The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: great folk

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 368: GENGHIS KHAN THE SECOND

    (Minute-Man 002, 1941)

    Genghis Khan the Second, like our poor deceased pal Stuporman, is a giant quasi-superhuman imported from far-off Mongolia by a gang boss for use as exotic muscle.

    The difference between Stuporman ad our guy here, however, is that he is not content to be anyone’s stooge. Genghis Khan the Second bumps off his would-be masters on page 2 of the story and promptly sets his Mongolian Horde to looting and pillaging the countryside using their mastery of horse-mounted archery (I assume). It’s honestly the gang boss’ own fault he gets it in the neck – imagine assuming that someone who chose the nae Genghis Khan the Second being content to act as second fiddle in what appears to be a two-person gang.

    Of course the Army eventually gets involves, and Minute-Man, as part of that army, ends up dropping a mountain on the whole lot of them. It’s fine. The real star of the story for me is the teen in the above image – I reckon that those middle three panels are one of the better bits of comedy I have seen in a Golden Age comic.

    ADDENDUM: forgot to mention that the guy who imports GKII and his Mongol Horde lives in one of the castles of California’s popular Castle District.

  • MINOR SUPER-HERO 042: THE BLUE TRACER

    MINOR SUPER-HERO 042: THE BLUE TRACER

    (Military Comics 001-016, 1941-1942)

    The Blue Tracer is your standard guy-with-a-super-vehicle hero: “Wild Bill” Dunn, an American engineer serving with the British in Ethiopia, finds himself the only survivor of an ambush by a race of would-be world-conquering superhumans called the M’bujies. He and Anzac Boomerang Jones team up to build the multienvironment supercraft the Blue Tracer and foil the M’bujie plans (by killing them all).

    There seems to be a consensus online that the vehicle is the Blue Tracer and Bill Dunn is not but I will not be joining them in that: there is a long tradition of super vehicle pilots sharing a name with their craft and anyone who goes to the trouble of putting together an outfit as ostentatious as Dunn’s is deserves to have a code name.

    The Blue Tracer itself just might have the distinction of being the ugliest super vehicle I have ever seen – it looks like something that really was kitbashed together out of random WWII vehicles in a homemade workshop. It’s so ugly, in fact, that I find it charming. 

    I looked up whether it was ever referenced again and evidently one of the Freedom Fighters teams used a cool plane called the Blue Tracer. Booooooo! Bring back the ugly Blue Tracer! The Blue Tracer can’t be cool.

    Also charming: Boomerang Jones, Bill Dunn’s Australian gnome of a sidekick. It is both weird and refreshing to encounter an Australian character in an era before the tropes of the accent were really embedded in the popular consciousness.

  • NOTES – OCTOBER 2023

    Ripped from the headlines:

    The acclimation of a new Dalai Lama must have been big headlines in 1941 because not only did Zoro the Mystery Man save him from being kidnapped for ransom… (Master Comics 014, 1941)

    … but over on Earth-Two, the Three Aces did the same! (Action Comics 032, 1941)

    Great Folk:

    Wizzar, Father of All Magic, teacher and mentor of El Carim, dead and returned as a spirit who appears “when some great crime against the dead remains unpunished” is that all-too-frequent thing in comics: a cosmic plot-hook-delivering entity used only once and never seen again (Master Comics 015, 1941) 

    Also, Wizzar sends El Carim to the planet Zaam to battle the tyrant Rashtala and basically everyone on Zaam has an amazing look:

    Just great.

    Grandfather Oyster, the big oyster that eats people when they try to get the little oysters, is a really terrific sea monster concept. Is this the only hostile oyster in comics history? Probably! (Master Comics 017, 1941)

    Memes of Yore: COWARD!

    Very unsympathetic crowd of Goat-People watching space hero Captain Venture fight a space dragon. (Master Comics 021, 1941)

    Nobody ever delivers a long monologue on why kicking people is an unmanly way to fight but there are a lot of expressions of distaste, like Spike of the Companions Three is uttering here. (Master Comics 021, 1941)

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 280: PRINCE ITOR

    (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 021, 1941)

    I like Prince Itor because he’s a weenie. Not enough of those in the Golden Age. He’s not even really the focus of this story, which ain’t called “The Idol of Death” for nothing.

