For various definitions of the word real. Adolf Hitler: Just why this nonsense-language-speaking pilot henchman of the Mask is named Reltih is a mystery, but it’s also a fact. BONUS VERY ANNOYING THING: I can decipher the nonsense in that second panel as “I’ll murder the bum” but this makes me think that I should be able to do the same with the rest of his half-dozen or so lines of dialogue but I can’t. Utterly vexing! The Mask also…
(Zip Comics 003, 1940) The Scarlet Avenger looks out his window one sunny day and sees “DEATH TO THE SCARLET AVENGER” in skywriting. This, it turns out is a very effective ploy, as when he flies up to check it out he is swarmed and captured by some very off-model pterodactyls. The beasts take him to a dirigible, where he is is introduced to Texa, an eight foot tall woman and self-proclaimed “Queen of Crime,” who is looking to rob…
These pantheons are going to fill up if we’re not careful. Ammon-Ra: Worshipped by a secret sect in the hidden underground city-state of Ruxor in Egypt, Ammon-Ra, contrary to the above image, is probably just an idol that Yarko the Great is making speak so that he doesn’t have to keep magically duelling High Priest Ramma-Tep. God style: Idol (Wonderworld Comics 018, 1940) Kila: Kila, the supposed Hindu God of Destruction, is represented here by a ruby idol. There’s not…
(Zip Comics 002, 1940) Mr Satan is summoned to the charmingly-named Shadow Pond to solve a series of disappearances among a group of scientists who have secluded themselves there. Upon arriving he immediately finds himself in the middle of an attack by a humanoid monster (the Monster, of course. Annoyingly, it is never once referred to as the Monster of Shadow Pond, which would be a pretty great name). He manages to pull a young woman away from the attack…
They’re just doing their best over here. Nevada Jones: Nevada Jones starts out as a detective working for the Cattleman’s Association in what is probably meant to be the Old West (though at this point my trust in that fact is fragile) but in his second appearance is framed for murder and so adopts a masked alter ego. He also acquired a sidekick named Little Joe, who speaks with the cadence of a guy who was orphaned in the jungle…
The Ethic Committee is going to have a field day. Dr Belos is a single-issue mad scientist: he wants to turn men into birds, and to that end he has set up camp in a place called the Valley of Terror and gotten to work creating surgical chimeras called Vulture Men. His downfall comes about because he kidnaps surgeon Dr D’arne to act as his unwilling assistant, thus causing D’Arne’s daughter to bring in the Flame to help rescue him. …
(Zip Comics 002, 1940) While walking down the street one day in what is almost certainly supposed to be New York City, Jim “the Scarlet Avenger” Kendal witnesses the protection racket-related bombing of a tailor shop. What’s worse, the police response to the blast makes it pretty clear that they are on the take! Using his network of operatives, the Scarlet Avenger discovers when and where the next bombing is set to take place and intervenes by way of a…
I seal up the cracks but the dang things keep getting in. Klang is your classic rejected-and-shunned-by-society-due-to-his-appearance villain, who has channelled his bitterness into inventions such as heat rays and the explosive Super X-X Nitro Glycerine, which he secretes in the bottle of christening champagne in order to destroy the Navy’s newest battleship. Just how this is meant to bring him closer to his goal of becoming the dictator of America is left unexplored, as it draws the heroic Navy…
(Zip Comics 001, 1940) Shortly after giving himself super powers, Steel Sterling gets word of a brutal bank robbery in the town of Beeville and sets out to bring the culprits to justice. Determining that the crooks must have been guided by a mastermind of some sort, he trails their plane to a mountaintop fortress. The bow-wielding guards outside the Black Knight’s fortress (spoiler: it’s the Black Knight’s fortress, but what were you expecting) are notable for being the one…
Our themes today are “scarlet,” “family tragedy,” and “inadvisable human experimentation.” Mr Scarlet: Brian Butler, NYC* district attorney,** is frustrated by the limitations inherent in working within the law and so like so many of his peers adopts a costumed identity in order to get the better of crime via acrobatics and punching. A classic origin, but Mr Scarlet’s real claim to fame is in being created by Jack Kirby (with Ed Herron) and thus starting off with a real…