DEMONIC ROUND-UP 003

Two shorts and two longs.

Bajah:

Minor Golden Age Marvel magician Dakor has to travel all the way to the fictional Indian kingdom of Nordu to rescue his friend's daughter from one of those cults where they worship a random blonde white lady (one of the more embarrassing stupid pulp fiction concepts to make the jump to comics, in my opinion). All that is to set up the fact that the devil figure in this cult is the oft-invoked, never-seen Bajah, as seen above. (Mystic Comics v1 003, 1940)

the Goat-Men: 

The Goat-Men are a class of demon who serve Lucifer, and specifically the Lucifer seen in the last Demonic round-up, because this particular one is summoned by the Voodoo Man, just as his boss had been.

The Goat-Men are fire demons, who can both breathe fire and create a ring of fire by walking in a circle around something or someone. Plus: the ring of fire gives you malaria. This is a pretty good collection of demonic powers, and while the part of me that writes about super-villains wants to say that they are insufficiently related to goats for my liking, anyone familiar with Medieval demonology will tell you that having a suite of abilities that are completely disconnected from both the demon's physical appearance and one another is very accurate.

Just like his boss, the Goat-Man proves to be intensely vulnerable to the sight of a cross, to the point of explosion. Just why hero Bob Warren had to light the cross he used on fire is perhaps best left unexplored. (Weird Comics 007, 1940)

Kor Deno: 

Kor Deno, a demon of some might, has been haunting the same family in... the rural United States? I'm pretty sure that's where Warlock the Wizard hangs out... for generations. Any female member of the family who marries will be widowed by the demon soon after and for the latest and perhaps last scion, Valya, the curse has grown in scope to the point that Kor Deno has carried off all of her friends and family. 

Warlock the Wizard is if nothing else a romantic, and so he challenges Kor Deno's might in order that Valya might wed or at least kiss her love, Jim. He scores an early victory by using the the Golden Hand of Abraxas to crush the demon's cool shadow form, but finds himself to have been overconfident, as both Jim and Valya are carried off to Kor Deno's Black Kingdom immediately after he leaves them to finally make out.

Kor Deno adopts the form of Simon the Hermit to lull Warlock into a false sense of security, but is unable to destroy him while he wields the Hand, and thus the Hand is what Kor Deno demands in exchange for Warlock's freedom.

Now armed with what he believes to be his enemy's greatest weapon, Kor Deno attempts to slay Warlock, only to himself be destroyed by the still-greater might of the Lamp of the Gods. Bad luck, Kor Deno. (Nickel Comics 002, 1940) 

Korieg the Sea Devil: 

Like Bajah, Korieg the Sea Devil is invoked as a force of evilby the practitioner of a made-up Mysterious Asian Religion, in this case that practised by the inhabitants of a lost kingdom somewhere near Malaysia. No word on any of Korieg's particulars, beyond the fact that they evidently float in water. (Action Comics v1 010, 1939) 

ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 014

We've hit a rich seam of aliums this month.

Mermaid/ Reptile-Men:

This city of Reptile-Men is ruled over by a Mermaid queen, and I am forced to contemplate, and not for the first time, whether this is an instance of a member or group of one species ruling over another or if it's one of extreme sexual dimorphism. Whichever one it is, I do appreciate that the Reptile-Men have that really goofy wide stance going on with their lizard legs. (Weird Comics 003, 1940)

Monkey Men: 

Also known as the Cannibalistic Monkey Men, these beefy lads vex one of those hidden Ancient Roman colonies that are all over Africa and the Middle East by demanding tribute of human flesh. They eventually meet their match and are seemingly wiped out entirely when they try to eat Kaänga and his new pal "Red" Longjohn. (Jungle Comics 007, 1940)

Capris-Men:

Earth is in need of radium, the only cure to a deadly plague that is ravaging the population, and so an expedition headed by Rex Dexter of Mars sets out to get some from the nearly 100% pitchblende planet Capris (okay, so it's called a planet throughout the story but it's got to be a dwarf planet or an asteroid or something based on travel timelines alone). The fantastic-looking native Capris-Men, aka the Capris Monsters, don't take to kindly to this and mount an attack on the expedition, which leads the expedition to leave early, meaning that they don't get enough radium to treat everyone.

The obvious solution to this problem is, of course, to tow the entire planet(oid) into orbit around Earth, so that the healing power of ionizing radiation can eternally shine down on its inhabitants and make them the healthiest people in the universe. No word on what the Capris-Men thought about this development. (Mystery-Men Comics 002, 1939)

the Cave Men and the Lizard Men:

The Cave Men are basically just some extra hairy guys who live in a cave system called the Underground Empire beneath Rhodesia/modern day Zimbabwe. They are possibly immortal and are ruled by a white lady named Aldia, who is - the question is whether she bothered to share the secret of the Immortal Flame with her subjects.

