The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: Presto Martin

  • REAL PERSON ROUND-UP 022

    REAL PERSON ROUND-UP 022

    What percentage of these people knew that they had ever been portrayed in a comic book, you reckon?

    Adolf Hitler:

    Hitler gets beaten up by the Silver Streak after he captures and attempts to kill Meteor. (Silver Streak Comics 016, 1941)

    A particularly parodic version of Hitler deploys a super weapon that is ultimately thwarted by Dickie Dean.  (Silver Streak Comics 017, 1941) 

    Charles Biro:

    Gangster Chick Biro almost gets killed by his boss the Domino but is saved when Presto Martin takes his place. (Silver Streak Comics 009, 1941)

    Genghis Khan:

    The Bingham Boys and their friends hunt down the Sword of Genghis Khan to a Tibetan lamasery, where the Grand Lama claims to be the descendant of the Khan and thus entitled to conquer the world. Our heroes beat up the would-be Khan and spirit the sword away to an American museum. (Silver Streak Comics 016, 1941)

    George Roussos: 

    It’s a classic case of slapping your fellow comic book creator’s name on a background sign as “Presto Martin” scribe Bob Wood uses Roussos’ name on an apartment building. (Silver Streak Comics 010, 1941)

    Next issue of the same strip features the headline “Roussos Does it Again! Famous Cartoonist Meets Second Deadline! I can hardly wait to read Roussos’ work in Daredevil Comics to see if he shoots back. 

    Same issue features Roussos’ Army & Navy Store, with a “Jerry Robinson, Prop.” thrown in for good measure. (Silver Streak Comics 011, 1941)

    George Washington: 

    Deploys his personal agent Dan Dearborn to escort a gunpowder shipment and help protect it from capture by the British. (Silver Streak Comics 008, 1941)

    George Rogers Clark: 

    That gunpowder is transported downriver by Clark, a Revolutionary War hero whom I was unfamiliar with and whose Wikipedia page is predictably fraught. (Silver Streak Comics 008, 1941)

    Captain John Neville: 

    Commander of the Fort Pitt garrison at Pittsburgh, where he briefly meets Dan Dearborn. (Silver Streak Comics 008, 1941)

    Mao Zedong: 

    He doesn’t play a direct role in the story, but Mao Tung here is definitely a stand-in for Mao Zedong, aka Mao Tse-tung. Captain Battle saves him from an assassination attempt by a Japanese spy. (Captain Battle Comics 001, 1941)

    Samuel Goldwyn:

    Goldbyn, head of Paragold Film Studios, is a classic stand-in for Sam Goldwyn of MGM. (Silver Streak Comics 017, 1941)

    Unknown News Broadcaster Jimmie Fidler: 

    As you can see, above, I was initially unable to find the reference point for Jimmy Fiddle here. The problem is that I have been conditioned to think a certain way about these stand-in names, so I spent a lot of effort looking for “James Diffle” and “John Oboe” and so forth, and didn’t even consider that it might be something as simple as “Jimmie Fidler” until I remembered that we had already encountered a Jimmy Fiddle and filed him under Unknown. 

    Sorry for disrespecting your 50+ year media career, Jimmie Fidler. In my defense, you retired when I was three years old. (Silver Streak Comics 009, 1941) 

  • GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 038

    Criminals!

    Unnamed Gambler: 

    Not much is revealed about this fellow, but what we do know for sure is that he has access to a super strength drink and that he has been using it to clean up on gambling by slipping it to boxers and race horses with long odds. He also relies on the potion to help him escape from the cops, which backfires on him because Presto Martin, having taken the place of one of the boxers, is also hopped up on super juice and engages him in thrilling aerial combat.