    So: Morrison here owns the titular Idol and is loaning it to the Egyptian Museum, but the transfer process and time was leaked in the papers, which leads to at least half of he story being taken up with a heist that Prince Itor has absolutely no involvement in.

    Itor himself doesn’t get a lot of backstory: his family are presumably like those deposed European royals who are always mooching around high society, but for thousands instead of hundreds of years. Unless of course there is an ancient prophecy about the power of the pharaohs awakening in a completely unrelated family. Either would be good!

    Itor does eventually get ahold of the idol, by the simple method of having his men take it off of the crooks who went to the hard work of actually stealing it. That pharaonic power turns out to have a kick to it, in the form of a bad case of monster-face. 

    Whatever powers the ancient monster-Pharaohs wielded do not get a full exploration, as Itor discovers pretty quickly that he can control the people around him. What follows is a pretty brief and unsuccessful attempt to destroy the Human Torch using a subwayful of commuters that ends when  the Torch melts the idol and a fleeing Prince conveniently flings himself onto the third rail – no fuss, no muss.

    But why did I call Prince Itor a weenie? Very simply it’s because he’s the kind of villain who hangs back and lets his employees do all of the work, whether it’s stealing the idol or marching in mind-controlled lockstep against a man of living flame. He’s the kind of bumbling aristocratic oaf who can’t even escape without accidentally electrocuting himself – I love to loathe him. And as with every other good aristocratic oaf, he has a highly-competent aide to take care of all of the nitty-gritty for him

    Nalda! The Jeeves to Itor’s Wooster, if Jeeves was a pistol-wielding femme fatale in a cape and a pair of buccaneer gloves. Nalda! The kind of second-in-command that is clearly the power behind the throne. Nalda!

    I was going to say that it’s sad that Nalda only appears on a single page but no, I’m glad. That means that she survived the adventure and likely got away to empty Itor’s bank accounts and set herself up in Madripoor or the like. She’s probably still there, something like 105 years old, running her underground casino/ assassination service/ chain of cat cafes like a ruthless raisin. Godspeed, Nalda.

  • NOTES – MAY 2023

    Folk:

    Luther Robinson and Lynne Harris! These folks are hard to categorize! They’re not villains, despite being antagonists to Namor the Sub-Mariner, because Namor is very much a villain at least half of the time. They’re not heroes, despite eventually allying with Namor to fight Nazis, because they definitely attempt to commit at least one genocide against the people of Atlantis. 

    They’re adventurers, they’ve both been surgically modified by Atlantean scientists to be amphibious, and Lynne is one of a long line of women to be abducted by Namor with romantic ill-intent (and she’s, like, third one, in a mere handful of stories). They’re interesting artifacts of the way comic book universes come together, and that’s great.

    (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 010-026 (sporadically), 1940-1941) 

    Vision foe Rhamu Rondi is your bog standard crooked mystic character and will make no further appearances here, but the Buddha Signal is objectively great – even early Jack Kirby knew what was up with regard to villainous décor.(Marvel Mystery Comics v1 015, 1941)

    Names:

    Fella name of Barney Bailey here, which is a pretty great moniker for an exhibiter of curiosities to have. (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 016, 1941)

    Panel fun:

    Sub-Mariner x Human Torch (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 017, 1941)

    Whether this is Namor’s personal flag/ crest or a more general Atlantean symbol, this bit of regalia must be noted. (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 018, 1941)

    Biographical Details: Namor the Sub-Mariner weighs 198 pounds, according to the ring announcer during his foray into the world of boxing (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 020, 1941)

  • NOTES: DECEMBER 2022

    (Detective Comics v1 058, 1941)

     

    Comic book character of the year Claudia Carol, folks.

