I’ve finally caught up on all the backlogged wounds! Only new wounds for the catalogue going forward. the Dart: The Dart has come all the way from Ancient Rome to the present day (1940) only to be shot in the left arm. (Weird Comics 006, 1940) Doc Strange: Though the text box says that Doc Strange is “riddled with bullets” in this exchange, the subsequent first aid suggests that his left arm bore the brunt of the damage. (Thrilling Comics…
(Lightning Comics v2 001, 1941) Lash Lightning, while aimlessly flying around the countryside at night, encounters a footsore scientist named Amy Lane. Turns out that her castle (!) has been stolen by a man named Mastermind and that she has been walking for several hours in an attempt to get help. In a move that always seems kind of rude to me, Lightning immediately flies her all the way back to the castle to investigate. The mysterious Mastermind is no longer present…
I hope everyone likes monsters as much as I do because there are a whole lot of them to cover. Beaked Tyros: When polar explorer Anthony Conrad gets lost in an Arctic storm and falls through a hole in the pack ice, he reasonably expects to meet his demise. Instead, he falls into the subterranean kingdom of Artica and is chosen by the elderly Artican king – also a stranded former surface explorer – as his successor. As part of…
Here’s to all the crooks who just didn’t have enough oomph. the Despot: The Despot (not really his name, but literally the only thing he is called throughout the story) has the magic power to transform himself and others into living plants and animals, a power which he uses to trap Camilla and Sir Champion in his mountain fastness after luring them there on a magical golden road. Thus stripped of its leaders, the Lost Empire proves no match for…
Aliens. Molemen: These green-skinned humanoids live in an underground kingdom somewhere beneath what was then known as the Belgian Congo. They have been sent to the surface to find some white men – and just why they subscribe to the racial categories of surface humanity is left unexplored – and woe betide any non-white guys who they encounter first. The Molemen expedition eventually captures jungle adventurer Congo Jack and returns to the underground with him. Alas, we never quite learn…
(Lightning Comics v1 005, 1941) Whiz Wilson and his Futuroscope are once again engaging in the Doctor Who style of time travel, in which you just kind of pop into a random time and place and ask a bystander how things are going. In this case he has ended up in Florida in the year 3000, and the vest-wearing Florida Man he speaks to is pretty smug about how great things have been for the past thousand years. Perhaps he…
It’s time for more monsters! And also critters and creatures! Prehistoric Gorilla: This carnivorous cave-dwelling ape lives in a hidden valley in Africa and has a pretty sweet deal going with the local pterodactyls, whereby they bring him things to eat and he seemingly doesn’t have to do anything. This arrangement does eventually backfire after the pterodactyls grab Kaänga’s mate Ann and the justifiably miffed jungle lord follows them and slays the gorilla. (Jungle Comics 017, 1941) A few bonus dinosaurs…
Number 1000!!* (Lightning Comics v1 005, 1941) The Old Man of the Pyramids summons (F)lash Lightning to his thundercloud lair to warn him about trouble at Midton College, and he is right, as can only be expected of a wise old oracular father figure. This particular trouble is called Professor Vatz and is a professor of chemistry who is ready to give up academia for the heady world of supercrime. Vatz’s new career is founded on two inventions: his “Hotlight,”…
Today in Media in Comics, we’re all about the Movies: Movie star Dawn O’Dare returns to her home town of Holtville to premiere her new picture Love Me Forever! but the whole affair is almost undone when her understudy attempts to impersonate her and make off with the theatrical take, only to in turn be foiled by local copy boy Hap Hazard. (Lightning Comics v2 004, 1941) Angry Waves, a sea epic, features a found footage action scene as one of the…
(Lightning Comics v1 005, 1941) We meet Fang Ryan after he grabs a payroll from the recently-deceased messenger who was in the process of delivering it. He then escapes despite the fact that Police Detective Danny “the Raven” Dartin is on the scene to engage him in thrilling gunplay, but drops his signature weapon, a stick with a couple of snake fangs on one end. It’s a neat gimmick: the stick has a reservoir full of poison inside of it,…