    This super strength potion is the sort of thing I accuse crooks of employing shrtsightedly for quick crime profit rather than marketing legitimately for unimaginable wealth but I might give this fellow a pass due to his clear gambling problem. (Silver Streak Comics 007, 1941)

    the White Dragon Flower:

    She might just be a generic femme fatale spy chief who shows up for three panels before her whole operation gets busted up by aviator Cloud Curtis but I’ll be danged if a) that isn’t a great look and b) “White Dragon Flower” isn’t a terrific name, even if it was clearly thrown together to sound as mysterious and Asian as possible. (Silver Streak Comics 007, 1941)

    Categorized in: Animals & Plants (Plants)

    the Murder Syndicate, Inc: 

    As thier name suggests, the Murder Syndicate, Inc are hitmen for hire, distinguished mainly by the fact that the Daredevil has to round them up twice thanks to a mid-trial escape engineered by their boss, the mysterious Man in Black.

    And just who is the Man in Black? Why, it’s Judge Harkins, the man presiding over the trial in question! Is this surprising? Only if this is your first-ever experience reading a piece of fiction. (Silver Streak Comics 012, 1941)

    Categorized in: Murder (Assassins), Professions (Corporations) 

    Armando Siam:

    Armando Siam and his henchman Alfonze are a couple of generically foreign crooks who roll into Castleton in their absurdly long car one day and just kind of stumble into gaining control over Dickie Dean’s army of deep sea salvage robots, which they of course immediately set to looting the place.

    The duo eventually get word of the treasure that Dickie had been intending to use the robots for in the first place and hijack a salvage vessel in a very visually entertaining manner. Alas, it is at this point that the Boy Inventor himself catches up with them and the due end up as octopus fodder during their escape attempt. (Silver Streak Comics 014, 1941)

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 934: THE LADY KILLER

    (Silver Streak Comics 012, 1941)

    The Lady Killer makes his debut at the glamorous Crane Club, in which he attacks and nearly kills rising stage star Betty Crawford and takes a moment to grandstand a bit before making his escape. The name is a somewhat presumptuous one here, given the fact that he has yet to kill a lady.

    He makes up for this over the next few days as he murders a whopping fourteen women and injures a similar number of people and leaves a “Lady Killer” calling card at the scene of each crime. Though this is a fast turnaround on murder, I think that technically he is a serial rather than spree killer as he seems to be choosing his victims rather than attacking targets of opportunity – it’s just that his pool of potential victims is so huge that he can kill whenever he feels like it.

    Presto Martin eventually lays hands on the Lady Killer in his usual manner, through disguise. Specifically, by announcing that the villain will reappear at the Crane Club and then impersonating him there at the appointed time, and sure enough, the Lady Killer’s ego is too great to allow this imposture to stand and he gets within range of the detective’s fists and has his big hat knocked off.

    This is the point at which a mystery story would pay off and one of the suspects would be unmasked, but the thing about this story is that there are no suspects. Like, literally none – the only named characters in the comic other than Presto and his supporting cast are Betty Crawford and her beau and they are the only ones who it couldn’t be. Instead the Lady Killer is just Some Guy who had a very bad breakup and lost all his money and decided to take it out on an entire gender instead of dealing with his issues in a more mature manner. As a fan of a mystery I feel robbed.

    Categorized in: Crime Theme (Killers), Language (Expressions), Murder (Serial Killers)

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 932: THE GHOST OF THE DOMINO

    (Silver Streak Comics 011, 1941)

    The Domino is dead! All those murders he did and more importantly admitted to when he was trying to extort the NYPD have caught up to him via the electric chair, and all of New York breathes easier.

    Not for long, however, as the various witnesses at the Domino’s trial, and particularly the members of his own gang who turned state’s evidence, begin turning up dead with a domino – that has the Domino’s fingerprints on it! –  in their hands. Rumours that the ghost of the Domino has returned for revenge start flying around the underworld.

    And to top it all off, the Domino’s grave turns out to be empty!

    Now, the seemingly dead gangster returned from the dead to get revenge is a common enough trope that we can lay out the possible ways it might have happened with ease:

    1. the Domino’s death was faked and the “body” smuggled out for “revival” elsewhere

    2. the Domino really dies and his body was collected by an unscrupulous scientist for revival or brain transplant, etc.

    3. the Domino’s body was stolen and he is being impersonated, possibly by a secret identical twin

    4. it’s actually the Domino’s ghost

    Feel free to place a small bet on which of these comics-accurate options is the case here.

