Thursday, November 6, 2025

REAL PERSON ROUND-UP 019

For various definitions of the word real. 

Adolf Hitler



Just why this nonsense-language-speaking pilot henchman of the Mask is named Reltih is a mystery, but it's also a fact. BONUS VERY ANNOYING THING: I can decipher the nonsense in that second panel as "I'll murder the bum" but this makes me think that I should be able to do the same with the rest of his half-dozen or so lines of dialogue but I can't. Utterly vexing!

The Mask also employs an English-speaker with the very annoying name of Inilossom in the same issue. (Whiz Comics 010, 1940)

Here's straightforward Hitler analog King Rodend of Kalnar about to be beaten up by the Flame. (Wonderworld Comics 011, 1940)


Wretched humour comic "Don Quixote in Modern Times" features villain "Adolphus Stalini". (Wonderworld Comics 020, 1940)  

Devil's Island



Newsreel camerawoman Patty O'Day covers a prisoner's revolt on the penal colony in what might just be the least sympathetic portrayal of Devil's Island in comics. (Wonderworld Comics 015, 1940)

J. Edgar Hoover:

Minor appearances: 

Whiz Comics 003a, 1940 

Whiz Comics 005, 1940 

John Galt


File this one under "amazing coincidences". A character named John Galt, a full seventeen years before Atlas Shrugged is published. And to top it off:

Dr John Galt's radium has been stolen by Dr James Kirk (aka Doctor Death), a full twenty-six years before Star Trek debuts. Would it be a bit more narratively satisfying if John Galt was the selfish shitheel and James Kirk was the selfless hospital administrator? Sure, but that's just details. (Whiz Comics 002, 1940)

the Koh-i-Noor Diamond:


Reporter Scoop Smith is sent on assignment to find the fabled South African Rooirand Emerald, which his editor sees as a direct parallel to the Koh-i-noor. Just how this is the case is what baffles me - I initially thought that it might have been stolen and editor Lane was thinking of the Agatha Christie novel in which that happened, but the more I look at it the more I think that it's just a big gem that some white guys are trying to steal. 

(this story also has one of the more stupid desus ex machina endings in all comics, when the sacred snake handler of the isolationist tribe that worship the emerald turns out to be Sam Jones, African American train porter and eternally loyal to Smith because of a five dollar tip) (Whiz Comics 004, 1940) 

Lázaro Cárdenas del Rio

You know me: I love to dunk on old comics for their portrayals of in-office world leaders, and let's just say that if you look up a picture of Lázaro Cárdenas, president of Mexico from 1934 to November of 1940, he doesn't have a long white beard. I didn't bother to check if the President of Mexico has an enormous ornate throne to sit in, but I can only hope. (Whiz Comics 005, 1940)

Mata Hari


Hundanian spy Mata Dara, the latest in a long line of women in espionage to have a sound-alike name to Mata Hari. (Zip Comics 001, 1940)

Senusret III


Mentioned as being a cousin of Taia's in Whiz Comics 002, "King Senwosri" aka Pharaoh Senusret III then makes an appearance in person as he rises from the dead to punish an American explorer for violating the sanctity of his tomb. He returns to his eternal slumber after an intervention by cousin Taia and cousin-in-law Ibis the Invincible. (Whiz Comics 003b, 1940)

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REAL PERSON ROUND-UP 019

For various definitions of the word real.  Adolf Hitler :  Just why this nonsense-language-speaking pilot henchman of the Mask is named Relt...