D10 Forgotten Comicbook Heroes of the Golden and Late Platinum Age

Not all heroes stand the test of time. Many of the adventurers of the Platinum Age and superheroes of the Golden Age have long since passed from collective memory. In this post I will be recalling ten of those forgotten comic book heroes who debuted during the 1930's and 1940's. 

This blog post is a gift, requested by the admirable, prolific and kind Tamás Kisbali of Eldritch Fields. This post is part of the OSR Discord server's annual Secret Santicorn event. Find other things I had made for this event here and for the Easter derivative; Secret Jackalope here. All art for this post was made using the DALL-E AI, excuse any wonkiness.

1. Captain Frankenstein 

First Appearance: December 1938

Last Appearance: September 1943

Original Publisher: American Argonauts

Created By: Robert Crowell

Revived using his great-grandfather's mad science, the highly-decorated war-hero, Captain Jericho Frankenstein, was transformed into a even more efficient killing-machine. Perfectly revivified and with newfound super-strength and endurance, Captain Frankenstein immediately continued in his unending war against the enemies of the America. Captain Frankenstein, who already possessed near superhuman abilities in life, is now impervious to 'automatic high-caliber chain-lighting guns', capable of punching holes through the steel hulls of tanks and performing great bounds across no-man's land.  

The author, Robert Crowell, a veteran of the Great War and who had seen action during the Meuse–Argonne offensive, was in equal parts cynical and excited by the concept of war and his Captain Frankenstein strips reflected this. The strips were full of gruesome death and destruction for both sides of the grim conflict but Captain Frankenstein excitingly and heroically leapt through it all and caused a great deal of it himself.

Captain Frankenstein fought for America against an unnamed enemy army in an unknown but completely wasted country. The Captain Frankenstein comic-strips saw the reanimated war-machine bound across no-mans land to smash death-rays, save POW's and on occasion, fight a robot or specialist-soldier that had been brought to the front to kill him specifically. After America's entry into the Second World War, Captain Frankenstein's foes were revealed to be the Nazis.  

Although this nazi-smashing super-soldier pre-dates Captain America, Captain Frankenstein was ultimately overshadowed by the more popular war-time hero. Ultimately, Captain America's image was clearer, less weird, more patriotic and optimistic. Captain Frankenstein’s author went on to write less outré, but equally grim, military comics and pulp war novels. 

2. Radioactive Skeleton Woman

First Appearance: Late 1938

Last Appearance: Early 1939

Original Publisher: Tales from Zonderland

Created By: Unknown

Published weekly in Utah based 'Tales from Zonderland' the rather uncreatively named Radioactive Skeleton Woman was considered too weird and macabre for the young audience the magazine was targeted towards and was cancelled after about a year. Very few copies of 'Tales from Zonderland' survive so much of Radioactive Skeleton Woman's weekly adventurers have become lost media. From what is available, it appears Radioactive Skeleton Woman has no dialogue nor alter-ego, she comes and goes without explanation and terrifies highly-deserving goons with her appearance or sickens them with her radioactive powers. While the character of Radioactive Skeleton Woman has been long forgotten, her concept and image remain in the collective memory of a few small old mining towns in Utah. These towns have a local legend of a mine-dwelling cryptid woman whose skeleton glows green. 

3. Kid Kolt

First Appearance: April 1949

Last Appearance: January 1951/ February 1951 (as Guy Gun)

Original Publisher: Great Spirit Publishing

Created By: Flynn Whip

Going by no name other than Kid Kolt, this child hero was known for his expert shooting skills and his unerringly deadly aim. Kid Kolt never carries a gun nor starts a fight... but he always gets ahold of the later and ends the former with precisely planned violence. All of Kid Kolt's villains died in their first encounter with the 'bright young lad' and the child hero's body count was enormous after just a few issues.

Kid Kolt saw good initial popularity, but the financially struggling and ever litigious Colt's Manufacturing Company filed lawsuits against Great Spirit Publishing as they felt Kid Kolt character infringed on their brand. In response, Great Spirit ceased publication of Kid Kolt tales but returned the character the following year as the rebranded 'Guy Gun'. The readership however, had moved onto other characters and Flynn Whip had lost interest in writing the character.   

