MEDIA IN COMICS 013

Today in Media in Comics, we're all about the Movies:

Movie star Dawn O'Dare returns to her home town of Holtville to premiere her new picture Love Me Forever! but the whole affair is almost undone when her understudy attempts to impersonate her and make off with the theatrical take, only to in turn be foiled by local copy boy Hap Hazard. (Lightning Comics v2 004, 1941)

Angry Waves, a sea epic, features a found footage action scene as one of the Strange Twins rescues the other from drowning. (Hit Comics 016, 1941)

It's time for our first movie titled Crime Doesn't Pay, starring police officer Sally O'Neil and featuring a real on-screen murder. (National Comics 010, 1941)

I fear that we will only be able to evaluate all of the Gone with the Wind parody titles once we have enough of then together to compare. That said, Flown with the Breeze, here about to be attended by Allan "the Hunchback" Lanier and date, has to be one of the more goofy of the bunch. (Wow Comics 002, 1941)

This adaptation of Ivanhoe had a troubled production thanks to an on-set protection racket. It is also distinguished by the fact that its arms and armour consultant was Justin Arthur, aka the Shining Knight. (Adventure Comics 068, 1941)

Jungle Justice, another troubled production due to on-set criminals, boasts its own heroic consultant in the person of Congo Bill. (Action Comics v1 042, 1941)

Though Red River Days managed to get made without any notable hiccups, its premiere in the actual town of Red River is marred by organized crime. (Adventure Comics 060, 1941)

Thrills of Africa, is a jungle movie that gives one crook the opportunity to dress up in a gorilla suit and rob the theatre it's playing in after posing as a statue in the lobby for who knows how long. Also, his two pals are there in blackface.

While chasing these problematic miscreants, Hourman passes a poster for The Count of... something. Perhaps Monte Cristo? Whatever it is, it must be printed real small, given the size of that poster. (All-Star Comics 006, 1941)

During the Dummy's tenure ans one of the Five Fingers of the Hand, he heads off to Hollywood to run a kidnapping scheme, and of course this ends up involving a whole plethora of movies. To begin, we have Aircraft Carrier, the premiere of which is ruined when star Rex Mason is seemingly turned to stone but actually spirited away.

Six-Gun Serenade, a Western, features occasional Vigigilante sidekick Billy Gunn as an extra.

While Vigilante is visiting Billy on-set, he gets involved in the latest kidnap attempt on the nearby set of sports film Touchdown Blues.

The crooks' getaway then takes then through the set of Bars and Stripes, which may or may not be a patriotic prison movie.

Finally, the Dummy's men are run to ground on the set of jungle picture Tropic Doom. (Leading Comics 001, 1941)

SUPER-HERO COSTUME PARTY

This bit where Hawkman intends to attend a costumed event as himself but doesn't quite make it (Flash Comics v1 022, 1941) made me realize that I've missed a few examples of super-heroes attending costume parties as themselves, one of my most favourite tropes in comics! Time for some catchup rectification!

Here's the Red Gaucho being mistaken for someone who was dressed as him, who is then impersonated by a third person in a story that was not called "Too Many Gauchos" but could have been (Nickel Comics 006, 1940)

Similarly, Rex Tyler attends a costume party as Hourman and gets mistaken as part of a whole gang of Hourmen who are planning on sticking the place up (All-Star 003, 1940)

And finally we have USA, the Spirit of Old Glory attending a party in her own costume with no impostors to horn in on her idea. (Feature Comics 048, 1941)

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 145: THE MASK

(Adventure 068, 1941)

An orchestra conductor who goes off the deep end when he gets fired. Not a terribly deep concept, but he kills his replacements with an electrified conductor's baton trap and he leaves comedy and tragedy mask symbols to show his involvement so there's a lot for me, a themed crime enthusiast, to enjoy.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 142: DR DARRK

 (Adventure Comics 065, 1941)

Another in a long line of scientist-villains faced by Hourman, Dr Darrk has a moderately cool name, a lighthouse HQ and an invisibility ray but ultimately is overshadowed by his really excellent robot goon, Giganto:

Just look at that cool robot!

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 140: IKER

 (Adventure 064, 1941)

Yet another Hourman mad scientist foe, Iker (properly Dr T.Z. Iker, but the only time that shows up is on a mailbox) is a classic Victim of Orthodoxy, having been kicked out of the Science Club by the hidebound Dr Orr for espousing "fake theories".

Said fake theories enable Iker to build a machine capable either of creating lifeforms out of energy drawn from the 5th Dimension or of drawing lifeforms from the 5th Dimension and giving them form - it's explained in a bit of a rush in the second-last panel - and he uses them for a bit of crime and revenge before being driven mad by his technology's destruction in the climactic battle of the adventure. The important part is that some of them are knife-wielding dwarves and one of them is a giant version of himself named Normo.

SHOULD THEY BE BROUGHT BACK? is a moot question as I discovered when I did my customary check: he already has, in JSA v1 005, 1999, as a rehabilitated employee of Tylerco! 

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 074: DR TOGG

(Adventure Comics 057, 1940)

Yet another Hourman science-villain. Dr Togg was really into hybridizing dogs and buzzards in various fun ways. Such a cool guy was he, in fact, that he was brought back as an ancillary character in the 90s Hourman series, himself mutated into a partial dog/buzzard in a retconned final encounter with Hourman before he was sent to prison.

Thinking about him (and fellow Hourman foe Iker in about 50 entries or so), has made me realize just how much I love the concept of the reformed mad scientist with their struggles to comprehend scientific ethics and their weird little mutations and leftover minions. A few recent Marvel series have featured the concept but I would still consider it to be underutilized.

There's our guy.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 073: DR SLIGHT

(Adventure Comics 056, 1940_

Dr Slight is similar to Dr Snegg, in that he is a scientist-villain with a method for bringing inanimate statues to life for crime purposes who is stopped by Hourman. But Dr Slight brings *plaster* statues to life, not wax ones.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 071: DR SNEGG

(Adventure Comics 051-052, 1940)

Snegg's your classic villain who can't handle the thought of revising a plan. In his first appearance he animates a trio of crime boss statues from a wax museum to serve him as henchmen and then, having been foiled once by Hourman, he tosses the whole idea of animated wax out the window to indulge in hypnotism-based crime. If he hadn't died in a car accident he might be thinking up new implausible schemes to this day.