NOTES: JULY 2025

The Fates of Various Nazi Warships: 

Given the penchant for featuring even quite famous and obvious things under false names in comics, I always end up noticing when something or someone shows up under their own moniker, which is why I was very surprised when Royal Navy submarine captain Tom Niles, aka the Undersea Raider, is responsible for sinking several real Nazi warships in this 1940 comic. The casualties include the cruiser Admiral Scheer (sunk in 1945 in our world) and the battleships Bismarck (scuttled in 1941), and Scharnhorst (sunk in 1943). I had thought that the Admiral Graf Spee was another of these anachronistically early kills, but this depiction of it's scuttling off of Montevideo, Uruguay is broadly accurate, except that it happened in 1939. A wild time for naval combat. (Thrilling Comics 004, 1940)

The Fate of Rome:

Specifically, the fate of Rome during the Great Fire of 64 CE. There are a lot of theories about how and why the fire was started, but very few of them revolve around it accidentally being started by magician/adventurer the Ghost and his companions while attempting to escape Emperor Nero's soldiers with the help of an electric ray projector. (Thrilling Comics 008, 1940) 

Honours - Doc Strange: 

Doc Strange is given an unspecified medal by FDR for foiling a plot to bomb Washington DC. (Thrilling Comics 010, 1940) 

The next issue, Doc gets a parade for saving NYC from being bombed into dust. (Thrilling Comics 011, 1940) 

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 814: SARKU

(The Spirit Section, 25 August, 1940)

I've mentioned before that the foes faced by magical Golden Age super-heroes break down into roughly three types: 1) regular crooks who are there to be clowned upon, 2) legitimate threats with equivalent magical power of their own and 3) crooks with a little magical power, who provide a Iof a challenge but are ultimately also clowned upon. Sarku is the third type, and has set out, fresh out of prison, to get revenge on those who put him there. Also, like all magic users in "Mr Mystic," Sarku has an innate resistance to magic that makes even low-level practicioners more of a challenge to Our Hero than they would be to a Zatara or a Yarko.

By the time Mr Mystic has been brought in on the case, Sarku has already murdered the (police?) Commissioner of the unnamed Indian city he was incarcerated in and escaped via some handy teleportation magic. Though Mystic interrupts his attempt on the life of the French Consul, Sarku escapes again, this time into the far future world of 2050 AD.

(just what had prevented him from time travelling or indeed merely teleporting out of his prison cell over the ten years of his incarceration is not elaborated upon. Perhaps he only just got the knack)

Sarku does a bit of premature gloating before learning that Mr Mystic can also travel through time, and the two are quickly engaged in a high-speed rocket chase to the Moon. 

Mystic ends up shooting Sarku down as they approach the Moon's surface, and he makes the grim choice to pop his corpse into a handy corpse container (originally intended for the evocatively-named by alas never-seen "Moon King's mummy") as a sort of general warning to all would-be murderers who might be wandering around on the Moon. That's it for Sarku!

But perhaps I spoke too soon! Sarku is back in the next "Mr Mystic" installment, and though we don't get to see any mummies, we are treated to a Moon King, as a not-so-dead Sarku is brought before Tan Tan, King of the Moon by his subjects. It turns out that he wasn't quite dead when Mr Mystic shoved him in that tube, which is great for him now but horrifying in retrospect.

Tan Tan turns out to have a weird crush on the (to him) historical figure of Elena, former Mr Mystic villain and current Mr Mystic fiance (stay tuned for her entry), and trades Sarku a space fleet for her.

Sarku's attempt to get revenge on the entire population of Earth for a 1930-1940 AD prison sentence that almost nobody in 2050 AD would have been alive at the same time as, let alone had anything to do with, is foiled once again by Mr Mystic, who leaves nothing to chance this time as he socks Sarku out the spaceship's hatch and into the void of space (Tan Tan, by contrast gets a mere sock in the jaw for his creepy Elena-napping. The perks of royalty, eh?).

