REAL PERSON ROUND-UP 028

Mostly a case of the Usual Suspects today here in the Real Person Round-Up, I'm afraid.

Adolf Hitler:

The bulk of the comic this panel comes from is MIA as far as people without hundreds of dollars of Buy Golden Age Comics money are concerned, and this is the only real look we get of this slightly off-brand Hitler and Goering. I might not have bothered to include them here devoid of other context except for...

... the splash page for the story, featuring our Hitler-alike in a beast-man form and commanding a horde of Hitlerian minions that are probably both allegorical but which are very representative of the "mad-dog" framing that he was being given in a lot of the comics of the time. Presumably air ace Bill Barnes really scuttles his plans. (Bill Barnes America's Air Ace Comics 002, 1941)

This husky Hitler look-alike is the head of a fascist force that almost manages to destroy the US military presence in Alaska but is himself destroyed by the Liberty Guards. (Man of War Comics 001, 1941)

Here time/space traveller Whiz Wilson encounters a particularly low-rent Hitler-alike named Raggo. (Lightning Comics v1 006, 1941)

Cordell Hull:

When Bill Barnes needs two hundred jeeps to defend the Panama Canal, who does he call? Secretary of State Cordell Hull, that's who! (Bill Barnes, America's Air Ace Comics 005, 1941)

Franklin Roosevelt:

A more on-model  (and more face-forward) version of Roosevelt than we usually see in comics learns of the existence of the Liberty Scouts from their sponsor, retired patriotic millionaire Patrick Henry (who named himself such after immigrating to the US as a young man). (Liberty Scouts Comics 002, 1941)

FDR returns in the second Liberty Scouts comic to tour the very on-the-nose Fort America (Liberty Scouts Comics 003, 1941)

Hermann Goering:

Orders the destruction of Bill Barnes. (Bill Barnes America's Air Ace Comics 004, 1941)

Hollywood Shuffle:

It's another classic case of mixing up first and last names of movie stars to make all-new ones, in this case Tyrone Taylor (Tyrone Power/ Robert Taylor, probably), and Myrna Rogers (Myrna Loy/ Ginger Rogers, almost certainly). (Detective Comics v1 046, 1940)

Leopard Men:

Since I recently realized that I had failed to be curious enough and that the Leopard Men were not just a fanciful idea that people kept coming up with but in fact a vilified version of real African secret societies, they now get a place in the Real Person Round-Up. These particular Leopard Men are just as bloodthirsty and savage as the rest of their fictional ilk, but are distinguished by being some of the few to not wear some sort of leopard-head cowl. Possibly because the Red Panther already has that bit of fashion sewn up. (Jungle Comics 020, 1941)

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 993: ZOMAX

(Jungle Comics 014, 1941)

Zomax, the "demonized marine scientist," has a very over-the-top, Fletcher Hanks villain goal: to kill every animal in the jungle. And he isn't afraid to say it.

I won't say that Zomax has a good reason for wanting to destroy all jungle life, but he does have some justification, stemming from a big game hunt he went on that involved, in order:

1. being mauled by a fatally wounded lion. Once the lion died, Zomax wandered away, only to...

2. be grabbed by a man-hating elephant and tossed into a stagnant pond where...

3. swarms of poisonous gnats shredded his skin. Zomax crawled out of the muck in torment, only to be...

4. crushed by a boa constrictor, but not killed, because he was...

5. pulled away by the Hannibal Lector of gorillas, who then proceeded to take Zomax home to his nest and inflict months of psychological torture on him.

Though one might see all of this as a kind of ironic punishment for going on a big game hunt in the first place, Zomax does not in fact see it that way, and concludes that the jungle is an evil place fit only for destruction. And since he is a "marine scientist," what better tool of that destruction than the ocean itself?

Specifically, Zomax has built a machine that can create and control a bespoke tidal wave to to wash over the entire continent of Africa (or that portion of it that contains jungle animals) and destroy all of his tormentors. Other than the gnats, I reckon: I bet they do just fine in a landscape covered in brackish ponds. 

As violence against any jungle is violence against the universal Jungle that Fantomah protects, she is out to get Zomax as soon as he actually initiates the tidal wave engine (though please note the silhouettes that indicate that Zomax gets revenge against one representative of each animal species that wronged him, gnats excepted).

Having been given an unusual number of chances to repent and stop his machines by Fantomah, Zomax instead decides to flee in a plane, leaving her not choice but to destroy him with his own tidal wave, or, as Fantomah (and the second Paul Karasik collection of Hanks comics) puts it "YYou shall die by your own creation!"

