(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…
Super-heroes, coincidentally arranged in ascending order of notability! Kalkor: A faithful priest of Isis c.1000 BC, Kalkor is restored to life at the same time as Nagana, the Queen of Evil, as a foil to her power. He is empowered with the same immortality and comic book magic as Nagana so that he may combat her effectively (and perhaps as a way for Isis to make up for crushing him to death as a byproduct of collapsing a temple on…
(Fantastic Comics 021, 1941) The Scorpion is an Irish super-criminal who, in a classic villain move, inspires the creation of his own nemesis when he slays a man on the moors near Cork one dark night (and whether there are any moors in that area is surprisingly tedious to find out, so just colour me generically skeptical) as part of a scheme to acquire a gold deposit. The future nemesis in question is the man’s stepson, Jim O’Donnell, whose subsequent…
(Exciting Comics 015, 1941) The Master is a mysterious new crooks who has been going around town kidnapping wealthy men, and the Black Terror and Tim have been running around after him and trying to figure out just what the heck is going on. The Master is also a classic Bad Boss in the “ruthlessly kill your minions” mould. As it turns out, the Master has broadly the same origin story as early Batman villain the Ugliest Man in the…
(Dynamic Comics 001, 1941) Lucky Coyne, private detective and man with the most complicated publishing history in comics* is hired by heiress Helen Jordan to solve a ghost problem in the mansion she has just inherited. The ghost in question, called the Evil Eye, obligingly makes an appearance just as she mentions him, with his signature “Weeeee… ha ha ha!” laugh. *Lucky Coyne appeared in comics by half a dozen publishers over the years, and operated as a police sergeant,…