MEDIA IN COMICS 010

Is the media in comics any good, do you think? Do super-heroes get to watch good movies?

Movies:

Arizona Nights is a Western being produced by King Studios when a climactic gunfight scene is used as cover for a real-life murder. Detective Sergeant Carey clears up the mystery (it was the cameraman) but we never learn if the footage of a man dying in real life was used for the added verisimilitude. (More Fun Comics 052, 1940)

Call of the North, a Mounted Police picture by Pioneer Films, is not marred by murder, but if the Quality Universe IMDb userbase is on the ball the trivia section for the movie includes the fact that several of the mountie actors were used as backup by RCMP Sergeant Reynolds in the apprehension of a kidnapper. (Feature Comics 037, 1940)

Dread Castle has a place in comic book history as the film that drove Basil Karlo over the edge and into the persona of Clayface, as he saw the attempt to remake a movie that he saw as one of his greatest roles as an insult to him personally. Both Dread Castles are medieval films about a murderous hunchback called the Terror - not a terribly exciting prospect without the excitement of all the real-life murder that went on during production of the second one. (Detective Comics v1 040, 1940)

The other Basil Karlo role that we learn about in his initial appearance is the one that he takes his criminal moniker and appearance from, a movie seemingly also called Clayface. (Detective Comics v1 040, 1940)

Music:

Is "Star Dust" Clark Kent's favourite song as he claims it is while big-dogging this club maître d'? I sure hope so. No idea what kind of song it is, but you can slow dance to it. (Superman Comics v1 007, 1940)

Newspaper Columns:

"Town Talk" is the kind of snotty gossip column that inspired a thousand murder mystery plots. In this case, columnist Walt Willard turns up dead and Steel Sterling has to comb through the wealth of suspects to figure out whodunnit. (Jackpot Comics 004, 1941)

"Around the Town with Joe E. Brown" is your standard gossip column-as-exposition-vector, though why the writer has the same name as an old-time film comedian is unknown to me. (Special Edition Comics 001, 1940)

Paul Pryer, writer of the imaginatively-titled "Paul Pryer's Column" is one of those comic book celebrities who I am certain is based on a real person, but whether it's just someone like Walt Winchell or there's a Paul Prowler out there just waiting for me to learn about him is up to chance. (All-Star Comics 003, 1940) 

Meanwhile: "Society," the most pragmatically-named society column of all time. (Batman Comics v1 001, 1940)

We don't get to actually see "Tom Peeping's Column" in this Minute Movies strip, but I like to imagine that it features a cheeky little cartoon of the writer with big binoculars at the top. (Flash Comics 004, 1940)

Newsreels:

I don't know enough about newsreels to know if they normally had titles, but the Ace Films company is trying to capitalize on their beautiful camerawoman "Dot Daring," aka Beautia Sivana and so chooses to call this one Flirting with Death. (Whiz Comics 010, 1940)

MEDIA IN COMICS 008

We're not out of the extremely crusty scan woods yet, but the media of comics must be recorded, folks. Hang in there.

Books:

When Diamond Jack defeats his early foe the Witch and transforms her book of magic into 1000 Ways to Cook Spinach, there is one big unanswered question: did this spinach cookbook already exist or did his ring magically compile 1000 recipes on its own? (Slam-Bang Comics 001, 1940)

Early Batman foe the Wolf, meanwhile, got his start after suffering a head trauma and fixating on the crime thriller he was reading, titled The Crime Master. (Batman Comics v1 002, 1940)

Human Knowledge, a book compiled by the sinister Professor Universe that contains "every fact known to man" is used by Slaughter Slade to imbue his assistant Dr Allirog with the mind of a human genius. (Special Edition Comics 001, 1940)

Usually when you hear about a reclusive scholar writing a book about how "sinister persons or forces plan to deliberately stave off the return of national prosperity" you're in for some paranoid fascist rantings, but in this case it's the early 40s, so the sinister forces discussed in Prosperity's Foe *are* the fascists. (Superman Comics 004, 1940)

Wretched Marine character Strut Warren attempts to peddle a book called The Jolly Homemakers' Manual around Bali in an attempt to win a prize, a typically tiresome adventure for the character. (Fight Comics 016, 1941)

When a mysterious virus called the Purple Plague starts ravaging Metropolis, Clark Kent and his pal Professor Henry Travers his the library to research a historical instance of the same disease, in a book also called The Purple Plague. It turns out that the Ultra Humanite had also checked out the same book and that it had given him the idea to unleash the modern plague in imitation of the original. (Action Comics v1 019, 1939)

Movies:

Air Circus is a airplane stunt-heavy film that is plagued by accidents while filming until pilot Gary Hawkes gets involved and exposes the scheming director's plot to scuttle the production and then turn a quick buck by buying up the incomplete footage. (More Fun Comics 039, 1939)

Its the same old story: a film called The General's Daughter shoots some scenes at the Army installation where Skip Schuyler works, there's a series of incidents and then Skip has to save the day. Not too sure what the movie is supposed to be about. (Adventure Comics 043, 1939)

It may be the crustiest and crunchiest lowest quality scan here, but Public Enemy #13 is a pretty fun name for a movie and I think that that makes up for it, at least a little. (More Fun Comics 040, 1939)

Newspaper Columns:

"Around the Avenue" is one of those old-school society gossip columns that they used to have in papers, and while Rennie McCavoy here is playing into Wesley Dodds' hands by writing him up as a wild party dude/ potential victim for the story's villain, it's hard to respect the journalistic effort involved in seeing a guy being quietly drunk at a nightclub and pouncing on him like this. (Adventure Comics 044, 1939)

CATALOGUE OF WOUNDS 001

Among the many things that I have found interesting enough to keep track of over the years is just how many times super-heroes get wounded while going about their business. What does a shoulder look like after it's been shot a dozen times, for example? If I had been really on the ball I would have also been noting every time someone was knocked out with a blow to the head as well, but we can't all be perfect.

