Everyone likes a good monster now and then. Horned Cat: With every one of these round-ups I accrue more evidence that the Slightly Different Big Cat is one of the classic monster types, as seen here when Congo Jack is confronted with this horned green feline in the mystical Valley of Vango in the Congolese jungle. As a bonus, a few steps later he has to deal with another classic: the carnivorous plant, or in this case flesh-eating bush. (Lightning…
I hope everyone likes monsters as much as I do because there are a whole lot of them to cover. Beaked Tyros: When polar explorer Anthony Conrad gets lost in an Arctic storm and falls through a hole in the pack ice, he reasonably expects to meet his demise. Instead, he falls into the subterranean kingdom of Artica and is chosen by the elderly Artican king – also a stranded former surface explorer – as his successor. As part of…
A series of cautionary tales for budding young scientists. Orid Dass: Orid Dass is your standard jungle scientist: he’s out there making apes into men and men into apes, all for the love of the ape-man game. He also has the distinction of being the only foe faced by Fantomah the one post-Fletcher Hanks adventure in which she is still kind of a jungle demigod rather than a jungle hero who knows some magic. In that capacity, Fantomah does a…
It’s a big year for the jungle-based heroes of Fiction House, and also Radior is here. Camilla, Queen of the Lost Empire **UPDATE**: 1941 is the year of change for Camilla. First off, she faces a series of threats to the Lost Empire itself, beginning when an evil magician nearly conquers and partially razes the city. (Jungle Comics 014, 1941) Next issue, the otherwise-unremarkable lech Prince Renardo finishes the job and burns the city to the ground as part of…
(The Funnies 062, 1941) “Rex, King of the Deep” is an adventure strip that ran in The Funnies 037 through to 063, the final issue. It stars titular King of the Deep Rex Withers, a wealthy young man who decides to put his money toward the betterment of humanity by funding the construction of a Super-Submarine designed by his friend Professor Bidoux. Over the next couple of years worth of comics he and his ever-expanding cast of associates (the Professor, second-in-command Tim…
(The Funnies 057, 1941) Ivan Shark is the arch-enemy of Captain Midnight, direct from the Captain Midnight radio show. He is the head of a nationwide network of spies and gangsters dedicated to overthrowing the US government. The threat of Shark and his organization is so great, in fact, that it is the impetus for the formation of Captain Midnight’s Secret Squadron, and so efficient that he is aware of the clandestine meeting between Midnight and a heavily-disguised FDR that marks the Squadron’s beginning…
Real people? In comic books? Now I’ve seen everything. Abu Khan: I sincerely cannot tell if this Black Knight foe is supposed to be Abu Sa’id Bahadur Khan, last ruler of the Mongol Ilkhanate, or if they just pulled a couple of syllables out of the air and added “Khan” to the end and called it a day. On the one hand, the real Abu Khan never tried to invade Egypt, as the Black Knight is trying to prevent him…
Super-heroes. Like heroes, but super. Captain Midnight: Like the second, more popular (though still pretty obscure) Captain Midnight that will be published by Fawcett starting in 1942, this fellow is an adaptation of the radio character, and unlike the second Captain Midnight, this one is a pretty direct adaptation. It’s a bit abbreviated and you kind of have to keep referring to the Captain Midnight Wikipedia page to fill in the gaps where your assumed familiarity with the radio show lies, but…
All these fictional aliens and we don’t even get one other inhabited planet in our solar system. Moon-Men: These Moon-Men are encountered by Phantasmo (seen here in his less-nude human identity) and his pal Whizzer McGee during an impromptu trip to the Moon. They live deep beneath the satellite’s surface and appear to have a mining-based culture that is pretty hostile to outsiders, and that is all we know. While I must commend the “Phantasmo” team for not automatically making…
We’ve got no time for major super-heroes around here. We’re too busy with the minor ones. the Black Ace: The Black Ace, aka Captain McRae, is yet another American pilot serving in the RAF in advance of the US entrance into WWII. As such, he is not only a highly accomplished pilot and bombardier but fully versed in the arts of prison escape, hand-to-hand combat, impersonating German soldiers and leaping from plane to plane in mid-flight. (Four Favorites 002, 1941)…