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Category: Fiction House

ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 052

ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 052

The aliens are very humanoid today. I hope that they are to your liking. Cavemen: There’s no real explanation of why these cavemen are just chilling out in a cavern not a day’s walk from an inhabited region of Africa, along with assorted mammoths and sabretooth tigers. They’re just what Fantomah finds when she follows a river to its source to see why it has been contaminated and is killing those who drink from it. The answer: the cavemen killed…

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GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 045

GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 045

It’s hard out there for the little guys. Unnamed Spy Chief: I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a comic book villain with such a distinctive look and clear devotion to a visual theme but absolutely nothing else. Her “decadent Egyptian Queen” bit doesn’t spill into her plans, it doesn’t inform how her minions dress… she doesn’t even have a name. Baffling!  On top of everything else, her plans are foiled and she is captured by the oafish Navy man Spark…

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DIVINE ROUND-UP 032

DIVINE ROUND-UP 032

It can’t all be off-brand Greek gods. I’m elbow-deep in the 1941 issues of Jungle Comics, so here are some off-brand African deities. Damballah and Gbeji-Nibu: The evil witch doctor N’Goku has been using his magical abilities to cause problems in his area (plagues of snakes, a sickness among the cattle) and then solve them for cash money, and then when Fantomah (post-Fletcher Hanks) points out that he is doing so he attempts to do away with her. N’Goku invokes Gbeji-Nibu,…

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ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 051

ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 051

A disappointingly humanoid bunch of aliens today. Gigantians: The Gigantians of Gigantia are the kind of advanced society who like nothing more than to gas on about how primitive and backward Earth is to space travellers like Rocket Rooney and his pal, but are still content to have a hereditary monarchy. True to their name, they are super huge in their natural state but have the good graces to shrink themselves down whenever their Earth visitors show up. (Bill Barnes,…

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MAD AND CRIMINAL SCIENTIST ROUND-UP 026

MAD AND CRIMINAL SCIENTIST ROUND-UP 026

If we criminalize mad science then only criminal scientists will be mad. Mauser: Mauser is the second of two foes battled by two-fisted chemist Guy Gorham and also the second rogue biologist. Was this comic setting up some sort of biologist/chemist beef that never got a chance to pay off? Mauser’s plans are never really spelled out, but he’s got a colony of vampire bats that he seems to be training to attack human targets, which isn’t great but which…

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ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 050

ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 050

All these fictional aliens and we don’t even get one other inhabited planet in our solar system. Moon-Men: These Moon-Men are encountered by Phantasmo (seen here in his less-nude human identity) and his pal Whizzer McGee during an impromptu trip to the Moon. They live deep beneath the satellite’s surface and appear to have a mining-based culture that is pretty hostile to outsiders, and that is all we know. While I must commend the “Phantasmo” team for not automatically making…

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MEDIA IN COMICS 008

MEDIA IN COMICS 008

We’re not out of the extremely crusty scan woods yet, but the media of comics must be recorded, folks. Hang in there. Books: When Diamond Jack defeats his early foe the Witch and transforms her book of magic into 1000 Ways to Cook Spinach, there is one big unanswered question: did this spinach cookbook already exist or did his ring magically compile 1000 recipes on its own? (Slam-Bang Comics 001, 1940) Early Batman foe the Wolf, meanwhile, got his start…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 975: THE SMILER

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 975: THE SMILER

(Fight Comics 016, 1941)  The Smiler! A grody-looking gang boss with a permanent crooked smile thanks to a facial scar! I can’t actually figure out where this scar is actually supposed to be – I suppose that it must be there, but the Smiler’s face is so covered in seams and divots that it doesn’t stand out. The Smiler is such a ruthless and dastardly crook that he accepts a commission from Nazi agent Blitz to steal the engine-killing ray…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 974: TYRANNUS

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 974: TYRANNUS

(Fight Comics 015, 1941) I sniffed at the chronal implications of Super-American coming back in time to help out 1941 America, but it’s very possible that it is only by his intervention that his future comes to exist at all. By the time he arrives, Tyrannus, leader of an unnamed organization perhaps a couple of levels tougher than your average group of bundists, has already managed to install himself in the Oval Office. Senators are being machine gunned in the…

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MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 096

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 096

Even the most minor of super-heroes gets the chance to shine brightly in the Round-Up. Super-American: I can’t decide if I’m surprised or not that the development of the archetype of the patriotic hero was so rapid as to produce a character called “Super-American” less than a year after the debut of Captain America. He’s simultaneously straight out to the sketchbook of a 60s underground comix guy (or indeed a more modern edgy comics guy) and a perfectly ordinary 1940s…

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