The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: 1937

  • REAL PERSON ROUND-UP 004

    More of those pesky real people have gotten into my comic books!

    Andrew Jackson:

    Character Keith Kornell, aka the West Pointer, is a descendant of Andrew Jackson, something you would perhaps be more proud of in 1939 than today. (Top-Notch Comics 001, 1939)

    Benito Mussolini:

    He’s a fairly oblique reference to Benito Mussolini but I reckon that up-and-coming Filipino dictator Remy Mussoni fits the brief. (Wonderworld Comics 008, 1939)

    Billy the Kid:

    Appears in a questionably true story told by character Windy Parks (Western Picture Stories 004, 1937)

    the Dionne Quintuplets:

    “Ad-Ventures at the Circus” was a recurring feature throughout the life of Star Comics (1937-1939), and it’s a fascinating artifact of the time that someone more qualified than me should write about some day. Long story short it was a twee little comic about advertising mascots going to the circus to watch other advertising mascots perform. There’s maybe a 75/25 split between the Surprisingly Familiar and Surprisingly Unfamiliar mascots with regular appearances by Surprisingly Racist ones. It’s a bit like a Neolithic Foodfight!. 

    Everything about this feature is weird, from the slightly uncanny valley illustrations by Raphael Astarita to the fact that it doesn’t really seem to be sponsored content (other than a command appearance by NRG, mascot of heavy Star Comics advertiser Baby Ruth). And then the final extant installment comes around and we get the weirdest advertising mascots of all as the Quaker Oats Man leads the Dionne Quintuplets onto stage – five living humans given the same status as the Crackerjack kid or Mr Peanut or some anthropomorphic orange who used to work for Sunkist. It’s a grim reminder of just how commodified those poor kids were, right down to their “act” being a pantomime of them going about their day, just like they did in the weird zoo they grew up in. (Star Comics v2 007, 1939)

    Gene Autry:

    An adventuring version of the singing cowboy in modern times (the Funnies 030, 1939)

    George VI of England:

    This here visit by King Arnold and his unnamed Queen is certainly meant to evoke the 1939 tour of Canada and the US by King George VI of England and Queen Elizabeth, the future Queen Mother. (Wonderworld Comics 005, 1939)

    George Washington:

    Not quite an appearance by Washington as adjacent to him, but the fact that one of the Wizard’s ancestors is given credit for a key part of the history of the American Revolution is worth noting. (Top-Notch Comics 001, 1939)

    FDR:

    Misc Minor Appearances: Thanks secret agent K-51 for saving foreign royals (Wonderworld Comics 005, 1939) 

    the Mona Lisa:

    As the “Lona Dizzi”, painted by “Lombardo da Ginki” (“Dixie Dugan” strip, 1931)

    Paul Revere:

    Ride witnessed – and hide saved – by American Revolution-era child-patriots the Liberty Lads. (Champion Comics 008, 1940)

    Robert E. Lee:

    Wizard ancestor Thomas Whitney accepts the surrender of Robert E Lee at Appomattox, whether in place of Grant or prior to his showing up cannot be said. (Top-Notch Comics 001, 1939)

    Tom Mix:

    Like Gene Autry, Tom Mix was a movie cowboy who starred in adventure comics as a larger-than-life version of himself having rootin’ tootin’ Wild West adventures. Unlike Autry, Tom Mix generally starred in stories set in the Old West, as himself but in the past. Tom Mix also holds the special distinction of appearing in comics from this earliest example (that I have found, at least) to at least the early 50s, long after he had died in October, 1940. (The Comics 001, 1937)

  • REAL PERSON ROUND-UP 004

    More of those pesky real people have gotten into my comic books!

    Andrew Jackson:

    Character Keith Kornell, aka the West Pointer, is a descendant of Andrew Jackson, something you would perhaps be more proud of in 1939 than today. (Top-Notch Comics 001, 1939)

    Benito Mussolini:

    He’s a fairly oblique reference to Benito Mussolini but I reckon that up-and-coming Filipino dictator Remy Mussoni fits the brief. (Wonderworld Comics 008, 1939)

    Billy the Kid:

    Appears in a questionably true story told by character Windy Parks (Western Picture Stories 004, 1937)

    the Dionne Quintuplets:

    “Ad-Ventures at the Circus” was a recurring feature throughout the life of Star Comics (1937-1939), and it’s a fascinating artifact of the time that someone more qualified than me should write about some day. Long story short it was a twee little comic about advertising mascots going to the circus to watch other advertising mascots perform. There’s maybe a 75/25 split between the Surprisingly Familiar and Surprisingly Unfamiliar mascots with regular appearances by Surprisingly Racist ones. It’s a bit like a Neolithic Foodfight!. 

