“Yesterday’s” Comic> Amazing Mystery Funnies #11

Always do a review before your first visit to a new chiropractor.

Amazing Mystery Funnies #11

Centaur Publications (July, 1939)

I guess this is when Centaur decided to add superheroes to their crime comics. In addition to the costumed character here there’s add for a “Masked Marvel” to show up in an issue of Keen Mystery Funnies, which wasn’t in the one I reviewed last week. So I may have to give that one another shot. I’m guessing one superhero story among the regular detective stories. I’m not usually into crime dramas, but I’m one of those suckers who watch ALMOST anything with a superhero in it. Fantasy and horror need more superheroes, but if superheroes were in horror it wouldn’t be horror anymore because the hero would stop the monster. Love & Capes already got the romantic comedy angle.

So let’s see what this anthology brings us.

[Read along with me here]

“The Fantom Of The Fair” by Paul Gustavson

We’re starting out with the cover story, I see. Someone shoots a window cleaner’s rope but he’s rescue by a man in black garb one of the fair people calls “Fantom”, based on an old legend. Fantom eventually gets the shooter to confess working for a rival cleaner, hoping to put the target out of business so he can take over. I don’t get the cop in this story. First he calls the rescued man a liar that Fantom saved him, convinced he’s in cahoots with the shooter. By the end he’s suddenly the hero’s biggest fan. If he’s only the hero of this fair, I’m curious how long they can keep that concept going.

The Inner Circle by L Field

Major Ramsay is inducted into “the Inner Circle” a group of international vigilantes working to stop crimes the authorities can’t get to. Their first mission is an illegal fishing operation in a war zone in Hong Kong. They use bombs to cover their operations. It’s an interesting idea, but an odd first mission. We only see two of the named characters in action, and it’s an illegal fishing operation in a war zone. There’s surprisingly little excitement but the climax is fine for the time.

Air Sub DX by Carl Burgos: “The Conqueror” part 1

After one “gag” strip about some dude mouthing off to a space cop and getting punished for it, we hit our next adventure also set in the future. Air Sub DX is a ship that can fly and act as a submarine, piloted by the amazing Tim. Just…Tim. Anyway, Tim and his friends learn that a missing expedition leader may still be alive and go to investigate, only to be attacked by agents of The Conqueror…but is his real identity the expedition leader? It’s an interesting first start, though I don’t know why the top panels on each page seem to be telling a different story, or why they’re red when most of this comic is black and white.

“The C-20 Mystery” by Bill Everett

This was…curious. Following a text horror story, we get this comic, featuring a waterfront cop and his news photographer brother, the later barely in this. What follows are dope peddlers, including a woman who is a friend of the cop’s, her sister turning states evidence and thus beating a murder rap, and the police and Coast Guard not needing a warrant to search a boat for who killed the first woman. I’m really not sure what to make of all this really. I do wonder why it’s all in red. I know one of the characters is a photographer in the film days, but it’s not like the story all takes place in his darkroom.

Grizzly Dunn (no credit listed)

For one thing, the cowboy theme seems out of place, but we’ve had a superhero, present day crooks, a horror text story, and the futuuuureeeeee, so fine. What gets me is the story and the exaggerated Texas accents. Some guy challenges Grizzly’s horse to a race, but they use a bell instead of a gun to start the race, the other dude claiming that’s how it’s done now. Except near the end of the race, Grizzly shoots his gun in the air, which scares the other horse…and it’s the other guy accused of cheating?  Are they saying he was a race horse and not a “cow hoss”? I’m not buying it. For one thing it’s a free and legal scan so I don’t have to buy it. 😀

Jack Strand (no credit listed)

Okay…what just happened? A man dies, giving a pin with a “ray” of some kind to his niece, who is the fiance of our title character. Later, she runs off, then returns demanding the pin back from him, which he kept to protect, and then it turns out she isn’t there or real or something. Either way she hates him for some reason. It could be the work of Psyk, a man with psychic powers or something. There’s a huge piece of information missing, and Jack suddenly transporting to another world by focusing his mind is not helping. It continues next issue, but I’m not expecting answers. We’re just supposed to accept what’s happening, but I’m not sure what’s happening.

“The Pardon” by Claire S. Moore

Point for making more sense than the last one I guess, but it’s still a series of events set in the Swiss Alps. Some guy finds a flower at the feet of a woman he’s supposed to hate because her grandfather killed his…allegedly. Apparently this means the gods had decreed they marry…because. However, this is a Romeo & Juliet scenario so the guy leaves, but as a mountain guide ends up near his village in time to save the girl and find the frozen body of his grandfather that proves he had a heart attack. Okay. Now they can be married. Yay? Maybe the story’s just too condensed? Also wonder what happened to her grandfather, because apparently the whole family was punished for the crime he didn’t commit.

overall

The first three stories are worth coming back to “next month”, but the others are either meh or weird. I might check out the next issue, which stars a crimefighting centaur apparently. No, I’m not kidding. The publisher’s mascot, perhaps? And this is a comic with “funnies” in the title, but even the one comedy strip isn’t funny.