REVENGE KILLER SCORE: 1/2+

DEMONIC ROUND-UP 001

I think that demons and devils are the only category of comic book guy I don't have a running round-up for yet (and having said that I'm sure that there will be more), so here we go:

Satan: 

If we're going do do demons, why not start with the one with the most name recognition of all: Satan. As seen here he has been vexing jodhpured adventurer Tippy Taylor in the form of a mad scientist, only to be defeated when his own transformation of Taylor into a greasy-haired demon made him too powerful to handle. (The Arrow 002, 1940) 

Mephisto: 

Stuart Taylor and his pal Dr Hayward are up to their old time travelling tricks, and have stumbled across a wizened old alchemist named Scarpo who has made a deal with the demon Mephisto. Two notes about this exchange: 1. Scarpo is a very bad negotiator. Trading your soul for the secret of transmuting lead into gold is one thing, but then having to go kidnap a queen on top of that? Haggle a bit, bud. 2. Taylor and Hayward witness this demonic bargain and then just wait around for Scarpo to hobble off the Queen Lenore's castle, kidnap her and then hobble back before they get concerned enough to step in.

Once they do deign to get involved, the two time travellers are quite hands-on as demon battlers, and despite Mephisto's jacked bod he is ultimately unable to contend with an axe to the skull from Dr Hayward. (Jumbo Comics 012, 1940)

the Genii 

Genies occupy a weird cosmological space and maybe if they were more prevalent in comics I'd find a more nuanced way to categorize them - I reckon we'll just go on a case by case basis, and this here is a bad'un so he gets shelved with the demons.

Time traveller Stuart Taylor and his pal Dr Hayward have been sent back in time yet again, this time to Baghdad in the very-hard-to-specify period in which pastiche Arabian Nights stories are set. Because Taylor and Hayward are riding on a flying carpet when they enter the city, Stuart is acclaimed as the legendary Cloud Prince, come to claim his throne. This arouses the ire of previous claimant Jir Haffa, who summons the Genii from its fountain home to wreak vengeance on the interlopers.

There's nothing too special about this genie, though he does have a very pleasing pomposity to his speech. The real fun thing about him is that you can explode him with a camera snap because "the genii, being non-physical fails to make an image on the film." Fun! (Jumbo Comics 029, 1941) 

the Kings of Darkness:

By far the best thing about the Genii, however, is that he summons these fellows to deal with Stuart and Dr Hayward. Identical demonic swordsmen/kings? Named Ologa, Kahmo and Madru? And even if you defeat one, his body can be used as the material component to summon five more kings? Just excellent stuff all around. (Jumbo Comics 029, 1941) 

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 813: YAGOR

(The Spirit, "The Death Dolls", 4 August, 1940)

In terms of villainy, Yagor ain't much. Formerly chief engineer at the Battle Arms Co, Yagor murdered the inventor Kalin and stole his inventions and is trying to sell them on when the Spirit tracks him down in a small New England town. Though he gets the drop on the Spirit and captures him when he shows up to take him in, Yagor is undone by his own poor salesmanship and the crucial lack of imagination possessed by munitions buyer Emil Kampf, who dismisses a working robot soldier as a useless toy without, for instance, considering the possibility inherent in a bit of armour plating.

Among Yagor's many shortcomings is dismal salesmanship and specifically his failure to present Kampf with the other invention that he stole from Kalin, a smaller automaton capable of tracking a person across tens if not hundreds of kilometres, navigating such obstacles as sheer walls and subway systems, in order to kill them via explosion. Instead, he sends one, charmingly named Jepetto, to kill Kampf.

