The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: Dell

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 416: THE PIRANHA

    (Crackajack Funnies 010-017, 1939)

    The Piranha is a mysterious gang boss operating out of New York City and known for the gruesome way he dealt with his enemies, of which we will return to in a second.

    The Piranha is actually the wealthy Senõr Romez, a society luminary known for his fabulous parties and the many unsolved murders that happen at his fabulous parties. He also dresses exactly like the Piranha but with hair and a mask – a lot of the story involves G-Man Ed Tracer trying to find some way to link Romez and the Piranha.

    Back to that murder method. Somewhat predictably, the Piranha feeds his victims to piranhas, but it’s what he does next that really catches the old attention: he sends entire skeletons as warnings (side note – the character receiving the skeleton in the above panels is a radio celebrity named Jimmie Stewart. I don’t think that it’s supposed to be a version of Jimmy Stewart the actor [who was working in radio at the time] but it’s a weird coincidence).

    As predictable as the Piranha using piranhas as a murder method is, it’s even more predictable that he himself would end up on the wrong end of a skeletonization by the end of the story. Live by the piranha, die by the piranha, as they say.

    Now here’s the kicker: when I first read this story a few years back it was as a serial, spread out over eight issues. I didn’t notice then because it was a disjointed way to take in details but revisiting it just now all in a go… I don’t know if we ever learn the reason that the Piranha is killing wealthy partygoers and kidnapping the princess of the South American (?) country of Spanovia and so forth. He’s just generically evil and foreign? Presumably there’s money in it somewhere but as far as the facts on paper go he’s just into some sort of extreme roleplay.

  • PANEL FUN

    (Funnies 001, 1936)

    Top notch dinosaur illustration. 

  • PANEL FUN

    (Funnies 001, 1946)

    Really great scared hair on the kid with the braids.

  • PANEL FUN

    (Funnies 001, 1946)

    Really great scared hair on the kid with the braids.

  • RANCE KEANE MEETS SHARK EGAN: THE CROSSOVER EVENT OF 1941

    (Feature Comics 045-046, 1941)

    Golden Age crossovers were a pretty rare thing, other than in places like All-Star Comics where that was the whole idea, but one place you occasionally encounter them is in the kind of adventure strips that filled out the bulk of anthology comics before the super-heroes really got into full market domination mode, and especially if the same person was working on both characters and wanted to have them meet up and say what a good series of adventures each other was having. 

    The weird thing about this meetup is that Rance Keane, a Quality character and star of the strip, is meeting Shark Egan, a Dell character whose own adventures had been cancelled more than a year earlier, in Popular Comics 053! The characters are roughly equivalent – Shark is a sea dog-style adventurer while Rance is a cowboy who transitioned into the same – but this dockside mutual admiration moment is very unlikely!

    If I were to advance a theory it would be to speculate that Rance Keane scribe William A Smith might have had a hand in Shark Egan too – some of the earlier strips in Popular look a bit like his work – and decided to reappropriate his creations once they were defunct at Dell. We will never know what his plans were though, as both Shark and Rance made but one more appearance in Feature 046 before setting off for parts unknown.

    (Shoutout to Comic Book Plus user Ed Love, who is the only person I could find mentioning this in a cursory search)

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 211: THE MAD MADESPOS

    (Crackajack Funnies 038-040, 1941)

    It’s my favourite Golden Age Batman knockoff the Owl again and this time he’s up against the Madespos, a whole family of homicidal maniacs with their very own gorilla pal!

    The Madespos had already been collared by the Owl (in an unseen adventure of his civilian guise of Nick Terry, PI) some time earlier, so our tale begins with their escape from Lenmoor Asylum for the Criminally Insane with the help of their well-dressed gorilla friend. 

    In addition to the gorilla the family consists of Ma Madespo and her four unnamed, nearly identical sons (one wears glasses and two are taller than the rest. This is not relevant). They’re armed to the teeth and have holed up in a fortified mansion supplied by…

    The Masked Ambassador! A surprise second Minor Super-Villain 212 (if just barely) and smarter-than-average fifth columnist from Axis-coded Yugonia who has weaponized the Madespos rather than risk his own hide in sabotaging the American military. If he wasn’t caught by the Owl literally one panel after putting on his mask he might just be the most effective villain on this list.

    Sadly for the Madespos, the Owl soon takes advantage of a police siege of their mansion to befriend the ill-treated gorilla and bring the whole lot of them in.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 210: THE SPECTRE

    (Crackajack Funnies 035-037, 1941) 

    There’s a lot to like about the Spectre. His motivation is okay – his face was blasted off by American shelling in WWI and he wants revenge – and his execution is nonexistent as he ends up getting caught during the planning and preparation stage. It’s the trappings that really do it for me.

    Fist up: costumes. The Spectre’s own is okay, but I have nothing but joy in my heart when I see henchmen dressed in such simple yet effective outfits. Stylish, easily recognizable, easy to remove in a pinch… they have it all!

    Next: lore. The Spectre’s story isn’t told until the third issue of the three he appears in but part of it is that in the 20 years since he vowed revenge on America he hasn’t slept, and in support of this, in basically every panel he appears in he is chugging coffee. A small but fun (and visually charming) detail.

    Finally: progressive values. All of the above panels feature a blonde woman. This is Miss Owl, the Owl’s fiancé/ crimefighting partner who has been captured in the mistaken belief that she herself is the Owl. And the Spectre – outbursts about “American women” aside – is perfectly willing to accept this, and to accept the services of a seemingly turncoat Owl. He might be a partially-exploded revenge-driven warmonger who probably went insane from lack of sleep decades ago but he isn’t a misogynist.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 209: THE PANTHERMAN

    MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 209: THE PANTHERMAN

    (Crackajack Funnies 031-033, 1941) 

    The first costumed foe to face Dell Comics’ answer to Batman, the Owl, Pantherman strikes a very impressive figure and knows how to make an entrance. He does seem to be a very sloppy operator, however, as he initially attracts the attention of the Owl after mind controlling a man into stealing his own jewels but not somehow thinking to keep him from calling in the police (and renowned private investigator Nick “the Owl” Terry, natch) afterward.

    Subsequent issues reveal that the Pantherman’s sloppiness is more a recent thing, as he has been operating out of the city’s sewers for at least the past 4 years and is well on his way to uniting the underworld with himself at the head. It doesn’t take much to ruin a promising crime career, however, and once the Owl is on the case, Pantherman is soon caught.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 209: THE PANTHERMAN

    MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 209: THE PANTHERMAN

    (Crackajack Funnies 031-033, 1941) 

    The first costumed foe to face Dell Comics’ answer to Batman, the Owl, Pantherman strikes a very impressive figure and knows how to make an entrance. He does seem to be a very sloppy operator, however, as he initially attracts the attention of the Owl after mind controlling a man into stealing his own jewels but not somehow thinking to keep him from calling in the police (and renowned private investigator Nick “the Owl” Terry, natch) afterward.

    Subsequent issues reveal that the Pantherman’s sloppiness is more a recent thing, as he has been operating out of the city’s sewers for at least the past 4 years and is well on his way to uniting the underworld with himself at the head. It doesn’t take much to ruin a promising crime career, however, and once the Owl is on the case, Pantherman is soon caught.