The thing that really sets the Cave Men apart is the quality of their enemies, the Lizard Men. Sure, they're just a mindless horde of inhuman monsters who exist only to be righteously slaughtered by the heroic Lance Hale, but just look at their majestic fins! (Silver Streak Comics 004, 1940)

ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 011

What ho! Aliens!

Martians: 

These Martians attack Earth for reasons that will remain unclear forever, because the story they appear in never actually gets an ending. In fact, they never even show their faces, instead attacking from their very cool-looking ships and sending their very cool-looking robots to act as ground troops. The initial invasion is driven off by superhuman scientist Greg Gilday and his associate Joan and then the Martians just never bother to return for another shot. (War Comics 002, 1940)

Barrangees: 

After their initial encounter with the giant insect life of Planet Barrang, Captain Tornado and his companions end up falling in with the Barrangees, a humanoid species who were forced underground when the insects began to increase in size and intelligence, and despite the common cause that they had made with the purple ant faction, the trio are far more comfortable around an non-insectoid race.

(wildly, this extends to not even questioning the Barrangee caste system in which servants are surgically rendered mute as a symbol of their subservience and children are raised in total darkness to give them enhanced night vision)

The Earth-people quickly resolve to help the Barrangees return to surface life using their knowledge of firearms and insecticides. Their main obstacle to this, other than the insects themselves, is the Barrangee High Priest, leader of a religion that worships the Sacred Centipede and by extension all of Barrang's insect life. Captain Tornado eventually resolves this by shooting both the High Priest and the Sacred Centipede dead. (Popular Comics 048, 1940) 

the Batmen:

The Rocket and the Queen of Diamonds seem to run into another hostile humanoid species every time they leave the walls of the hidden Diamond Empire, and the Batmen are yet another of these, which they end up in the clutches of after crashing the Rocket's ship into an underground cavern. The king of the Batmen is of course a creep who lusts after the Queen and attempts to dispose of the Rocket via gladiatorial combat vs a giant turtle, but once the Rocket learns that the Batmen are mortally afraid of fire it's all over. Quite literally, because he accidentally burns down their city. (Pep Comics 003, 1940)

the Batmen of Kordano: 

It's been a while since I read "Air-Sub DX" and the world-building was never its main focus, so forgive me if I'm wrong, but as I recall it was set in an undefined future on a planet that I have written down as "Tago-Lor" but could have just as easily been a far-future Earth. The crew of the titular Air-Sub contend with the machinations of various bald guys, including Klawger here, who has assumed the identity of the administrator of some sort of mining colony. 

All this is to say that I have no idea what the deal is with the Batmen of Kordano, aka the Living Dead Men, aside from the facts that a. they look cool, b. they have two great names, and c. they ride around in squat cylindrical vehicles called "mobile pillboxes," which is fun. Aside from that, no idea. Why so aggro? Where or who or what is Kordano? No idea. (Amazing Mystery Funnies v2 005, 1939)

ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 009

When deep-sea diving off of the Marquesas Islands, explorers/lovers Chuck Hardy and Jerry Peterson are caught in a volcanic upheaval and sucked through a rift in the ocean floor. They find themselves in one of the many underground lands that dot any comic book version of the Earth - this one being lit and heated by an enormous volcano called Roara.

Chuck and Jerry's time in the underground land (never actually named as a whole, so I have been calling it Aquatania even though properly that refers to the one named kingdom in the underground area) is made easier by the fact that something in the atmosphere has given them both enormous strength. Which is good, because Aquatania is a rough-and-tumble place full of reptilian monsters and hostile humanoids. And speaking of those:

the Frog-Men:

Though the first Frog-Man that Cuck and Jerry meet, Mogba here, is a friendly guy, the Frog-Men as a whole are pretty aggro. They fill the role of the general antagonist for a couple of the other intelligent species in Aquatania and thus spend a lot of time getting beat up (and worse) by Chuck Hardy.

Please note also the long lobster antennae sprouting from between Mogba's eyebrows. These are features shared by several of Aquatania's different humanoid species and frankly I love this kind of thing. Suggesting a common ancestry between your multiple intelligent species that all live within walking distance of one another? Yes please. (Amazing-Man Comics 005, 1939)

The Frog-Men return to vex Chuck and Jerry in Amazing-Man Comics 011, and in issue 012, Chuck meets the Frog-Man leader, the two-headed Toga (who I can only assume is not green because the colourist forgot about the 'frog' part), in battle and kills him by heaving him off of a cliff. Hopefully the absence of Toga's influence will usher in a new era of peace for the Frog-Men. 

