ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 020

You won't believe the aliens and alien-adjacent societies we got in here. 

Scorpians and Subterrines: 

When crack reporter Scoop Smith and his photographer pal Blimp Black fly to Mexico to investigate reports of an "invisible revolutionary army" they get the story in a very direct way when they are shot down and taken captive by the Scorpians, who dwell in the underground kingdom of Scorpia and are extremely on-theme about the scorpion thing at all times, as can be seen in in the throne room of Scorpian King Cortes and its five distinct bits of scorpion decor.

 

Scoop and Blimp are escorted to the Horror Chamber to be eaten by giant scorpions, because even the Scorpian methods of execution are on brand. They escape thanks to a thrown rock and a handy earthquake and discover the Subterrines, a second underground civilization that is also seeking to overthrow the Mexican government.  

While the Scorpians under King Cortes kind of vaguely evoke the conquistadors of old, the Subterrines are pretty explicitly the descendants of native Mexican peoples who fled underground and now seek to reclaim their lands (and may I say that "everyone has long white beards now" is about the most benign version of becoming troglodytic cave-dwellers). The two groups of course hate one another and set to battling to the death for the honour of conquering Mexico, only to be annihilated together by the Mexican army. (Whiz Comics 005, 1940)

Ape Men:

If you've ever wondered if there was a version of the Paul Bunyan story in which he had an ape man for a companion, well wonder no more, because it happened in National Comics, when King, the ape man in question, wanders out of the woods and starts attacking lumberjacks, only to find himself on the receiving end of a beatdown from Paul Bunyan himself. After this, the impressionable King adopts the lumberjack way of life and joins Paul's supporting cast. (National Comics 006, 1940)

Joins Paul's supporting cast for one issue, that is, because in National Comics 007 a scientist shows up at camp with a lead on where King might hail from, prompting Paul and the lads to set out to return him to his people, and if you've ever wondered if there was a version of the Paul Bunyan story in which he traveled through India to the Himalayas, well, you are in luck. Paul and the lads find King's tribe and for the second time in as many issues, Paul Bunyan has to fist fight a Himalayan Ape Man in order to make peace.

Bat-Men:

Though the Bat-Men are very, very vampire-like - bat-winged humanoids who capture humans and drink their blood and can make humans into Bat-Men and are destroyed by sunlight - the keen senses of jungle-man Samar tell him that they are not, though he never really clarifies what they actually are. 

The Bat-Men and their underground city are destroyed when they force Samar to battle a tyrannosaur in their gladiatorial arena and he inadvertently collapses the cave roof while killing the beast with a catapult. (Feature Comics 038, 1940)

the Bat-Men of Mephis: 

One of the many intelligent races to inhabit the planet Mephistos in the year 2500 CE, the Bat-Men of Mephis as their name suggests live in the tunnels beneath the city of Mephis, posing as statuary until it is time to attack. It's a very urban adaptation, which is fun. I also appreciate their little ears. (Flash Comics v1 002, 1940)

REAL PERSON ROUND-UP 008

If they're real then why are they in a comic book?

Anastacio Somoza García:

The Shield meets with the President of Nicaragua and as per usual the artist did not bother to check what the President of Nicaragua actually looked like. (Pep Comics 006, 1940)

Clark Gable:

Boxer Kayo Ward stars in a movie ("Hot Lips and Hot Fists," a riff on 1933's "The Prizefighter and the Lady" starring real-life boxers Primo Carnera, Max Baer and Jack Dempsey) and the opening night crowd includes not only Clark Gable but Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, all under their real names in a wild break from comics custom. (Pep Comics 008, 1940)

FDR:

Misc minor appearances: 

Meets with the Shield (Pep Comics 006, 1940)

Shown blowing off a cabinet meeting to watch a boxing match (Pep Comics 007, 1940)

J Edgar Hoover:

He's never actually named but "the Chief of the FBI" and only person who knows the secret identity of Joe Higgins, aka the Shield, is clearly supposed to be J Edgar Hoover, and they do occasionally refer to him by his surname. (Pep Comics 001-004, 006-009, 1940)

Joe DiMaggio:

Famed baseball player Slugger Madaggio (or possibly MaDaggio) is murdered mid-game for failing to pay protection money. Two other players, Wheezy Seen and Cal Bubble, as well as a manager named Terrier are mentioned in the story but I simply do not know enough about baseball to know who they are references to, if anyone. Also, the lady in the above picture is Madaggio's wife and thus an oblique reference to actress Dorothy Arnold. (Pep Comics 007, 1940)

Joe Louis:

Boxer Kayo Ward is signed to fight Joe Louis for the heavyweight boxing championship, only Kayo is then kidnapped and replaced with a double by gamblers looking to fix the match, and when he manages to get free and fight for real the kidnapping has had enough of a negative effect on him that Louis sportingly calls the fight off rather than beat Ward to a pulp. They're supposed to reconvene in six months - will it happen in 1941? (Pep Comics 006-007, 1940)

Mata Hari:

Sent to Antwerp to extract a British general's daughter before the Nazi invasion, army hero Sergeant Boyle engages in some classic comedy of errors shtick as he accidentally brings back the wrong woman, only to find out that he has inadvertently captured the famed spy "Hatter Mary." (Pep Comics 008, 1940)

PT Barnum:

There are a lot of comic book circus mans who are some sort of version of PT Barnum but this guy, Barnham by name, really captures the spirit of the man with his exploitation of Paul Bunyan's ape-man friend. (National Comics 006, 1940)

the Seven Dwarfs:

