{"id":3289,"date":"2026-09-11T10:36:45","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T13:36:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/?p=3289"},"modified":"2026-09-27T17:48:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T20:48:14","slug":"media-in-comics-014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/?p=3289","title":{"rendered":"MEDIA IN COMICS 014"},"content":{"rendered":"

Forget lost<\/i> media, here are some media<\/a> that only exist in comic books<\/p>\n

Movies<\/b>: <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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A Modern Macbeth<\/i> is one of innumerable in-comic movies that we never really learn anything about. Is it a musical? Is that why a singer is speaking at the premiere? Is it a reference to another movie? The only pre-1941 movie with a similar title that I can find is 1917’s A Modern Monte Cristo<\/i> and that seems a bit of a stretch. (More Fun Comics 072, 1941)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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Captain Marvel stars in a film called Crusher of Crime<\/i> in one of our earliest examples of a super-hero starring in a film as themselves. No clue what it’s about but we can probably assume that it’s standard 40s super-hero fare. (Whiz Comics 020, 1941)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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More intriguingly, the character of Whitey Murphy joins the Captain Marvel cast just two issues later, and dialogue between him and Billy Batson implies that not only does the real-world film The Adventures of Captain Marvel<\/i> exist in the comics universe, but that both Captain Marvel and Billy Batson appeared in it and also<\/i> that some or all the events of the film actually happened.<\/p>\n

This is reinforced by the fact that Billy goes to see “The Guillotine”, the second chapter of the serial, in Captain Marvel Adventures<\/i> 003 (Whiz Comics 022, 1941)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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The costume party held for the premiere of The Phantom Duelist<\/i> (film) held in the castle of the Phantom Duelist (ghost) provides the opportunity for the Phantom Duelist<\/a> (super-villain) to murder Reynolds (film producer, universally-hated). (Doll Man Quarterly 001, 1941)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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One of the minor recurring tropes of comics is “tough guy goes to Hollywood and finds it exhausting,” seen here as the super-hero Hercules is talked into making a sadly unnamed jungle movie and it almost kills him. (Hit Comics 010, 1941)<\/p>\n

Music<\/b>:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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The song “Icy Igloo Blues” is the key to District Attorney Steve Malone solving a major jewel robbery case. (Detective Comics v1 053, 1941)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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The “Symphony of Death” was employed by the nefarious Doctor Death<\/a> in his murders. Do music nerds in comic book universes hold Nights of Evil concerts where they play pieces like this? (Wow Comics 002, 1941)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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Speaking of which, here are six extremely on-the-nose songs composed by the Murder Maestro<\/a> as part of his own efforts in the field of killing: “A Message to My Heart” (victim shot in the heart), “I’m Drowning My Sorrows” (drowned), “I’m Burning Up Over You” (set on fire), “My Sleepy-Time Pal” (poisoned, weirdly), “I’m Walking on Air” (dropped from a plane) and “I’m Getting Up in the World” (fake attempt on own life). (More Fun Comics 072, 1941)<\/p>\n

Newspaper Columns<\/b>:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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“Walter Winkle on Broadway” is of course yet another take on the gossip column of Walter Winchell<\/b>. (Feature Comics 049, 1941)<\/p>\n

Television<\/b>:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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There are in fact Martian invaders in this Human Torch story, but since they don’t get up to any NYC-destroying I must conclude that this is an unnamed and very coincidental television program. (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 003 1940) <\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Forget lost media, here are some media that only exist in comic books Movies:  A Modern Macbeth is one of innumerable in-comic movies that we never really learn anything about. Is it a musical? Is that why a singer is speaking at the premiere? Is it a reference to another movie? The only pre-1941 movie with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,14,475,17,968,175,50,93,266,24,569,606,56,1897,1898],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-5","category-14","category-captain-marvel","category-dc-comics","category-doll-man","category-fawcett-comics","category-hercules","category-human-torch","category-johnny-quick","category-marvel-comics","category-media-in-comics","category-mr-scarlet","category-quality-comics","category-steve-malone","category-swing-sisson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3289"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3290,"href":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3289\/revisions\/3290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}