(Smash Comics 017, 1940) There are a lot of comic book characters who derive their powers from or express them through music, but Stradivous here is the only one I know of who does so using a clarinet. This is going to be huge if we ever want to draft an all-star comics orchestra someday. He also has a really terrific look, with an eccentric choice in every single aspect of his head and facial hair – I’ll even grudgingly…
The science is flying fast and loose in here. Professor Krauss’ theories about a method for passing matter through matter were scorned and laughed at, so he turned them to crime, killing three and robbing the New York subtreasury*. Unfortunately for him he also gave an interview about his theories, which really helped research-savvy reporter Chic Carter track down and capture him. (Smash Comics 011, 1940) *A Note on Subtreasuries: A frequent target for theft in the Golden Age or…
(Smash Comics 016, 1940) It’s a classic setup: the embittered villain is released from prison and swears vengeance on those who put them there. In this case, the recently released figure is the mystic Bela Jat, who has just spent seven years behind bars for killing someone in a magical experiment and is mighty unhappy about it. Joining him are his excellently named and very loyal henchmen Shimego and Gar. Jat sets out to capture and kill the three men…
(Smash Comics 015, 1940) The Ghost Gang have a winning formula: commit a robbery and then high-tail it back to the Old Abandoned Peters Mansion (charmingly referred to a couple of times as the Haunted Hide-Out), where they transform into ghosts and can murder cops and/or drive them insane with impunity. It’s not a foolproof scheme, however. For one thing, you really have to complete that first step and actually get to the house, as evidenced by this poor fellow…
(Smash Comics 015, 1940) As we meet Cadava, he is all dressed up and off to attend a costume party, with some pretty harsh words and feeling for humanity in general and a lady named Diane in particular – seems that he has been shunned and rejected after some sort of accident. Also his little friend Soo Choo is there. Also in attendance – in his super-hero costume, no less! – is the Ray, and luckily for Diane he is…
Boys! Boys! Boys! Super powered boys! Magno: Magno, aka the Miracle Man, aka the Magnetic Man, aka Tom Dalton, was a power line worker who died when he was shocked with 10 000 volts DC and then revived when he was shocked again with 10 000 volts AC. As a result, Dalton developed electromagnetic powers that he used to fly, simulate super strength when dealing with metal and create magnetic force fields. Not a bad deal. Magno’s Golden Age career…
(Smash Comics 015, 1940) Strange things are happening at the museum: knives are flying through the air, suits of armour are wandering around in a menacing fashion and things are getting pretty spooky. Head Curator Robbins asks his pal Kent Thurston (aka the Invisible Hood) to check things out, at which point the Mummy enters the picture, knocks out Thurston and kidnaps Robbins’ plucky daughter Betty. After grabbing Robins as well, the Mummy reveals his devious plan: Robbins must resign…
(Smash Comics 015, 1940) It’s a tale as old as opera: macho newsman Chic Carter is pissing and moaning his way through a theatre review assignment when a dramatic figure suddenly murders the star and disappears into the bowels of the opera house. Chic is quick to connect this killing with two others that took place over the last twenty years and sets out to capture the enigmatic Phantom. Chic and the police stage a recreation of the fatal performance…
(Smash Comics 015, 1940) Sometimes all you need is a group of mercenary saboteurs dressed in matching cloaks and gas masks to zazz up a story – Black X and his comic book contemporaries have faced and defeated hundred of sabotage plots in front of my now-jaded eyes over the course of my comics-reading career, and so it takes a bit more than your basic pseudo-Nazi in a suit and tie to get my attention. That there is a suit-and-tie…
When we last saw Madame Doom, she had been bested at the game of espionage by the Black X and was fleeing the US for friendlier shores at the end of Smash Comics 004. Madame Doom returns with a fresh new attitude for 1940 in Smash Comics 008, as now she is not just working for an analog of the Axis powers but explicitly for the Nazis. It’s a lateral move at best but an important one nonetheless. She only…