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Category: 1940

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 834: THE KNIGHT OF THE GRIFFIN

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 834: THE KNIGHT OF THE GRIFFIN

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(Top-Notch Comics 007, 1940)  Tasked with finding the two-days-overdue Sir Gawain, Galahad discovers him being set upon by ruffians in the employ of the Knight of the Griffin, a dastardly character who hates King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Galahad proceeds to confront the Knight himself, where we find that he is based on Sir Turquine, a villainous knight who had both the knight-summoning bell and tree full of defeated knights’ shields as seen above, but who…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 833: THE MASTER

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 833: THE MASTER

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(Top-Notch Comics 005, 1940)  The Mosconians, stand-ins for Nazi-allied Russia (or possibly just Russian-flavoured stand-ins for Nazi Germany) have a lot more stick-to-itiveness than your typical gang of foreign espionage agents, to the extent that they manage to not only bedevil the Wizard for three whole issues but also the Shield over in Pep Comics, leading to what is touted as the first super-hero crossover in comics (as previously seen here). The Master is the shadowy figure behind the Mosconian schemes…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 832: SIR GILBERT, THE SUN KNIGHT

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 832: SIR GILBERT, THE SUN KNIGHT

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(Top-Notch Comics 005, 1940) Sir Gilbert is the evil knight who Galahad sets out to vanquish on his first official Knights of the Round Table mission. He’s got all the requisite qualities of an evil Arthurian knight: a cool name, a rakish attitude toward kidnapping and menacing women, and designs on the lands near his castle. And like most if not all non-Mordred evil knights in comic book Arthuriana, he’s a completely original character, which is always a bit confusing…

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MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 057

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 057

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Two MLJ Round-Ups in a row! They’re just churning out the heroes!  Galahad: Hey, it’s Galahad! Or rather a version of Galahad who is standing in for a pretty wide array of different Knights of the Round Table with lesser name brand recognition. It’s some clean-cut knightly action. (Top-Notch Comics 005, 1940) Shanghai Sheridan: Jack “Shanghai” Sheridan, aside from having a sounding like a cheeky nickname for a POW camp, is notable mostly for the fact that he is one…

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NOTES – AUGUST 2025

NOTES – AUGUST 2025

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  Big Head Futurites: Just a fun illustration of the concept of future humans being big-headed weirdos, from the “Brick Bradford” Sunday strip for 5 December, 1937  Honours – Thor, God of Thunder:  Grant Farrel, aka Thor, God of Thunder, gets a medal in his role in defending the US from invasion by fascist Gratnia. Note that it is Grant and not Thor who gets the medal, because Grant does a lousy job of protecting his secret identity. (Weird Comics…

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ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 007

ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 007

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Streak Chandler, a football player at State University, is kidnapped by gangsters in order to prevent him from playing in a key game. This almost never works but these particular gangsters might just be the fist comic book characters to successfully fix a sporting event this way, because rather than stash Streak in an easily-escaped-from cabin close enough to the stadium to show up for the final crucial minutes of the game, they make rocket scientist Professor Finlay and his…

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MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 056

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 056

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Some hot Archie/MLJ super-hero action.  **Hero Update** Bob Phantom: Perhaps in honour of his making the jump from Blue Ribbon Comics to Top-Notch Comics, Bob Phantom gets two hitherto-unseen powers: super-breath powerful enough to turn aside oncoming bullets and the ability to summon cyclones by flapping his cape. (Top-Notch Comics 003, 1940)  Bob Phantom also demonstrates super strength sufficient to tear an airplane to pieces in mid air. (Top-Notch Comics 004, 1940) And not content with three new super powers, in Top-Notch 010, Bob…

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ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 006

ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 006

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Martians aplenty, plus more!  Martians:  Time traveller Scott Rand and his companions stumble into a Martian invasion of Earth during a jaunt to the far-distant future world of 2000 CE, and they immediately get in on the planet-defending action. Featuring a Viking vs Martian battle, for all those fans of classic 2010s mashup humour. These particular Martians aren’t anything special, but I must say that I appreciate their minimalist, doorstop-shaped spacecraft. (Top-Notch Comics 002, 1940) Martians:  Scott Rand soon makes…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 831: THE BLACK DEATH

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 831: THE BLACK DEATH

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(Thrilling Comics 010, 1940) Perry Knight has a problem: instead of starring as the titular costumed antagonist of stage production “The Black Death” he has been jailed for murder. He can’t remember doing it, but evidently he gunned down his costar Tinker in cold blood during the dress rehearsal. Enter Peggy Allen, the Woman in Red, who quickly discovers that there is a second Black Death running around when they have a confrontation in the wings. Is this a foolish…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 830: ROBERT W MARSH

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 830: ROBERT W MARSH

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(Thrilling Comics 010, 1940) Fifth column activities are wreaking havoc on the US! Why, it’s so bad that the new National Defense Building has been bombed! Doc Strange is called in along with a crack team of industrialists to help solve the problem, and is pointed toward fellow committee member Henry Dallas by yet another member, Robert W Marsh. Could this be so easy a problem to solve? Henry Dallas kills himself rather than own up to working with the…

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