The Curse of Skeleton Munroe

Category: Trojak the Tiger Man

  • CATALOGUE OF WOUNDS 008

    CATALOGUE OF WOUNDS 008

    Everybody gets shot now and then.

    the Bronze Terror: 

    The Bronze Terror is shot in the left arm during his first adventure by the wicked Scar Thornton, which gives him an excuse to show off his penchant for knocking out crooks’ teeth. (Daredevil Comics 002, 1941)

    Whiz, King of Falcons: 

    Whiz is shot through the left wing by a Lord Haw-Haw analog, and since this is the one issue in which he has the power of speech, he gets to complain about it. (Daredevil Comics 001, 1941)

    Trojak the Tiger Man: 

    Clawed across the chest by a lion. (Daring Mystery Comics 002, 1940)

    the Mask:

    The Mask gets his head creased by a bullet. (Exciting Comics 007, 1941)

    Sub-Zero: 

    Sub-Zero has an eventful 1941: first he gets shot in the right shoulder while parachuting… (Blue Bolt v1 012, 1941)

     … then breaks his right leg while in pursuit of a suspect… (Blue Bolt v2 001, 1941

    … and finally gets his skull creased by some trigger-happy miscreants.  (Blue Bolt v2 005, 1941

    the White Rider:

    The White Rider gets himself generically shot during his very first attempt to mete out vigilante justice, and it’s a lucky thing for him that he has Super Horse or there wouldn’t be a second. (Blue Bolt v1 001, 1940)

    Dr Miracle:

    Dr Miracle takes a thrown stiletto to the right shoulder while he is physically merger with his manservant Akim, which might also make this a stiletto to Akim’s shoulder as well. The physics of the situation are unclear. (Champ Comics 012, 1941)

    the Sphinx:

    Though he has in the past proved himself broadly invulnerable, the Sphinx is not immune to getting his skull creased by a bullet. (Exciting Comics 008, 1941) 

  • CATALOGUE OF WOUNDS 008

    CATALOGUE OF WOUNDS 008

    Everybody gets shot now and then.

    the Bronze Terror: 

    The Bronze Terror is shot in the left arm during his first adventure by the wicked Scar Thornton, which gives him an excuse to show off his penchant for knocking out crooks’ teeth. (Daredevil Comics 002, 1941)

    Whiz, King of Falcons: 

    Whiz is shot through the left wing by a Lord Haw-Haw analog, and since this is the one issue in which he has the power of speech, he gets to complain about it. (Daredevil Comics 001, 1941)

    Trojak the Tiger Man: 

    Clawed across the chest by a lion. (Daring Mystery Comics 002, 1940)

    the Mask:

    The Mask gets his head creased by a bullet. (Exciting Comics 007, 1941)

    Sub-Zero: 

    Sub-Zero has an eventful 1941: first he gets shot in the right shoulder while parachuting… (Blue Bolt v1 012, 1941)

     … then breaks his right leg while in pursuit of a suspect… (Blue Bolt v2 001, 1941

    … and finally gets his skull creased by some trigger-happy miscreants.  (Blue Bolt v2 005, 1941

    the White Rider:

    The White Rider gets himself generically shot during his very first attempt to mete out vigilante justice, and it’s a lucky thing for him that he has Super Horse or there wouldn’t be a second. (Blue Bolt v1 001, 1940)

    Dr Miracle:

    Dr Miracle takes a thrown stiletto to the right shoulder while he is physically merger with his manservant Akim, which might also make this a stiletto to Akim’s shoulder as well. The physics of the situation are unclear. (Champ Comics 012, 1941)

    the Sphinx:

    Though he has in the past proved himself broadly invulnerable, the Sphinx is not immune to getting his skull creased by a bullet. (Exciting Comics 008, 1941) 

  • DIVINE ROUND-UP 028

    Religions of the world: you are not being well-represented in fiction.

    the Dream Warner: 

    While they never actually say the words “Tibetan Buddhism” in either of Thun-Dohr’s two appearances, he was brought up in a lamasery in Tibet and is personally mentored by the Dalai Lama (though not the one you’re thinking of), so I think that we can extrapolate and assign the Dream Warner to that religious tradition. Though it does not actually appear on-panel, the Dream Warner does give the Dalai Lama an accurate heads-up on the machinations of the villainous Sin Khaii, so me must conclude that it actually exists. It also has a very fun if on-the-nose name.

    God Style: Real (Silver Streak Comics 014, 1941)

    Ratzinatzi: 

    In Cloud Curtis’ final adventure he sets out alone to solve the mystery of some mysterious disappearances and air raids across South America, and ends up crashing his plane in the middle of the jungle. There he stumbles upon an idol to “Ratzinatzi, the Demon-God of the Ancient Incas” and is seemingly about to enter a chamber that opens up underneath it when the story ends. Sadly for all the completionists out there the story never concludes and so we never learn what kind of pseudo-Nazi air base or whatever lies below, though I think that we can safely assume that it continues to be pretty disrespectful to the Incas.

