The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: Minimidget

  • ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 038

    Where are we going to put all of these aliens? 

    Undergrounders: 

    I want to call these guys mole men who invade the surface world in the year 3050 CE, but looking at the battle scene and the remainder of this adventure I reckon that Abovegrounders of that particular future also look all bald and gangly. It’s a whole world of mole men! Science adventurer Captain Daring kills the Undergrounders’ underground Fuehrer and installs his own ladyfriend as the new Queen of the Underground, which has to be an improvement. (Daring Mystery Comics 007, 1941)

    Juno Men:

    These fellows hail from the planet Juno and are invading the Earth of the far future of the year 3000. We don’t really learn any more than this because we are seeing these events play out from the persepctive of a time-travelling Minimidget and Ritty, and so not only are they without context but they are too small to ask a passerby to explain just what the heck is happening. They are driven off with what I would call embarrassing ease. (Amazing-Man Comics 014, 1940)

    Followers of Elo: 

    Underwater adventurer the Shark is possibly my favourite Centaur Comics character, because he spends a lot of his time palling around with his dad, Father Neptune. A little-explored aspect of this father-son relationship is that it is part of a Phantom-like generational super-hero legacy, with each Shark serving for 500 years before becoming Father Neptune and passing his legacy on to his son. One of the few times that this arrangement is explored is in Amazing-Man Comics 014, when Father Neptune tells the story of how he served on a pirate crew for a while back when he was the Shark, and how in 1664 his crewmates were all slaughtered in the name of the Great God Elo by some lumpy-headed green guys on an island off South America.

    Cut to 1940, and the Shark and Father Neptune decide that a trip to that same island would be a perfect father-son outing. They find that the Great God Elo has only two followers left, and that one of them is a capable enough scientist that he has developed super-hero strength sleep gas grenades. Father and son are swiftly taken prisoner.

    The unnamed scientist has also created an interplanetary teleportation device, which he employs to teleport in some…

    Martians: 

    Specifically, a pretty lucky first teleport brings him Prince Zog, son of Diggo, King of Mars. But just why bring Martians to Earth? We will never know, because Zog is a very rude warmonger and he has electric eyes. The tribe of Elo is down to its very last member and he has sensibly vacated the area.

    No aliens are going to invade the Earth on the Shark’s watch, and he KOs on after another as they pour out of the teleport beam, until a lucky punch sends one crashing into the equipment, wrecking it.

    Though the teleporter is no longer spewing out Martians, there are still a pile of knocked-out ones lying around. How to tie up this loose end? Why, have Father Neptune, who missed the fight due to still being knocked out, throw a bucket of water on them so that they will wake up and engage him in the manly art of fisticuffs, of course! And then make it so that Martians are water soluble! Gruesome! (Amazing-Man Comics 015, 1940)

  • DIVINE ROUND-UP 010

    Pad out your pantheon with some of these:

    Death:

    This version of Death may lack the social graces necessary to welcome Kardak the Mystic and his pal Lorna rather than attempt to murder them for entering his domain, but he does have a very good version of the classic “robed skeleton” look. And his house is charmingly coffin-themed, to boot! 

    God Style: Anthropomorphic Personification (Top-Notch Comics 008, 1940)

    Ramu, God of Fire: 

    Ramu, God of Fire is another one of your deities created so that a group of “primitive savages” will have a reason to menace some “noble explorers” with the threat of being human sacrificed. Ramu at least is kind of fun because while he might have started out looking like the figure depicted on those red sacrificial poles, by the end of the comic this image has been supplanted by that of the miniature rocket ship that Minimidget and Ritty accidentally pilot into the middle of the ceremony.

    God Style: Idol  (Amazing-Man Comics 010, 1940)

    the Sacred Steam God:

    The Sacred Steam God is worshipped by the Quadropel Men, who themselves are notable for living beneath the land of Aquatania, which itself lies below the Marquesas Islands. Worship of the Sacred Steam God of course involves human sacrifice, but erstwhile victim Terry is saved when Chuck Hardy topples the inexplicably-full-of-scalding-water idol onto the crows of spectators. 