Categorized in: Generica (Ends in -x), Origin (Vengeance Quest), Supercrime (Disaster Causers)

MEDIA IN COMICS 011

I've heard of comics in the media, but media in comics?

Books:

This book is only our second example of a piece of media called Crime Does Not Pay! but I am confident in predicting that that particular phrase - the regular shouting of which appears to be the major means by which people in the 1940s discouraged children from adopting a life outside the law - is going to be the one we see the most as time goes on.

We don't learn too much about the contents of this particular book, but it makes a decent projectile for Robin here. (Detective Comics v1 050, 1941)

Spider Craft, on the other hand, is pretty clearly just a reference book on spiders, albeit one with a very charming name. (Detective Comics v1 057, 1941)

Movies:

While attending to his extremely unruly supporting cast, Captain Terry Thunder happens upon a movie improbably being shot in North Africa in 1941. This movie is unnamed, but G.G., the director, is also responsible for the film Lost Souls, about which nothing else is known. (Jungle Comics 020, 1941)

Radio:

Radio Quiz show How Do You Know is your place to try your luck at winning two dollars and a big double box of Kracked Korn in a knock down quiz-off against Dolliver King. (Feature Comics 034, 1940)

If there's one kind of radio program that comic books love the most it's the "man on the street" style with their handy remote microphone for all your evidence-gathering or (as seen here) confession-broadcasting needs. This particular show is called Public Opinion. (Nickel Comics 004, 1940)

Theatre:

The Fancy Follies of 1940 is a revue-style show that is the site of the first in a series of entertainment industry murders investigated by the Flash. (Flash Comics 002, 1940)

Billed as a musical, In the Groove is another show plagued by crime. The Purple Trio clear things up after they manage to scrape together enough dough to get inside. (Smash Comics 015, 1940)

Thanks to the fact that they had to pose as performers to solve the In the Groove case, the Purple Trio get their own self-titled show. The Purple Trio show probably involves more than the acrobatics we see here, but that's all that the group gets through in this issue before they realize that a) one man has bought out the entire theatre and b) he has been murdered. (Smash Comics 016, 1940)

This backstage conversation is all we get to see of the melodrama Remote Control, which is a real shame. What does a play with that title look like in 1940? (Crack Comics 008, 1940)

Finally we have The Totsy Revue, attended by Johnny Thunder in one of his many attempts to impress the ever-fickle Daisy Darling, thanks to a tip that the show's headliner Hoco tThe One and Only) is passing counterfeit money as part of his act. (Flash Comics 008, 1940)

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 992: THE VAHINES

(Jungle Comics 013, 1941)

The Vahines, aka the Tiger-Women of Wildmoon Mountain, have a plan: kill every other woman in the world, which will then give them ultimate power over all men. Some thoughts on this setup:

1. The logistics of this plan are trash. There are maybe 15 to 20 Vahines total and estimates put world population at around 2.3 billion in 1940, so murdering half of those people will be a full-time job that will probably take the rest of their lives*. And if they succeed, what then? They rule over a population that is going to die out in a single generation? They certainly can't repopulate the planet because they spent their fertile years slaughtering people.

*It's just possible that "the world" referred to by the Vahines is the weird liminal Jungle-Dimension that Fantomah comics seem to be set in, but seeing as how that's mostly something I made up to explain how weird the worldbuilding in these stories is, I doubt it.

2. I keep saying that we're almost out of Fletcher Hanks stories but I really mean it this time, so it's nice to get one last instance of women surfing around on the backs of big cats.

3. "The Vahines have come down off of Wildmoon Mountain to murder all other women" sounds like the synopsis of a MADtv sketch about PMS. 

Regardless of the canonicity of the liminal Jungle, that's where their mountain is located and so that is where they start murdering women. This goes against Fantomah's mission to protect Jungle life, and so they meet resistance in the form of All Animals. The Vahines, however, are no fools. They knew that Fantomah wouldn't be cool with their insane mission and so they have prepared a salve that makes them glow in a way that is scary to animals. Problem solved!

Or is it? in a classic blunder, the Vahines have failed to contend with the fact that Fantomah a) is not afraid of a mild glowing effect and b) is a minor deity. It takes the merest exertion of her powers to remove the glow, and soon the Vahines' tigers are a mere smudge on the jungle floor.

