This weekend’s escapist, light-hearted superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog looks at the 1940 issues of Mystic Comics from Marvel back when the company was known as Timely Comics.
MYSTIC COMICS Vol 1 #1 (Mar 1940)
A. The Origin of the Blue Blaze – In 1852, 20-something Spencer Keen is seemingly killed in a tragic accident caused by a Blue Energy experiment his father is conducting. He is buried, but in 1940 some grave robbers dig up his coffin and we see that he has really just been in suspended animation all this time. The fresh air revives him.
Now endowed with Blue Energy powers that enhance his physical abilities, our hero adopts the costumed identity Blue Blaze and thwarts the grave robbers’ evil employer, Professor Drake Maluski. That villain has been experimenting on a ray that can turn dead bodies into a zombie army for world conquest. Blue Blaze isn’t having it.
B. Dynamic Man – Scientist Dr. Simon Goettler creates a super-powered android who can pass as human. (Timely Comics had created the original android called the Human Torch the previous year, too.) Gottlieb has a heart attack and dies after activating this Dynamic Man android but the incredibly intelligent creation uses its Superman-level strength and ability to shoot energy blasts from its hands to fight evildoers.
Dynamic Man battles evil millionaire Daniel “King” Bascom and his army. Bascom has financed the invention of a machine which lets him weaponize storms in all kinds of ways. Dynamic Man defeats Bascom’s forces and turns him over to the authorities. Continue reading
Yes, those government “shutdowns” that aren’t technically shutdowns have happened 
CEMETERY OF TERROR (1985) – HALLOWEEN MONTH CONTINUES! Released in Mexico as Cementerio del terror, this overlooked movie makes for some nice Halloween season viewing and is even set on October 31st. Cemetery of Terror is not as campy as Mexican Wrestling Horror flicks or notorious works like 
Once again, Balladeer’s Blog looks at the fragmentary remains of one of the lesser-known ancient Greek comedy playwrights, in this case Philyllius. This comic poet’s career seems to have spanned approximately from the 410s BC to 390 BC. One of his comedies won 1st prize at a Lenaea festival in the 390s and he won 1st prize at an unknown Dionysia. His fellow comedian Strattis credited him with being the first Attic Old Comic to use real torches on stage.
October 1st kicks off Balladeer’s Blog’s usual mixing of horror items in with my usual topics. I review horror films from the silent movie era onward as well as obscure stories from the 1800s and earlier, like they’re Halloween counterparts to my Ancient Science Fiction reviews. 
THE MONSTER-MAKER (1897) – Set in San Francisco, this W.C. Morrow tale was praised by the one and only Ambrose Bierce. A truly unique monster gets cobbled together by a mad scientist but instead of a castle in Europe the action takes place in Frisco. Experimenting on a suicidal young man, our insane Dr. X turns the lad’s body into a globe-headed, lobster-limbed abomination. The scientist’s courageous wife and a police detective work to bring down the madman. 
THE BOD SQUAD (1974) – Hong Kong Cinema’s Shaw Brothers helped produce this cross-cultural martial arts exploitation flick that plays like an Andy Sidaris film crossed with a WIP movie from the 70s. 
THE GIRL FROM U.N.C.L.E. (1966-1967) – This spinoff series from (What else?) The Man from U.N.C.L.E. starred Stefanie Powers as superspy April Dancer. Like Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin, April worked for the United Network Command for Law & Enforcement. Her series lasted just one season of 29 hour-long episodes. 
THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. – THE MOONGLOW AFFAIR: Airing on February 25th, 1966, this backdoor pilot for The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. had Mary Ann Mobley as new agent April Dancer. She replaced the incapacitated Solo and Kuryakin to stop the establishment of a lunar presence by the evil organization T.H.R.U.S.H. (Technological Hierarchy for the Removal of Undesirables and the Subjugation of Humanity). 
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