Two MLJ Round-Ups in a row! They’re just churning out the heroes! Galahad: Hey, it’s Galahad! Or rather a version of Galahad who is standing in for a pretty wide array of different Knights of the Round Table with lesser name brand recognition. It’s some clean-cut knightly action. (Top-Notch Comics 005, 1940) Shanghai Sheridan: Jack “Shanghai” Sheridan, aside from having a sounding like a cheeky nickname for a POW camp, is notable mostly for the fact that he is one…
Big Head Futurites: Just a fun illustration of the concept of future humans being big-headed weirdos, from the “Brick Bradford” Sunday strip for 5 December, 1937 Honours – Thor, God of Thunder: Grant Farrel, aka Thor, God of Thunder, gets a medal in his role in defending the US from invasion by fascist Gratnia. Note that it is Grant and not Thor who gets the medal, because Grant does a lousy job of protecting his secret identity. (Weird Comics…
Streak Chandler, a football player at State University, is kidnapped by gangsters in order to prevent him from playing in a key game. This almost never works but these particular gangsters might just be the fist comic book characters to successfully fix a sporting event this way, because rather than stash Streak in an easily-escaped-from cabin close enough to the stadium to show up for the final crucial minutes of the game, they make rocket scientist Professor Finlay and his…
Some hot Archie/MLJ super-hero action. **Hero Update** Bob Phantom: Perhaps in honour of his making the jump from Blue Ribbon Comics to Top-Notch Comics, Bob Phantom gets two hitherto-unseen powers: super-breath powerful enough to turn aside oncoming bullets and the ability to summon cyclones by flapping his cape. (Top-Notch Comics 003, 1940) Bob Phantom also demonstrates super strength sufficient to tear an airplane to pieces in mid air. (Top-Notch Comics 004, 1940) And not content with three new super powers, in Top-Notch 010, Bob…
Martians aplenty, plus more! Martians: Time traveller Scott Rand and his companions stumble into a Martian invasion of Earth during a jaunt to the far-distant future world of 2000 CE, and they immediately get in on the planet-defending action. Featuring a Viking vs Martian battle, for all those fans of classic 2010s mashup humour. These particular Martians aren’t anything special, but I must say that I appreciate their minimalist, doorstop-shaped spacecraft. (Top-Notch Comics 002, 1940) Martians: Scott Rand soon makes…
(Thrilling Comics 010, 1940) Perry Knight has a problem: instead of starring as the titular costumed antagonist of stage production “The Black Death” he has been jailed for murder. He can’t remember doing it, but evidently he gunned down his costar Tinker in cold blood during the dress rehearsal. Enter Peggy Allen, the Woman in Red, who quickly discovers that there is a second Black Death running around when they have a confrontation in the wings. Is this a foolish…
(Thrilling Comics 010, 1940) Fifth column activities are wreaking havoc on the US! Why, it’s so bad that the new National Defense Building has been bombed! Doc Strange is called in along with a crack team of industrialists to help solve the problem, and is pointed toward fellow committee member Henry Dallas by yet another member, Robert W Marsh. Could this be so easy a problem to solve? Henry Dallas kills himself rather than own up to working with the…
None of these guys are ever going to be in a movie. It’s been a while since we’ve seen any masked cowboys, so here’s a particularly well-dressed bunch about to have a scrap with the Rio Kid. He doesn’t get the upper hand in this particular encounter, but by gum he eventually brings rancher John Wendel and his whole gang of rustlers to justice. (Thrilling Comics 002, 1940) Likewise, it’s been a while since we’ve seen a masked Nazi spy,…
(Thrilling Comics 008, 1940) Lobelo is a modern day pirate, as you might guess from the splash panel above, and while my strong pro-pirate bias means that he was an easy inclusion in the ranks of the minor super-villain he is also a source of great frustration to me. First, though, I will note one thing that I really like about Lobelo and that is his array of costumes. Not only does he wear two distinct pirate outfits during…
Will we ever run out of fascist goons? the Green Shirts: The Green Shirts’ claim to fame is their army of the resurrected dead, which they employ in their attempted takeover of the US. Or it would be, that is, if the test run of the resurrection device hadn’t resulted in the death of its inventor and incidentally the creation of the super-mummy Mystico, who ultimately ends up destroying the Green Shirts in a very satisfyingly cyclical kind of way….