REAL PERSON ROUND-UP 007

It's a bumper crop of real people (and famous fictional ones) showing up in comics!

Adolf Hitler:

This is very, very tenuous but this adventure story is concerned with a hunt for mythical man-goat lycanthropes known as "weredolfs" and I'll be danged if I can think of a reason for them to be called that other than as a very oblique jab at Adolf Hitler. (Hyper Mystery Comics 001, 1940)

Less tenuous: when Cartho (one of the seemingly limitless number of lost empires dotting the jungles of Africa) attempts to invade Camilla's Lost Empire, its jerk of a leader is of course named Hitlo. (Jungle Comics 010, 1940)

Mias here is the leaser of a small Asian country that has set its sights on conquering the Philippines. He's a pastiche of 40s dictators but his Hitlerian traits shine brightest. (National Comics 003, 1940)

FDR:

Minor appearances:

Congratulates Wonder Boy for helping some farmers (National Comics 005, 1940)

the Forty Thieves:

It's never really explained how, but the Forty Thieves of Arabian Nights fame steal the Ophar Jewel from a lady in modern London and Merlin the Magician heads back in time to get it back with the help of a contemporary Cockney street gang. (National Comics 004, 1940)

Jack Dempsey:

Former boxing champ Jack Dempsey and his New York restaurant pop up with a fair frequency in 1940s comics, particularly ones featuring boxers such as Kid Dixon here. Why he and other boxers tended to show up under their own names rather than under flimsy pseudonyms like "Dack Jempsey" is a mystery - although I suppose that the real life boxing community had already proven to be okay with showing up in the "Joe Palooka" comic strip so perhaps comics creators assumed that they would be fair game. (National Comics 003, 1940) 

John D Rockefeller:

Minor appearances:

Never-seen millionaire and target of criminal scientist von Lohfer is by context clues an analog of Rockefeller. (National Comics 005, 1940)

Michael Malloy:

The story of Michael Malloy, the seemingly unkillable man targeted by a gang in a life insurance racket, is an evocative one, so it's unsurprising to see it crop up as a comic book plot here and there. Happily for Malloy's in-story equivalent Milligan, the gang is rounded up by comic book artist/ detective Pen Miller before they are finally able to overcome his iron constitution. (National Comics 002, 1940)

Neville Chamberlain:

The Kid Patrol, a mid-to-low-tier kid gang, encounters this clearly allusive lad, Sir Chamberlain Bumbershoote by name, while they are being pranked and vexed by another gang. Weirdly, though Bumbershoote's talk of appeasement and attempt to get a signed nonaggression pact with this very Hitlerian gang leader are presented derisively he himself is a formidable figure who routs the entire gang with his trusty umbrella. Neville Chamberlain must have been hovering precisely on the precipice of becoming an historical punchline when this one was published. (National Comics 006, 1940)

Ruby Keeler:

Hollywood comic strip 'Olly of the Movies,' well into its second year, was overdue for some gratuitous movie star cameos so actress Ruby Keeler just kind of shows up on a beach along with Dick Powell and Busby Berkeley. Everyone says hello and then parts ways. (Famous Funnies 023, 1936)

The gratuity continues in the next issue, with perfunctory appearances by Hugh Herbert, Joan Blondell and Zasu Pitts, and with Guy Kibbee in a very minor role in the actual plot. (Famous Funnies 024, 1936)

(Famous Funnies 024 also features this crowd of what are presumably supposed to recognizable Hollywood faces but I can only identify Bing Crosby in the yellow sweater vest and then only because someone did an impression of him on the previous page. Bub bub boo!)

Sherlock Holmes: 

They may not have given him a parody name, but Dinky Dinkerton here is clearly a Holmes parody comedy character, aided by Doctor Philip Anbust (aka Sniffy) in the Watson role (the third member of the trio, secretary Flossie, is not a Holmes character parody but is the brains of the operation, something that Holmes pastiches often leave out, to their ultimate detriment). (Reg'lar Fellers Heroic Comics 001, 1940)

Another broad Sherlock Holmes pastiche is the unfortunately-named-to-modern-eyes Fuller Spunk, who is actually an actor known for playing "Herlock Olmes", so perhaps he is more of a reference to Basil Rathbone. (interesting to note that the character of Marcel was originally bringing "female impersonation" to the group but that that skill was tossed aside in favour of a suite of stage magician tricks) (Hyper Mystery Comics 002, 1940)

Shoshenq I:

In Jungle Comics 011, previously straightforward jungle explorer Roy Lance goes nuts for discovering the mystic secrets of the pharaohs* and specifically for finding the genie-controlling power of Sheshonk. Who is Sheshonk, you ask? Why, he is better known as Pharaoh Shoshenq I, more famous than he might otherwise be because he is associated with the Biblical figure Shishak who warred against Solomon and looted the treasures of the Temple - he is mentioned as having been the one to hide away the Ark of the Covenant in Raiders of the Lost Ark, for example. (Shoshenk I is also a candidate to be the father of an Egyptian princess married to Solomon, which the story alludes to by calling him "father-in-law to King Solomon")

*based on the fact that both the Roy Lance and Red Panther stories in Jungle 010 were out-of-context sci-fi adventures and that the Simba story in 009 was made up of repurposed panels from earlier Simba stories I suspect that Fiction House had gotten a bit behind and were renaming characters in any old stories they had spare in order to make deadlines.

This story also features two other possible allusive figures: Lance's doomed companion Lord Carvon seems likely to be a reference to Lord Carnarvon of the Curse of King Tut fame, while "Tera Bey, Mistress of Mysteries" is a figure as evocative as she is elusive. Literally the only thing I have been able to come up with is the possibility that she is a reference to Queen Tera, mysterious ancient mummy from the Bram Stoker novel The Jewel of Seven Stars, but it's equally likely that she is a made-up bit of deus ex machina to get our heroes out of a sealed tomb. (Jungle Comics 011, 1940)

GENERIC COSTUMED VILLAIN ROUND-UP 016

 Bless 'em, they're trying.

The first few adventures of Hydroman, a character I have an inexplicable affection for, are concerned with what at first seems like some real standard Yellow Peril bullplop ("Oriental invaders" and so forth) but then there are gangsters involved and the two factions variously mention a higher-up named "the Great One" and "the Big Boss", respectively. Still later, the whole operation seems to be run by this collection of pseudo-Nazis on a yacht in New York Harbor. It looks like the bald guy in the monocle might be in charge but the whole issue of just who exactly the Great One is is ultimately rendered moot by Hydroman blowing up the yacht and killing them all before their org chart is fully conveyed. 

Good costumes on those henchmen, though. (Reg'lar Fellers Heroic Comics 001, 1940)

I quite like "the Snarl," the nom de crime that this fellow has chosen for himself, and he gets up to all sorts of classic villainy to boot: bank robbery, deathtraps, sending taunting notes to the police, mass murder, etc, but he gets caught with ease by semi-comedic actor/detective Fuller Spunk in just a couple of pages so there's not quite enough meat for a full entry. (Hyper Mystery Comics 002, 1940)

Jungle comics are crawling with guys like Zan Marzov, a crook who murders and pillages with the aid of a gang of men dressed in leopard skins. Few can match his look, however. Between the leopard scar, haunted eyes, shrunken head necklace and horrible goatee, Marzov may have achieved the pinnacle of the Evil Explorer aesthetic. He ultimately gets blown up by virtuous explorer Buck Barton, by the way. (Jungle Comics 001, 1940)

This guy calls himself Mr X and he has stolen a sacred mask from a temple in the jungle dimension that Fantomah calls home, thus invoking a curse that threatens to flood the entire land with boiling mud. Needless to say, Fantomah does not look kindly on that sort of behaviour and he is rounded up post haste and sent to a weird cavern to "eat mud and fire for the rest of your days." Tough but fair, Fantomah! (Jungle Comics 008, 1940)

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 029

They're trying, bless 'em.

Hydroman:

I was going to say that much levity has been mined from Hydroman's origin over the years, but realistically this guy is obscure at best. Some levity has been mined from Hydroman's origin over the years. Is it deserved? Certainly.

Scientist Harry Thurston is having fun mixing up chemicals (specifically water, alcohol and sulphuric acid, though there is some speculation that there might have been some mystery residue in the glassware used) and manages to get some on his hand, which promptly turns to water. In a panic, he calls his friend Bob Blake over to help, and when Bob arrives, fellow scientist Tom Kinsman dumps an entire bucket of the mixture over him like they're all in a dang slapstick comedy.

They manage to counteract the formula, at which point Bob agrees to have the formula injected into him, and while this works as comic book science (if a big splash turned me to water, surely an injection will allow me to control the process! Because it's deliberate and thus more scientific!), surely by all other metrics it is an insane decision. What's to say, for instance, that an injection won't merely turn all of your blood or veins to water, killing you?

Against all odd, the injection works and Bob Blake decides to use his newfound power to fight the wave of crime that is plaguing NYC. To go with his new role, Blake adopts a new moniker - Hydroman - and makes a super-hero costume in perhaps my favourite way, by scraping up all of the random crap in Harry Thurston's lab.

