They’re just these guys, you know? the Solar Legion: The Solar Legion is the brainchild of Adam Starr, a 23rd Century man about whom very little is ever revealed. Emerging from a concealed base on Io, he sets out to rid the Solar System of the scourge of space piracy via the most direct route possible: blowing up all of the space pirates. Starr’s exploits have their intended effects: 1. many pirates are blown up and 2. the authorities are…
(Crash Comics Adventures 001, 1940) Black Michael is the leader of a band of space pirates based on Pluto and beginning in the year 2140 he terrorizes the solar system, killing and plundering at will. It’s unclear in the original story how long this state of affairs persists for, but a later installment of “the Solar Legion” takes place in 2260, suggesting that Black Michael and his crew might have been going strong for upwards of 120 years. That’s a…
Super-heroes! Minor ones. the Tulpa: The Tulpa and its originator Tsang had the misfortune to appear only once, in Sun Publications’ only proper comic, Colossus Comics 001. This is… a shame? No, it’s probably not. As it stands, the Tulpa is an interesting idea: a Tibetan hermit Lama named Tsang manifests a superhuman thoughtform to battle a bandit/Nazi alliance who are preying on nearby monasteries, and as far as 1940s comics set in Asia go, the whole thing isn’t even…
(Champion Comics 010, 1940) It’s a small consolation but this guy isn’t actually a lama! Unlike the Mad Lama or the Four Lamas before him (and more than a few to come), this fellow is merely a bandit chief presumably called the Black Lama because he is Tibetan! It this better than a whole class of holy men being portrayed as evil scheming villains? A little! I also want to say that it’s because his headquarters are a former lamasery…
(Champion Comics 009, 1940) Nad Neurod is a gang boss with an ambitious and not-uncommon-in-comics scheme: knock out the power and other utilities so that you can take advantage of the resultant confusion and loot an entire city (NYC in this case) at once! Even more importantly, he and his gang provide the perfect test/demonstration of the Human Meteor’s powers in his first foray into the outside world. (Nad Neurod is also exactly the kind of moniker that makes my…
More of those pesky real people have gotten into my comic books! Andrew Jackson: Character Keith Kornell, aka the West Pointer, is a descendant of Andrew Jackson, something you would perhaps be more proud of in 1939 than today. (Top-Notch Comics 001, 1939) Benito Mussolini: He’s a fairly oblique reference to Benito Mussolini but I reckon that up-and-coming Filipino dictator Remy Mussoni fits the brief. (Wonderworld Comics 008, 1939) Billy the Kid: Appears in a questionably true story told by…
More of these guys and their antics. Johnny Fox: Johnny Fox is a guy* from the Florida Everglades who visits his grandfather one day to find him the victim of a treacherous murder. And what’s worse, the murderer, one Peter Pokane, did so in order to steal a supply of “sun-shots”, i.e., invisibility pills. *and by “guy” I mean “Native American guy of the Seminole Tribe of Florida” but it’s a tricky thing to work into a concise sentence. Also…
You know how it is with these guys. Their science is mad and/or criminal! Felix Zurich, lab assistant to Professor Trent, has hidden the professor away in a castle improbably located in the middle of the jungle in Africa, all so that Zurich can force him to perfect his invention of the ever-popular engine-killing ray. This is a Blackstone the Magician story so of course Zurich is also an accomplished stage magician and there is a pivotal duel of illusions….
(Champion Comics 005, 1940) Journalist Penny Wright is on the trail of a notorious spy named the Owl! While I am of course broadly anti-spoilers I will give you a hint to the Owl’s identity: there are four named characters in this comic and poor Hafiz Bey is murdered on the first page. Setting aside the compelling and difficult mystery of the Owl’s identity for a moment, we must consider the very concept of the notorious spy known for their…
(Champion Comics 004, 1940) Champion Comics 003 featured the murder of the Champ’s mentor Dr Marlin and at the conclusion of that adventure the blame for Marlin’s death seemed to rest squarely on the shoulders of his assistant Dr Katsu. Champion Comics 004, however, introduces a further development: Katsu was in fact working for a greater mastermind, the Yellow Spider! (and here I’m going to contrast my usual delight at a villainous note signed with a little cartoon with my…