ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 053

ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 053

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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…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 1001: BARON KRAWMAN

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 1001: BARON KRAWMAN

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(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…

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MONSTER, CRITTER AND CREATURE ROUND-UP 002

MONSTER, CRITTER AND CREATURE ROUND-UP 002

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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 KaƤnga’s mate Ann and the justifiably miffed jungle lord follows them and slays the gorilla. (Jungle Comics 017, 1941) A few bonus dinosaurs…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 1000: THE MUMMY

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 1000: THE MUMMY

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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,”…

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MEDIA IN COMICS 013

MEDIA IN COMICS 013

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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…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 999: FANG RYAN

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 999: FANG RYAN

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(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,…

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MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 103

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 103

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Soon there will be more minor super-heroes than there are humans for them to protect. the Sentinel: In 1783, on the Boston Common, the newly-minted Spirit of America charges a cannon with the “powders of patriotism” in anticipation that someday a champion will be needed to defend the new nation from destruction. Finally, in 1941 (the Civil War not, apparently, being enough of a reason), the cannon fires on its own and releases the Sentinel, mystic champion of the American…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 998: THE CHIEF

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 998: THE CHIEF

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(Liberty Scouts Comics 002, 1941) The Chief is one of two things, either a not-very-specific Hitler stand-in who is leading his forces from the front in an attempted invasion of the US, or the representative of such a figure in such an invasion. Either way, he is clearly a pseudo-Nazi. When we meet the Chief he is preoccupied with discovering the identities of the mysterious figures (who we know to be the Liberty Scouts) who have been thwarting his attempts…

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DIVINE ROUND-UP 034

DIVINE ROUND-UP 034

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Here come some more gods and god-adjacent beings for you. the Golden Skull: While I must of course frown and shake my head at the concept of human sacrifice, you really have to hand it to the worshippers of the Golden Skull (who is, yes, very much not golden and also not especially skully), for giving their god a name that guarantees that a constant stream of American and European treasure hunters would arrive on their doorstep in search of…

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MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 997: THE ZOMBIE WITCH

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 997: THE ZOMBIE WITCH

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(Jungle Comics 024, 1941) The Zombie Witch (aka the Queen of the Zombies, aka Celie) is, as the name suggests, a witch with a penchant for raising the dead – often while they are still actively being mourned. She demonstrates a few other magic powers (e.g., scrying in a bowl of water, crocodile charming) but the zombie thing is her bread and butter. So what, specifically, does she want a bunch of reanimated corpses for? Well! I won’t say that…

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