MEDIA IN COMICS 012

It's a very literary day here in Media in Comics Land.

Books:

There are many potential reasons to get into super-science and super-crime, but "reading a get-rich-quick scheme in a book" is one of the better ones, as demonstrated by Wizard Wells foe Mota here and his copy of Cash in Chemistry. (Crack Comics 010, 1941) 

Crime in the Afternoon (A J.J. van Snyde Detective Novel), enjoyed here by Nickolas, henchman to Black Condor foe the Sophisticated Lady. (Crack Comics 010, 1941)

This book, The Ritual, has the cover of a murder mystery or other popular bit of fiction, but seeing as the man reading it is a fanatical leopard-worshipper we must allow for it being something a bit more sinister, such as instructions of conducting a human sacrifice. (Jungle Comics 020, 1941)

As covered in the Bram Thirla entry, Billy Batson learns about the dos and don'ts of vampire hunting from a book called The Vampire Legend, written by HP Lovecraft. A different Lovecraft, perhaps, or did the regular one go in for a bit more of a reference works-based career in the Fawcett Reality? (Captain Marvel Adventures 001, 1941)

This particular comic adventure involves Darrell "Doll Man" Dane taking exception with the fact that some roughneck are using his local library. While I must decry the classism on display here, I must also begrudgingly acknowledge that Doll Man was right: these guys were learning for all the wrong reasons, specifically as part of a school of crime that the diminutive super-hero later breaks up. 

Titles on display include: The Art of Murder, Famous Crimes, How to Win Friends, Jiu-Jitsu, Right and Wrong and The Way of All Flesh. (Feature Comics 047, 1941)

Comics:

 

Golden Age comics companies loved to depict their characters reading their own comics, which is why it is not at all unusual that Doiby Dickles here is reading a copy of Flash Comics in an issue of All-American. What is unusual is that rather than describing one of the actual features in Flash, Doiby has apparently been reading some alternate version of the book that exists in the DCU and involves a character named "Colosso." (All-American Comics 032, 1941)

Magazines:

Though modern depictions of the original Dr Mid-Nite tend to categorize him as a crime novelist, his original job post-blindness was in writing for the crime pulps, and more precisely for Crime and Detective Tales. (All-American Comics 025, 1941)

Freedom Magazine is one of those patriotically-named publications that any good citizen of the 21st Century must immediately suspect of being a cynical way to whitewash fascism, but no, this one seems to be on the up-and-up. They give Les Watts, Radio Amateur a prize for being a cool teen!. (Flash Comics 023, 1941)

Peep Magazine, on the other hand, is merely concerned with the news, and is willing to help out patriotic hero Don Glory to get it. (Hit Comics 011, 1941)

It's possible that Scoop Magazine is entertainment-focused, as they send a photographer to cover this publicity-stunt party in support of a play by a new writer. A party that inspires the Masked Man's murder spree! (Batman Comics 008, 1941)

Movie Mag and Screen Stars are just two of the publications covering the meteoric rise of movie star Portia Storme, aka Julie Madison, the former fiance of Bruce Wayne. (Detective Comics 049, 1941)

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 995: ORG

(Jungle Comics 015, 1941)

Org is a fellow with a gift - the power to play the drums hypnotically - and also the knowledge of the location of a hidden valley full of giant spiders. He combines these two factors as a part of his scheme to conquer "all of Jungleland," which probably means Africa and possibly means India but in my heart will always mean a humid pocket dimension summoned into being by Fletcher Hanks and his fellow Jungle writers' lack of geographic savvy.

Org quickly organizes a spider army with his sick beats, earning him one strike on Fantomah's personal "should I kill this guy" tracker.

This is often the point at which Fantomah gives her target a little hint that he might want to cut back on the wanton slaughter, etc. for his own sake, but Org is given no such grace - perhaps Fantomah just hates spiders. Or drummers. In any case, Org appears to be a pretty thoroughly rotten guy who delights in having his minions attack human and animal alike. It is at this point that I must point out the horrific fact that Org's spiders have what appear to be human hands on the end of each of their legs, which is gross.

Attacking people and animals like this were evidently strikes two and three, because it is at this point that Fantomah steps in, just a little too late as per usual. Org is paralyzed and unceremoniously fed to his own erstwhile troops, who in turn are shrunken down to the size of regular everyday spiders. We can only hope that there wasn't some sort of catastrophic megafauna that they were keeping in check with their predations, I guess.

Appropriately for what I am almost certain is our last Fletcher Hanks comic (but not out final Fantomah), our hero gives a little farewell at the end of the comic!

Categorized in: Accessories (Giant Spiders), Powers (Animal Control), Supercrime (Attempted Conquest)

DIVINE ROUND-UP 033

The theme today is animal gods.

Joboloa the Elephant God:

Joboloa the Elephant God is invoked by Fantomah to punish the evil M'Dibo by means of a horde of spectral pachyderms. Honestly he is an odd choice for the job, as while M'Dibo's crimes involve elephant ivory it's not so much that he's killing elephants to get it as stealing it from other people. Is Joboloa cool with elephant hunting as long as a proper chain of possession is maintained?

God Style: Real (Jungle Comics 020, 1941)

God of the Vultures:

We don't learn too much about the God of the Vultures other than that its worship involves human sacrifice and that its devotees seem to have some control over the vultures that live near the temple. Possibly because they are into the human sacrifices. Tabu, Wizard of the Jungle, someone who is very much not into human sacrifices, busts them up.

God Style: Idol (Jungle Comics 021, 1941)

Monkey and Cobra Cults:

In possibly the only time that the fact that Jungle Comics stories just kind of saw wildly between being set in Africa and India is justified, Fantomah is captured by slavers in Africa and comes ashore in India when she escapes them. There, she immediately gets mixed up in a conflict between the Cobra Cult who worship the Sacred Cobras, and the Monkey Cult who presumably do the same but with sacred monkeys. The former try to sacrifice Fantomah, so they are the bad guys.

God Style: Animist (Jungle Comics 021, 1941)

Crocodile God:

This unnamed crocodile deity this is has some rivalry with the priesthood of Damballah, or at least its representative in this village does. It can be hard to differentiate the tenets of a religion from the actions of its worst adherents, after all. One thing is certain, however: a crocodile theme makes for some terrific architectural and fashion options.

God Style: Idol (Jungle Comics 023, 1941)

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 994: AKINA

(Jungle Comics 015, 1941)

Akina is the hereditary ruler of the African kingdom of Lomar, and as such she has just inherited the mystical Stone of Hanniban. As a newly invested magical being, she falls into the very common trap of deciding that she must be the very best and most powerful of all magic users right away, and immediately sets out to prove herself by challenging Tabu, Wizard of the Jungle to a death duel.

This goes poorly. Tabu defeats the inexperienced Akina without even breaking a sweat and depowers the stone to boot - hopefully it wasn't the linchpin of some sort of defence strategy that Lomar depended on. A few highlights form their magic battle:

Tabu gets turned into a drum, then explodes and reforms as three Tabus.

Akina summons these giant flaming lizards, which Tabu then levitates straight into her palace. Do the lizards eat a lot of people who are arguably blameless in Akina's crimes? Indeed they do.

Tabu ultimately concludes the duel by shrinking both Akina and the entire Black Ivory Palace of Lomar; The Stone of Hanniban is the only thing that he leaves at its original size, and though it's never spelled out, one can reasonably assume that this is as part of a trick to get Akina to fork over the thing willingly rather than have her neck be broken by its relatively enormous weight.

Categorized in: Accessories (Gems), Generica (Ends in A), Powers (Various Magics)

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)