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Category: 1940

ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 025

ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 025

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We’re going heavy on the ape-man content this time.  Ape-Men:  These Ape-Men, like most ape men, are some sort of human offshoot population or remnant of another species of homo living in the isolated depths of, in this case, the Amazon jungle. They come into conflict with Doctor Voodoo after breaking their long-held peace treaty with his allies the Blancas and abducting many of them for human sacrifice. Also they use silver arrows for some unexplained reason. (Whiz Comics 013, 1941) Ape-Men: …

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REAL PERSON ROUND-UP 020

REAL PERSON ROUND-UP 020

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Where would comic books be without real people, after all? Easter Island:  Lance O’Casey and his pal Dan’l Doom fight some wreckers on Easter island, and while I can’t tell if the place saw enough ship traffic in the 1940s to make shipwrecking a profitable enterprise, I will say that the concept of Lance and Dan’l just casually passing by one of the most isolated islands in the Pacific Ocean while travelling from place to place is an eyebrow raiser. The whole…

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FASCIST GOON CLEARING HOUSE 011

FASCIST GOON CLEARING HOUSE 011

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The fools! The fascist fools. the Steel Guard:  The Steel Guard are a home-grown fascist group in the Balkan country of Murania, who plot to sell out their country and its oil wells to the Nazis. They fail to recognize the threat inherent in leaving a camera in the hands of crack magazine photographer Fran Frazer and she ruins their entire setup with a few evidence-heavy snaps. (Top-Notch Comics 010, 1940) the Redshirts:  The Redshirts are a homegrown US fascist…

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MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 068

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 068

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A few classic minor super-heroes. Bulletman and Bulletgirl in particular have just barely managed not to remain relevant – I suppose the pointy helmet is too much of a hurdle for the modern audience. Bulletman:  Jim Barr is perhaps the most thoroughly-motivated super-hero of the Golden Age. He is: a. from a long line of police officers b. the son of a famed police officer who was murdered for being too good a cop and who c. told the young Jim that…

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MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 067

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 067

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Something for everyone* in this one. *not really.  Zambini the Miracle Man:  Zambini the Miracle Man, aka Zambini the Great, is your fairly typical comic book magic man, albeit a bit more flamboyantly dressed than even that crowd normally are. Though Zambini has a lot of the regular magic abilities of his peer group his signature trick involves his magical Boomerang Amulet, which causes evil to rebound on its sender. This takes forms as diverse as a cobra returning to…

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DIVINE ROUND-UP 022

DIVINE ROUND-UP 022

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Oh my gosh this place has so many god options. the Sacred Leopard:  The animal-worshipping tribe who all dress like the animal in question is a regular trope in jungle comics so of course Kalthar, lord of the jungle eventually encounters some of them. In this case it’s Leopard Men from the Leopard Village, who dress in leopard skins and worship Karno, the leopard (Karno seems to be the collective singular noun for the leopard, a thing that happens a…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 878: MR NIMBUS

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 878: MR NIMBUS

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(Zip Comics 009, 1940) Mr Nimbus is a simple kind of crook: he has developed or otherwise acquired a liquid that creates a corrosive green gas and he is going to use that to kill people and steal riches from them. No dreams of world domination, no grand designs, just good old fashioned murder and robbery. But also no especial care taken, as he leaves behind a very big clue to the location of his next crime for the Scarlet…

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GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 031

GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 031

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They’re not good people and they’re not good at what they do and yet they still have a certain charm.  This guy is exclusively called “the Fiend” in narration boxes even though he is introduced as “the Great Master” and “Mako”. He practices voodoo and just sort of generically terrorizes the Haitian countryside until Yarko the Great comes at the behest of the intriguingly named Doctor Medico to settle his hash. And speaking of names, this issue features multiple characters…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 877: TWISTO THE RUBBER MAN

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 877: TWISTO THE RUBBER MAN

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(Zip Comics 009, 1940)  The Tingling Bros Circus is in trouble! Someone has been killing the performers, mid-act, with throwing knives, and it has caused enough financial disruption to the show that owner Jack Tingling is on the verge of bankruptcy! As you might have surmised from the fact that this entry is about him, the person responsible for the murders is sideshow attraction Twisto the Rubber Man, and we’ll get to his motivations in a second because they are…

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DIVINE ROUND-UP 021

DIVINE ROUND-UP 021

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Just scads of gods. Yum Chac:  These Mayan priests have tied a recent drought to some archaeological excavations in the Yucatan and have decided that the only thing for it is to revive the practice of human sacrifice to Yum Chac, aka just Chac, god of rain. They of course do this just in time for Zambini the Miracle Man to show up and wreck their whole operation. The really interesting thing about this whole episode is that it takes…

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