(Whiz Comics 025, 1941) We open in Egypt, where a group of partisans led by a fellow with the unlikely name of “Girbo, the Mad Mullah”* are brainstorming ways in which they might expel both the Germans and the British from their country, and Girbo has an innovative solution: he has procured the mummy of the Pharaoh Rameses, along with a vial of mummy-resurrection juice, and is going to bring the ancient king back to life to lead them. And it works!…
(Master Comics 021, 1941) Our very second full-fledged super-villain is Captain Nazi, a fellow who I would be tempted to shelve under Minor status if it weren’t for the fact that he just keeps on showing up to this very day (or three years ago, at least). Most of the time he’s just padding out a crowd scene and/or acting as a target for some super-hero to really beat the tar out of, but any way you shake it just…
(Whiz Comics 024, 1941) Herr Gloobels is a mysterious and somewhat gruesome figure who murders a motorcycle messenger in order to get ahold of some troop transport schedules and then murders a second one to get them again after Spy Smasher recovers them from the first theft. He does all of this using his Tornado Gun, a device that seems to be a ray gun but which actually fires beams of compressed air that can sink a ship as easily as perforate…
Since we’re currently reading Whiz Comics for 1941, it’s time yet again for another load of unscrupulous people to get their hands on the Ibistick and then kill themselves with it. And here they are: the Widow Zorn: Ibis lends the Ibistick to old Professor Grubb for scientific study after Grubb finds it outside of an exploded building and uses its magic to restore the building and everyone inside – which included both Ibis and Taia, along with their their young ward…
Just a few notes on developments in the character of Captain Marvel in 1941: In Whiz Comics 014, Captain Marvel contends with a Dr Sivana who has worked out a mathematical formula for passing through solid matter, and thanks to the Wisdom of Solomon is able to replicate this feat. Even more remarkably this power turns up again in Whiz Comics 016 after Captain Marvel is sealed up in a pit by Smasher Spy. It’s virtually unprecedented to see something like this crop up…
Here’s an obscure one that I have only encountered in early Golden Age comics: the German or pseudo-German accent that includes a prominent use of the prefix “ge-” as a word modifier, in the same way that a bad French accent might append “la” or a bad Russian accent might add “-ski” to the end of words. How widespread was this? Did it exist outside of comics? No clue. How widespread was it within comics? That we can attempt to solve by…
(Whiz Comics 022, 1941) In what turns out to be Dan Dare’s final recorded case, he is asked to protect a man named Dr Phoebus Weber from being murdered by a mysterious figure known only as the Spider. Upon entering Weber’s home, Dan and Carol are almost immediately attacked by the Spider, who I have to give partial credit to for the costume. Sure it appears to have a more beetle-like body plan and the head of a mosquito, but…
I’ve finally caught up on my god backlog so these are all piping fresh deities for you to peruse. Itzalotahui: On an expedition to Guatemala to locate their missing friend John Malcolm, Billy Batson and Whitey Murphy make camp in the lost temple of the monkey god Itzalotahui and are awoken from their slumber by the god himself, flaming and steaming and flailing about. After an initial panic and an in-retrospect-embarassing fistfight, Captain Marvel discovers the truth: Itzalotahui is not…
(Whiz Comics 022, 1941) As we join the action, a passing stranger informs us and also Golden Arrow that the Rattler has broken jail! And he’s handing out calling cards! Turns out that the Rattler, notorious outlaw of the West, is out to get the men who served on the jury at his trial (and, we must assume, the judge and prosecutor as well), and he’s being impressively proactive about it: the above scene takes place the morning after he breaks jail…
Gods gods gods. Puni, God of Fire: Sea-faring adventurer Lance O’Casey almost gets sacrificed to this fire god by the cannibalistic inhabitants of a tropical Antarctic island before escaping, entering the volcano in question and meeting the other Puni. Not sure how much the volcano-dwelling madman and the actual religion influenced each other, but it must have been at least a little. Also: cool idol. God Style: Idol (Whiz Comics 019, 1941) the War God: This War God idol functions like one…