    God Style: Idol (Amazing-Man Comics 009, 1940)

    Sakka: 

    Sakka is, yes, another figure to whom some Noble White Explorers are almost sacrificed while making their way through the jungles of Matto Grosso in Brazil. Here’s the difference, though: Sakka isn’t just some idol, he’s an ancestor spirit, and his name and his ancient sword are all that the big-eyed Earth-Men need to keep their faith strong and bloodthirsty, at least until adventurer Rocky Ryan picks up the sword and is acclaimed the second coming of Sakka, that is. 

    God Style: Invoked (Big-Shot Comics 014, 1941) 

  • MAD AND CRIMINAL SCIENTIST ROUND-UP 006

    It’s time for more mad and criminal scientists! Round ’em up!

    The fantastically-named Doctor Evecloud has a plan: shrink everyone else on the planet so that he, the only big person, will be in charge. As so often happens, one of his first guinea pigs is a super-hero, in this case the Shark. Things end poorly for Doctor Evecloud. (Amazing-Man Comics 016, 1940)

    This fellow is Dr Scowl and so far we’re sitting at 2/2 great scientist names. Dr Scowl is attempting to dissect Minimidget and Ritty to figure out how his late colleague got them so dang small and he’s not afraid to deploy a highly unsettling chimeric man to do so. (Amazing-Man Comics 025, 1941)

    Professor Zarr breaks the good name streak and it’s entirely in character, as he’s a guy who can’t catch a break: Samson and David bust up his radium-stealing gang, bust up his fortress lair and destroy his Z-Ray machine before he has a chance to even fire the thing. And to add insult to injury, he sets himself on fire while he’s trying to get his revenge. (Big 3 003, 1941)

    Later in the same issue, Samson and David head to Central America and spoil the plans of Dr Kalt, who seems to be Professor Zarr’s non-union equivalent, down to not getting to fire his solar disintegrator and blowing himself up with a grenade he was trying to throw at the heroes. (Big 3 003, 1941)

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 474: KING OF THE USA

    (Amazing-Man Comics 020, 1941)

    The King of the USA, not unlike the Emperor of America before him, is a weirdo megalomaniac who lives in a hole, with the major difference being that while the Emperor was of course known for being surrounded by hunks the King lives alone. Note that this means that he personally scurried up to this office boy and delivered his own unhinged manifesto.

    If the King of the USA did have a few hunks around then maybe one of them might have pointed out a potential flaw in his plan: that basing your operation out of sewer might lead to some complications related to eg, flooding when you do things like collapse major parts of New York’s infrastructure with your disintegrator. And this theoretical hunk would be right! It’s just such a flood that brings Minimidget and Ritty to his door!

    Even more to the point: after Our Small Heroes drug his coffee and tie him up he ends up drowning in his sleep due to a flood caused when he collapses the Chrysler Building. Drainage: just one of the many oft-overlooked aspects of successful villain lair design.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 473: THE HEAD

    (Amazing-Man Comics 019, 1941)

    The Head is a spy chief notable a) because he is also a US Senator but mostly because b) his plan seems to revolve around it being unremarkable for him to be carrying a big ol’ watermelon around. In his defense, it seems to be working pretty well until Minimidget rides in on a carrier pigeon and spoils everything.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 468: THE GHOST

    (Amazing-Man Comics 013, 1940)

    In Amazing-Man Comics 010 Minimidget and Ritty accidentally get shot to the Belgian Congo on a guy’s homemade rocket (as you do) and the subsequent issues have been a series of trials and tribulations as they make their way back home. The Ghost is another one of those, but a fun one – not racist at all, for one thing!

    I may not have much regard for pilot-heroes but air pirates are another matter, and that’s just what the Ghost is, complete with all the good good accessories: custom planes with little ghosts painted on them, a hidden airfield, costumed henchmen dressed in a less-cool version of his own costume, a bombastic attitude… he’s the complete package for a one-off villain. The only sour note is his name – the Ghost is a perfectly fine name on its own but several people refer to him as a “sky way robber” and the Skyway Robber is a much better name for an air pirate.

