“Yesterday’s” Comic> Amazing Mystery Funnies V2 #9

Both of them missed the pool by about two inches.

Amazing Mystery Funnies volume 2 #9

Centaur Publications (September, 1939)

On the inside cover (or front page, depending on how this was scanned) we get a list of Centaur Publications’ titles at the time. This one, Keen Detective Funnies, Comic Pages, Star Ranger Funnies, Keen Comics, and Star Comics (not to be confused with the Marvel imprint). I’m curious why they called these “funnies” when so many of them focus on serious adventure tales? I’d also like to know who this “Keen” person is or if they’re just using the “keen”, which I don’t see a lot these days. I don’t know; I’m just rambling to pad out the homepage. Let’s get on with this.

[Read along with me here]

The Fantom Of The Fair: “Dive Of Death” by Paul Gustavson

Rival attractions at the fair has one owner stealing the ideas of the other. When he comes up with an attraction he can’t steal (his daughter’s high dive), the greedy rival tries to get her killed. Our hero isn’t afraid to beat people to death in this one, and the girl of course is hot for the hero. Otherwise, the presentation and art are good, so overall I’m kind of neutral on this story.

Air-Sub DX by Carl Burgos

Tim and Dr. Gray see a scientist in the Arctic get killed by a woman and her two guards. It seems the scientist was experimenting on having humans evolved from other animals, though the designs of the woman doesn’t give you any evidence she was ever an animal. I’m a creationist and I know evolution doesn’t work this way. Plus they still have that story up at the top going on, with two of the guys looking like or at least wearing the same outfit as her flunkies. And our heroes aren’t even the heroes of this story. It’s an interesting idea possibly ahead of its time and not really executed well here.

The Inner Circle by L Field

Our investigators are also in the Arctic, but this is a present day story rather than a futuristic one. Planes carrying radium are mysteriously crashing and the Circle goes to investigate. This story is plagued with typos, with the story continued next issue. I wanted to enjoy it but those really detract from the tale too much.

Don Dixon & The Hidden Empire part 2 by Rob Moore & Carl Pfeufer

I forgot about this Flash Gordon ripoff. Don is forced to marry the queen of the marshes to rescue his friends, but a jealous rival drugs him and he goes insane. The queen knows someone who might be able to cure him, but what price will she ask? I’m betting on Don, given how these stories tend to go, but I honestly don’t care. We’ll find out next issue.

Speed Centaur by Malcom Kildale

I didn’t think this story could get weirder, but Speed disguises himself as a talking horse so he and McCoy can capture their next gang. I wasn’t sure how they were going to pull off a crimefighting centaur, but now I want to see what other crazy ideas he has.

“Daredevil” Barry Flynn by Tarpé Mills

A criminal kills a man to steal his process to make insects grow to giant size. Why make insects grow to giant size? Your guess is as good as mine, but the criminal, Zaroff, and his daughter Dacia are going to use them to distract the US from noticing a war is starting they might want to interfere in (check the date, folks) . Barry and his friend Joan Hart try to stop them, but it turns out Zaroff really should have gotten all the information before shooting the scientist. Joan kind of does something while the title hero…is present in the story, and neither of them really save the world or anything. Not a great showing.

“Knuckle Down: A Baseball Mystery” by Martin Flinchock

A champ (I’m assuming baseball with the context) tries to force a boy to thrown a big game so he can bet against the sure thing. The boy is an ace pitcher, and that ends up playing into the villains’ defeat. The story itself is fine with a happy ending, though I don’t buy that the “champ” had a change of heart that fast. I won’t spoil the ending since I linked to the comic earlier for you to read.

OVERALL

Most of the stories are okay, but as noted a few fall short of being good. I’ll continue checking out this comic.