REAL PERSON ROUND-UP 025

If comics are reflections of the real world then why should we be surprised to find them so full of real people?

Adolf Hitler:

Hiller is the "mad dictator" who inspires Hercules to reincarnate and eventually become Marvel Boy. He's about as close as you get to putting a Hitler in your comic as you can get without actually saying the name. The whole name. The "t" part. (Daring Mystery Comics 006, 1940)

This otherwise-unnamed Fuehrer of a likewise nameless underground nation that vexes the America inhabited by Captain Daring in 3051 CE is a clear inspired-by-Hitler type. (Daring Mystery Comics 007, 1941)

Citizen V takes a break from his propaganda campaign in Occupied Europe to sneak into Germany and become a member of the Punched Hitler in the Nose Club. (Daring Mystery Comics 008, 1942)

This version of Hitler appears in a long dream sequence in the comedic Army Life strip "Private Rook" that appears to exist solely to make a joke about him being gay (the bit where he is the Princess Tanya's Fairy Godmother, specifically). This isn't great, but it is remarkable for being the only time I personally have seen such a thing in a Golden Age comic. (Army and Navy Comics 003, 1941)

Though Cap punches Hitler on the cover of his very first issue, it is in fact Bucky who lands the first blow on him (and Goering) in the pages of a comic. (Captain America Comics 002, 1941)

the Borgias:

Cesare, Lucrezia and the rest of the Borgia family might not actually appear in comics all that often, but they certainly do figure into their plots via the absolute piles of poisoned and poison-adjacent artifacts that are attributed to them. Borgia trinkets crop up so frequently, in fact, that I am surprised that it's taken us this long to encounter one, in the form of a hollow silver statuette that contains a deadly contact poison. (Fantastic Comics 018, 1941)

Fort Knox:

Stardust the Super Wizard's final foe, the unfortunately-named "Slant-Eye," was a classic comic book Fort Knox robber. (Fantastic Comics 016, 1941)

Francis Biddle:

Major Victory has to consult with the US Attorney General in 1941, and in 1941 the US Attorney General was Francis Biddle. The man in the panel above is not Francis Biddle. (Dynamic Comics 002, 1941)

Franklin D Roosevelt:

Seen ordering the creation of a super-soldier, i.e. Captain America, to combat domestic espionage. (Captain America Comics 001, 1941)

Fritz Kuhn:

Fritz Knoll, purveyor of domestic espionage, is probably a reference to the chief Bundist. (Fantastic Comics 021, 1941)

Henry L Stimson:

The US didn't even have a Secretary of Defense until after WWII, so I am not sure who this guy hanging out with Samson is supposed to be. The analogous position at the time this comic came out was Secretary of War, and that was Henry L Stimson, and this is not him. A true mystery man in all senses. (Fantastic Comics 023, 1941)

J Edgar Hoover:

J Arthur Grover, head of the FBI and clear J Edgar Hover stand-in, is also the man in charge of the program that would eventually be known as Project: Rebirth, aka the super-soldier program that produces Captain America later in this same issue. (Captain America Comics 001, 1941)

Tutankhamen:

Some of King Tut's grave goods are among the items stolen by the Butterfly. (Captain America Comics 003 1941)