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MAD AND CRIMINAL SCIENTIST ROUND-UP 018

MAD AND CRIMINAL SCIENTIST ROUND-UP 018

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I’m not sure that these guys all have degrees.  This fellow is known only as the Professor, and he conducts experiments in long- and short-range mind control on Lost Hope Island until Secret Naval Agent Spike Marlin shows up in search of a missing ship’s crew. (Speed Comics 009, 1940)  This unnamed scientist has developed a drug that puts people into indefinite comas and has used it to kidnap and store ten millionaires, presumably with the intent of ransoming them…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 803: THE HEADLESS HORSEMAN GANG

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 803: THE HEADLESS HORSEMAN GANG

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(The Arrow 002, 1940) It’s an occupational hazard for the costumed adventurer: eventually someone is going to dress up like you so that they can do crimes and get away with it while you take all the blame. And when the hero in question is a mysterious and half-legendary figure like your typical masked cowboy tends to be, why, it must be all the more tempting, as Betty aka the Headless Horseman learns to her dismay when she learns that…

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MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 051

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 051

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It’s Day Three of Round-Up Week here at the Curse of Skeleton Munroe.  **UPDATE** the White Streak: Novelty Press is back at it again, exercising their compulsion to tone down the “fantastic” in their comic book stories. The White Streak has gotten a job as an FBI agent, and so he gets plastic surgery in order to make his inhuman face into that of a square-jawed white guy. Now instead of being the utterly fantastical ancient android in a bright…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 802: HAMMERFIST

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 802: HAMMERFIST

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(Target Comics v1 011, 1940) Hammerfist is a good old-fashioned gang boss-with-a-gimmick, in his case an iron ball in place of his missing right hand. He’s on a mission to take over the night club scene in New York City by the simple expedient of shooting up clubs until business gets so bad that everyone is willing to sell cheap rather than go bankrupt. More importantly, Hammerfist is the person responsible for framing Niles “the Target” Reed’s brother Bill for…

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REAL PERSON ROUND-UP 015

REAL PERSON ROUND-UP 015

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Time for another round! Of round-up! Adolf Hitler:  When time traveller Whiz Wilson journeys to the far future world of 1960 CE he gets mixed up in a scheme hatched by agents of this fellow, ruler of “the dictator realms of Europe.” Is he meant to be Hitler or merely evoke him? Hard to say, but I for one think he’s supposed to be Old Hitler. (Sure-Fire Comics 001, 1940) He’s not that much of a Hitler, but Don Ruizen,…

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MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 050

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 050

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Novelty Press character round-up, more like. the Chameleon: An unnamed master of disguise (throughout his 1940 appearances, at least) who dispenses vigilante justice on an ad hoc basis, the Chameleon’s major distinction is that his name is always written in cursive. Other than that: he’s got a chauffeur/sidekick (Slim) and a bumbling police nemesis (Inspector Parks) and somehow manages to simultaneously be one of those heroes who is wanted by the law and whose identity and address are just kind…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 801: GENERAL Z

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 801: GENERAL Z

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(Target Comics v1 007, 1940) Boystate is under attack! At first, it’s a relatively innocuous disruption of the power supply, which from what I’ve been able to glean is broadcast power derived from cosmic rays, but it swiftly escalates until all contact with the rangers operating outside of the Boystate boyborders is lost. And just in case there’s any confusion, this disruption attack is swiftly followed by a barrage of poison gas missiles, and the Boystate child army must be…

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NOTES – JUNE 2025

NOTES – JUNE 2025

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Letters to the Editor:  I rag on Novelty Press and their horrible and possibly fictional readership every chance I get, but I think I need to start presenting the letters they print in their comics so that I have some evidence to back up my grumbling. Here’s Clarence Pool of Seattle Washington advocating for the nice sensible adventures of an Army Air Force cadet who manages to foil a Fifth Column plot ever week over the exploits of a magic…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 800: BRAINO

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 800: BRAINO

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(Target Comics v1 009, 1940)  Braino, a circus mentalist with sufficient actual psychic power to control the minds of animals, is looking to take over the circus that he works for and is make a play to do so while the circus train has been stranded by a storm and is being helped out by the boys of Boystate. This isn’t a bad idea – take advantage of the chaos and confusion to bump off the boss and then swoop…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 798: DR DEATH

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 798: DR DEATH

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(Target Comics v1 008, 1940)  Dr Death’s initial outing, in Target Comics v1 008, is a pretty typical late-1940/early 1941 plot about trying to draw the US into WWII by attacking shipping and throwing blame for it on an enemy of the unnamed fascist nation that Death is working for. Notably, Dr Death does not appear in the issue and works through various minions whom he directs via loudspeaker. Probably the most interesting thing about this first appearance is the…

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