For this weekend’s light-hearted, escapist superhero post here at Balladeer’s Blog let’s go Old School and look at the 1940s character Red Cross.
THE RED CROSS
Secret Identity: Peter Hall, MD
First Appearance: Captain Aero Comics # 8 (September 1942).
Origin: Doctor Peter Hall, a captain, was a physician serving in the field with America’s armed forces in World War 2. Outraged at Axis atrocities in the Philippines he vowed to take action but, constrained by his Hippocratic Oath he employed the VERY intellectually dishonest strategy of adopting a second, costumed identity.
Calling himself the Red Cross he took to battling both the Japanese and the Germans – with his physical abilities and with guns. (I’m guessing his motto was “First I’ll INFLICT their wounds, then I’ll HEAL their wounds!”). Not even his aide – Nurse Lucy Feller – suspected that the dedicated field surgeon Dr. Hall was also the homicidally violent Red Cross. You’d think the big Rx prescription logo on the superhero’s chest might have given her a clue. Continue reading
HAPPY HALLOWEEN FROM BALLADEER’S BLOG! This year for my October 31st horror post I’m looking at my favorite stories from H.P. Lovecraft’s earliest works by year of publication. 
THE ALCHEMIST – Count Antoine de C- is the last of his family line. Hundreds of years earlier one of his ancestors caused the death of the sorcerer Michel Mauvais. Michel’s sorcerer son Charles cursed the Count’s family so that all male descendants would die shortly after turning 32 years of age. 
FROM BENEATH THE RUE MORGUE (2004) – This Dark Horse comic book companion to the Van Helsing film is set in between scenes in the movie. After the death of Mr. Hyde in Paris, we see that Van Helsing winds up arrested for murder. 
That lab is the lair of THE Dr. Moreau in his younger years. The mad scientist has created a number of beastly man-monsters that are barely controllable, unlike his later experimental creations. 
THE MONKS OF MONK HALL aka THE QUAKER CITY (1844-1845) – Written by George Lippard, this strange and macabre story was originally serialized from 1844-1845 before being published in novel form. This bloody, horrific work was America’s best-selling novel before Uncle Tom’s Cabin. 
Think of Monk Hall as a combination of Twin Peaks establishments like the Black Lodge, One-Eyed Jacks and the Great Northern all rolled into one. The vast, multi-roomed Hall is honey-combed with secret passageways and trap doors. Beneath the mansion are a subterranean river plus several levels of labyrinthine catacombs filled with rats, refuse and the skeletal remains of the Monks’ many victims from the past century and a half. 
DETECTIVE COMICS Vol 1 #400 (June 1970)
The anguished Langstrom realizes he must go into seclusion until he can devise a cure for his condition. That night he happens by as Batman interrupts the Blackout Gang’s attempt to rob a Gotham museum. 
THE WERWOLVES (1898) – Written by Honore Beaugrand, this story features fairly unique werewolf lore. The tale is not structured in a traditional way but instead expands upon accounts of lycanthropy in campfire tales as if they really, truly happened. 
PENITENTE (Penitent) 
To redeem himself in the eyes of Heaven, the Penitente had to save seventy times seven the number of innocent victims he had killed while alive. As part of this purgative servitude he would also be periodically pitted against dark forces which had escaped from Hell. 
Comment: Our hero rose from his grave and masked his decaying, scarred face behind a red cloth like those worn during Brazil’s Procession of the Penitents. 
THE JOKER (1919) – With the Joker sequel reportedly stinking up theaters around the country I figured why not look at the 1919 pulp magazine hero who used that nom de guerre? 
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