    Everything about this feature is weird, from the slightly uncanny valley illustrations by Raphael Astarita to the fact that it doesn’t really seem to be sponsored content (other than a command appearance by NRG, mascot of heavy Star Comics advertiser Baby Ruth). And then the final extant installment comes around and we get the weirdest advertising mascots of all as the Quaker Oats Man leads the Dionne Quintuplets onto stage – five living humans given the same status as the Crackerjack kid or Mr Peanut or some anthropomorphic orange who used to work for Sunkist. It’s a grim reminder of just how commodified those poor kids were, right down to their “act” being a pantomime of them going about their day, just like they did in the weird zoo they grew up in. (Star Comics v2 007, 1939)

    Gene Autry:

    An adventuring version of the singing cowboy in modern times (the Funnies 030, 1939)

    George VI of England:

    This here visit by King Arnold and his unnamed Queen is certainly meant to evoke the 1939 tour of Canada and the US by King George VI of England and Queen Elizabeth, the future Queen Mother. (Wonderworld Comics 005, 1939)

    George Washington:

    Not quite an appearance by Washington as adjacent to him, but the fact that one of the Wizard’s ancestors is given credit for a key part of the history of the American Revolution is worth noting. (Top-Notch Comics 001, 1939)

    FDR:

    Misc Minor Appearances: Thanks secret agent K-51 for saving foreign royals (Wonderworld Comics 005, 1939) 

    the Mona Lisa:

    As the “Lona Dizzi”, painted by “Lombardo da Ginki” (“Dixie Dugan” strip, 1931)

    Paul Revere:

    Ride witnessed – and hide saved – by American Revolution-era child-patriots the Liberty Lads. (Champion Comics 008, 1940)

    Robert E. Lee:

    Wizard ancestor Thomas Whitney accepts the surrender of Robert E Lee at Appomattox, whether in place of Grant or prior to his showing up cannot be said. (Top-Notch Comics 001, 1939)

    Tom Mix:

    Like Gene Autry, Tom Mix was a movie cowboy who starred in adventure comics as a larger-than-life version of himself having rootin’ tootin’ Wild West adventures. Unlike Autry, Tom Mix generally starred in stories set in the Old West, as himself but in the past. Tom Mix also holds the special distinction of appearing in comics from this earliest example (that I have found, at least) to at least the early 50s, long after he had died in October, 1940. (The Comics 001, 1937)

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 568: THE GORGON

    (The Comics 002, 1937)

    The Gorgon is not the most spectacular villain but does provide us with a couple of interesting contrasts to our last few entries. Firstly, we can contrast him with the Masked Czar and note how his lack of major identifying features enhances the anonymity afforded by a simple black mask.

    I assume that he was called the Gorgon because “anyone who has seen his face is now dead” but it would have been nice to have it in the text of the story.

    Indeed, the Gorgon’s disguise was effective enough that he was able to operate in his capacity as the Assistant State’s Prosecutor while also being a masked gang boss. It took fingerprint evidence for anyone to figure his game out.

    The Gorgon also provides a bit of contrast with the Falcon here, as his adventure was also abruptly cancelled before the resolution, but where the Doctor Doom feature probably would have continued as a cat-and-mouse game between Doom and the Falcon, the conventions of Crime Doesn’t Pay comics like Tom Beatty’s are such that the Gorgon was going to be rounded up in two issues, tops.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 567: THE FALCON

    (The Comics 001, 1937)

    The Falcon is a mercenary spy and Doctor Doom’s opposite number in the conflict between the kingdoms of Returia and Merovia. It’s somewhat debatable whether a couple of spies-for-hire can be classified as either heroes or villains in such a situation, but the story certainly presents them as such, with Merovia being vaguely Nazi German and Doctor Doom being proudly American to underline things.

    The Falcon’s espionage is also a bit more dastardly than Doctor Doom’s, as well as being a bit more effective. In particular, the Falcon’s kidnapping of Doom’s son Stephen from a Swiss boarding school with egregiously poor security comes very close to spelling Returia’s end.

