The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: necromancy

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 525: RIALB

    (Blue Ribbon Comics 012, 1941)

    Here’s a story about my powers of observation: I immediately noticed that our friend Rialb here had a backward name and spent a good half hour trying to figure out which Blair he might be named in reference to (a 1940s spiritualist? a famous skeptic?) before my eyes drifted slightly to the left and I took in the fact that the story was written by Joe Blair. I still have no idea why Joe Blair named the wet-rag villain of the story after himself, but let’s all be happy I figured it out before moaning about it here.

    Speaking of wet rags: let’s discuss Rialb. He’s a fake medium who accidentally discovers that he can actually summon the spirits of the dead but seems to have a knack for bringing back spirits who wish their descendants harm. Further, the first time he does so is witnessed by crooked politician Paul Ventresco, who puts the easily pushed-over Rialb to work as his personal ghost-powered hitman.

    The real stars of the story are the extremely grody ghosts that Rialb manages to conjure up. Just look at this gross old misogynist.

    Shadow imp, skull-faced spectre, pointillism lizard-man… this comic has it all!

    The real star is absolutely this skeleton-limbed hair-face who gets his bony ass kicked back to the netherworld he came from by Mr Justice before he can get up to any mischief. I really enjoy how the unchanging expression on his face reads as both menacing and sad depending on which side of the ass kicking he is.

    Just a regular ghost.

    It’s a bit of a letdown that the last ghosts we see are three sad sack victims of Ventrusco who Mr Justice calls up to cow the pair into surrendering, though he really only needed them for Ventrusco, given that Rialb shows no actual evidence of having a spine during the story – Mr Justice could have just thrown a sheet over a chair and gotten the same result.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 525: RIALB

    MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 525: RIALB

    (Blue Ribbon Comics 012, 1941)

    Here’s a story about my powers of observation: I immediately noticed that our friend Rialb here had a backward name and spent a good half hour trying to figure out which Blair he might be named in reference to (a 1940s spiritualist? a famous skeptic?) before my eyes drifted slightly to the left and I took in the fact that the story was written by Joe Blair. I still have no idea why Joe Blair named the wet-rag villain of the story after himself, but let’s all be happy I figured it out before moaning about it here.

    Speaking of wet rags: let’s discuss Rialb. He’s a fake medium who accidentally discovers that he can actually summon the spirits of the dead but seems to have a knack for bringing back spirits who wish their descendants harm. Further, the first time he does so is witnessed by crooked politician Paul Ventresco, who puts the easily pushed-over Rialb to work as his personal ghost-powered hitman.

    The real stars of the story are the extremely grody ghosts that Rialb manages to conjure up. Just look at this gross old misogynist.

    Shadow imp, skull-faced spectre, pointillism lizard-man… this comic has it all!

    The real star is absolutely this skeleton-limbed hair-face who gets his bony ass kicked back to the netherworld he came from by Mr Justice before he can get up to any mischief. I really enjoy how the unchanging expression on his face reads as both menacing and sad depending on which side of the ass kicking he is.

    Just a regular ghost.

    It’s a bit of a letdown that the last ghosts we see are three sad sack victims of Ventrusco who Mr Justice calls up to cow the pair into surrendering, though he really only needed them for Ventrusco, given that Rialb shows no actual evidence of having a spine during the story – Mr Justice could have just thrown a sheet over a chair and gotten the same result.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 384: DEEJA KATHOON

    (More Fun Comics 067, 1941)

    Deeja Kathoon is an occultist and necromancer who has the ability to summon and bind ghosts to his service and uses this power to unleash a ghostly crimewave on Cliffland, NJ. He has what turns out to be an Indian surname but there’s no indication in-story that he’s supposed to be Indian and so I must assume that it’s a coincidence and that my first guess was correct and his name was chosen by picking random syllables out of a hat.

    Ordinarily this would be the point at which I say “unfortunately, he chose to do his crimes in the Spectre’s home town,” but not this time, for you see the Spectre is a ghost. Kathoon binds him just like any other ghost and almost forces him to destroy the Cliffland City Hospital before the Ring of Life manages to deus ex machina him out of that particular jam.

    One thing that goes unexplored and unexplained in the story is the zippy little rocket ship that Kathoon tries to escape in once the Spectre is free. In the absence of any hint or eleventh hour reveal that he is an alien or magical time traveller I must assume that it is a magic rocket ship, which is great. More magic rocket ships are what we need, in my humble opinion.

    It’s just possible that being forced to do Kathoon’s bidding rattled the Spectre, or at least convinced him that the guy was a legitimate threat, because not only does he kill him via rocket ship explosion, he then hunts down and kills his ghost. This is, yes, a step more extreme than 1939 Batman gunning down the odd monster, but then again this is the Spectre. He has a reputation for brutality for a reason.

    In conclusion, this little cloud guy that Kathoon made to intimidate the Spectre is the sensational character find of 1941.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 384: DEEJA KATHOON

    (More Fun Comics 067, 1941)

    Deeja Kathoon is an occultist and necromancer who has the ability to summon and bind ghosts to his service and uses this power to unleash a ghostly crimewave on Cliffland, NJ. He has what turns out to be an Indian surname but there’s no indication in-story that he’s supposed to be Indian and so I must assume that it’s a coincidence and that my first guess was correct and his name was chosen by picking random syllables out of a hat.

    Ordinarily this would be the point at which I say “unfortunately, he chose to do his crimes in the Spectre’s home town,” but not this time, for you see the Spectre is a ghost. Kathoon binds him just like any other ghost and almost forces him to destroy the Cliffland City Hospital before the Ring of Life manages to deus ex machina him out of that particular jam.