    Answer: it’s option 3! The Ghost of the Domino is in fact Pete Poulos, one of the Domino’s former lieutenants, who has faked his old boss’ return and done all of the seeming revenge killings as a smokescreen for his true goal: to eliminate all the other former members of the Domino gang who know where their old boss’ money is hidden.

    As per usual, a combination of facial disguises and a bulletproof vest carries the day for Presto Martin, and the Ghost of the Domino is sent to replace the original in prison (and possibly the grave).

    Categorized in: Accessories (Calling Cards), Activities (Dominoes), Fraud (Fake Ghosts)

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 928: THE DOMINO

    (Silver Streak Comics 009, 1941)

    Dominic Leonetti, aka the Domino, is a nightclub owner/gang boss with what I would call a moderate commitment to his chosen theme. Sure, he plays a game of dominoes with his victims before killing them, and sure he leaves a domino in the hand of whoever he kills, but where’s the domino tie pin or domino-handled knife or even that old standard the domino mask? Even his nightclub is called the Red Rouse, which is so much not a domino term that it doesn’t seem to mean anything. Call it the Red Pip!

    The Domino’s attempt to murder his underling Chick Biro is foiled when it turns out that Biro has been replaced by Presto Martin and that Martin is wearing a bulletproof vest (and this has officially happened often enough that the crooks in Martin’s version of NYC should be headshot-only at this point). The gang manages to escape thanks to Martin’s bumbling assistant Sergeant Murphy, but they have to take it on the lam.

    Being on the run means that the Domino is unable to run his nightclub, to which he objects. What, I ask you, is the most logical and straightforward way for him to get back to his preferred lifestyle? All answers are wrong because what Leonetti decides to do is start killing cops in alphabetical order (leaving a domino behind so that the police can be sure it’s him), with the explicit threat that the killings will continue until the charges against him are dropped and he is left alone. Is this the least thought-out plan in comics history? It’s certainly the worst one that I personally can think of.

    Presto Martin solves this problem like he solves all problems: by dressing up like the Domino’s next most probably victim and tanking a tommy gun clip thanks to his presumably magical bulletproof vest. A few well-placed bullets drives the gang’s car off the road, followed by a few well-placed punches to send them to sleep, and the reign of the Domino is over.

    Categorized in: Activities (Games), Day Job (Nightclub Owner), Location (NYC)

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 924: MOLO

    (Silver Streak Comics 008, 1941)

    A killer stalks the entertainment industry! Prominent  people are being murdered, including Academy Award winner Kay Kaye, opera singer Lily Donela and Dick Bradley, recent recipient of the Nobel Prize for “the best play of the year” which I suppose would be for literature? And also very impressive because the Nobel Prize was suspended in 1941 due to the war?

    In total, nine luminaries of the stage and screen have been killed as the story opens and all have been found with a note reading “Death by Molo.” 

    The next projected target is playwright Bruce Canton, who is about to be honoured with a banquet. Enter Presto Martin, master of disguise, who poses as Canton and rounds up Molo with little effort. Case closed, the day is saved, etc.

    There’s just one problem: Canton is murdered at the banquet, complete with calling card, and the witnesses identify the man in Martin’s lockup as the culprit.

    A little of the ol’ disguise routine from Presto determines that the Molo in police custody has a twin brother who is hell-bent on continuing the murder spree. This means that Martin has to dress up like the logical next victim again and act as bait for a killer again, ho hum. The second Molo is captured with ease and thrown into jail with his brother.

    And just why were the Molos so hell-bent on murdering successful figures in the entertainment industry anyway? Why, because they themselves were failures back in the dying days of Vaudeville and they just couldn’t take seeing other people make it. 

    THE SUPER-VILLAINS OF HOLLYWOOD PODCAST: One of the least successful episodes in the history of the show. The hosts take the bizarre approach of treating the Molo brothers as victims of the entertainment system and among other things demonstrate that they don’t really know what Vaudeville is. Rumours that the podcast was threatened with a lawsuit by the estate of Kay Kaye are unconfirmed, but the episode was quietly removed from the archive after a few months.

