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…
(Jungle Comics 022, 1941) Zuko, aka the Bird King, is in a lot of ways a very classic minor super-villain. He has an obsession with birds and has both a flock of trained vultures and a set of working bird wings for personal flight that he uses in the pursuit of crime. He also has an obsession with diamonds that makes him jealously guard the ones that he has collected, and stop at nothing, including kidnapping and murder, to acquire more. The…
(Green Mask v1 008, 1941) The tale of the Mad Ghost (“Death Deals in Diamonds!”) is presented as a classic whodunnit, which happen to be one of my very favourite genres of both comic stories and of fiction in general. Sadly, this story is a prime example of how poorly this genre can be executed, and an early sign of this is in the dramatic presentation of suspects on the splash page. While it is pretty common to include the…
(Exciting Comics 015, 1941) The Gentleman, “the most elusive jewel thief in the country,” is after the fabulous Orloff Necklace, and District Attorney Tony Colby, aka the Mask, is on the case. I initially had my money on the goateed gallery manager being the Gentleman in a classic double bluff, but once this comically-affronted old lady showed up it became clear that my instincts were wrong. The Gentleman’s modus operandi turns out to involve a combination of disguise and smuggling gems out…