(Fantastic Comics 011, 1940) We begin with the old comic book trope of Ignoring Bad Feelings When a Woman Has Them, as Alice senses something in the wind and Sir Richard tells her to shut up just before a giant bird gets them both. They are flown to Soulless Isle and meet its ruler Queen Sulia, along with her coterie of beastly subjects. She wants a sword fight and Sir Richard of Warwick is who she wants it from. If…
(Fantastic Comics 007, 1940) We rejoin the European version of the Golden Knight as he and his ladyfriend Alice are having a bad time in Blackamoor Forest: both Alice and Sir Richard’s horse Whitey have broken their legs in a fall and so Richard and Alice are forced to hole up in a cave for the night (Whitey, sadly, did not make it). But who is this ominous form? It’s the Hag of Blackamoor and she isn’t messing around! In…
(Fantastic Comics 006, 1940) ‘bdula Khan is the capricious ruler of a mysterious oasis city in North Africa who offers the Golden Knight hospitality and then turns around and makes him battle monsters in an arena for his amusement. He’s not particularly notable and I’d likely have passed him over but for three things: 1. The Name. ‘bdula is presumably short for Abdula and might be a unique name? Abdula is such an uncommon variant of Abdullah already, and it’s…
(Fantastic Comics 005, 1940) In Fantastic Comics 004 Sir Richard of Warwick, aka the Golden Knight, seeking his Crusading companions, arrives in the small village of Namara and learns that it has been cursed for the past ten years after a young girl fell down a well and her father blamed everyone but himself for it and cursed the village. The Golden Knight of course heads down that well because where the heck did that girl go? After a few…
Buncha fresh heroes here! Son of the Gods: Dr John Thesson, big tall archaeologist and 1940s arch-skeptic, has the misfortune to find himself on an expedition to Crete with true believer Professor Craig who can’t stop running his mouth about how great Theseus was and how he totally existed and maybe Thesson and Craig can find Theseus’ mystic Ring of Poseidon if they look hard enough. It is a very annoying expedition for Thesson. Just kidding: this is a comic…
They just keep on coming. the Champ: The Champ is Captain America if Dr Erskine was a nutritionist rather than a… biologist? Biochemist? Whatever Dr Erskine was a doctor of. A sickly, bullied boy, the Champ (no other name given) was so-called by his bullies because he won at nothing. Scientist Dr Marlin, pitying the Champ, provides him with an experimental food supplement that over a period of seven years transforms him into a physical and mental paragon, the Champ…