Browsed by
Category: 1940

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 761: THE HOODED RIDERS

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 761: THE HOODED RIDERS

Comments 0 comment

(Speed Comics 007, 1940) Despite their KKK-adjacent looks and tactics, the Hooded Riders are nothing more than a gang of rural protection racketeers. Over the course of the adventure the riders keep rolling out more elaborate equipment and plans to deal with both their targets and the interference of Shock Gibson and I kept thinking that their deep well of resources was going to turn out to be due to some sort of secret funding from a hostile country but…

Read More Read More

FASCIST GOON CLEARING HOUSE 009

FASCIST GOON CLEARING HOUSE 009

Comments 0 comment

Buncha Smash Comics fascists I lost behind the couch for a while. Just why this German-American Bund equivalent is called the Groups is a real mystery for the ages – it’s possible that these people are protesting, like, all bundist-style organizations at once and calling them “the Groups” collectively, though why they would do so at one specific group’s meeting is beyond me. Whatever the truth of their name, the leadership of the Groups meet their ends after an attempt…

Read More Read More

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 553 UPDATE: LANDOR, MAKER OF MONSTERS (1940)

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 553 UPDATE: LANDOR, MAKER OF MONSTERS (1940)

Comments 0 comment

When last we saw Landor, Maker of Monsters, he had just been exploded along with his castle and giant mosquito minions. But did you honestly expect a simple thing like a huge explosion to stop a villain of Landor’s calibre? No! He merely becomes more burned up and crusty and bitter! Landor has not shifted his goals since 1939 and is consumed with the twin urges to 1) make monsters and 2) get revenge on Tony Torrence and Marcia Merrill….

Read More Read More

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 760: THE FIRE-MEN

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 760: THE FIRE-MEN

Comments 0 comment

(Speed Comics 004, 1940)  The Fire-Men make an impressive debut: dressed in bulletproof suits and wielding powerful flamethrowers, they carve a path of destruction through both New York City and the tank division that is sent to bring them to heel. Nothing seems able to stop these mysterious marauders! Nothing, that is, until Landor, Maker of Monsters emerges from the shadows to offer his creature-based services to the US government. He’ll fight on the side of law and order for…

Read More Read More

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 759: THE IRON HAND

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 759: THE IRON HAND

Comments 0 comment

(Master Comics 006, 1940) While monitoring the world for trouble one day (using his Troublescope, natch), Master Man spots, in quick succession: an auto-gyro creating green rainclouds, a collection of mysteriously paralyzed wildlife, a full-fledged paralysis epidemic dubbed “the Living Death” in a nearby city, and the news that the preeminent scientist working to cure the plague has been murdered. He takes what I would say is a surprising amount of time to put two and two together and determine…

Read More Read More

NOTES – APRIL 2025

NOTES – APRIL 2025

Comments 0 comment

Aliens: The adventures of Mars Mason, interplanetary mailman, are rife with amazing alien designs thanks to creator Munson Paddock, but the Tough-Tails of Planet Greentrees and their allies the top-hatted Spear-Men are possibly my favourite aliens that I’ve seen in a couple of years. (Speed Comics 009, 1940)  The Speed Comics 010 Mars Mason adventure again features some more top-notch alien designs, including both the Mercurian leader with his enormous ears and his subjects with their amazing hats. The Uranian…

Read More Read More

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 758: THE WIZARD

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 758: THE WIZARD

Comments 0 comment

(Smash Comics 017, 1940) The Wizard is your classic big-headed smart guy gang boss (his head is on the smaller end of the bighead spectrum but he accentuates it perfectly with the most unpleasant hairstyle I have ever seen). He and his gang (the Wizard Gang, natch) have been lying low for long enough that one of them starts getting squirrely and talking about leaving, with deadly consequences. The Wizard shoots him, is what I’m saying. And what a shame,…

Read More Read More

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 757: THE MASTERMIND

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 757: THE MASTERMIND

Comments 0 comment

(Smash Comics 017, 1940)  The Mastermind, mysterious head of a jewel theft and smuggling ring, is actually Jason White, prominent jeweller, but he is also Rufus Kane, pawnbroker and fence. White established Kane as a patsy identity to absorb all of the suspicion of being the Mastermind until things get a little too hot, at which point Kane and the Mastermind disappear and Jason White is free and clear to enjoy his ill-gotten gains. And it works! Rufus Kane manages…

Read More Read More

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 756: THE MOLE

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 756: THE MOLE

Comments 0 comment

(Smash Comics 017, 1940)  The Mole is an eccentric inventor who has developed one of the all-time greatest examples of technology that would net more safe profit if marketed for industrial purposes than if used for crime: the drilling machine. Rather than approaching the mining or construction industreis, the Mole opts for the rush inherent in stealing high-value, hard-to-fence objects like the unspecified crown jewels on display in New York’s Maiden Lane. In addition to the sheer digging power of…

Read More Read More

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 755: STRADIVOUS

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 755: STRADIVOUS

Comments 0 comment

(Smash Comics 017, 1940) There are a lot of comic book characters who derive their powers from or express them through music, but Stradivous here is the only one I know of who does so using a clarinet. This is going to be huge if we ever want to draft an all-star comics orchestra someday. He also has a really terrific look, with an eccentric choice in every single aspect of his head and facial hair – I’ll even grudgingly…

Read More Read More