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)

MAD AND CRIMINAL SCIENTIST ROUND-UP 027

A series of cautionary tales for budding young scientists.

Orid Dass:

Orid Dass is your standard jungle scientist: he's out there making apes into men and men into apes, all for the love of the ape-man game. He also has the distinction of being the only foe faced by Fantomah the one post-Fletcher Hanks adventure in which she is still kind of a jungle demigod rather than a jungle hero who knows some magic.

In that capacity, Fantomah does a little man/ape transformation of her own, turning both Dass and his ape-men into little green monkeys until he reverts his latest victim (a white guy) to human form, though why she couldn't just do it herself is not explored.

Dass briefly gets one over on Fantomah by dropping her into a pit lined with radioactive ore, as this is also the one issue in which her powers are neutralized in the presence of radiation, but is subsequently crushed when his entire base collapses on top of him - the downside to the convenience of building your science compound on top of a huge radioactive cavern system, I guess. (Jungle Comics 016, 1941)

Doktor Teufel:

Doktor Teufel lives on the aptly-named Death Mountain and spends his time enslaving passing US aviators and building advanced radio-powered technology, implicitly in service to some nefarious plot against the United States. He's a prime example of the kind of villain who is perfectly positioned to achieve all of his goals but who has not planned for the fact that a radium-powered super-hero - specifically Radior, the X-Ray Powerman - is going to walk fly a convertible through his front door and dismantle his entire operation in twenty minutes. (Key Ring Comics, 1941)

Dr Dietz:

We meet Dr Dietz after he has successfully stolen a high-powered experimental aircraft, and he spends so much time bragging about this and about how great a weapon it will make once he has mounted his disintegrator ray cannon (or "death-beam") on it to Federal Agent Steve Crawford* that he never actually gets around to mentioning whether he intends to use it for espionage or for personal gain. He himself is disintegrated before he gets a chance to clarify. (Liberty Scouts Comics 002, 1941)

*Referred to as "Steve Crawford, Undercover Man" despite the fact that in this, his only recorded adventure he is operating under his own name and openly as a lawman.

the Mad Scientist:

The aptly-named Mad Scientist has been setting forest fires as a way of capturing strapping young firefighters from the nearby CCC* base as fodder for his experiments. He is aided in this by his mind-controlled niece Nancy and a huge goon named Gaston (who wears a very cool-looking protective suit while traipsing through the burning forests).

And just what is the radical theory that has driven the Mad Scientist to both the fringes of society and the outskirts of scientific ethics? Why, he believes that if he electronically incinerates a human body just right then it will become "solid gas." Exactly what does this mean? I cannot really say, but going by the available evidence from his eventual successful creation the result is a living, tangible human with a massively decreased density and a radically different metabolism. 

*the Civilian Conservation Corps, a New Deal work program.

As I said, the process is eventually successful, turning a CCC firefighter named Jim into the mighty Fire-Man, but while the Mad Scientist was able to conceptualize and bring into existence an entirely new form of life he was not as visionary about the benefits of proper lab safety and both he and Gaston were fatally exploded in Fire-Man's subsequent attempt to escape his captor. (Liberty Scouts Comics 002, 1941)

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 101

It's a big year for the jungle-based heroes of Fiction House, and also Radior is here.

Camilla, Queen of the Lost Empire **UPDATE**:

1941 is the year of change for Camilla. First off, she faces a series of threats to the Lost Empire itself, beginning when an evil magician nearly conquers and partially razes the city. (Jungle Comics 014, 1941)

Next issue, the otherwise-unremarkable lech Prince Renardo finishes the job and burns the city to the ground as part of an attempt to win Camilla's hand in marriage. Camilla and her surviving citizens rebuild but it is a far less grand affair, being more of a wooden stockade. (Jungle Comics 015, 1941)

Perhaps inspired by the radical change in circumstances, Camilla and her subjects adopt a sort of retro-Norse style in keeping with their ancestry. Camilla's lover Sir Champion disappears from the narrative at this point, never to be seen again. (Jungle Comics 016, 1941)

The Viking revival among the people of the Lost Empire really takes off, and soon Camilla and her new paramour Erik are sailing around in longships having adventures with the seemingly endless variety of anachronistic societies littering the Central African jungle. This state of affairs continues for the remainder of 1941, as does Camilla's insistence on wearing one of the most improbable bikini-chestplates in the history of fantasy illustration. How is it held on? (Jungle Comics 018, 1941)

Fantomah **UPDATE**: 

Following the departure of Fletcher Hanks, Fantomah too goes through some changes (and will continue to do so for a while yet). The first stage of this sees her lose a fair portion of her magical power, most importantly including her signature skull-faced "this means war" form. She also drops her black nightie look in favour of a more traditional jungle heroine's one-piece, albeit made of leaves rather than the more typical animal skins. (Jungle Comics 017, 1941)

By the end of 1941, Fantomah has become a mostly-regular jungle heroine. She has a panther pal named Fury, an orphan boy companion named Ken, and though she still busts out the odd magical ability - about once per adventure on average -  her supernatural power pales in comparison to the Hanks days. 

Fantomah's outfit has continued to evolve over the course of the year: from a green costume made of leaves to a pale blue one made of leaves to a more typical jungle one-piece that merely has the outline of something made of leaves. I can only assume that this change was a present from the (unknown!) artist to themself. (Jungle Comics 024, 1941)

the Red Panther:

Our final jungle makeover goes to the Red Panther, who adopts a sporty cowl-and-loincloth look to replace his more traditional super-hero outfit. His adventures don't change as much as Fantomah or Camilla's due to the fact that (barring the odd jaunt into outer space) he was about two steps away from being a Tarzan clone to begin with. The only real difference between the Old and New Look Red Panthers is in the latter's increased use of panther companions to do his dirty work. (Jungle Comics 019, 1941)

Radior:

Radior, the X-Ray Powerman, is super strong, bulletproof, can fly, can hear radio waves, see through solid matter, and can transmit images directly into the human mind - a pretty thoroughly superhuman fellow. And just how did he get this way? Why, because his father, the famous Professor Kennedy, disappeared from public view when his son was born and spent the next twenty years feeding Radior as much radium as he could get his hands on. And while we might decry this as irresponsible parenting... hey, it worked! The kid grew up into a radiation and radio-themed superman!

Sadly Radior only made the one appearance, in the oddball Key Ring Comics, a one-off collection of hole-punched and spot-coloured stories that it is very hard to find any real information about. (Key Ring Comics, 1941)