“Yesterday’s” Comic> Amazing Mystery Funnies #16

“I’ll teach you not to run at the molten metal!”

Amazing Mystery Funnies #16 (v2 #12)

Centaur Publications, Inc (December, 1939)

More trouble at the fair, more adventures with the crimefighting centaur, a few serials, but not a lot of laughs, seeing as the comedy comics are never funny in these and the action stories aren’t supposed to be fun. This is 1939, not 2025.

[Read along with me here]

The Fantom Of The Fair by Paul Gustovson

Oh, my mistake. The fair is closing for the winter, so our Fantom decides to take a crimefighting world tour. In Pennsylvania a man tries to steal a steel mill from his cousin. I guess he misunderstood the name. Of course she’s an attractive woman because there has to be at least one in each of these stories. We actually get to see his skin on this one. He’s been head to toe in black so far. We even see him out of costume, which raises more questions as he was supposed to be a spirit or something guarding the fair. At least they found more to do with him besides the huge fairground, and it’s a good story.

Daredevil Barry Finn by Tarpé Mills

Both Dorian and Joan believe Barry likes the other and head off, Joan for Europe and Dorian for Hawaii. That’s also where Frogga convinces Barry to vacation, as Dacia plans to continue her father’s work. I guess Barry and Dorian are the couple. Coincidence? Sure, but we got a fair story out of it, though setting acidic oil on fire in the ocean sounds like a bad idea.

Space Patrol by Basil Wolverton

Earthman Nick Nelson and Martian Kodi (I guess only Earthlings use last names) are sent after a dangerous criminal, landing on Venus and dealing with the Spider Men as well as the killer crook. This was a decent introduction to these characters. Curious if Nick and Kodi will return. We know the criminal won’t.

Don Dixon & The Hidden Empire

Dagmar escapes and starts a war with the rival surface nation of the marshlands, and it’s up to Don to save his new friends. We’ll have to wait for next issue to see if he can. There isn’t much to summarize because most of it is Dagmar forcing Kul to go to war on the undersea kingdom, but it’s an interesting start.

Jon Linton: Flyer, Scientist, Adventurer by Harry Francis Campbell

One of Satan Rex’s henchman decides he’s not in line with the whole “destroy Earth” plan and reaches out to our heroes meet to discuss how to stop him, as the plan continues though the villain is in custody. Rex’s actually loyal henchmen keep trying to stop them while a “green mist” is another impediment, a green force (because in 2009 “force and matter are interchangeable”, which is something I think I missed being reported). That’s all this installment is, Jon and his friends trying to reach the henchman. It’s kind of dull even with the dogfight partway through the story. We’ll see where this leads.

Speed Centaur by Malcom Kildale

Our final story has Speed and Reel finding out the back of the cave has a monster and a portal to the middle ages. There, they fight the “knights of doom” and rescue a dethroned ruler. The story continues next time, but for a comic about a crimefighting centaur this is where I’m having trouble believing in it. Someone just wanted a centaur and his reporter friend fighting knights.

overall

Most of the stories are good, and the rest are still a decent read. I do like this series.