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in: Comics Published by Fawcett Publications, Wilford H. Fawcett/Executive Editor, C.C. Beck/Cover Artist,
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Whiz Comics Vol 1 6

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"Captain Marvel: "The Circus of Death"": The sinister scientist Sivana, whose evil brain whirls with dread schemes of destruction, imports to Earth, from Venus, six rocketshipsful of exotic animals, and opens a circus, intending to make a fortune and thereby become the most powerful man aliv

Quote1 This place is too hot for comfort, Blimp. We're scramming. Quote2
— Scoop Smith

Whiz Comics #6 is an issue of the series Whiz Comics (Volume 1) with a cover date of July, 1940.

Synopsis for Captain Marvel: "The Circus of Death"

The sinister scientist Sivana, whose evil brain whirls with dread schemes of destruction, imports to Earth, from Venus, six rocketshipsful of exotic animals, and opens a circus, intending to make a fortune and thereby become the most powerful man alive.

One half-crazy sideshow freak, "Clarence the Maniac Man," spurned by the lovely highwire dancer Lovelia, releases some dangerous animals. Captain Marvel fights and defeats assorted bulletproof sabretooth tigers, a prehistoric elephant, two giant horned crocosaurs, and kills the only gorillion (a hybrid gorilla-lion centaur) in the universe, then using the big circus tent, he bags all the alien animals, flies them out to sea, and drops them into a watery grave. Sivana flees back to Venus, unpursued by Captain Marvel.

Appearing in Captain Marvel: "The Circus of Death"

Featured Characters:

Antagonists:

  • Dr. Sivana, (See Notes.)
  • Clarence the Maniac Man, a sideshow freak of a cave man

Other Characters:

  • Lovelia
  • Ringmaster

Locations:


Synopsis for Golden Arrow: "The Bank Robbery That Backfired"

Golden Arrow once again goes up against Brute and Bronk Braddock, who stampede a herd of cattle right through town, to distract everybody while they rob the local bank.

Appearing in Golden Arrow: "The Bank Robbery That Backfired"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

Locations:

  • American West (See Notes.)

Synopsis for Lance O'Casey: "The Launch of the Brian Boru II"

Stranded on Shipwreck Shoal, Lance O'Casey, Daniel Doom, and Mister Hogan build a new schooner out of old wreckage, in three weeks, and dub it the Brian Boru II. This ship's crew then rescues a girl cast adrift at sea, then saves her father from some island savages.

Appearing in Lance O'Casey: "The Launch of the Brian Boru II"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

  • South Sea Island Heathens (Flashback and main story)
    • Chief (Dies)

Other Characters:

  • Diana Winslow (First appearance) (Flashback and main story)
  • Dr. Drew Winslow (First appearance) (Flashback and main story)
  • four yacht crewmen (Dies in flashback)

Locations

  • South Sea
    • Shipwreck Shoal
    • Savages' Island
    • Maloana Island (destination)

Vehicles:

  • Brian Boru II, schooner (First appearance)
  • West Wind, diesel yacht (Destroyed)

Synopsis for Spy Smasher: "Amusement Park Assassin"

Spy Smasher stops the villainous Mask from assassinating Admiral Corby at an amusement park.

Appearing in Spy Smasher: "Amusement Park Assassin"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

Other Characters:

  • Shipyard Workers, dignitaries, launching ceremony crowd

Locations:

  • Shipyard
  • Amusement Park

Vehicles:

  • new U.S. battleship, secretly constructed
  • Mask's motor launch
  • Eve's blue and yellow open top roadster
  • Mask's gang's red sedan
  • Spy Smasher's new Gyrosub

Synopsis for Dan Dare: "The Great World's Fair Mystery"

Dan Dare solves a series of murders at the New York World's Fair, in which the victims are displayed in a refrigerated wax museum.

Appearing in Dan Dare: "The Great World's Fair Mystery"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • Carol Clews, secretary

Antagonists:

  • Dr. Ling Chow (Single appearance)
    • "Lefty" Louis, kidnapper
    • four Chinese thugs

Other Characters:

  • Colonel Parsons, World's Fair Superintendent
  • World's Fair Emergency Hospital Doctor

Locations:

Vehicles:

  • Dare's Private Plane
  • Ling Chow's sailing yacht
  • two motorboats

Synopsis for Scoop Smith: "The Emperor of the Bahamas"

Earlier, the notorious ambergris smuggler Otto "Scarface" Krug escaped during his trial, in a stolen airplane, which then crashed, off the Florida Coast. Now editor Bruce Lane reads an incoming wire story on his teletype, about a new outbreak of ambergris smuggling, and he dispatches Scoop Smith and Blimp Black to go to the Bahamas and check it out.

Two days later, in an amphibious airplane piloted by Scoop, almost at their destination in the Bahamas, Scoop and Blimp are forced down by engine trouble, and land near a palm-covered island, well off the main shipping lanes, with an unidentified freight ship anchored nearby. So they climb aboard this ship and snoop around. They find some "palm oil" barrels that don't smell right, form a suspicion, and get ready to leave, when two brutal crewmen armed with baling hooks grab them and try to take them prisoner, for "the Emperor." Scoop and Blimp punch their way free, but have nowhere to go but over the side. The two thugs idiotically dive in and swim after them. Between the swimmers and the shore is a giant octopus, which drags the two thugs under. They get into the woods, but have to hide from headhunters, and are found by Louis Ferretti, a wanted fugitive from New York City. Ferretti has a rifle, and a story to tell, about Otto Krug.