    Like the Masked Czar before him, the Falcon provides some insight into the ups and downs of serialized storytelling – in this case, it’s the all-too-often case of a serial being axed before it actually comes to a conclusion,leaving the Falcon in the ascendant. Don’t worry, though! This comic was evidently assembled out of the plot of a Big Little Book, so if you want to find out what happens and how exactly Doctor Doom comes out on top you can probably find out by buying the two extant Doctor Doom books for… looks like around $150 US plus shipping. Have fun!

  • MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 016

    A pretty motley collection this time.

    the Ermine:

    A frontier vigilante who wears a reversible ermine skin outfit (white for winter wear, brown for regular), leaves an ermine tail as his calling card and can communicate/ is friends with with all the creatures of the forest (except for the ermine, presumably). The Ermine would be an interesting character if he wasn’t explicitly and murderously racist against Native peoples. He’s classed as a minor hero here because all of his recorded adventures involve him acting as the protector of two youths but I assume that he has a lot of hate crimes under his belt. (Star Ranger Funnies v1 015, 1938)

    the Lone Marshal:

    I have a strong suspicion that the Lone Marshal is a Lone Ranger knockoff. Obviously there’s no way to peer into the past and be sure, and admittedly the name was a really big influence on my opinion, but I’m sticking with it. He’s got a Sioux companion named Vajo and a horse named Lobo, so he’s just as not-technically-Lone as the Ranger is. (The Comics 001, 1937)

    Doctor Doom:

    Doctor Doom, “the Robin Hood of International Spies,” is some sort of freelance spy chief who we join as he works for the small Balkan nation of Returia as they fend off invasion plans by their rival, the similarly-small, not-as-Balkan Kingdom of Merovia. Doctor Doom and his double handful of associates are on the back foot for the entirety of their time battling the Falcon and never really manage to get the upper hand before the feature is cancelled but I assume that they would have come out on top eventually. (The Comics 001, 1937)

    Jungleman:

    Jungleman is your typical white-kid-raised-by-beasts jungle hero, in this case based out of Cambodia. He lives in a temple and collects treasure and repeatedly kidnaps a young woman named Louise until she falls in love with him – like I said, typical stuff. 

    The real thing that sets Jungleman apart from his peers is both the sheer number and variety of his animal companions and their tremendous attrition rate – he goes through two tigers in his first three appearances when most jungle heroes have to make one big cat last their entire career! 

    Eventually, Louise and her dad convince Jungleman to relocate to the US under the more civilized alias of “Mister Jay” and I was all set for a lot of the same kind of fish-out-of-water stuff that Ty-Gor spent a lot of his time on but no! Their ship gets wrecked and they just end up in a different jungle! It’s the old jungle switcherooo and I never saw it coming! (Champion Comics 002, 1939)

    **UPDATE** Bob Phantom **UPDATE**

    Star Comics 001, 1938 features a different guy named Bob Phantom, which only reinforces my paranoia vis-a-vis there being a joke or a reference that I’m missing about the last name Phantom. Also, given the slapdash nature of early comics and their record keeping, nobody actually knows who created this guy and so it’s entirely possible that he’s the same Bob Phantom and Harry Shorten and/or Irv Novick just took him from Centaur to MLJ and upgraded him from stage magician to super-hero.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 566: THE MASKED CZAR

    (The Comics 001, 1937) 

    The Masked Czar is a very minor masked gang boss who provides an object example into why most masked gang bosses are fairly physically average specimens. Villains like the otherwise-unnamed Czar here – the tall, the short, the fat, the thin, the bald or the exceptionally hirsute – tend to go in for different ways of concealing their identities that might stand a better chance of working than a thin strip of fabric. Or they go all out, Penguin style, and lean into their appearance. What I’m saying is: this guy ain’t fooling nobody.

    The Masked Czar also provides an insight into the process of serialized storytelling, and particularly into the perils of reformatting it into a linear experience. Above are the final two panels of the G-Man Jim adventure in The Comics 001. G-Man Jim certainly is in a pickle, huh?

    And here are the first two panels of the G-Man Jim story in The Comics 002, in which we see that he is, in fact, not in a pickle. Say goodbye to the Masked Czar, kids!

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 566: THE MASKED CZAR

    (The Comics 001, 1937) 

    The Masked Czar is a very minor masked gang boss who provides an object example into why most masked gang bosses are fairly physically average specimens. Villains like the otherwise-unnamed Czar here – the tall, the short, the fat, the thin, the bald or the exceptionally hirsute – tend to go in for different ways of concealing their identities that might stand a better chance of working than a thin strip of fabric. Or they go all out, Penguin style, and lean into their appearance. What I’m saying is: this guy ain’t fooling nobody.