Full catalogue here, such as it is. 

the Angel:

The Angel chars his own hands at least a bit while escaping from some ropes. (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 008, 1940) 

The Angel is wounded and probably shot while escaping from an ambush by the Cat's Paw's men (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 019, 1941)

Batman:

Batman is shot in the left shoulder during an altercation with the Wolf's men. (Batman Comics v1 002, 1940)

Shot in the right shoulder by a fleeing crook. (Batman Comics v1 004, 1940)

While attacking a criminal hideout in a berserker rage, Batman is shot twice in the right shoulder and has a bullet glance off his ribs. (Batman Comics v1 005, 1941)

Pirate Hook Morgan slashes Batman across the chest and hooks him in the left shoulder. (Detective Comics v1 054, 1941)

Black Condor: 

Black Condor is shot in the back by the Sapphire King's men. (Crack Comics 005, 1940)

Blackhawk:

Blackhawk's arm is non-specifically injured after an attack on Blackhawk Island. (Military Comics 001, 1941)

the Deacon:

The Deacon is shot in the right arm by the cops. (Cat-Man Comics 001, 1941) 

Robin:

Robin is beaten nearly to death by some gangsters (triggering Batman's berserker attack above). (Batman Comics v1 005, 1941)

DIVINE ROUND-UP 019

These pantheons are going to fill up if we're not careful.

Ammon-Ra:

Worshipped by a secret sect in the hidden underground city-state of Ruxor in Egypt, Ammon-Ra, contrary to the above image, is probably just an idol that Yarko the Great is making speak so that he doesn't have to keep magically duelling High Priest Ramma-Tep. 

God style: Idol (Wonderworld Comics 018, 1940)

Kila:

Kila, the supposed Hindu God of Destruction, is represented here by a ruby idol. There's not much else concrete to say about this particular god, because Sheldon Lenox, the fellow selling the idol, stages a series of crimes using a fake cult in order to get it back and that sort of thing really muddies the waters.

God Style: Idol (Detective Comics v1 035, 1940)

Kilu:

In a classic set-up, a pirate captain and a wicked witch doctor have teamed up to control an island tribe using a hollow idol of the tribe's god, Kilu. The whole operation is upended by the heroic Captain Fortune and the idol of Kilu is blasted by his ship's cannon.

God Style: Idol (Feature Comics 030, 1940)

Koru: 

Having heard about a fabulous fortune in rubies somewhere in the African jungle, adventure Tod Hunter and his monocled pal Tommy set out to steal them from their place on the idol of Koru, God of the Ruby Eye. Let me tell you, they are pretty put out when the worshippers of Koru very reasonably imprison them rather than allow them to waltz in and deface their sacred idol. 

The duo (along with some other miscellaneous imprisoned treasure hunters) of course end up escaping and stealing all of the rubies, because they are the protagonists of an adventure story and thus are in the right, Along the way they discover that the idol of Koru is hollow and has a little guy living inside of it to speak in the god's voice, just like every other giant idol in comics.

God Style: Idol (New Adventure Comics 027, 1938) 

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 661: THE GUY WHO SHOT BATMAN'S PARENTS

(Detective Comics 033, 1939)

Can't believe that I didn't think of this before but The Guy Who Shot Batman's Parents a) should already be here and b) is representative of a class of plot devices I'll be calling Narrative Footballs. Narrative Footballs are big pivotal events, usually related to a character's origin in some way, that get more and more significant over time and eventually become something that can be pinned to a villain in order to lend them a bit of gravitas. Sometimes they don't even start out as the actions of a person: while the the Explosion of Krypton eventually becomes a very popular item on various villains' C.V.s, it isn't even blamed on Kryptonian society for the first decade or so. 

The Guy Who Shot Batman's Parents is just a guy until 1948, when he is identified as Joe Chill. I think he's mostly Joe Chill still, but sometimes he's the Joker (Batman (1989)) or Joe Chill was working for a big bad guy etc etc. I have no evidence here but I'll bet a dollar that there's a comic somewhere where it turns out that Ra's al Ghul was behind it.

SUPER-VILLAIN YEARBOOK: THE PENGUIN 1941

What was the Penguin up to in 1941?

(Detective Comics v1 058) 'Untitled' **First Appearance**

Heeeey, it's the Penguin, the perennial second-tier Batman villain!

The Penguin really hits the ground running: he's already got his look and his suite of trick umbrellas, so all he really needs is his weird bird-obsession, which kicks in in 1942. 

As is frequently the case with a recurring villain, the Penguin's first outing is one of his most successful: he takes over a gang using his gift for planning crimes and then when Batman starts to butt in he frames him but good.

To really stick the landing, Penguin's men kidnap Batman while he's being transported to jail - Gotham's finest are convinced that he is a crook! The Penguin is getting ready to bump him off! 

Too bad for the Penguin that Robin shows up and the whole plan comes crashing down. Too bad for Batman and Robin that the Penguin actually manages to get away. The next story picks up where this one left off but that's in 1942 so I'll be telling you about it in like six months.

BODY COUNT: 2

END-OF-YEAR STATUS: At large.