REAL PERSON ROUND-UP 018

World leaders and others. 

Adolf Hitler: 

I'm pretty sure that the "Navy Jones" strip is set in an undefined near-future time, which makes the Dictator of Europe here a future analog of Adolf Hitler rather than a stand-in for him. I'm almost certain that that's the case. Anyway, he tries to invade the US with a fleet of amphibious tanks and gets his ass handed to him by Navy Jones and his fish men. (Weird Comics 008, 1940)

Chiang Kai-shek and Soong Mei-ling: 

Styled as Madame and Generalissimo "Kang Shy-check," the former comes to adventurer Shanghai Sheridan for aid after the latter is captured by Japanese collaborator Wu Fang. (Top-Notch Comics 005, 1940)

Clyde Beatty: 

Famous animal trainer and circus mogul Clyde Beatty had a long-running strip across several Dell Comics titles, though given that the supporting cast and premise tended to reset to zero every time the strip changed hands it might be more accurate to say that he had a sequential series of features linked only by his presence. (Crackajack Funnies 001, 1938)

Franklin Delano Roosevelt:

A fairly off-model FDR chairs an emergency meeting to discuss what to do about an alien invasion. (War Comics 002, 1940)

J Edgar Hoover: 

The Sparkler accepts an assignment from "head G-Man"/his old college roommate's dad M.L. Roover. (Wham Comics 002, 1940)

Sténio Vincent: 

I don't necessarily trust the creators of the "Voodoo Man" feature to even remember that it is set in Haiti, let alone go to the trouble to accurately represent Haiti's president on-panel, so I have to give it to them: this is an okay drawing of Sténio Vincent, the President of Haiti c. 1940. Was it done on purpose? Nobody can say. (Weird Comics 004, 1940) 

Gaius Marius & Sulla: 

It's impossible to be certain if Marius and Sulla, the Roman figures associated with the origin of super-hero the Dart, are in fact meant to be Gaius Marius and Sulla, the political figures from the late Roman Republic, but the timeline almost matches up. Plus, there really weren't that many Sullas running around Rome. (Weird Comics 005, 1940) 

Mata Hari: 

Just a notorious spy named Hattie Mary in the comedy melodrama comic strip "Hairbreadth Harry". (Famous Funnies 074, 1940) 

Winston Churchill: 

Inspector Blake of Scotland Yard is called to 10 Downing Street to talk to the Prime Minister, and it sure doesn't look like he's Winston Churchill. I do like to roast comics for not getting the appearances of world leaders right, but when it's somewhere like Madagascar you might at least have the excuse that finding a picture of the current leader of that country might be difficult in the US in 1940, but surely this not so for the Prime Minister of the UK.

The other possible defense for this, of course, is that this comic came out in June 1940 and Churchill took power in April so Neville Chamberlain might still have been PM when this was drawn, but this is hampered somewhat by the fact that it doesn't really look like him either. (Whirlwind Comics 001, 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)