(perhaps the oddest thing about this assassination is that as Jepetto is tracking down and killing Kampf Yagor and the Spirit are in New England listening for news of the explosion on the radio, and while this is in the days when the Spirit's adventures were still set in New York City, the whole process must have taken hours if not days to complete, even if the "dark. mysterious fishing village" of Cape Haven were somehow both at the Southern border of Connecticut and "out of the tourist route." Just standing around at gunpoint for three days while a small robot walks down the East Coast)

But perhaps I am giving Yagor too much grief. After all, he was the chief engineer at that munitions company, not the chief salesman. Surely after bungling two whole opportunities to sell his robots (I'm counting the assassination because I think that loading that little robot up with a couple of water balloons or the like would have been a very good proof of concept indeed) he will rally and hike up his pants and really put in a good effort in his next black market arms presentation. What's that? He just loaded all of his remaining Death Dolls (which is what the little assassin-bots are called) into a big robot soldier and sent them to attack New York for no good reason? Yagor, no. You're going to get caught by the Spirit!

Yagor got caught by the Spirit, you guys. 

DIVINE ROUND-UP 003

More gods for you to worship.

Goddess of the Jungle: 

The Goddess of the Jungle is an idol stolen by an adventurer named Stero while he was roving around Africa. Returning to America with it, he attains some fame and success as a film director, which he attributes to the influence of the Goddess on his life. Is the Goddess of the Jungle really real, or can the whole affair be blamed on the fact that Stero has apparently spent the decade or so that he's had her whacked out of his gourd on jungle potions courtesy of his servant and Kailo, an acolyte of the Goddess?

Stero attempts to bring the idol back to where he got it and assume the role of high priest or possibly king, but ultimately he ends up as sacrifice for his sacrilege.

God style: idol, possible real powers. (The Arrow 001, 1940)

Dong, God of War:

Science adventurer Stuart Taylor spent the bulk of his early career being flung back in time by the mad scientist Ali Pasha, and on this particular jaunt he ends up in ~50 BCE helping to defend the Tibetan city of Manchung from invaders, and the key to his eventual success is that the people of Manchung (including Manchung, King of Manchung, natch) have seemingly accidentally invented gunpowder for use as a part of the ritual prayers to Dong, God of War. Thanks, Dong!

God style: idol (Jumbo Comics 009, 1939)

Eterno: 

The comic series "Shangra", in brief, is about a pair of newspaper correspondents, Joan Joyce and Jack Flynn, who crash their plane in the remote Tibet-adjacent country of Shangraland and get mixed up in the affairs of Shangraland ruler Shangra and his great-great-great granddaughter Lonna. Specifically, the super-powered, 200-year-old Shangra wants Jack to take his place and Lonna wants to marry Jack and murder Joan.

Eterno here is the fun-looking and very specialized God of Eternal Life who bestows such on the rulers of Shangraland. Like I said, very specialized. 

God style: idol, some real power (Crash Comics Adventures 003, 1940) 

The Fire Monster: 

Just some cavemen fearfully trying to appease a volcano, as you do.

God style: animist (The Funnies 004, 1937) 

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 812: PALYACHI, THE KILLER CLOWN

(The Spirit, "Palyachi the Killer Clown", 28 July, 1940)

Ah, the crime clown. Always glad to see another one, and one with such an illustrious name, kind of! (I wanted to do some sort of riff on "but doctor, I am Palyachi" but a) it seems like the basic joke has existed jince the 1800s, the first place that Pagliacci was specifically named as the sad clown on the doctor's couch might actually have been in Watchmen and b) I couldn't think of one)

This particular clown turns to crime at the urging of Nonspecific Circus Performer Marka, who puts off his marriage proposals with suggestions that he first kill her enemy Flipo the acrobat and then steal various riches for her. As is obvious to the reader but not to Palyachi, he will never actually do enough to win her heart, but that Palyachi, he just keeps on killing and trying.

Marva does eventually see the danger of turning your unrequited suitor into an unstoppable killing machine, and so sells him out to the Spirit at the first opportunity. Unfortunately for her, while the Spirit is out hunting for Palyachi, Palyachi returns to where Marva is waiting for the Spirit (completely nude, by the way, because Marva is the horniest woman in a comic full of horny women). Palyachi finally goes completely mad and Marva meets her end at his hands.