Aquatanians: 

The Aquatanians are the default white-guy species that you get in a lot of these many-lands-full-of-many-peoples adventures, thought the fact that they too have little lobster antennae suggests that they're descended from the same kind of ocean bugs as the Frog-Men, which is fun.

The Aquatanians have a sort of generically advanced and peaceful society mixed with a certain amount of medieval ignorance - they have high-speed air vehicles, for example, but no means of making fire other than sending Chuck to that big volcano I mentioned earlier to get some. They're also the ones who take the time to teach Cuck and Jerry the local language so that they don't have to spend most of their adventures doing charades. (Amazing-Man Comics 006, 1939)

the Quadropel Men: 

The Quadropel Men are our first Aquatanian race not to have antennae, suggesting that they may have evolved from an entirely different kind of ocean bug. They live in a hole in the ground (making them an under-underground race, yes) and do human intelligent being sacrifice to their deity, the Sacred Steam God. (Amazing-Man Comics 009, 1940)

the Swamp-Men:

Chuck and Jerry encounter the Swamp-Men after an unexpected flood washes them, along with their Aquatanian companion Oxan and Aquatanian antagonist Princess Irina out to sea on a raft improvised from a palace door. As can be seen above, the best thing about the Swamp-Men is the fact that they have domesticated these amazing giant turtles and insist on standing like they're zooming around on them even though the turtles are consistently described as being very slow. It's great!

Otherwise, the Swamp-Men are kind of jerks. They capture Chuck, Jerry and Irina (Oxan sneaks away in order to effect a dramatic turtleback rescue later) and intend to use them as food for their mounts - I mean, say what you will about human sacrifice, but at least the Quadropel Men had a reason for being murderous assholes. Princess Irina successfully ransoms herself with some spare gold, but even then her two escorts decide to rob and murder her rather than take her all the way home. Definitely the worst bunch in the entire underground world, even with the turtles taken into account. (Amazing-Man Comics 010, 1940)

the Lobstermen:

The final species encountered by Chuck, Jerry and Oxan before their series is phased out are the Lobstermen (aka the Pigmy Lobstermen) a bunch of friendly little pink guys ruled by Queen Irena. The Lobstermen are another antennaed species, and their lobster claw hands might just be a hint as to the ancestry of the various related races.

If Queen Irena's skin tone is anything to go by, the Lobstermen also seem to be another one of those races with the kind of sexual dimorphism whereby the males are all wizened little weirdos of some description and the females are essentially conventionally attractive human women, right down to not having lobster claws. It amazing how often that happens! (Amazing-Man Comics 011, 1940)

DIVINE ROUND-UP 008

Some more dubious theology for you. 

the Stone Tablet:

The pompous jackasses at the British Archaeological Club really get Mr Mystic's goat when they treat the theories of his friend Doctor Gadasky like trash, so he does the only sensible thing and uses his magic to travel back to 1 000 000 CE to see for himself. Gadasky claims that Cro-Magnons had a religion based around the worship of a stone tablet, and wouldn't you know it, he's right!

Mr Mystic's jaunt through time is about as well-considered as those things normally are, and he ends up causing the deaths of two Cro-Magnons, including the Stone Tablet's keeper, plus the loss of the Tablet itself in a quicksand pit, which is a boon for Gadasky, as he is able to dig it up in the present and prove his theories. Take that, establishment jerks!

Speaking of those theories, just where did they come from? Is the fact that Gada, the Stone Tablet's guardian, is a dead ringer for Gadasky and that Gadasky carries an echo of the wound that killed Gada (reptile-bird beak to the skull) on his flesh an indication that the Tablet posesses some measure of actual power? Could be!

God style: idol (the Spirit Section, 8 December, 1940)

Oona, the Angry God: 

Oona is the Angry God, a generically sinister Asian deity who requires the sacrifice of a good English girl now and then. Inspector Dayton is of course having none of that, particularly as the sacrifice happens to be his love interest Wini. Oona worship in England is ended at the barrel of a gun.

God style: idol (Jumbo Comics 022, 1940) 

Orga: 

In a near-deserted lost city of gold, Sheena, Queen of the Jungle and her paramour Bob Reynolds come across an unnamed mad king and his court of trained gorillas. The King has been sacrificing travellers (and implicitly his own people, leading to the city's depleted population) to his gods. I can only assume that the fantastic idol behind the king's throne is a representation of Orga, the only god mentioned by name. 

God style: idol (Jumbo Comics 009, 1939) 

Orta the Sun-God: 

Captured and sentenced to death by a Peruvian tribe, Marvelo, Monarch of Magicians pulls a variant on the old "we are divine beings, you primitives" gag by transforming his companion into a fireball. Is Orta the Sun-God something that Marvelo makes up on the spot or is he exploiting these (admittedly inhospitable) people's extant beliefs? We shall never know.

God style: fake (Big-Shot Comics 014, 1941)