4. Solar Andromeda 

First Appearance: December 1939

Last Appearance: March 1941

Original Publisher: Kinnock Press

Created By: Walter Kinnock

Utterly cosmic and undefeatable, Solar Andromeda possesses near infinite power and knowledge as a result of his study and subsequent mastery of the 'Seventeen Solar Sciences'. Solar Andromeda uses his limitless powers largely to fight bootleggers, interplanetary racketeers, corrupt space-cops, judges and mad scientists. Solar Andromeda's justice is notoriously biblical in scale and Old Testament in its severity. Among many cruel and zany acts of retribution; Solar Andromeda has blotted out suns, knocked unworthy planets from their orbits, turned the air around his foes to acid and his made his opponent's skeletons leap from their bodies and dance about while their still living owners watched in abject horror. Solar Andromeda was published monthly at Walter Kinnock's own expense until he was arrested for assaulting a woman he was attempting to court.  

5. Twenty-First-Century El Cid - Knight of 2009

First Appearance: January 1939

Last Appearance: November 1942

Original Publisher: Griff James

Created By: Cosmopolis Co.

Set in the far future of 2009, police captain Jed Johson is about to do final battle with the dreaded gangster and racketeer - Bullet Devilman. Knowing he cannot defeat the heroic Jed in a straight battle Devilman shoots the police captain with a plutonium-tipped dart. The dying police captain, with his final breath, demands his men place him on his police battle-cycle so he can lead them one last time against Devilman's gang. The Captain's motorcycle-bound body led the charge against Bullet Devilman's army of racketeering goons and with his body seemingly immune to their radium rattle-rifles, the cowardly mobsters are soundly defeated by the city's police force - all but the nefarious Bullet Devilman, who escapes. 

In the second issue, while the City of 2009 mourn's the loss of their best police captain, the spirit of Jed is welcomed by his ancestor (none other than Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, the original El Cid himself) into 'Valhalla'. El Cid bequeaths Johnson his powers and sends him back to 2009 as the new El Cid - an immortal knight for the 21st century. El Cid of 2009 continued to fight against the criminal empire of Bullet Devilman and other villains until his author, Griff James, drowned during training after being drafted into the US Navy. 

6. The Monkey's Bite

First Appearance: November 1949

Last Appearance: December 1949

Original Publisher: Zing Weekly

Created By: Jim 'The Duck' Langley

After being poisoned by communist agents (for displaying too much 'American beauty') while holidaying with her boyfriend in West Texas, a dying Shelley Adams stumbles across a ruined Aztec shrine to an ancient monkey god. 'Montoko the Monkey-God' saves Shelley and transforms her into his champion; The Monkey's Bite. As The Monkey's Bite, Shelley Adams is an agile, cat-burgling vigilante who occasionally displays mystics powers as and when the story demands. Shelley tries to balance battling communists and criminals with spending time with her boyfriend, the eminently handsome and dreamy Mike, to whom Shelley tries hard to conceal her monkey-like behaviours. 

The Monkey's Bite, was intended to appeal to female readers, but with the heroine dressing and acting like a monkey, Zing Weekly was unsuccessful in this goal and the comic was soon cancelled. 

7. Lady Svengali 

First Appearance: October 1936

Last Appearance: October 1937

Original Publisher: Intriguing Tales Nightly

Created By: Vincent Mellinger

A complete vamp, Lady Svengali is an aristocratic spy with hypnotic powers and the occasional high-tech gadget. Lady Svengali was an extremely early comics anti-heroine - a seductive sleuth who came to match her wits and wiles with gentlemen-thieves, gangsters, foreign agents, cruel aristocrats and mad scientists. She had a small and dedicated fanbase but ultimately her stories were considered too sultry by mainstream audiences and even pornographic by some. Magazine distributors soon began removing copies of Intriguing Tales Nightly from shelves and selling them in brown paper envelopes to those that asked for the publication by name. Lady Svengali is a favourite of many early superhero scholars; experts consider her character an underrated outlier, well ahead of her time. 

