“Yesterday’s” Comic> Amazing Mystery Funnies #12

I hope he doesn’t try to date Supergirl.

Amazing Mystery Funnies #12 (volume 2 #8)

Centaur Publishing (August, 1939)

I looked up that “Masked Marvel” and it’s just a guy in a mask who fights crime, like the Inner Circle but with odd fashion choices. So Keen Mystery Funnies didn’t impress me. Also, possibly for rights reasons, some of the comics at Comic Book Plus from around this time have stories missing, most notably Tarzan, Dick Tracy, and Little Orphan Annie, who apparently made their way into a lot of these compilation comic books. I’m not going to review an incomplete comic, so this is going to be easier than I thought for a while. Some of what they have in the virtual newsstands are text magazines, and I don’t even review the text stories in the comics. Give them a read sometime if your curious, but we’re getting on with this series. It has a crimefighting centaur.

[Read along with me here]

Speed Centaur by Malcom Kildale

Yes, a crimefighting centaur. I guess Centaur Publishing wanted a mascot. Amazingly (heh) this is not as weird as it sounds, considering what we’ve seen in past Golden Age comic reviews. Speed is the last surviving centaur of a city in the mountains that was the victim of an earthquake. Raised in secret by a trapper to fight crime, Speed decides to follow his father’s wishes and goes to the city to fight crime. Saving the life of reporter Reel McCoy (who names their kid “Reel”?), he beats up the mobsters who tried to drop the reporter out of a plane, with McCoy and the mobsters, written off as insane, the only ones who know there’s a crimefighting centaur in their city.

Like I said, this is not as crazy as it sounds, at least by Golden Age standards. Good luck pulling this plot off in 2024. It’s a clear origin with a decent plot and art that is technically sound but may not be to everyone’s tastes. Also, somebody needs to learn what word balloons are. Not a bad introduction to something that could have been much stranger, because I’ve seen much stranger.

The Inner Circle

This time Ahern and Ramsey are trying to stop a Central South American country from absorbing any more of their neighbors in smaller countries. Insert obvious and possibly dated some day real world events here. Also, they apparently have an island they put threats to the peace of the world. Where were they when Hitler was coming to power? The biggest problem here is all the talking, and not much action. The narration boxes are often in the wrong place for the panel, and most of the time we’re told things instead of shown things. It’s not a well executed story.

Don Dixon & The Hidden Empire by Rob Moore & Carl Pfeufer

Even Comic Book Plus doesn’t know where this story is continuing from. We’re just dropped in with Dixon and Lugoff making an escape with the rescued Princess Wanda after their ship crashed. In part Beatsme, our heroes are captured by the Swamp Queen Dagmar, who wants Don to be her new King, against the protests of her cousin fiancé. When Don refuses, after fighting off cousin fiancé, she threatens to drown Lugoff and the easily scared Princess Wanda. If you’re thinking this is a Flash Gordon style story, I think you’re right. It was a popular trend, though only Gordon and contemporary Buck Rogers ever saw further success. It’s okay, but what happened to part one? Don’t be in such a hurry, Centaur.

Jack Strand

Now this one we do remember where part one came from. It was last issue. Now in Psyk’s mental world or whatever, Jack comes upon Psyk’s old assistant, who is dead by Psyk still controls his mind. He manages to trick Jack and steal the protective ray pin, but Jack learns that Diana will be part of a plan to put the President under Psyk’s control. In the normal world, Jack ends up accused of murder thanks to Diana, but after the trial, we see him punch off Diana’s hat and the disk inside it…and punches her in the face! Will that actually break his control? Why does this story make sense than the crimefighting centaur?

Air-Sub DX by Carl Burgos

Tim turns out to be right about the missing scientist being the Conqueror, who forces Gray to work on perfecting a “super-gas” that will turn the living diamonds into ordinary diamonds. The living diamonds help our heroes take down the Conqueror and recover the DX…or rather they do most of the work. I still don’t know what’s with the story in the top set of panels every page, but the important story…happened. I could follow it at least, but ultimately this two-part tale was rather underwhelming.

The Fantom Of The Fair by Paul Gustavson

How did an animal trainer get a prehistoric arctic gorilla to the fair? Never explained, and apparently the Fantom fought him years ago…why? There’s a lot of unanswered and unnecessary questions when we just wanted to see the Fantom fight a white gorilla, which it delivers on well enough without the “how old is our hero” angle.

overall

Cornelius Featherjaw, in the comments for last issue’s review, mentioned that studios were hired to make the comics at the time. You can see that in the variation of stories. There were some pretty good ones, and some rather odd ideas, but I enjoyed most of the stories.