designed ball and socket arrangement in which the lower torso/socket is connected to a natural gas source and periodically ignites and wiggles around thanks to gas pressure.

    This issue is real study in contrasts: though the name of the fictional god is literally It’s a Lot of Hooey (in keeping with 1940s contempt for non-Christian or Classical religion), Captain Marvel actually seems to respect the cultural value of the site rather than just smashing it up like so many characters might. Meanwhile, the presence of natural gas means the probability of oil as well, but both Malcolm and Marvel advocate for leaving the area free from the hell of oil extraction, even if they do so in the most patronizing/patriarchal language possible.

    God Style: Idol (Whiz Comics 022, 1941) 

    the Angry God: 

    The
    Angry God, aka the Dark Spirit, is a near-forgotten entity whose last
    remaining priest has thrown in with the villain Half-Man and his Hitler
    stand-in boss the War Lord to lend mystical power to the armies of the
    Axis forces. The Angry God requires not just human sacrifice but the
    sacrifice of “great men,” which might go some way toward explaining his
    low levels of worshipper-retention. Please also note the fun imp-swarm
    that seems to accompany the worship of this particular god – they must
    be very distracting. 

    The
    Angry God’s status as a real entity and current diminished circumstances are
    both illustrated in the fact that it animates its idol in an attempt Ibis the Invincible from killing its priest and then itself falls dead once it is deprived of that one last worshipper.

    God Style: Real (Whiz Comics 023, 1941)

    Balka: 

    Balka
    is the guardian tiger spirit of the ruling line of the Asian country of
    Balkania, and whether the country was named after the tiger or vice
    versa is left unexplored in-text. What is made clear is that the
    old legends about the statue of Balka coming to life to avenge the death
    of murdered Balkanian monarch are absolutely true, as experienced by regicidal
    dictator and fashion maven Carnov after he kills good King Banok.

    Alas,
    Carnov is not torn asunder by Balka but spared by rightful heir Kelo (aka the Jungle Prince) so
    that he can face more conventional justice. Balka then returns to statue form to await the next threat to Balkania. (The Arrow 003,
    1941) 

    Quetzalcoatl: 

    Jungleman
    and his lover Louise Carson stumble upon a hidden Aztec city while
    searching for Louise’s father. Jungleman is briefly worshipped as
    Quetzalcoatl as per the legend about Hernán Cortés, while Louise is slated for sacrifice by a jealous high
    priestess. They manage to extract themselves from this situation with minimal fuss, for a 1940s adventure comic, and even find Louise’s father just kind of hanging around the temple on their way out. (Champion Comics 012, 1941)

  • GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 033

    GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 033

    Just another buncha jerks.

    John Elton: 

    This fellow brings us right back to the roots of the Generic Costumed Villain Round-Up, being a businessman who puts on a mask to run a gang and kill off the other officers of his company so that he can buy up all their shares and make a fortune. Plus, his name is John Elton, which doesn’t mean anything but is still a fun coincidence. Dan Dare gets ‘im. (Whiz Comics 016, 1941)

    the War Lord:

    Like the War Maniac before him, the War Lord is a generic and unseen stand-in for Adolf Hitler with a good enough villain name that I had to highlight it. A whole passel of his agents feature in the story in which Smasher Spy goes back to being Spy Smasher and get beaten up by Spy Smasher, Smasher Spy and Captain Marvel. 

    It’s not particularly germane to anything but this panel of Spy Smasher flying out a window into the arms of the War Lord’s agents after almost being blown up looks very nice and I had nowhere else to use it. (Whiz Comics 018, 1941)

    The War Lord returns to vex Spy Smasher in Whiz Comics 019, in a rare return appearance for a generic Axis dictator. In fact, he is also the power behind the fascist group the Blitzys and Ibis the Invincible foe Half-Man as well – he’s one of the most prolific Hitler stand-ins of the Golden Age!