A dozen or so ex-convicts including Ferretti are virtually enslaved by this "Emperor" Otto Krug, and are tired of it. Ferretti shows them a good hiding place, a jaguar cave, only it's got jaguars in it. Smith fights and defeats the huge cats, using a grip he learned from catching wolves in Texas. While Ferretti foments rebellion among Krug's hench slaves, Scoop and Blimp climb over the wall into Krug's compound, where they get captured by his guards, a squad of headhunter riflemen. Krug has them locked in his Spider Den, with some very large spiders. Ferretti also sneaks into the compound, finds the den, talks to Scoop, runs to get some dried palm leaves, and passes them through the window into the spider den, where Scoop and Blimp are furiously swatting at the spiders with their shirts. Scoop sets fire to the leaves and the spiders get burned. When the guards run into the smoke-filled room, Scoop and Blimp elude them and escape into the castle. There they meet up with Ferretti and his rebel smugglers, and are soon embroiled in a melee with Krug's headhunter soldiers. Amid the battle, Ferretti kills the Emperor, then is himself gunned down. Scoop and Blimp depart very quickly.

When they make it back to the big city, their boss, as usual, promises to send them on another little vacation.

Appearing in Scoop Smith: "The Emperor of the Bahamas"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

  • Otto Krug, ambergris smuggler (Dies)
    • Smuggler Crew (two die)
    • Headhunters
  • Louis Ferretti
    • other Ex-Convicts

Locations:

Vehicles:

  • Amphibious Airplane
  • Freight Steamship

Synopsis for Ibis the Invincible: "The Lost Ibistick"

From the open window of his autogiro, Ibis the Invincible has carelessly lost his wish-granting Ibistick, over the ocean. It lands on the deck of a small fishing smack. The skipper, Captain Hooker, accidentally magics up several thousand dollars worth of caught fish, but doesn't figure out how, and he plans to give the stick to his nephew. Ibis can't land the autogiro on water, so he and Taia follow the little trawler back to port, which is a small seacoast village, and land several miles from town. It's night before they get to town and learn from a night watchman where the captain lives, by which time the Ibistick has been given to the ungrateful nephew. With the Ibistick, young Willie accidentally magics up a bicycle, then a fox terrier, but he no sooner figures out what he has than the dog snatches the Ibistick and runs out the door, just as Ibis and Taia are arriving there. The dog gets away. But the dog's attention eventually wanders, and he accidentally magics up a steak, and drops the stick to chomp the steak; this attracts the attention of a nearby hobo, who fails to catch the dog or the steak, but settles for the abandoned stick, then he catches a freight train and leaves the area. One idle wish later, the hobo finds himself riding in his own private Pullman car, and figuring out the stick's potential.

A week later, still vainly searching the little fishing village, Ibis & Taia read in the paper that an ex-hobo with a magic wand has threatened to wipe out America unless he is proclaimed king, and has already killed a dozen men. Ibis, with Taia, goes to the guy's luxurious new home and confronts him; the ex-hobo tries to turn Ibis into ice; this backfires on him fatally. Ibis then transforms the gaudy mansion into a small homey cottage and gives it away to an elderly homeless couple. With that problem solved, Ibis and Taia decide to drive to Hollywood and check out the movie stars; a sleek roadster is conjured up; and away they go, but very soon Ibis has driven onto a grade crossing directly in front of an onrushing streamlined passenger train.

Appearing in Ibis the Invincible: "The Lost Ibistick"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

  • Hobo (Single appearance) (Dies)

Other Characters:

  • Captain Tom Hooker (Single appearance)
  • Willie (Single appearance)

Locations:

Items:

Notes

  • This series was published by Fawcett Publications. All characters and likeness(es) thereof associated with the Captain Marvel family of titles became the legal property of National Periodical Publications (DC Comics) in 1991.
  • Captain Marvel:
    • "The Circus of Death" is reprinted in 'The Shazam! Archives Vol. 1'.
    • This is Sivana's fifth big and evil scheme. He was last seen in Whiz Comics #4, and next appears in Whiz Comics #10. At the end of this episode, he escapes back to Venus.
    • At story's end, Clarence the Maniac Man is still at large, and it seems quite possible that his role in this chaos went undetected.
  • Dan Dare:
    • Dan gets head-konked with a heavy wrench, but doesn't black out.
    • Carol is made immune to all poisons, by the E.R. doctor at the World's Fair.
    • Carol gets kidnapped.
  • Golden Arrow: At some point early in the history of this character, his adventures shift from the mid-20th century to the late-19th century. Up until Whiz Comics #5, in-story details have indicated the series to be set in the 20th-century. One detail, this time, implies a 19th-century setting: the main safe of the robbed bank is, by 20th-century standards, really small. In issues 6, and 7, the same cast of characters continues, so it could and should still be set in 1940. But there are no cars or highways, and no telephones or phone poles, in the dialogue or art. And everybody has a horse. So up to a point it's ambiguous, but in 8, we see a horse-drawn jail wagon. After that, it's not the 1940s any more.
  • Lance O'Casey gets wounded with a poison-tipped spear.
  • Last issue for Scoop Smith by Bill Parker and Greg Duncan.
  • Spy Smasher:
    • Spy Smasher's new Gyrosub looks very different than the previous version.
    • Spy Smasher shoots a handgun right out of the Mask's hand, Lone Ranger style, that is, without breaking fingers or puncturing palms.
  • Also appearing in this issue of Whiz Comics were:
    • "Master Comics IS NOW 10¢" (full page ad for Master Comics, formerly 15¢ apiece)
    • "Whiz Magic" (prestidigitation tutorial, featuring Ibis)
    • "A Beggar Reclaimed" (text story)
    • "Whiz Comics Trading Post" (swap meet bulletin board)
    • "Who Is Mystery Man?" (full page ad for the current issue of Slam-Bang Comics #5)



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