REAL PERSON ROUND-UP 024

You just can't keep 'em out of comics, those real people.

Adolf Hitler:

Dispatches super-spy Miss X to America. (Daredevil Comics 005, 1941)

Raymond Stokes, the actor playing Hitler in a British propaganda film about London (the super-hero, not the city) inexplicably also turns out to be a Nazi agent who attempts to murder the Prime Minister when he makes a cameo appearance in the movie. (Daredevil Comics 005, 1941)

Al Capone:  

No-first-name Perrone here is another classic example of a crook lent a bit of legitimacy via a Capone-alike name. (Daring Mystery Comics 001, 1940)

Charles Biro:

Carnival stunt-eater Ydlab Orib is a transparent Biro name-drop, though the "Baldy" part of his backward name doesn't really jibe with the pictorial record of the man himself. Whether he was a prodigious eater or not is unrecorded as far as I can find. I would venture that we are witness to a series of in-jokes here. (Daredevil Comics 005, 1941)

Comics Folk:

Give a Golden Age comic creator like Edd Ashe a chance to write a list and you'll get a bunch of references to other Golden Age comics guys. For example, this collection of football stats features a (Harry "A") Chesler College, a (Gil) Fox University and a (Mort) Meskin Mining & Mech. And a double-barrelled reference to Bob Wood, with Wood Military College and also Woodro College, referencing a Bob Wood/Charles Biro combination pen name. (Daredevil Comics 006, 1941)

The list of schools also includes one called Lamont and I was ready to discount it, but then remembered that there was a reference to a Lamont in the previous issue, as a circus freak called the "Man of Wood," which made me think that this might be a third Bob Wood reference and wouldn't you know it some places list his middle name as Lamont or Lemont. What's with all the Bob Wood references, Edd Ashe? 

Franklin Roosevelt: 

Once again, President Roosevelt is placed in the unenviable position of being in charge of a country plagued by the Claw's particular brand of bullshit. He's also placed in shadow and a 3/4 reverse view, because comic artists didn't like to draw his face, presumably out of respect. (Daredevil Comics 002, 1941)

Fritz Julius Kuhn: 

I'll be honest: I had no idea who Fritz Kuhn was and certainly didn't twig to "Herr Kahn" here being a version of him until I took a look to see if "Nordic infested [...] Yorkville" was a real place and spotted his name associated with our favourite band of overhyped losers the German-American Bund on its Wikipedia page. Like the Bund itself, the spectre of Kuhn seems to have haunted comics long after he himself was relevant - he had already been slung in jail for tax evasion by the time this comic was published. (Daredevil Comics 005, 1941)

I was curious, so I looked back at the various Bunds we have thusfar encountered to see if any of them had their own version of Kuhn, and the only real candidates to jump out at me were Fritz Kessel, leader of the Termania Bund (Wonderworld Comics 018, 1940) and Fritz Hewn - presumably rhymes with Kuhn - leader of the Young Bundists (Blue Ribbon Comics 014, 1941)

George Roussos: 

Given the uncommon nature of the surname "Roussos" I have to assume that the crooked newspaper editor in this 13 story is yet another example of Lev Gleason reference-your-coworkers style yuck-em-ups. (Daredevil Comics 003, 1941)

Three issues later sees a murder be committed above the Roussos Pool Room. (Daredevil Comics 006, 1941)

And in the same issue, an index of insane asylum inmates yields a Roussos, a (Jerry) Robinson and a (Bob) Wood. And possibly others, but I can't place them.

Heinrich Himmler:

One of several Nazi officials vexed by the hero London and his "L" campaign (Daredevil Comics 006, 1941)

Rudolph Hess:

Rudolph Hess (or Hesst) and his flight to England are framed as a straightforward espionage mission, with Hesst landing along with fifty picked men via black parachutes. He is immediately captured by London. (Daredevil Comics 003, 1941)

Winston Churchill: 

Initially, I was all set to point out that this "London" adventure featured a completely made-up niece of Winston Churchill making a daring escape from Nazi-occupied Holland, but imagine my surprise when her uncle showed up and was a store-brand imitation Churchill with a mustache. I was particularly caught off guard by this as while US-based comics had a weird reluctance to portray or name FDR they usually had no such qualms about doing so with the PM. (Daredevil Comics 002, 1941)

The False-Churchill returns in the "London" feature in Daredevil Comics 004, and this time his inexplicable presence is highlighted by the unaltered name of Lloyd's of London in the upper left.

Finally, the Churchill-alike in Daredevil Comics 005 looks different enough from both the real deal and Mustache Churchill that we must assume that there has been some sort of regime change between issues.