That's a wrap on Palyachi, and despite the Spirit's weird defense of him in the final panels, I have to say that no, I don't think that it was all Marva's fault. Call me a crank, but I don't think that being really, really horny is a valid excuse for committing at least four murders, even if you sincerely believe that murdering people might help you get some.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 811: QUEEN RANA

(The Spirit Section, 14 July, 1940)

Queen Rana is the bearer of the Amulet of Ra, a mystic artifact that grants immortality and invulnerability to the one who wears it. Rana's one ambition in her immortal life is to have a "huge rock of gold" and to that end she has established herself as the ruler of a jungle tribe and turned them to banditry. Is this a good use of eternal life? No it is not. Is it likely to result in her getting a huge rock of gold? Almost certainly not. Is this the sort of ambition that, when achieved, is going to leave her feeling kind of hollow inside? Absolutely.

Mr Mystic, at the behest of the council of Lamas who empowered him, sets off into the jungle to put a stop to Queen Rana and to destroy the Amulet of Ra, and here is where I personally developed a deep affection for Rana as a villain, because she approaches being immortal, invulnerable and, it turns out, immune to Mr Mystic's magic as license to be just a complete roughneck brawler. She tackles Mystic and nearly cuts him in two while your typical comic book immortal would still be delivering their opening monologue about how lonely they get. It's frankly the sort of behaviour we should see more in the immortal community.

Unfortunately for me and my love of fun characters, the fact that Rana viewed immortality merely as an increased chance to get ahold of that big gold she coveted so much really did point to her being a dummy. Mr Mystic has basically no trouble at all in getting her to trade the Amulet of Ra for a big pile of gold that he, a man who she has seen create illusions mere minutes before has created out of thin air, and after that it's all over, as Queen Rana's two centuries of unaging catch up to her all at once. A sad end to a real scrapper of a character.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 810: MR MIDNIGHT

(The Spirit, "Mr Midnight", 14 July, 1940)

Mr Midnight is your classic police taunter, a crook who not only thinks that they have the wherewithal to pull off the perfect crime but is so confident that they decide to tip off the cops to their plans. In this specific instance, the villain is a dapper blue-skinned fellow who has not only informed the police but the Spirit as well, and further has declared that he will commit his murder in the very office of Police Commissioner Dolan. And he does it! Ellison Wright, Midnight's erstwhile blackmailer, dutifully shows up and drops dead at the stroke of midnight, and since Happy O'Day, the coroner, declares the death as due to heart failure, Mr Midnight walks right on out the door afterward.

This is where your "perfect crime" criminals often make their mistake, because while the fact that it can't actually be proven that Mr Midnight killed Wright might keep the police off of his back, the Spirit is a vigilante, and doesn't exactly have to worry about things like "the letter of the law" or "evidence" or "not showing up in someone's house unexpectedly". He just has the fact that Midnight said that he was going to commit murder to go off of, plus the knowledge that Happy O'Day just loves to call any unexplained death heart failure - not a month and a half earlier he said that Denny "the Spirit" Colt had died of heart failure, after all.

Indeed, Mr Midnight is almost comically eager to confess that he did it. Midnight, aka John Caliban, was once a stage heartthrob whose life was ruined when he fell in love with a married woman. Blackmailed into poverty by Ellison Wright and turned blue seemingly incidentally by a cosmetics mishap, Caliban murders first his lover and then Wright. 

What was Caliban's next move going to be? Impossible to say now, because though he almost gets away when he beans the Spirit with his human skull prop and sets his house on fire, Midnight is captured and dragged back to police headquarters, only to take the ultimate way out via his own poisoned fingernails. A shame - a dapper blue guy would have made a fine addition to any rogue's gallery.