The "Prince Buttonhead" feature in Pep Comics is from the school of one-page comic book humour strips that are best described as incoherent, with only the feeblest attempt at jokes or even a structured plot. The Five Dopes here (Block-Head, Lunk-Head, Stupid, Useless and Lame-Brain) are interesting for being so very on-model as a Seven Dwarfs parody. (Pep Comics 005, 1940)

Various Golden Age Comics Creators:

During Kayo Ward's rise to the top he fights a lot of also-rans, and compiling a splash panel of them dovetailed nicely with the grand comic book tradition of using your coworkers' names for mildly embarrassing purposes. In order (and focusing on MLJ credits because it's an illustrious group), we have: 

Butch Blezard - Okay I have no idea who this guy is. Bad start.

"Canvas-Back" Shorten - Harry Shorten, co-creator of the Shield

"Chick" Biro - Charles Biro, creator of Steel Sterling

"Biff" Zoffer - Another mystery character

"Mush" Meskin - Mort Meskin, prolific MLJ illustrator

"Flash" Ashe - Edd Ashe, illustrator of the Wizard

"Nosedive" Novick - Irv Novick, co-creator of the Shield

"50 Second" Streeter - Lin Streeter, MLJ illustrator

"Slam" Sundell - Abner Sundell, MLJ editor

"Socker" Benson - probably not a reference, as he was a boxer faced by Ward in a prior issue. (Pep Comics 005, 1940)

Pep Comics was a real hotbed of this kind of thing in 1940, as seen in this ad for "Meskin's Matzhos"  (Pep Comics 007, 1940)

Here's Charles Biro ditching work to catch a boxing match. (Pep Comics 007, 1940)

Handprints outside Grauman's Chinese Theatre, featuring "Biro W. Mouskin," "Sundell something (possibly M. Wood? as in Bob Wood, co-creator of Kayo Ward?) as well as "Mickey Looney" and "Joe E. Frown" (Mickey Rooney and Joe E. Brown, natch) (Pep Comics 008, 1940)

And finally, the movie that Kayo Ward stars in is a Sundell Production. (Pep Comics 008, 1940)

Unknown:

The specifics of Jimmie Fiddle here, with his entertainment column in the NY Reflection, and especially the detail of him rating things with orchids, ping my "this is a version of a real guy" sense quite hard, but I can't find a good thread to grab onto for a search. (Pep Comics 008, 1940)

EDIT: a list of New York periodicals of the 1930s turned up the NY Review as a possible original of the NY Reflection, but any further investigation is hampered by the popularity of the New York Review of Books. It's a dead end!

ACTUAL UPDATE: We found him!

MINOR SUPER-HERO ROUND-UP 032

Just a few more minor super-heroes.

Paul Bunyan: 

What's better than a regular two-fisted lumberjack protagonist? Paul Bunyan himself, that's who. This version of Bunyan works in a modern-day lumber camp and has been toned down a bit with the suggestion that he's just some guy who was born in Maine and grew to a mere ten feet tall. His adventures aren't that much different than those of other lumberjack heroes, but there is something about an enormous man with a giant blue ox that add a bit of spice to the proceedings. (National Comics 001, 1940)

(Bunyan gets an ape-man sidekick named King for a couple of issues and this is the best place I could think of to note that (National Comics 006, 1940))

Wonder Boy:

Wonder Boy is an alien from the planet Viro who is a take on the Superman origin (last survivor of a destroyed planet rocketed to Earth where he is superhuman in comparison to the locals) while simultaneously being a prototype of Superboy (special super-powered boy who can only do good and is loved by all the world). DC Comics bought the rights to him along with all of the other Quality characters but has never seen fit to use him for anything, which I suppose is reasonable. (National Comics 001, 1940)

Quicksilver:

He's got a lot of personality, that Quicksilver. Like other Golden Age super speedsters he handily outclasses most of his opponents and so the main draw is watching just how stylishly he beats them up. Much much later, Quicksilver will be brought back under the name Max Mercury and incorporated into the Flash family but that's more than a few years out yet. (National Comics 005, 1940)

the Phantom Knight:

The Phantom Knight, aka Prince Philip of Kyle, is a very fun concept! As presented in his initial appearance, Philip is a real jerk, a man who cares about nobody and nothing but his horse Lightning.

Philip is mean, vengeful, faithless and murderous. He kills two men in what were supposed to be bloodless contests because he felt that they insulted them. He joins and then deserts what is presumably the First Crusade, which could be a good act except that he deserts because there isn't enough slaughtering and he gets bored.

Philip eventually meets his end at the tusks of a wild boar and finds himself denied access to the afterlife until he makes up for his life of extreme dickishness, so he returns to Earth to do good as the Phantom Knight!.

Now, here's the problem: the Phantom Knight appeared twice, in OK Comics 001 and 002, and OK Comics 002 is not available to read anywhere that I know to look (well, there is a copy on ebay right now but I'm not prepared to pay $500 Canadian for the privilege). Thus, all that we really know about the Phantom Knight is that he was a colossal ass in life and now roams the mortal realm as a tormented spirit doomed to do good deeds. Is he still an ass? Is he operating in his home time period or has he been brought to the present - the location of Kyle is never established beyond being in Central Europe, so if he is operating in the modern day there's a decent chance he fought some Nazis. (OK Comics 001, 1940)