8. The Scarlet Smog

First Appearance: January 1938

Last Appearance: December 1939

Original Publisher: Deluxe Publications

Created By: Algy Smith

The Scarlet Smog was a scientist who had invented 'smog pills' - a form of medication that when swallowed (or sometimes even thrown) gifted him vague smog based powers. Rather inaptly, his smog is not scarlet, so his moniker must be based solely on his striking crimson suit, skullcap and goggles. The concept was not picked up by readers and in annoyance, Algy Smith killed off The Scarlett Smog in what became his final issue. 'The Death of The Scarlet Smog' is considered the best story of the run and is full of doom, dread and pathos. 

 

9. The Transistor Twins 

First Appearance: July 1946

Last Appearance: September 1946

Original Publisher: Wisconsin Electronics Monthly

Created By: Terrence Blister

The Transistor Twins were two identical heroes named after the exciting upcoming peice of technology - The Transistor! The twin sisters exhibited a range of scientific powers such as 'television waves' that allow them to see distant locations or 'trans-conductive travel' that allowed them to travel through metal wiring. In their single, unfinished story they saved some local children from bullies and it is implied they come from another world. 

The comic strips were seen as a strange addition to Wisconsin Electronics Monthly, and quickly removed. Readers hadn't even learnt the twin's names or how to tell them apart. 

10. Witch-Buster

First Appearance: May 1933

Last Appearance: October 1938

Original Publisher: Black Cloak Comics

Created By: Howard J. Winters

Witch-Buster busts witches and the crooks they do business with. Don't let this erudite, pipe-smoking fellow's manners deceive you - he is a master of hand-to-hand combat and occult extermination. Witch-Buster possesses a grappling-hook gun, pocket-sized fire bombs and a variety of potions, occult charms and holy symbols. Witch-Buster's origins are mysterious and his identity unknown, maybe he doesn't have one. 

In Witch-Buster's long, pulpy run of stories he fought a host of occult and paranormal foes including werewolves, satanists, voodoo zombies and even some rather bootleg pseudo-lovecraftian entities. Witch-Buster's reputation among his paranormal enemies is so fearsome that on one occasion a demon slew their own conjurer and unsummoned themselves rather than face him. The character of Witch-Buster continued to feature in private short stories until the author's death in the 1960's.  

All Unused Art:

Captain Frankenstein 

El Cid of 2009

The Monkey's Bite 

Radioactive Skeleton Woman 

The Transistor-Twins

My Ability Score Generation Method - One 1 Once

Rolling up a character with the boys (they're impressed by my new method)

Everyone has a pet method for rolling ability scores, '3d6 in order' and '4d6 drop lowest - arrange to taste' are both very well known (I invite you to share your favored method in the comments under this post). Here's one I like to use and haven't encountered before. Therefore it's mine. I call it '3d6 - One 1 Once'.

Each player generates their ability scores in order using 3d6 - totalling them as usual. However, of these 3d6, two dice are the same colour and the third is of a different colour. This third die is your 'lucky die'. Whenever an ability score is rolled for and the lucky die results in a 1, it can be rerolled once - if it results in another 1 it cannot be rerolled again. Only the lucky die can be rerolled in this way. All ability scores are rolled for via this method, when complete, two ability scores may be swapped with one another. 

This method is fun enough, quick and does away with most (but not all) ability scores of 3 and can even turn 13's into 18's. The method results in similar average ability scores as rolling 3d6 alone does.

Searchers of the Unknown - Foreign Planets Edition

Searchers of the Unknown is a great little set of rules by Nicolas Dessaux. I have made(like many before me) my own version of the rules, making a few mechanical alterations/additions and rewriting some sections for clarity. I have tried to keep aesthetics, format and tone similar to the original. The rules fit on one double sided piece of paper and the standout mechanic is that there are no ability scores. Armour Class is the main determiner of what your character can and cannot easily achieve. The rules would work well for a series of connected dungeon-delving one shots.

Get the rules here