The Voice Of ODD!: Mystery Men Comics

Showing posts with label Mystery Men Comics. Show all posts

19 July 2020

Rex Dexter And The LONG Road To Mars

My mind is finally starting to surface from the work on T3C for a bit of fresh air. As i herd it back towards The Voice Of ODD!, some of those bits we wandered off from seem to be calling for a return. Today, let's (hopefully) begin another visit with Dick Briefer, starting with a return to the adventures of Rex Dexter of Mars, Interplanetary Adventurer from Mystery Men Comics.

After his first adventure, Rex started heading back home to Mars to show off his new Earth Babe...

Five issues later, still enroute to Mars...

...soon after, it was becoming apparent even to Rex that this trip was taking a bit too long...

...but, finally, they were on "the last lap" of their journey...

SU-U-URE!
They'll have you two back on Earth in no time - right after a quick stop on Mars.

While they're travelling, we'll come back to some of Briefer's other works including, of course, more Frankenstein - after we visit with Biff Bannon. Maybe they'll make it back to Mars by the time we finish looking at the others...

page art by Dick Briefer from Mystery Men Comics #s 4, 9, 11, & 12 (1939, 1940)

10 August 2019

I Never Saw THIS Planet In The Space Index

I mentioned the Rex Dexter of Mars->Mars Mason->Tex Maxon (il)logic chain a few days ago (skipping the Rex Baxter by Dexter sidetrack) on Tex's post. That got me hankering for another tale with that Interplanetary Adventurer - Rex Dexter.

So, we've got a short tale for a Saturday morning post to start the day. Dick Briefer shows us what happens when we mix strange scifi with Master Of The Flying Guillotine. (Well, not really. But, you'll see...)

"Follow Every Weird Adventure..."
Yup. They called that one right.

As indicated, this was just a quickie morning post. I'll be back with a Fantastic post this afternoon.

page art by Dick Briefer from Mystery Men Comics #18 (1941)

07 August 2019

Will Chen Chang Live To Carry On His Fiendish Schemes?

While we've looped back around to Munson Paddock, let's touch on a topic we'll be hearing a lot about over the next year or two - Yellow Peril.

Sax Rohmer's famous and infamous Fu Manchu is the best known example, and the popularity of the old books inspired a host of comic book imitations. Marvel, of course, had the Yellow Claw long before they licensed Fu Manchu - way back in 1942. He didn't get his own title until '56 - was that when Jimmy Woo first appeared? We'll have to go looking at some point. Not today.

Today, as i said, we're still hanging with Munson Paddock and looking at the Yellow Peril strip he produced for Victor Fox in Mystery Men Comics - Chen Chang. Some may recall that i have at times remarked on how the creators seem to have been trying to do good things even though they come off terribly racist in this next century. That's not the case here. While not quite leaping into Dwig territory, they fully embrace the racist elements of the stereotype. More often than not, Chen Chang stories open with an introduction like "Chen Chang, cultured but fiendish master mind, seeks the downfall of the white race!"...

...or "Chen Chang, master mind, plots to destroy the White Race!"...

...and occasionally the peril got a fair bit more yellow...

Here's a sampling of other introductions...

Even when there was no introductory caption, they'll mention the basics soon enough, as you can see in this tale of River Lily and the Purr of Death. And you can see how it's not just the introductions. It seems perhaps a conscious attempt to embrace and exploit the yellow peril trend...

No, we're not missing a panel. They were just so used to him dying at the end of each story that they could merely imply it by that point. Better to go ahead an tell you what story he'll be returning in than to finish the job there.

Here's the reason Kendall asked "Can they really be alive?" in the story above...