    Names: (Doc Savage Comics v1 003, 1941)

    Bit of nominative determinism going on. The protagonist of this piece is Brad Marshall:

    Marshal Brad Marshall:

    Crook name of Bat Crawley (Feature Comics 040, 1941)

    I’m only mostly certain, but I think that “Fasdick” here might be subbing in for “fascist”. The government in question does bear all the hallmarks of being a stand-in for one of the Axis powers, but it’s a wild stretch, even so. (Feature Comics 040, 1941)

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 173: THE HUNCHBACK

    (Bulletman 002, 1941)

    There are many Hunchbacks, both actual and fake, in the ranks of the minor super-villain, alas. Victor Hugo has much to answer for. This Hunchback is a former actor whose back (and presumably mind) was injured in a fall and thereafter resolved to kill all leading men at a particular theatre via dart to the neck.

    The real standout of the story is not the Hunchback but rather red herring murder suspect Matt Benson, seen here being a completely unsuspicious witness:

    And here being careful not to make himself seem like he might have done it:

    I sincerely think that in all my years of reading this kind of story I have not seen a suspect with less chill. The man could not order a cup of coffee without implying that he had strangled someone for the cash he was using to pay for it.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 061: THE DEMON

    (Action Comics 022, 1940)

    Whether the capital-D Demon is actually a lowercase-d demon is never actually resolved, but it’s not outside the realm of possibility. He shows up when a friend of Tex Thomson’s named Cary James ignores local superstitions to visit an island in the Indian Ocean, where he is quickly captured and murdered by the Demon, who then assumes his appearance and identity via fell majicks.

    The Demon’s only goal seems to be to murder everyone who knew the original Cary James, but whether there is a further motive to his actions is left unexplained, as one of James’ friends happens to have a mystic amulet that is the only thing capable of defeating him. The amulet must be applied directly to the forehead, like so:

    Love that bop on the head action. I also love that though this is ostensibly a Tex Thomson adventure, he basically acts in the role of observer, as the locket-thrower Dr Drummond drives much of the action of tracking, trapping and ultimately destroying the Demon. Huzzah for competent non title characters!

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 054: SLAUGHTER SLADE

    (Special Edition Comics, 1940)

    Here is a list of pertinent details about Slaughter Slade:

    -He talks like Swamp Thing for no discernable reason

    -He is stronger and more intelligent than the human norm. Together with the prior point and some general odd behavior throughout the story this kind of leads one to think he might be revealed as a robot or alien or something. He is not.

    -He has three henchmen: a regular gangster named Butch, a weird little freak named Spider and an intelligent gorilla named Doctor Allirog. Oh, and a giant spider:

    -Doctor Allirog is not an intelligent gorilla at the beginning of the story, but his name is Doctor Allirog at the beginning of the story.

    -Slaughter Slade’s plan is to destroy the entire US government and install himself and Doctor Allirog as President and Vice-President, respectively.

    -Part of Slaughter Slade’s plan involves buying a book of knowledge from this man:

    Professor Universe is possibly the single-appearance character whose failure to make a return has hurt me personally the most. Just the idea of this mercenary genius living somewhere near Fawcett City is so delightful to me. Obviously I want them to BRING BACK everyone involved in this story, down to Butch and the two Spiders.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 054: SLAUGHTER SLADE

    (Special Edition Comics, 1940)

    Here is a list of pertinent details about Slaughter Slade:

    -He talks like Swamp Thing for no discernable reason

    -He is stronger and more intelligent than the human norm. Together with the prior point and some general odd behavior throughout the story this kind of leads one to think he might be revealed as a robot or alien or something. He is not.

    -He has three henchmen: a regular gangster named Butch, a weird little freak named Spider and an intelligent gorilla named Doctor Allirog. Oh, and a giant spider:

    -Doctor Allirog is not an intelligent gorilla at the beginning of the story, but his name is Doctor Allirog at the beginning of the story.

    -Slaughter Slade’s plan is to destroy the entire US government and install himself and Doctor Allirog as President and Vice-President, respectively.

    -Part of Slaughter Slade’s plan involves buying a book of knowledge from this man:

    Professor Universe is possibly the single-appearance character whose failure to make a return has hurt me personally the most. Just the idea of this mercenary genius living somewhere near Fawcett City is so delightful to me. Obviously I want them to BRING BACK everyone involved in this story, down to Butch and the two Spiders.