By issue 2, Hydroman gets what only I think of as his iconic look, a baggy suit of bulletproof Translite. It's objectively kind of dumb looking but also... kind of great? It might be the combination of the leather pilot's helmet and the riveted brass collar but the overall effect is very cool and retrofuturistic. Plus the transparent effect really plays well with Hydroman's whole water theme. Finally, note that Hydroman's assistant/ girlfriend Joyce Church is also wearing a bulletproof suit under her coat and I must commend him for being the rare Golden Age super-hero who thinks to distribute such protective super equipment to his civilian aides. (Reg'lar Fellers Heroic Comics 001, 1940)

Update 1941 

the Purple Zombie:

Doctors Hale and Malinsky are partners, but while Hale was working to prolong human life, Malinsky was taking his research and using it to create an army of the undead in order to take over the world. His prototype is Zoro, the Purple Zombie, and once his zombification tech is proven to work (and once Hale starts mouthing off a bit to much), Malinsky decides that things might run a bit smoother if it was just him and the zombie and bumps off Hale.

Unfortunately for Malinsky, some quirk of the zombie technology has made Zoro 1) amoral 2) bulletproof and super strong, and 3) loyal only to Hale, and so he makes short work of not only his erstwhile master but also his three foreign investors.

Zoro is captured by the police and scheduled for an execution that hits a slight hitch when it turns out that in addition to bullets the Purple Zombie is immune to electricity (he also turns a more purpley purple when electrocuted!). Stymied, the authorities agree to release Zoro into the stewardship of Dr Hale (who survived the murder attempt, by the way). The Purple Zombie is not so much a hero as a gun that Hale points at people and situations, but as a pair they basically fit the brief. (Reg'lar Fellers Heroic Comics 001, 1940)

Hyper the Phenomenal:

Visually, Hyper the Phenomenal is great. I really like the... well "retrofuturistic" is the best description of it but of course at the time it was just futuristic. I really like his look, particularly what I assume is a breastplate since it seems to be separate to the shirt - there aren't enough non-aquatic super-heroes with the courage to wear a big scallop shell as armour.

Hyper is really the oddly-named Don-Vin, a scientist who has some sort of affiliation with the US Secret Service, either as an official agent or just a helpful pal. His main tools in the fight against evil are his Neogas Helmet that allows him to fly (plus is has a nifty two-way radio inside) and his Magno-Hydro Gauntlets, capable of both magnetic attraction and repulsion and with which he can both perform feats of superhuman strength (equivalent) and deflect incoming bullets.

I chose the cover image above because it's probably the most dynamic and interesting view available, due to the unfortunate fact that in Hyper the Phenomenal's sole outing he does very, very little of note. His adventure on the Isle of Arunta was serialized over two issues and for fully half of that time (and somewhere between 1 and 2 days in-story), Hyper stands in front of a steel wall using his gauntlets to prevent a crushing room deathtrap from killing his ally Agent 2Y. A heroic act, to be sure, but not a visually interesting one. And since the first quarter of the story was devoted to setting up the action, Hyper only gets the final quarter to really strut his stuff, and even then he probably only gets the job done because the villains had oppressed the island's inhabitants enough to start a rebellion. A poor showing indeed, Don-Vin. (Hyper Mystery Comics 001, 1940)

Kaänga:

Run-of-the-mill Tarzan clone who was orphaned in the jungle at a young age and whose Jane equivalent is named Ann Morgan. Kaänga's only real point of interest is the umlaut on his second a, but he has close to 200 appearances over the years so I'm sure we'll be seeing more from him. (Jungle Comics 001, 1940)

NOTES - OCTOBER 2024

Cops Shooting at Fleeing Suspects:

The NYPD (or the cops in some other town. but probably the NYPD) attempt to murder the Green Mask and Domino the Miracle Boy because they were wearing masks near a crime and had the audacity to run away. (Green Mask v1 003, 1940)

Vexing Conundrum:

These panels are from a strip called Flyin' Jenny, the details of which are not important, save for the fact that a character has cheated in an air race and is now travelling incognito only to be given away by her signature piece of jewelry: a little tag with her name on it worn on a chain or string around her thigh. But... is this a thing? Did anyone wear these c. 1940 or is it a weird affectation made up for the strip? It seems to be impossible to hunt up online! (Reg'lar Fellers Heroic Comics 003, 1940)

Golden Age Policing:

Just had to pull these panels as it's the closest I've seen to cops actually torturing someone on-panel in a comic (usually it's just heavily implied to be good and just and a great idea). (Hyper Mystery Comics 001 1940)

Honours:

Wambi the Jungle Boy is awarded a silver sword for helping to prevent a rebellion/ helping to perpetuate colonial rule in Africa. (Jungle Comics 001, 1940)