(Jumbo Comics 003-005, 1938-1939) The Hooded Archer is included here as a curiosity. He gets an enormous buildup! He’s going to teach the entire movie company that is shooting on hero Wiley Wilton’s ranch the meaning of terror! Here is the meaning of terror. Terror is when: – someone aims but does not fire an arrow at a man (jackass actor Geoffrey Parker) – they then shoot a distinctive arrow at another man (Wiley Wilton) – a bandit (Henry Fleetfoot)…
They may not be the top of the class, but they did their time in the evil sciences! Dr Eric Karlin has a lot of moxie on paper: a Nazi psychologist with a sideline in Egyptology, he dissolves the enemies of the Reich in acid and keeps their jellied remains in a series of jars in his basement. He also employs mind controlled pseudo-zombies in a scheme to recover frozen Nazi assets from a bank vault. The problem is that…
(Funny Picture Stories v2 001-003, 1937) I think I recently mentioned the dreamlike quality of some Golden Age comics. This is one of them, and only partially because the villain operates out of some sort of pocket dimension in the collective human subconscious. Psyk is a would-be world conqueror with three really good tricks in his arsenal: travel between Earth and the aforementioned Realm of the Subconscious, the ability to raise the dead and mental domination of both the raised…
(Funny Picture Stories v1 003, 1936) These guys are a bunch of dipshits, but they’re kind of lovable. They kidnap reporter Red Dolan to keep him from exposing their murder operation and basically give him a guided tour of exactly how to own them. Look, here’s some tear gas! Now we’ll all go into a different room while you overpower your guard. Buncha goofs.
Fascist, Smascist The Volunteers for Peace are another group that advocates for the US not to get involved in WWII as shorthand for them being full-on fascist fifth columnists setting the country up for an invasion by the evocatively-named Nation X. Don’t worry, not even Golden Age Superman has any trouble beating down a bunch of pseudo-Nazis (Action Comics 036, 1941) Another batch of Yellow Shirts, this time with a space! This bunch are some more bundists and they have…
(Crackajack Funnies 021, 1940) Another Ed Tracer foe. The Scarlet is a freelance spy notable for a) his fantastic name and b) the fact that he uses a reverse disguise – a toupee to disguise his baldness in civilian life.
Police Attempted Murder: The Green Mask broke an accused murderer (innocent, framed) out of jail so the NYPD attempt to murder him and Domino the Miracle Boy (Mystery Men Comics 020, 1941) The police (behind the green car) attempt to gun down the Blue Beetle with no regard for the innocent witness standing next to him (Mystery Men 027, 1941) Future History: A stark vision of the state of the mortuary industry in the far-off year 2000, courtesy of Rex…
(Crackajack Funnies 010-017, 1939) The Piranha is a mysterious gang boss operating out of New York City and known for the gruesome way he dealt with his enemies, of which we will return to in a second. The Piranha is actually the wealthy Senõr Romez, a society luminary known for his fabulous parties and the many unsolved murders that happen at his fabulous parties. He also dresses exactly like the Piranha but with hair and a mask – a lot…
(Blue Beetle Comics 009-010, 1941) The Gorilla is actually Jack Castle, a drunken lout who happens to be the lab assistant to the unhinged Dr Brock. Castle pushes his employer a bit too far and ends up on the wrong end of an ape brain transplant. Dr Brock meanwhile has forgotten one of the major things about brains and so ends up like so many other mad scientists do after transplanting an unwilling one: murdered by his own creation. Castle…
(Amazing Man Comics 008, 1939) The worst thing about Minimidget is obviously his name. The best thing about him and his partner Ritty is the fact that unlike your Doll Mans or Atoms or Ants Men they are a) permanently six inches tall and b) proportionally as strong as a six-inch human being – they’re just lil’ guys wearing jodhpurs. A lot of their adventures are not so much about going out and finding excitement as dealing with the problems…