    God Style: Idol (Silver Streak Comics 017, 1941)

    the Devil-Flower:

    Trojak the Tiger Man’s friend Edith’s brother is sick, and according to the nearest wise man the only thing that will aid him is the juice of the sacred Devil-Flower, as worshipped by the Gemba tribe.

    Trojak and Edith brave fanatical cultists and flower-charmed animals until they are able to harvest the sacred juice and seemingly kill the plant. One can only hope that the Devil-Flower, which not only has magical powers but also seemingly some degree of self-awareness, had the foresight to do a little precautionary propagation.

    God style: Animist (Real?) (Daring Mystery Comics 005, 1940)

    Mars:

    Seen overlooking the Axis war machine in an image I would say is meant to be purely allegorical if it wasn’t from the origin of Marvel Boy, a reincarnation of Hercules in whose story Jupiter figures prominently. Were the Marvel Boy stories to have continued I’m sure that this version of Mars would have gotten a sock on the jaw in due time.

    God style: Real (Daring Mystery Comics 006, 1940)

  • MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 084

    MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 084

    Obscure Marvel super-heroes, you say? But of course!

    Monako, Prince of Magic:

    Monako is a classic comic book magic hero in the Zatara vein, right down to the top hat, tuxedo and little mustache, though he does eventually switch to wearing a fez. His major distinction from his legion of peers is that he was brought back in a fairly recent Doctor Strange run, though as is so often the case he was dug up only to be horribly killed off.

    Monako gets an origin story in Daring Mystery Comics 004, in which he is orphaned when an Indian group referred to only as “the Cruel Tribe” ritually explode the entire caravan that he and his parents were travelling in as missionaries (this at least gives us an answer to the perennial question of why bring your young child along on such a dangerous journey: because missionaries).

    Young Monako (a last name? a stage name?) inexplicably survives the conflagration and is subsequently adopted by the chief of the Cruel Tribe, who teaches him the ways of magic. Just why he does this is not explored and will never be, because the British eventually show up to massacre the entire village and send young Monako back to England. Were he a going concern for the seventy-odd years between his final Golden Age appearance and his death, I’m sure that the question of just how a whole group of people with powers similar to the nigh-omnipotent Monako were killed with simple firearms, but alas, such was not the case. (Daring Mystery Comics 001, 1940)

    Categorized in: Locations (Unrelated Name), Power Categories (Magic), Royalty (Princes)

    Phantom of the Underworld: 

    “Doc” Denton is a surgeon-turned-detective who helps the police round up a gang boss named Perrone in his sole recorded adventure. I one hundred percent am including him here because “Phantom of the Underworld” is such a terrific name, even if nobody calls him that in-story. (Daring Mystery Comics 001, 1940)

    Categorized in: Day Jobs (Private Detectives), Locations (the Underworld), Supranormal Beings (Phantoms)

    Trojak the Tiger Man: 

    Trojak, orphaned son of a jungle explorer who made the inexplicable yet very popular decision to bring a baby along with him on his travels (perhaps as a difficulty boost? Was Trojak’s father a gamer?), has grown up among a tribe his father died in defense of. As is so often the case in adventure literature, being a white guy in the jungle has made Trojak both stronger and cooler than everyone else, plus he can talk to animals like Balu, his geographically-anomalous tiger companion. (Daring Mystery Comics 002, 1940)

    (he is a very intelligent tiger)

    Categorized in: Animals (Tigers), Generica (Mans), Origin (Orphan Raised in Jungle)

    Tigerman:

    “Trojak the Tiger Man” becomes “Tigerman” for its final instalment, and it’s a bit of a toss-up on whether the two characters are supposed to be the same or not. Both Trojak and Tigerman are orphaned youths who were raised by jungle tribe and who now adventure while in the company of a tiger named Balu, sure, but crucially “Trojak” is set in Africa while the Tigerman roams India. You’d be forgiven for assuming that Tigerman was Indian but no, he’s American by birth – he’s just the rare near-naked jungle guy who has the ability to get a tan. 

    The one thing that could have cleared up the mystery of whether these two are the same guy or not would be more adventures featuring either one of them and sadly there are no more (Daring Mystery Comics 006, 1940)

    Categorized in: Animals (Tigers), Generica (Mans), Origin (Orphan Raised in Jungle) 

    K-4 and his Sky Devils:

    K-4 is the code name of a “flying spy,” and WWI/Spanish Civil War fighter ace (the youngest WWI ace, according to the text box, which would make him at most 18 as far as I can tell) who leads the Sky Devils, comprised of fellow WWI ace René d’Auvergne and makeup expert Ronald Wolverstone-Clodd. Some of the usual fun of the multinational team set-up is missing here because K-4 spends a lot of his time doing solo missions. (Daring Mystery Comics 002, 1940)

    Categorized in: Alphanumeric (K, 4), Origins (WWI vets), Supranormal Beings (Devils)