(More Fun 031, 1938)
A mine owner using zombie labour, which is at best morally questionable, but also he planned to undermine New York and collapse it into a pit, then rule the ruins, which is worse.
Dr Occult dropped a mine on him, which is why it’s such a surprise when he shows up in my upcoming Dr Occult miniseries – back from the dead by his own dark will, the Master of Corpses teams up with the rest of his Golden Age rogues gallery in a bid to destroy their old foe once and for all.
(More Fun 031, 1938)
A mine owner using zombie labour, which is at best morally questionable, but also he planned to undermine New York and collapse it into a pit, then rule the ruins, which is worse.
Dr Occult dropped a mine on him, which is why it’s such a surprise when he shows up in my upcoming Dr Occult miniseries – back from the dead by his own dark will, the Master of Corpses teams up with the rest of his Golden Age rogues gallery in a bid to destroy their old foe once and for all.
(New Adventure Comics 026-More Fun 072, 1938-1941)
Captain Desmo is a pretty standard Golden Age adventure character: together with his pal Gabby McGuire, the Brooklyn Terror, he jaunts around the world (mostly in Asia), getting into scraps with colonized people on behalf of white folks.
The only thing that really makes him stand apart (aside from the fact that he’s a WWI vet, making him a generation older than most Golden Age protagonists) is illustrated in the moderately homoerotic exchange above: Captain Desmo is kind of always in costume, which kind of makes him part of the “bridge between pulp hero and super-hero” crew, like early Crimson Avenger, early Sandman or the various guys like the Clock or the Mouthpiece who ran around in suits and domino masks in the early days.
The final interesting thing about Captain Desmo is that he never actually got around to explaining just why he wore his goggles an helmet at all times, which I respect.
(Adventure 032, 1938)
British Army officer who lined his own pockets supplying rebels in India. Fought Captain Desmo, a masked aviator whose comics were on the whole drawn as if they took place in North Africa even though quite a lot of them were set in India – not so uncommon a type of thing to happen in all the various times before reference materials became as easy to access as they are now.
Anyway: the Masked Man. Fairly unremarkable, although it is interesting to note just how unsettling a domino mask can be when it’s made out of what looks like leather.
(New Adventure 028, 1938)
Bog standard South American revolutionary villain who is hunted down by agents of the US Navy. Remarkable only due to the one-panel appearance of Rose del Muerte, the Rose of Death.
What a good one-panel appearance! El Diablo can sit in a garbage can, but Rose del Muerte should show up all over the DCU, never as an actual culprit but just a red herring living her best life.
(New Adventure 028, 1938)
Bog standard South American revolutionary villain who is hunted down by agents of the US Navy. Remarkable only due to the one-panel appearance of Rose del Muerte, the Rose of Death.
What a good one-panel appearance! El Diablo can sit in a garbage can, but Rose del Muerte should show up all over the DCU, never as an actual culprit but just a red herring living her best life.
Just a kidnapper, but there’s something about a man who wears a snake, and he’s yet another Siegel and Shuster villain from a pre-Superman series – in this case, Federal Men, about Steve Carson of the FBI.