    The War Lord finally shows up in person in Whiz Comics 024 and while he is clearly just a straight-up stand-in for Hitler his main character trait seems to be in expressing himself like a disappointed father. He sticks around just long enough to instill a deep sense of despair in the Half-Man, leaving him vulnerable to being turned to the side of good by a bit of kindness from Ibis the Invincible. Once again being a bad boss fails to pay off!

    Puni, God of Fire: 

    The above text box precedes the Lance O’Casey story in Whiz Comics 018 and let me tell you: none of that stuff happened in the prior issue. We are very much dropped in media res on the tropical Antarctic island populated by cannibals and also lost explorer Hiram T. Wallis – I don’t know if this is some remnant of a never-published story or just an attempt to shake things up again (EDIT: it happens, in fact, in Whiz Comics 019. The two-part story was just published in the wrong order).

    Lance and his ever-expanding supporting cast (including Hiram T. Wells, old-timey pirate Dan’l Doom and not one but two monkey sidekicks) are venturing into a volcano to get some gold that Wells had found there when they are confronted and menaced by the self-proclaimed Puni, God of Fire, who is in actuality Marino, a sailor shipwrecked at the same time as Wells and presumably driven insane by ten years of living in a volcanic cave. Puni/Marino never manages to get very close to killing the party but he does try in his way, and by gar can he belt out a villainous pronouncement.

    Everything ends up okay, as Marino has the kind of insanity that can be cured via a solid smack to the jaw and a dunk in the ocean. 

    This adventure also features a giant treasure-guarding parrot, just one of the many cool creatures that do their best to convince me to add the truly life-ending task of chronicling all comic book monsters to my already overloaded to-do pile. (Whiz Comics 018, 1941)

    Herculo Svenson: 

    This is Herculo Svenson, pirate, Doctor Voodoo antagonist for several issues and man in the running for best name in comics certainly for 1941 and possibly for all time. He kills a whole valley full of giants, kidnaps their regular-sized queen and makes off with magical McGuffin the Golden Flask before eventually getting killed by bigger villain Black Marco. (Whiz Comics 022, 1941)

  • GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 033

    GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 033

    Just another buncha jerks.

    John Elton: 

    This fellow brings us right back to the roots of the Generic Costumed Villain Round-Up, being a businessman who puts on a mask to run a gang and kill off the other officers of his company so that he can buy up all their shares and make a fortune. Plus, his name is John Elton, which doesn’t mean anything but is still a fun coincidence. Dan Dare gets ‘im. (Whiz Comics 016, 1941)

    the War Lord:

    Like the War Maniac before him, the War Lord is a generic and unseen stand-in for Adolf Hitler with a good enough villain name that I had to highlight it. A whole passel of his agents feature in the story in which Smasher Spy goes back to being Spy Smasher and get beaten up by Spy Smasher, Smasher Spy and Captain Marvel. 

    It’s not particularly germane to anything but this panel of Spy Smasher flying out a window into the arms of the War Lord’s agents after almost being blown up looks very nice and I had nowhere else to use it. (Whiz Comics 018, 1941)

    The War Lord returns to vex Spy Smasher in Whiz Comics 019, in a rare return appearance for a generic Axis dictator. In fact, he is also the power behind the fascist group the Blitzys and Ibis the Invincible foe Half-Man as well – he’s one of the most prolific Hitler stand-ins of the Golden Age!

    The War Lord finally shows up in person in Whiz Comics 024 and while he is clearly just a straight-up stand-in for Hitler his main character trait seems to be in expressing himself like a disappointed father. He sticks around just long enough to instill a deep sense of despair in the Half-Man, leaving him vulnerable to being turned to the side of good by a bit of kindness from Ibis the Invincible. Once again being a bad boss fails to pay off!

    Puni, God of Fire: 

    The above text box precedes the Lance O’Casey story in Whiz Comics 018 and let me tell you: none of that stuff happened in the prior issue. We are very much dropped in media res on the tropical Antarctic island populated by cannibals and also lost explorer Hiram T. Wallis – I don’t know if this is some remnant of a never-published story or just an attempt to shake things up again (EDIT: it happens, in fact, in Whiz Comics 019. The two-part story was just published in the wrong order).