    (it’s hard to tell with the state of search engines nowadays but it seems like “the Skyway Robber” has only been used as a name for a card in Magic: the Gathering. A shame!)

    The Ghost dies somewhat ignominiously when his plane is tripped. That’s life as a comic book villain, I guess.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 414: THE POWER

    (Amazing Man Comics 008, 1939)

    The worst thing about Minimidget is obviously his name. The best thing about him and his partner Ritty is the fact that unlike your Doll Mans or Atoms or Ants Men they are a) permanently six inches tall and b) proportionally as strong as a six-inch human being – they’re just lil’ guys wearing jodhpurs. A lot of their adventures are not so much about going out and finding excitement as dealing with the problems of being real real small.

    Such is the case when the two of them are spotted by agents of would-be world dictator the Power and spirited away to be part of his collection of oddities. It’s a real pickle, as the Power is about as over the top villainous as you get: he has a harem; he has slaves; he has a torture chamber full of nude men. His outfit, while fun in an ostentatious way, is that of a man who has never been told that he has had a bad idea. You can tell he has long fingernails because he read that it was symbolic of how little actual labour you had to do. Just the worst.

    Minimidget and Ritty eventually escape when one of the slave-scientists straps them to a bird. They make their way to the US and get word to the authorities and I guess that’s another power a couple of six-inch people have: when you say “something wild is happening thataway” the fact that you are something wild adds a bit of oomph to your claims.

    True to his jagoff nature, the Power attempts to flee in a plane as soon as the authorities start to close in. He is immediately shot down. Minimidget and Rittty are feted, technically, for stabbing a bird.

  • MINOR SUPER-HEROES 007-014: AMAZING-MAN COMICS ROUNDUP 1939

    (Amazing-Man Comics 005-026, 1939-1942)

    All the ephemeral Golden Age heroes who stalked the pages of Amazing-Man Comics:

    The Iron Skull! I love him. His origin and so forth is doled out after a few issues so initially you don’t know that he is a cyborg war casualty in the far future world of 1970. The most important things are there from the start, though: his huge anime eyes and the fact that every bullet or attack made against him unerringly hit him in his invulnerable head.

    SKULL SCORE: 2/5 Not very skully but he gets a point for the lack of nose.

    Minimidget: Just a super-small guy with a problematic name. He and his galpal Ritty were shrunk and employed as henchmen by a pervert scientist before redeeming themselves via acts of public service. 

    Chuck Hardy: Chuck and Jerry, a couple of deep sea divers, end up in the subterranean land of Aquatania, beneath the Marquesas Islands. They turn out to be super-strong there for murkily-explained reasons and have adventures with the monstrous flora and fauna and the various near-human races. The best part is absolutely the little lobster antennae that all of the various types of Aquatanians have.

    Mighty Man is a huge dude who is the last descendant of folk who settled in a valley where everything is huge. After murdering a bunch of evil cowboys, he emerges from his valley to fight crime. Eventually he gets the power to change size.

    UPDATE 1940

    The Shark! A water-based hero who can talk to sea life and must hit the water regularly, which is about standard for water guys!

    ADDENDUM: Later on he meets his father Neptune and his adventures turn into father/son outings, which rules.

    UPDATE 1940

    Magician from Mars: Not only is Jane 6em35 an Earthian/Martian hybrid from an unspecified future, and not only was she accidentally irradiated as a baby in a way that activated a lot of vague superpowers (including flight, super-strength and a seemingly complete control over matter) but she is a practical and morally flexible hero who takes advantage of the chaos surrounding a rocket crash to make off with $3 million in gold before saving the day. Very fun. Plus: jodhpurs!

    The Cat Man: a very marginal entry on this list. In his first appearance, he develops his signature technique of dressing like an old lady and having his trained cat scratch people with poisoned claws to murder three former criminal confederates, which isn’t particularly heroic? His second appearance is in more of a vigilante role as he murders a gang of wanted men. How could I not include this loveable murderous scamp, really?