Tag Archives: book reviews

October 10, 2026 · 12:01 am

MARVEL (TIMELY COMICS) FEBRUARY 1942 STORIES

This weekend’s escapist superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog looks at Timely Comics (later Marvel Comics) stories in February 1942. I reviewed their January 1942 stories HERE.

MARVEL MYSTERY COMICS Vol 1 #28 (Feb 1942)

Story 1: The Poison Pill Suicides

Villain: Izan 

Synopsis: The Human Torch (Golden Age) and his mutant sidekick Toro expose and shut down a ring smuggling arms out of the U.S. and selling them to the Axis Nations. The ring operates out of Coney Island amusement park, beneath which the leader Izan has a secret hideout filled with high-tech weapons and booby-traps. The title referred to Izan’s thugs whom he would kill with poison pills if they failed him. Continue reading →

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October 3, 2026 · 12:15 am

SPIDER-MAN, KINGPIN AND THE ANCIENT STONE TABLET

This weekend’s escapist superhero post looks at one of the most memorable Spider-Man stories from the 60s involving the Kingpin, the Shocker, the Lizard and Marvel’s Mafia pastiche the Maggia.

SPIDER-MAN Vol 1 #68 (Jan 1969) 

Title: Crisis on the Campus

Villain: The Kingpin

Synopsis: The Kingpin, at this point in time still strictly a Spider-Man villain, gathers his criminal underlings in a plan to steal a priceless, ancient stone Tablet that is currently on display at Empire State University, where Peter Parker is a student.

That same day, Peter, his girlfriend Gwen Stacy, Harry Osborn, his girlfriend Mary Jane Watson, Flash Thompson and other students get caught up in outrage over ESU’s decision to eliminate some student housing to accommodate the number of experts around the world who are coming to ESU to try translating the mysterious Tablet.

That evening the students mount a protest about the way some of them are being thrown out of their housing to make room for the arriving archeologists. The Kingpin and his thugs take advantage of the protest as it rages out of control to break in and steal the priceless tablet.

Peter Parker sees this and slips away to become Spider-Man. He battles the Kingpin and his men but the villain gets away with the tablet. Our hero is determined to find him and retrieve the mysterious ancient relic. Continue reading →

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October 2, 2026 · 4:36 pm

PETER RUGG – A GHOST STORY FROM 1824

PETER RUGG, THE MISSING MAN (1824) – This short story was written by author William Austin. A ghostly post-chaise horsedrawn carriage is often sighted and/or encountered up and down the East Coast. The carriage is pursued by a supernatural storm and is driven by a man named Peter Rugg with his daughter Jenny as his passenger.   

In the story, the narrator character Jonathan Dunwell and his driver meet Peter Rugg and his daughter on the road one night. Rugg asks for directions to Boston, obtains them from Dunwell’s driver and drives off, pursued by the storm.

Dunwell is puzzled, so his driver explains that Peter, his daughter, and their black horse are ghosts. Long ago they were killed in a storm while making their way to Boston. Rugg had refused to seek shelter at an inn, screaming to the heavens that he would reach Boston that night or never, and he and his child were then killed by the storm. Continue reading →

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October 1, 2026 · 7:57 am

HALLOWEEN MONTH 2026 IS HERE!

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.

To give new readers a taste of how Halloween is done around here, take a look at some of last year’s Halloween Month highlights:

GRAND FINALE

HALLOWEEN WITH PAUL NASCHY – I capped off the horror season with a look at the 60s, 70s and 80s movies of Spain’s King of Horror – Jacinto Molina aka Paul Naschy. And I mean all of them, not just his many, many werewolf movies about tormented lycanthrope Waldemar Daninsky. Naschy also starred as a mummy, as Dracula, as slashers, as an exorcist and so on.

There was Assignment: Terror, one of my all-time favorite Bad Movies featuring aliens who possess the dead bodies of scientists so they can conquer Earth with a vampire, a mummy and a werewolf. Werewolf vs the Yeti was another as was Dr. Jekyll vs the Wolfman.

Non-werewolf Naschy films I reviewed included Count Dracula’s Great Love, Horror Rises from the Tomb, The Hunchback of the Rue Morgue (yes), Vengeance of the Zombies, Return of the Witch, The Mummy’s Revenge, House of Psychotic Women, Exorcism, and The Man with the Severed Head.

FORGOTTEN HORROR STORIES

MAN-SIZE IN MARBLE (1887), about old stone statues of two knights which come to life to do evil. Classics like The King in Yellow (1895), Isabella of Egypt (1812) and several Ambrose Bierce short stories. Continue reading →

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September 27, 2026 · 7:54 pm

ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION: A FAMILY SKELETON (1885)

A FAMILY SKELETON (1885) – This short story was written by one of Balladeer’s Blog’s favorite neglected sci-fi authors – Robert Duncan Milne. This time around, Milne’s tale deals with a French nobleman and his wife, who has proven to be sterile.

Experimental fertility treatments at last result in the wife becoming pregnant. On the day that she gives birth, she and her husband are horrified by the resulting offspring. Continue reading →

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September 26, 2026 · 12:50 am

MOON GIRL (1947-1949)

This weekend’s escapist superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog looks at the Golden Age superheroine Moon Girl from E.C. Comics.