    The Masked Czar also provides an insight into the process of serialized storytelling, and particularly into the perils of reformatting it into a linear experience. Above are the final two panels of the G-Man Jim adventure in The Comics 001. G-Man Jim certainly is in a pickle, huh?

    And here are the first two panels of the G-Man Jim story in The Comics 002, in which we see that he is, in fact, not in a pickle. Say goodbye to the Masked Czar, kids!

  • MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 015

    Once again we take you to the world of the minor super-hero. See them dance for your amusement. 

    the Mystic: 

    Later known as Kardak the Mystic, the Mystic is a stage magician who uses stage magic to battle crime, specializing in fraudulent mediums etc. His stage magic eventually gets rounded up to real magic, of course. (Top-Notch Comics 001, 1939)

    the Phantom o’ the Hills:

    The Phantom o’ the Hills is an otherwise unnamed masked cowboy who rights wrongs in the Old West. In his first adventure he avenges the death of his younger brother but whether that’s what got him into the vigilante game is not elaborated on. The only real thing that sets him apart from the ranks of other similar characters is his better-than-average name. (Western Picture Stories 001, 1937)

    Wonder Man:

    For all that (by some accounts) Will Eisner was explicitly told to make a Superman clone when he made him for Fox Features (and that DC successfully sued Fox into canning him), Wonder Man is only kind of like Superman. Maybe it’s my modern image of what Superman is like but he’s just a strong guy who jumps around catching artillery shells and beating up warmongers. Plus he gets his powers from a magic Tibetan ring! Plus he’s blonde! (Wonder Comics 001, 1939)

    Yarko the Great:

    There are three major things to know about Yarko the Great: 

    1. He’s a magic-slinging hero in the classic mold, i.e., an American who has learned the secrets of the Far East and turned them to a career in stage magic/ crimefighting.

    2. Like a lot of early Fox Features characters he was created by Will Eisner so his adventures tend to look pretty great.

    3. “Yarko the Great” is – and this is an informed opinion – categorically the worst name that any magic-using Golden Age hero was saddled with. 

    (Wonder Comics 002, 1939)

    Yarko UPDATE 1940

    *UPDATE* the Flame *UPDATE*:

    Just wish to draw everyone’s attentions to the really boss custom-painted boat that the Flame was tooling around in during his first adventure. Plus he had a butler named Jarvis! (Wonderworld Comics 003, 1939)

    **DOUBLE UPDATE**

    And he has a plane! (Wonderworld Comics 004, 1939)

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 437: THE GHOST RIDERS

    (Star Ranger 001, 1937)

    The Ghost Riders are just another gang of bank robbers but I just can’t resist a good outfit, and a trio of hooded cowboys with tommy guns is a great visual if I ever saw one.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 419: PSYK

    (Funny Picture Stories v2 001-003, 1937)

    I think I recently mentioned the dreamlike quality of some Golden Age comics. This is one of them, and only partially because the villain operates out of some sort of pocket dimension in the collective human subconscious. 

    Psyk is a would-be world conqueror with three really good tricks in his arsenal: travel between Earth and the aforementioned Realm of the Subconscious, the ability to raise the dead and mental domination of both the raised dead and the living. His plan seems to be to raise an army of dead and living thralls and then transport them to strategic invasion points. It’s not a bad plan, even if the thralls are all armed with swords and nothing else.

    Psyk is opposed by Jack Strand, who ultimately prevails by exploiting Psyk’s two weaknesses: a power-sapping “ray” (and here I think they’re using ray in the not-much-used sense of a radiation rather than a beam of energy) and the fact that each person affected by Psyk’s power has a weak point where that power entered their body – this point is the only vulnerable place on a thrall’s body and so they cover it with a very obvious and easily removed green piece of metal. Strike a living thrall in the spot and they are freed from Psyk’s power; do the same to a dead thrall and they die for good.

    What’s odd is that Psyk himself has such a spot: his cheekbones (as you might be able to tell from his stylish green cheek armour). What does this imply? Is Psyk himself just a thrall to a more powerful being? Maybe! Doesn’t matter though because Jack Strand punches him right in the cheek and blows up his dream castle.

    He’s an interesting guy, Psyk – definitely has the feel of a character bridging the pulp/comic transition. I’d love to see him BRUNG BACK in a limited series told in a more modern style.