    One thing that goes unexplored and unexplained in the story is the zippy little rocket ship that Kathoon tries to escape in once the Spectre is free. In the absence of any hint or eleventh hour reveal that he is an alien or magical time traveller I must assume that it is a magic rocket ship, which is great. More magic rocket ships are what we need, in my humble opinion.

    It’s just possible that being forced to do Kathoon’s bidding rattled the Spectre, or at least convinced him that the guy was a legitimate threat, because not only does he kill him via rocket ship explosion, he then hunts down and kills his ghost. This is, yes, a step more extreme than 1939 Batman gunning down the odd monster, but then again this is the Spectre. He has a reputation for brutality for a reason.

    In conclusion, this little cloud guy that Kathoon made to intimidate the Spectre is the sensational character find of 1941.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 153: KULAK

    (All-Star Comics 002, 1940)

    Kulak is the High Priest of Brztal, which is originally implied to be an ancient lost civilization but I believe is later defined as extra-dimensional in some way. His deal is ostensibly that he is upset that his tomb was disturbed so he is going to destroy humanity, but I don’t know that he wasn’t just looking for an excuse to flex his magical muscles. He gets up to a lot of fun stuff with disasters – worldwide flooding and riots, plagues of lucusts etc – and summons armies of ancient Brztalan dead to smite his enemy but ultimately is put down again by the Spectre.

    In what is going to be an ongoing theme with these one-off All-Star villains, he eventually gets Roy Thomased into the pages of All-Star Squadron to mix it up with the Spectre one more time.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 153: KULAK

    (All-Star Comics 002, 1940)

    Kulak is the High Priest of Brztal, which is originally implied to be an ancient lost civilization but I believe is later defined as extra-dimensional in some way. His deal is ostensibly that he is upset that his tomb was disturbed so he is going to destroy humanity, but I don’t know that he wasn’t just looking for an excuse to flex his magical muscles. He gets up to a lot of fun stuff with disasters – worldwide flooding and riots, plagues of lucusts etc – and summons armies of ancient Brztalan dead to smite his enemy but ultimately is put down again by the Spectre.

    In what is going to be an ongoing theme with these one-off All-Star villains, he eventually gets Roy Thomased into the pages of All-Star Squadron to mix it up with the Spectre one more time.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 150: BELDAME GAFFY & TRYGG

    (All-Star Comics 001, 1940)

    A couple of magic users, Beldame Gaffy (curse-caster) and Trygg (necromancer) team up to steal the lands that rightfully belong to Trygg’s niece and nephew so that he could get rich via a zombie-staffed mining operation. Things go well until Hawkman shows up to explode them to death. Also, these are the first (only?) Welsh super-villains we have (will ever?) encountered!

    Ordinarily in a two-person set-up like this I would designate one as the boss and the other as a lieutenant or minion but Gaffy and Trygg really do seem like an equal partnership. Sadly however, only Trygg has made any subsequent appearances, specifically in the 2000s-era Hawkman series. I guess it makes sense that the necromancer would be the one to return from the dead but one must nonetheless mourn the dearth of Beldames in this modern world.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 122: THE GREEN DEVIL

    (Slam-Bang Comics 003, 1940)

    I really like the Green Devil. He has a lot going on! He has an army of the living dead, an island base, and a hurricane generator. He’s conservatively 10 ft tall and looks like the Devil (with green skin, natch)

    His main scheme is to disrupt the laws of magic, which not only weakens his enemy Diamond Jack’s magic ring but also for some reason causes regular stage magic and stuff like snake charming and sword swallowing to turn deadly in some of the more low-key gruesome panels I’ve read recently.

    Finally, in classic magic villain style he meets a pretty ignoble end as he is transformed into a book and then blown up along with his HQ and zombies. A solid showing! I’d love to see the Green Devil BRUNG BACK to vex magic folk again.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 122: THE GREEN DEVIL

    (Slam-Bang Comics 003, 1940)

    I really like the Green Devil. He has a lot going on! He has an army of the living dead, an island base, and a hurricane generator. He’s conservatively 10 ft tall and looks like the Devil (with green skin, natch)

    His main scheme is to disrupt the laws of magic, which not only weakens his enemy Diamond Jack’s magic ring but also for some reason causes regular stage magic and stuff like snake charming and sword swallowing to turn deadly in some of the more low-key gruesome panels I’ve read recently.

    Finally, in classic magic villain style he meets a pretty ignoble end as he is transformed into a book and then blown up along with his HQ and zombies. A solid showing! I’d love to see the Green Devil BRUNG BACK to vex magic folk again.

  • MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 107: MANGO THE MIGHTY

    (More Fun Comics 057, 1940)

    Mango is a magician who fancies himself tough enough to go up against Dr Fate and quickly finds out that even though he can summon globes of flame and the undead legions of the Styx he is no match for the big man. This sort of thing happens to magical Golden Age characters pretty often – penny ante magical shitheels seem to have this urge to Peter Principle themselves against all comers, but whereas in an office setting rising to one’s level of incompetence leaves you with poor job satisfaction doing so in the cutthroat world of magic crime gets you dead or sealed un a magic boulder.

    But what’s with the name? I checked and they definitely knew what mangoes were in 1940. Why is it a villain’s name? Look: 

    Look at this, USA Comics 003, 1941 – the Defender fights a beast-guy named Mango.

    Adventure Comics 058, 1941 – villainous Pacific Islander named Mango,

    Blood of Dracula’s Castle, 1969 – evil hunchback… NAMED MANGO.


    WHAT’s WITH ALL THE MANGOS