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…
(Bill Barnes, America’s Air Ace Comics 003, 1941) The first chunk of the story that the Emperor appears in is not available anywhere that I can find, but what remains is enough to evaluate him and determine that yes, he is a super-villain. Specifically, he is a scientist who discovered “the secret of atomic power” and decided that the best way to use it was as part of an attempt to conquer the world. Plus he has all of his…
(Bill Barnes, America’s Air Ace Comics 003, 1941) The first chunk of the story that the Emperor appears in is not available anywhere that I can find, but what remains is enough to evaluate him and determine that yes, he is a super-villain. Specifically, he is a scientist who discovered “the secret of atomic power” and decided that the best way to use it was as part of an attempt to conquer the world. Plus he has all of his…
(Jackpot Comics 004, 1941) An otherwise-unnamed portraitist, the Artist finds himself down on his luck because he refuses to flatter his clients by painting them in anything but complete realism. After his latest client, a banker, literally kicks him out onto the street, he continues to work on the man’s portrait in a hate-fueled haze until he unlocks a power within himself: once he has painted someone’s portrait realistically enough, their soul becomes trapped inside and the husk of their…
(Jackpot Comics 003, 1941) l We meet Ford for the first time as he is knifing his fellow archaeologist Baker to death in an ancient Egyptian tomb, in order to be the sole possessor of the fabled Black Book of Sorcery which they have just found. Two points about Ford right off the bat: 1. he is only ever called Ford. No first name, even! This is what I get for grumbling internally about how boring William Scott’s name was. 2. He…
(Jackpot Comics 002, 1941) William Scott is your textbook mad scientist delving into the mysteries of life and death that man was not meant to comprehend, and in fact is so clearly going to be a problem that Mr Justice shows up to tell him off in advance, just based on a feeling. Despite this, Scott signs up condemned gangster “Rod” Dugan (and whether the Rod part is short for Rodney or the now-somewhat obscure slang for a gun is impossible…
(Jackpot Comics 001, 1941) Zarro, the Zombie Master, is yet another take on an evil Haitian voodoo practitioner: we’ve seen ’em before and we’ll see ’em again. He is recruited by a couple of pseudo-Nazis named Karl Bezdek and Hugo Kempf for help in setting up a factory that uses zombies as workers in the production of war material for the Axis. Like the other Zombie Master we have covered, this one is a vibrant shade of green, just like…
If we criminalize mad science then only criminal scientists will be mad. Mauser: Mauser is the second of two foes battled by two-fisted chemist Guy Gorham and also the second rogue biologist. Was this comic setting up some sort of biologist/chemist beef that never got a chance to pay off? Mauser’s plans are never really spelled out, but he’s got a colony of vampire bats that he seems to be training to attack human targets, which isn’t great but which…
(The Flame 006, 1941) The Hooded Men are a cult of Tibetan fire worshippers who show up one day and kidnap the daughter of the Flame’s friend Doctor Roy. This is a huge coincidence, as the Flame (as I’m sure you all remember) is also a member of a sect of Tibetan fire worshippers! How lucky for Doctor Roy and his child, No First Name Given! The Flame is able to follow the cult back to Tibet thanks to the fact that…
(The Flame 004, 1941) Doctor Drool* is a medical doctor who was recently executed for an unspecified crime. He has, however, planned for this eventuality, and his assistant Scully is on-hand to collect him from his mausoleum at the earliest opportunity so that he can administer a revivification treatment to him. Thus restored, Doctor Drool swears revenge on the Judge, District Attorney and jury who convicted him, a fourteen-person death list that would eventually grow to include the Flame as…