Here they come, speeding this way - well - there's only one thing to do --
Feature Funnies #16 is an issue of the series Feature Funnies (Volume 1) with a cover date of January, 1939.
Appearing in "Joe Palooka"
Featured Characters:
- Joe Palooka
Supporting Characters:
- Knobby Walsh
Synopsis for "Joe Palooka"
(newspaper strip reprints)
Appearing in "Dixie Dugan"
Featured Characters:
- Dixie Dugan
Synopsis for "Dixie Dugan"
(newspaper strip reprints)
Appearing in The Bungle Family: "Blue Monday"
Featured Characters:
- Bungle Family
Synopsis for The Bungle Family: "Blue Monday"
(newspaper strip reprints)
Appearing in "Ned Brant"
Featured Characters:
- Ned Brant
Synopsis for "Ned Brant"
(newspaper strip reprints)
Appearing in Archie O'Toole: "The New York Crooks"
Featured Characters:
Antagonists:
- three New York Crooks (two die)
Other Characters:
- Mayor of NYC
- step-daughter of one crook
Locations:
Vehicles:
- O'Toole's Hispodynic Transatlantic Airplane
Synopsis for Archie O'Toole: "The New York Crooks"
- Synopsis not yet written.
Appearing in Gallant Knight: "The Black Baron, Part 2"
Featured Characters:
- Sir Neville, the Gallant Knight
Antagonists:
- Black Baron
- his soldiers (several die)
Other Characters:
- herdsman and wife (both die)
- herdsman's son
Locations:
- Europe
- Castle Galleyne
- Black Baron's castle
Era:
- Early 9th Century, Reign of Charlemagne
Synopsis for Gallant Knight: "The Black Baron, Part 2"
(reprints from the British comic "Wags")
Appearing in "Big Top"
- Appearances not yet listed
Synopsis for "Big Top"
(newspaper strip reprints)
Appearing in The Clock Strikes: "The Mogol Diamond"
Featured Characters:
Antagonists:
- Gip Nolan (Dies)
- Slick Hart (Dies)
- "Chuck" (behind the scenes)
Other Characters:
- Hoag
Locations:
- New York City
- Waterfront
- Taffney & Son, jewelry store
- Meadows Road, near Low Lake
Items:
- Mogol Diamond
Vehicles:
- S.S. Aquagal
- Clock's sedan (Destroyed)
Synopsis for The Clock Strikes: "The Mogol Diamond"
The Clock pursues two jewel thieves in a fast car, loses them but then gets ahead of them, charges directly at their speeding oncoming car, and deliberately causes a fatal head-on collision, jumping out of his own car at the last second. He recovers the famous Mogol Diamond from the wreckage and returns it to the jewelry company's courier.
Appearing in "Jane Arden // Lena Pry"
Featured Characters:
- Jane Arden (across top halves of pages)
- Lena Pry (across bottom halves of pages)
Synopsis for "Jane Arden // Lena Pry"
(newspaper strip reprints)
Appearing in Espionage Starring Black X: "The Purple Hoods"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Major Murdock
- Batu (First appearance)
Antagonists:
- The Purple Hoods
- Madame L'Darge
- Morgan, U.S. Army
- Willard, U.S. Senate
Locations:
- Washington, D.C.
- Espionage HQ
- Major Murdock's favorite restaurant
Synopsis for Espionage Starring Black X: "The Purple Hoods"
Circa probably 1937-Dec: The foreign-sponsored Purple Hoods group (Madame L'Darge, Olav in the construction gang, & others) plots to kill a bunch of U.S. soldiers when the 71st regiment goes marching down a certain piece of road, with a roadside bomb. But the group's leader soon learns that an important meeting has been infiltrated, probably by the Espionage agency, but really because having a group where everybody wears hoods is just asking for this kind of abuse. Anyway the bad guy leader decides to uncover the impostor then bail. That night the Black X, in his brown tuxedo and blue top hat, with black grease paint covering his face, invades the very upscale home of Madame L'Darge, and at gunpoint compels her to call the police, then opens her wallsafe AND smashes its lock, and otherwise fake-robbery-izes the place, then flees, leaving her to answer a bunch of embarrassing questions.