    Lance and his ever-expanding supporting cast (including Hiram T. Wells, old-timey pirate Dan’l Doom and not one but two monkey sidekicks) are venturing into a volcano to get some gold that Wells had found there when they are confronted and menaced by the self-proclaimed Puni, God of Fire, who is in actuality Marino, a sailor shipwrecked at the same time as Wells and presumably driven insane by ten years of living in a volcanic cave. Puni/Marino never manages to get very close to killing the party but he does try in his way, and by gar can he belt out a villainous pronouncement.

    Everything ends up okay, as Marino has the kind of insanity that can be cured via a solid smack to the jaw and a dunk in the ocean. 

    This adventure also features a giant treasure-guarding parrot, just one of the many cool creatures that do their best to convince me to add the truly life-ending task of chronicling all comic book monsters to my already overloaded to-do pile. (Whiz Comics 018, 1941)

    Herculo Svenson: 

    This is Herculo Svenson, pirate, Doctor Voodoo antagonist for several issues and man in the running for best name in comics certainly for 1941 and possibly for all time. He kills a whole valley full of giants, kidnaps their regular-sized queen and makes off with magical McGuffin the Golden Flask before eventually getting killed by bigger villain Black Marco. (Whiz Comics 022, 1941)

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 907: HALF-MAN

    (Whiz Comics 021, 1941)

    Due to Allied concerns about the Nazis generic Axis use of black magic to ensure victory, Ibis the Invincible is recruited and sent to the front as a counter-sorcerer. His foe: the mysterious Half-Man, occultist and rumoured worshipper of an ancient evil god called the Dark Spirit.

    The Half-Man served with distinction in WWI, until an artillery shell cost him a leg, an arm and an eye and he was no longer able to lead troops in battle. He then turned to the study of black magic to make himself powerful and potentially whole again, and with the advent of WWII he has offered his services to the War Lord, Fawcett’s all-purpose late-1941 Hitler stand-in.

    Some further particulars: 

    In his first appearance, Half-Man has these pseudo-Gestapo occultist minions who are masterpieces to design. They could not more obviously be weird creep villains. They also receive planchette-writing intel from “the watchful ones,” which could be flowery language describing another set of occultist creeps in a lookout post somewhere but which I prefer to think is some sore of class of spirit. 

    Perhaps it’s the Ancient Egyptian in him coming through, but Ibis is unable to treat Half-Man with anything but pity and contempt, no matter how often he is proven to be a legitimate threat, as above when he completely is completely trounced by the guy.  

    Like I said, the first issue that Half-Man appears in contains a lot of talk of the ancient god called the Dark Spirit helping to ensure the Axis victories, and I had initially thought that his magical power was also derived from this being, like a D&D warlock, but Whiz Comics 023 includes a segment in which Ibis is almost sacrificed to the Dark Spirit, here called the Angry God, and manages to turn the tables and kill the god’s one remaining priest instead. This seems to kill the Angry God as well without noticeably diminishing Half-Man’s power, so I guess it’s more of a Hellboy situation in which all of the Evil Magic Guys are lumped together into a unit.

    Speaking of the military applications of mystical power, the final act of Half-Man’s villainous career takes place on the battlefield between the War Lord’s forces and those of an unnamed Allied nation that starts out on a back foot because someone is scrying their troop deployments with a crystal ball. 

    Once Ibis joins the fighting on the small nation’s side, Half-Man too is obligated to take the field, and while no mortal army is a mach for the power of the Ibistick, he manages to capture Taia and get away. The back-and-forth between them might have gone on indefinitely, but for the fact that the War Lord himself shows up and treats Half-Man with a sneering condescension instead of acknowledging his clear need for validation. This gives Ibis the chance to step up and be nice to the guy by restoring his lost body parts. Having finally achieved a feeling of wholeness again, from being literally whole rather than from magical accomplishment, the former Half-Man reforms. Hopefully he had some sort of plan in place to get to a neutral country, since he renounced his magics and presumably fascism at the end there and I doubt that the War Lord would be too understanding of that.