    Categorized in: Murder (Serial Killers), Origin (Twins), the Super-Villains of Hollywood Podcast

  • MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 078

    Lev Gleason characters for EVERYONE!

    Daredevil **UPDATE**:

    Daredevil had but one appearance in 1940, so it’s no surprise that the character still had some changes and revisions to go once 1941 rolled around. Firstly, his costume gets an update, with yellow swapped out for red and the complicated “DD” design on the abdomen dropped entirely.

    The most dramatic change, however, is that the Daredevil can now talk. Just how Bart Hill’s traumatic muteness was alleviated is unaddressed – I’m sure that the real answer is that it was inconvenient to write around and so was quietly dropped, but imagining that his successful crimefighting career allowed him to let go of the past is nice.

    Finally, Bart is now a wealthy playboy with a fiance (Tonia Saunders) who isn’t too sure about marrying this manchild after all. Thankfully, Tonia discovers the truth about Bart’s double life in her first appearance, because the Clark/Lois dynamic can get a bit tedious when grafted onto every super-hero’s relationship by default.

    Our final update from Silver Streak Comics 007 is this revelation that the Daredevil’s mastery of the boomerang is so complete that, when thrown by the Claw, he can cause his own body to act like one. This here might just be a new contender for inclusion in lists of obscure and ridiculous super powers, folks.

    In Silver Streak Comics 008 & 009, Daredevil employs a couple of high-tech fighter planes called “the Airdevil,” which a top-notch example of a jokey super-accessory name. Both planes are destroyed during Daredevil’s clashes with the Claw, and he seems to have given up on the idea of the custom plane, at least for the year 1941.

    In Silver Streak Comics 015 Daredevil employs a decoy double named Chester to help in the capture of a villain named the Serpent. Who is Chester? No idea. Will he ever return? Probably not.

    Finally, in Daredevil Comics 002, Daredevil engages in what I would say is some Spider-Man style super-hero quipping as he battles this horde of silent men. Not that super-heroes aren’t constantly mouthing off, mind you, but it doesn’t have this kind of flow. I shall be looking out for more of this kind of patter to see how long it takes to become an established thing.

    Categorized in: Accessories (Airplanes), Day Job (Wealthy Socialite)

    Presto Martin: 

    Presto Martin, though voted “Least Likely to Succeed” in college, is now Captain of Detectives in the NYPD. More importantly for our purposes, he is a master of disguise who is for instance more than willing to take the place of a heavyweight boxer in the ring if it means that he can solve a big case. (Silver Streak Comics 007, 1941)

    Per Silver Streak Comics 008, Presto is aided in his work by a super-moldable plastic putty of his own concoction.

    Categorized in: Day Job (Police Captain), Powers (Master of Disguise), Team Membership (NYPD)

    Zongar, the Miracle Man:

    Zongar, the Miracle Man, is a functionally-omnipotent magical adventurer like so many of his peers, but rather than casting spells per se Zongar uses a mystical amulet to command the spirit Abaraxx to do his bidding. This might have lead to some interesting developments over time if, for example, a nogoodnik were to get ahold of the amulet but alas, Zongar had only one recorded adventure. (Silver Streak Comics 007, 1941)

    Categorized in: Abstract Concepts (Miracles), Accessories (Amulets)

    Cloud Curtis: 

    Dashing young aviator Cloud Curtis has developed the super plane Golden Bullet, which he flies both as a job and against the enemies of the US and which has one of the goofier features of any comic book super plane in the form of that big propeller located halfway down the fuselage. Curtis is assisted by the apelike Crusher McCoy and the avuncular Pop Whistler as he keeps the airways safe from a series of increasingly unlikely airplane-based threats. (Silver Streak Comics 007, 1941)

    Categorized in: Accessories (Airplanes), Day Job (Aviators)

  • NOTES – JANUARY 2026

    Honours: 

    Aviator Cloud Curtis and his pals are personally thanked by FDR for stopping a spy plot against the US. (Silver Streak Comics 007, 1941) 

    Decorations: 

    Check out Presto Martin’s portrait of Silver Streak and Whiz! (Silver Streak Comics 011, 1941)