As for the Vahines themselves, it is now the time for the extreme retribution. Fantomah begins this by extracting the enormous moonstone called the Wild Moon from inside of Wildmoon Mountain - it seems that the name was more than just cool but that it also meant something - and sticking the Vahines to it. This is initially very concerning to the Vahines because of a prophecy about their lives ending if the Wild Moon leaves...

... and then very, very concerning, as the Wild Moon, with its Vahine cargo, is blasted off to slam into the surface of Mars. The prophecy was correct! If unhelpful!

Categorized in: Animals (Tigers), Ideologies (Misogyny), Murder (Mass Murderers)

FASCIST GOON CLEARING HOUSE 015

If there's one thing I know it's that the world has a seemingly-inexhaustible supply of odious little fascist worms.

the All-American League:

The All-American League is nothing so exciting as your Nazi spies trying to poison the reservoir or prevent and/or encourage the US entrance into WWII. Instead, they are the more banal type of fascism that is popular nowadays, in which patriotism is weaponized as a way to enrich and empower a few petty men (yes, yes that's what the Axis was too but they killed a lot of people while doing it so we hold them in higher esteem). The Flame is more than a match for a collection of small-minded opportunists.

Please note that this is the one and only adventure in which the Flame is said to live in a place called Metropolis before someone presumably thought better of it, and that it features an ethnic neighbourhood with the hilariously on-the-nose name of "Foreign Town." (The Flame 007, 1941)

the Nazi Bund:

This is our second instance of a group called the Nazi Bund and as the other one occurred in Fantastic Comics I would be tempted to posit that it represents a rare connection between two Fox Features titles. Not a strong connection, as this particular branch is completely annihilated by the Green Mask, just as that other was by Samson. (Green Mask v1 005, 1941)

the Yellow-Jackets:

Though the Yellow-Jackets, the recurring foes of America's Air Ace Bill Barnes, are described as a kind of freelance band of international bandit spies, in practice they are just another bunch of Nazis-by-another-name. It's a good name, though. Menacing. (Shadow Comics v1 002, 1940)

Unnamed Saboteurs:

This band of Nazi saboteurs are not the most distinguished but also not the least. Their big plan involves starting a forest fire outside of the war production centre of Brownstown and then burning down the town itself while everyone is out fighting the first blaze. Not a bad plan, if doomed to failure because of the presence of human fire extinguisher Fire-Man, but what really sets these guys apart is their weird cloth masks that sport one big central lens to see out of. These are not given any sort of narrative justification, so one must presume that they are worn solely to look cool. (Man of War Comics 001, 1941)

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 991: ZIRA

(Jungle Comics 013, 1941)

While searching for her champion Sir Champion (annoying thing to have to write and the main reason I'm happy that he eventually fades into obscurity), who has failed to return from a hunt, Camilla, Queen of the Lost Empire is confronted by the ghostly vision of a blonde lady who rules an ancient lost castle. This is just a kind of person you get in the undefined part of Africa that houses the Lost Empire.

The lady's name, by the way, is Zira, Princess of the Palace of the Black Heart. She also refers to herself as a "wizardess," and while I am generally of the opinion that gendered job titles like that are retrograde and unhelpful I must admit to being charmed. Wizardess!

This vision leads Camilla back to the aforementioned Palace of the Black Heart, where her mortal form is revealed to be a middle-aged lady, or "old hag" as our hero so tactfully puts it. Zira states that Sir Champion is locked up in her dungeon and she will return him in exchange for all of Camilla's magic powers. The sum total of these powers, from my notes, being the ability to talk to gorillas and the power to call upon Thor and Baal to freeze someone. Frankly not a bad trade for someone's life. Do we include her eternal life? She got that from a potion, after all.

Camilla evidently wishes to continue to speak to apes and so she and her men battle with Zira's forces until they are ironically defeated by some apes.

It then turns out that Camilla has more tricks up her sleeve than I had in my notes. She offers to brew up a potion to make Zira good looking in exchange for freedom for her and her men, and since this is the same comic that made a point of calling Zira a wizardess, she is of course very vain by default and takes the deal immediately.

The thing about taking advantage of a woman's default vanity in such a comic is of course the fact that the vain woman will also be extremely fickle, as seen when the newly-hot Zira reneges on her deal in favour of keeping Sir Champion for her own horny purposes. Things quickly turn violent and Sir Champion is forced to slay Zira to save Camilla's life. All in all it's a real eleventh-hour fumble on Zira's part.

Categorized in: Accessories (Castles), Genrica (Ends in -a), Powers (Various Magics)