Fantomah, Ghoul of the Jungle pt. 1

Never eat the Mysterious Drug Berries of the Unexplored Red Region, folks.

You see?  Now, what just say?

I don't know that I would call the headgear "terrifying."  A Questionable Fashion Choice (tm!), to be sure, but I don't know that I'm actually frightened.

Although if I were walking in a dark alley and this guy came up behind me wearing that helmet, I probably would be terrified.  It's rather dependent on context, I suppose.

Anyway, this is the kind of fun I found leafing through some awesome scans of the Fantomah back-up stories from 1940.  For those of you not hip to the jive, Fantomah generally appeared as a hot blonde who went all demonic when she got cheesed... in other words, she was like pretty much every woman you're going to meet ever:

Notice that she kept the hair when she changed, because I guarantee you she wouldn't make the change if it meant getting the hair messed up.  Hair like that takes some time.

As you might imagine, she was a lot like the Spectre and Shena's love child in her early adventures.  She was very PETA when it came to the jungle, but she could float around and be all creepy.

Although I noticed this one guy just thinks she's a nuisance:

That, my friends, is a guy with Nards of Steel (tm!).  Yeah, there's a Disembodied Floating Head telling him to see the error of his ways, and he's all Pfffffft.

Nards. Of. Steel. (tm!)

Anyway, you'd get some good weirdness in the early stories, like jungle animals fighting mummies:

Or even lions attacking parachutists... from above!

And no matter what, she always got her props in the end:

Fantomah even made an appearance in Hero Action Persons, the graphic novel written by Yours Truly and available 'rightchere. Which, sadly, has not provided me the summer home I was hoping, largely because I got Fantomah to negotiate my share of the royalties:

Yeah, thanks a load, Fantomah.

You said it, bro.

See you tomorrow!