MOON GIRL

First Appearance: Moon Girl #1 (Fall 1947). Her origin story was also printed in The Happy Houlihans #1 (Fall 1947) and Animal Fables #7 (Nov 1947).  

Secret Identity: Clare Lune, high school teacher

Origin: Moon Girl was a princess of Samarkand, but not the real Samarkand in Uzbekistan, but rather the mythic Samarkand of ancient legends. Women ruled in our heroine’s Samarkand, and once she reached marriageable age in 1947, Prince Mengu from a land 1,000 miles away came to woo her.

Her mother the Queen of Samarkand gave her a family heirloom – the Magic Moonstone which the first princess of Samarkand – a woman warrior – took on the battlefield from the evil wizard Ka-Zhan in the 1200s A.D.. The moonstone granted her super-powers, but even before she possessed the stone she had been able to defeat all men who desired her in combat. Continue reading →

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September 19, 2026 · 12:01 am

THE RED SKULL: 1940s & 1950s STORIES

Last weekend’s escapist superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog looked at the earliest Dr. Doom stories and was a big hit. This time I’m looking at the earliest Red Skull stories.

CAPTAIN AMERICA COMICS Vol 1 #1 (March 1941)

Story 5: The Riddle of the Red Skull

Synopsis: Even though America has not yet entered World War 2, Nazi agent the Red Skull has been sending his calling cards to assorted American military and intelligence figures, then inevitably ambushes and kills them shortly afterward with poison from a hypodermic needle.

Major Croy is the latest figure to receive the Red Skull’s card. Steve Rogers and J.B. Barnes try to protect him but he waves off the offer. The Red Skull shows up and kills Croy. 

Captain America recognizes how deadly the Red Skull is and orders Bucky to stay out of this case. The sidekick investigates on his own and gets captured by the Red Skull and his men. Captain America shows up and frees him, but the Skull and his underlings escape.

The next day at Camp Lehigh, Rogers and Barnes witness the fiery destruction of industrialist George Maxon’s latest military aircraft during a test flight. The Red Skull is behind this, too. That night the Skull shows up at the home of General Charles Manor in the Virginia suburbs and kills him.

Before he can escape, Captain America shows up. It turns out that the Red Skull has been using George Maxon as an agent and Maxon dies in the fight with Cap. The Red Skull himself is still at large and Cap discovers a note proving that the Skull answers directly to Hitler himself.    Continue reading →

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September 16, 2026 · 8:17 pm

ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION: THE BARZEITSON EXPERIMENT (1888)

THE BARZEITSON EXPERIMENT (1888) – Written by female author Rebecca Rogers.

In Paris, ladies’ man and playboy Ambroise Schlegel strikes up a friendship with mad scientist Professor Barzeitson and his beautiful young wife. Ambroise has obvious designs on the woman, but she is unresponsive.

He persists and as an excuse to keep crossing paths with the lovely lady pretends to take an interest in what he thinks are the lunatic ravings of the professor. One day Barzeitson reveals to Ambroise the results of some of his secret works. Continue reading →

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September 12, 2026 · 1:12 am

DOCTOR DOOM: EARLIEST STORIES

This weekend’s escapist superhero post here at Balladeer’s Blog looks at the first several stories of one of Marvel Comics’ most infamous villains: Dr. Victor Von Doom. 

FANTASTIC FOUR Vol 1 #5 (July 1962)

Title: Prisoners of Doctor Doom

Synopsis: At the Baxter Building, the Human Torch cruelly taunts the Thing that he resembles the monster called the Hulk who has run amok in the American southwest. (Hulk #1 was published in May 1962).

Mr. Fantastic and Invisible Woman break up the resulting fight between the two. Suddenly, their power and backup generators are knocked out and a high-tech netting of some sort isolates the top five floors from the rest of the Baxter Building.

Over a loudspeaker, the Fantastic Four hear demands issued by a voice that Reed recognizes as that of an old college acquaintance – Victor Von Doom, now a PhD. Dr. Doom threatens to start killing unless the Fantastic Four surrender to him and enter his massive airship.

To save any innocent bystanders from harm, our heroes do so. They meet the armored Dr. Doom, who explains that his experiment which went awry and caused his expulsion long ago left his face scarred, so he now hides it behind a steel mask.

NOTE: The old pulp magazine villain Steel Mask, a foe of G-8 and His Battle Aces, wore such a mask to hide his hideously scarred face beginning in 1937, so though Dr. Doom did indeed come before Darth Vader, Steel Mask came before Dr. Doom.

Victor blames Reed for causing the experiment to misfire, but all Reed did was try to warn Doom that his calculations were wrong. Reed was right, but rather than admit that, the crazed Victor Von Doom has always maintained that Reed sabotaged his college experiment.  Continue reading →

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September 10, 2026 · 5:06 pm

ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION: THE NEW ADAM (1924)

THE NEW ADAM (1924) – Female author Noelle Roger (real name Helene Pittard) wrote this story in 1924. It was translated into English in 1926.

Scientist Dr. Flecheyre is experimenting with transplanting human glands. He has reached the stage where he has chemically enhanced some glands to the point where he feels the recipient will have their brain stimulated.

All the animals that Flecheyre has tried this on have died, but he still wants to try the process on a human subject. His son Rene foolishly volunteers and winds up dying like the test animals. Continue reading →

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