Soon, there is a meeting of the Purple Hoods top leadership (one white-haired purple-hatted-but-hoodless boss and 3 hooded underbosses, only one of whom is wearing a brown tuxedo). Black X dramatically unmasks first himself then Morgan of the Army and Willard of the Senate. Morgan tries to shoot Black X but telepathic manservant Batu is already in the next room and has already thrown his knife, non-fatally spoiling his shot. But the unnamed elderly boss guy opens a trap door under Black X & Batu, dumping them into a basement that floods during high tide, then leaves them unsupervised and runs off with his pals to make a speedboat getaway. Batu goes into a trance, and whammies some telepathic hoodoo onto the fleeing villains, and only (elderly boss guy) gets away. Black X does some fancy slithering and swimming, and gets out of the basement and into the river, and climbs up a ladder to a wharf, and just then, by absolutely nothing but luck, the boss bad guy's speedboat zooms right past that very ladder, within jumping distance. 24 hours later the still-unidentified boss bad guy is trussed up hand and foot and delivered to the Police Commissioner's home, with a note pinned to his shirt. Afterward, police are on the lookout for a well-dressed burglar known as the Black X.
Afterward Black X and his boss compare notes in a fashionable Washington restaurant.
Appearing in "Lala Palooza"
Featured Characters:
- Lala Palooza
Supporting Characters:
- Vincent Palooza
Synopsis for "Lala Palooza"
(newspaper strip reprints)
Appearing in Slim and Tubby: "Episode 16"
Featured Characters:
- Slim
- Tubby
Synopsis for Slim and Tubby: "Episode 16"
(newspaper strip reprints)
Appearing in Clip Chance at Cliffside: "The Kidnapping of Clip Chance"
Featured Characters:
Antagonists:
- Bugs
- Red
Other Characters:
- East Team
- Tad Holt, coach
- Bert Ball
- West Team
Locations:
- Cliffside College
Synopsis for Clip Chance at Cliffside: "The Kidnapping of Clip Chance"
Sports cheating gamblers, Bugs and Red, kidnap Clip Chance to throw the outcome of the Fruit Bowl. Clip escapes from them and plays in the big game, and wins again.
Appearing in Reynolds of the Mounted: "Voice of the Totem"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Witch Doctor Nikato
- his guards
- Jake Moran (Apparent Death)
Other Characters:
- Cree Indians
- Hansa
- Chief Totem
- Billy Bradford
Locations:
Synopsis for Reynolds of the Mounted: "Voice of the Totem"
- Synopsis not yet written.
Appearing in "Mickey Finn"
Featured Characters:
- Mickey Finn
Supporting Characters:
- Uncle Phil
Synopsis for "Mickey Finn"
(newspaper strip reprints)
Notes
- Published by Comic Favorites, Inc.
- Espionage:
- First appearance of Batu, the telepathic manservant.
- As spies are wont to do, Madame L'Darge seems to have later adopted a new identity, becoming the more-pronounceable Madame Doom, and returned in Smash Comics #4. The two look, dress, and speak exactly alike, and are both able to charm Black X into allowing them to leave the country un-arrested, and both have "Madame" in their names.
- At the end of this issue's story, "Black X" is wanted by the police. It's not mentioned again afterward.
- As usual, the wrap-up conversation takes place in a fashionable Washington Cafe.
- Also featured in this issue of Feature Funnies were:
- "The Barbarian, a Tale of Sybaris and Macedon in the year 507" (text story, part two, continued next issue), by Robert Hyatt, illustration by Ed Cronin. The Barbarian's name is Konar.
- Off The Record by Ed Reed
- Screen Snapshots: "Hedy LaMarr" by Bernard Baily
- Strange As It Seems: "Sightless Wonder" by John Hix
- Strange As It Seems: "The National Costume of Mexico" by John Hix
- They're Still Talking: "About the Player Who Scored All Points for Both Teams!" by Bob Zuppke and R.W. Depew
- Toddy by George Marcoux (across the top halves of pages)
- Flossie by Al Zere (across the bottom halves of pages)
Trivia
- George Brenner signs his Clip Chance strip as "Scott Sheridan", but signs The Clock Strikes! as himself.
- Will Eisner signs his Archie O'Toole strip as "Bud Thomas" and signs his Espionage strip as "Will Erwin".
See Also
- Discuss Feature Funnies Vol 1 16 on the forums
- Cover gallery for the Feature Funnies series
- Images from Feature Funnies Vol 1 16
