(Fight Comics 006, 1940) In terms of comic book creeps, a race of seven-foot tall barbarians with walrus tusks (and mustaches!) waylaying travellers in the mountains of Tibet are hardly remarkable, and yet I quite like them. I am charmed by their simplicity. Plus, they move things around the mountains on what can only be described as a giant toboggan, a very silly thing to do!
(Fight Comics 006, 1940) The Lizard was (will be?) the leader of a group of Grotonian spies working to sabotage the military of Greater America in the far-off future year of 1998 AD. He had (will have?) the pretty clever idea of being arrested as a petty thief and running his operation from inside a jail cell but unfortunately for his reputation as a smart guy he then fell for the most obvious trick in the world when Saber the…
(Fight Comics 004, 1940) Kinks Mason is deep sea fishing with some friend when one of them lands a swordfish that is covered in gold and jewels! Just where did these riches come from? The answer is unguessable! Upon reaching the ocean floor, Kinks discovers that the swordfish was covered in pirate gold, and furthermore, he finds the pirate! Sneely (Pirate Terror of the Seven Seas, the Great, the Magnificent) is an old-time pirate who claims that he drank a…
(Fight Comics 003, 1940) This Skull is a smuggler notable only for his name and for being the first foe of Rip Regan, the Power-Man. I do appreciate the fact that these three panels are his only actual appearance in the story and they are exclusively concerned with him attempting to run away like a filthy coward. SKULL SCORE: A generous 1/5 for a somewhat cadaverous face.
(Fight Comics 003, 1940) Kinks Mason is back on the case! And just what sub-oceanic mystery is he attempting to solve by just wandering around underwater? Why, it’s Just Where is All the Salt Going? And somewhat astonishingly, he figures it out almost immediately: it’s going into this building. The building turns out to belong to a race of ocean-dwelling humanoids referred to only as the Amphibians, though I can’t imagine that that’s what they call themselves. I kind of…
Science class was never like this. Count la Roach is a scientist-spy looking to synthesize enough “noxio gas” to flood the NYC of the I-think-it’s-still-the-near-future world of Yank Wilson, but all he gets is a sock in the jaw for his trouble. (Fantastic Comics 007, 1940) This unnamed fellow is our first proper mad scientist in a while! I really like his style, particularly the fact that he’s introduced while sitting in a tennis judge’s chair for no stated reason….
(Fight Comics 002, 1940) After spending so long with Sub Saunders in the far-off year 10 000 it’s a bit strange to detail an undersea menace that he isn’t battling but here we are and our focus is present-day adventurer Kinks Mason, who sets out with nothing but a helmet that extracts oxygen from seawater to solve the mystery of just where all these missing ships have been getting to and ends up discovering an underwater civilization of seaweed people….
(Fantastic Comics 013, 1940) One-Eye is a stylish fellow with a real bone to pick with humankind, who have apparently rejected him for the heinous sin of Having Only One Eye, I guess? Unless having a widow’s peak and a long waxed mustache are considered disfigurements? I suppose that cultural mores do change over time and it is 8000 years in the future… in any case, the point is that he’s upset at the world and has decided to kill…
(Fantastic Comics 013, 1940) Yew Bee! A scientist/fifth columnist working for an unnamed nation to soften the US up for invasion! A pretty common type of guy in Golden Age comics if I’m honest, and I might have passed him by if he weren’t a Stardust the Super Wizard villain. Even the most rote Fletcher Hanks creations have at least a couple of interesting things about them. The first thing is obviously the name. Yew Bee. Is it a reference…
(Fantastic Comics 013, 1940) A vampire holed up in a cave in the Gobi Desert with a bunch of lady vampires, Lu Cheng the Forbidden talks a big game but I reckon that he’s super screwed. He’s somehow found himself in one of the largest deserts in the world, presumably farther from human habitation than is comfortable for a vampire – when Captain Kidd wanders into his cave all Lu Cheng is concerned with is using his plane to get…