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...

And so it went...

...and went...

...and went...

...and went...

...and went...

...

...

...

Eventually, Kendall started to grasp the concept...

However, based on the closing captions, i guess they decided the readers hadn't figured it out yet.

page art by Munson Paddock for Mystery Men Comics #s 2-6, 10-17, & 20-23 (1939-1941)

...Intrigue Unbalances The Scales Of Justice...!

We continue plucking at dangling threads and topics left unmentioned over the last couple years of this blog. Toward the end of last year, we were talking about Munson Paddock's work on Mars Mason. Remember this guy...?

Okay - I guess that's a trick question since he isn't in his own title panel there. But it does convey a sense of the style, and these - three - posts cover the few tales he had, so you can go look. (Yes, i know it says Martin Nye. The 3rd link covers that.)

Mars Mason led to Rex Dexter Of Mars and was going to loop back to Paddock after the two collided to give us Tex Maxon. (Ayup, that's the sort of logic that governs the posts you see here.)

Here we find Paddock adopting the rugged Chuck Munson name to bring us a classic western series, in stark contrast to what we've seen before...

As mentioned in the first link above, the work we saw earlier was actually later. Mars Mason and Firetop were done after decades of tighter, more controlled work.

As we can see in these stories, he was capable of rendering detailed worlds with a solid reality as easily as his wild fantasy worlds. 

I must also admit, i'm left wondering who did the colours on the tale above? I have no clue if it was Munson's work or another artist. It might reproduce rather dark at times, but i do love the feel of it.

Let's do a couple more, eh?

By yon by... I noted above that Paddock was using the 'rugged' Chuck Munson name on these strips. That was not always the case. 

Tex Maxon debuted in 1939's issue #2 of Wonder Comics, which changed to Wonderworld Comics with #3. Up until issue #13 it was credited to Cecilia Munson. I wonder if it was his idea to change, or if his editor thought it needed a new pseudonym?

Uh...  yeah.
Time to mosey on along...

page art by Munson Paddock for Wonderworld Comics #s 20, 21, & 23 (1940, 1941)