MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 730: THE LITTLE MEN

(Silver Streak Comics 002, 1940)

Normally I try to put things in my own words and really work out the ins and outs of the motivations of the super-weirdos I write about, but I gotta be honest: I have so little idea of what the Little Men's problem is (problems are?) that I'm just going to point to the intro caption: they're trying to rid the world of all beautiful women. Simple as that.

Why are they trying to rid the world of all beautiful women (and/or all beauty, as their leader puts it)? Not a clue. Are they just weird incel creeps or is it something more? No idea.

One point in favour of the Little Men not being a weird misogynistic serial killer cult (not just a weird misogynistic serial killer cult, at least) is the fact that they have an artificial man with the amazing name Noman, though as with his creators we have so little information to work from that we can't say for sure if Noman is an android, a homunculus, a frankenstein or something else. It's all very genre dependent!

(Mister Midnite is also there)

The only real clue that we get to the nature of the Little Men is unfortunately also very genre-dependent: during Mister Midnite's battle with Noman a "strange gas" is released from a cool heart-shaped container. The gas is harmless to humans, but disintegrates the Little Men on contact, indicating that yes, they were not human, but what were they then? Were they: magical beings, aliens, homunculi, magical constructs, earthbound spirits, underground beings, extradimensional creatures, reified fictional beings, elementals, thought projections, time travellers, mutants, chronal echoes, genii loci, regular guys who all had an extreme allergy... there just isn't enough information, and so we must simplify: they were a bunch of weird little creeps, and the gas was creep remover, which they shouldn't have just left lying around.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 640: YEW BEE

(Fantastic Comics 013, 1940)

Yew Bee! A scientist/fifth columnist working for an unnamed nation to soften the US up for invasion! A pretty common type of guy in Golden Age comics if I'm honest, and I might have passed him by if he weren't a Stardust the Super Wizard villain. Even the most rote Fletcher Hanks creations have at least a couple of interesting things about them.

The first thing is obviously the name. Yew Bee. Is it a reference to a public figure who I have been unable to track down? Is it a private joke? If Yew Bee looked anything like Ub Iwerks I might've tried to figure out if he and Hanks had ever crossed paths and had a bad interaction but he really doesn't. Another one of those mysteries of the ages, I guess!

The invasion is nothing special, though it is suitably over the top. I will highlight these cool and also dumb looking super tanks, though. A fun design, say I!

Stardust pulverizes the entire invasion force without breaking a sweat, of course.

The real reason to cover Yew Bee is the fact that after a surprising amount of Stardust villains being shown leniency over the course of 1940, this is the group that really draws his ire. The bulk of their leadership are turned into icicles and melted. This turns out to be comparatively merciful.

The top four leaders are turned to rats and chased through the streets of New York by Stardust in the form of a panther until they swim out to sea and drown. Except for Yew Bee, of course.

Changed into a horrible little rat man, Yew Bee gets to spend his days being interrogated by the FBI. It really does feel like this guy is a reference to someone specific who Fletcher Hanks did not like, doesn't it?

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)

NOTES - MARCH 2024

The Foot Test For Guns:

I sincerely can't believe we've found another person trying the Foot Test For Guns, the worst of all ways to see if a gun is working. (Big Shot Comics 004, 1940)

Kids Playing Super-Heroes:

Jibby Jones is a pretty weak sauce comic strip (seen here in comic book reprint, natch) but dang if I'm not intrigued by this Moon Man character. (Big Shot Comics 005, 1940)

Honours:

Jeff Cardiff, Spy-Chief saves Washington DC from being exploded by unspecified foreigners and is rewarded with the very official-sounding honour of "Greatest Espionage Achievement of the Year" by FDR himself! And is that J Edgar Hoover in the background? Probably! (Big Shot Comics 006, 1940)

Who is Lazy Ray?:

I've been reading Big Shot Comics from the Columbia Comic Corporation for the last week or so and I believe that I've spotted an in-joke. But who is the "Lazy Ray" referenced in the two panels? Both Spy-Chief (above) and the Face (below) are Mart Bailey joints, so it could be a personal joke of his or it could be a joke among the contributors of this magazine as a whole (like the seeming industry-wide joke of putting Gil Fox's name in as a reference at every opportunity - wish I'd though to screenshot those as I came across them). The only Ray associated with Big Shot that I can find is Ray McGill, who seems to have mainly done gag panels. Who can say but I shall be watching out for Lazy Ray going forward.

MORE LAZY RAY SIGHTINGS:

"the Face" (Big Shot Comics 011, 1941)

"the Face" (Big Shot 018, 1941)

Nova Scotia:

It's not like it matters to the plot but the action of this Marvelo story takes place largely on a beach on Cape Breton. (Big Shot Comics 013, 1941)

the Fate of Mu:

A fairly straightforward account of a Pacific continent sinking, with the fun added detail that it's because of Earth's lost second moon exploding. It's never actually called Mu and in fact it's Atlantis that gets namechecked, but a close reading of the relevant text suggests that the two continents merely sank at the same time, so Atlantis was also presumably moonstruck.

Really fond of these little bug-eyed guys, by the way. (Big Shot Comics 014, 1941)

Weed Propaganda:

Santy Claus:

To the extent that the Columbia Comic Corporation has a shared universe, Santa Clause is confirmed real in it. (Big Shot Comics 020, 1941)

Drawn Without Reference:

(Blackstone Super-Magic 001, 1941)

A VEXING CONUNDRUM: KEYSTONE CITY

In short: the state of online wiki-based comics scholarship run by people with poor reading comprehension and an adherence to post-hoc continuity decisions makes it very hard to determine when Jay Garrick explicitly starts operating out of Keystone City as the Flash.

Flash Comics v1 001 features his origin at Midwestern University, which has since been located in Keystone, but does not mention the city by name. For the rest of 1940 at least, he is pretty explicitly in NYC. No idea when the move happens, guess I'll have to keep on reading and see.