So, if you’ve watched my channel at all this year, then you’re probably aware that
I’m on a quest to create my own cinematic universe using abandoned superheroes from
the public domain. One of the characters that I haven’t really focused a lot of
time on until now is the main villain of the story, Landor the Maker of Monsters.
I know… you’ve never heard of him. This obscure character tucked away
in a middling late 30s early 40s comic book is a tragic story ripe for reimagining! But
before you hear it, you must first understand the comic book concept of filler stories.
In the early superhero days, most comic book publications were anthologies,
separated by genre. Action Comics had action stories, Detective Comics had mystery stories,
famous funnies had comedies… you get the idea. As comics exploded in popularity, more companies
started producing them, resulting in other creative names - Crash Comics, Thrilling Comics,
First Romance… some OGs might remember Speed Comics, which featured Shock Gibson,
one of the earliest lightning themed superheroes. But the thing is, writing and drawing stories for
those “featured characters” takes time, and a big selling point of these early magazines was the
number of stories that you would get in a comic. So, while a typical issue might feature two or
three popular characters, in between the ads, publishers would print filler stories - one shot
characters or series with limited page counts - made from low budget commissions to make readers
think they were getting more bang for their buck. Enter: Landor!
Written and illustrated by Bob Powell who seemed to make a living from
freelancing various spooky horror titles during comic’s Golden Age…
The story is, to put it bluntly, a bit of a Frankenstein knockoff.
Each episode is only two pages long, front and back, and based on his bibliography,
was probably thrown together in between or during his bigger projects.
Still, just because something rips off a classic work doesn’t mean that it’s bad!
Landor’s story begins in typical horror schlock fashion - introducing us to the mad scientist as
he experiments on one of his many undead monsters. (thunder, evil laughter)
By chance, he’s visited by Anthony and Marcia Torrence, who have stumbled upon his
spooky castle while trying to find shelter from a terrible storm. During their stay,
Landor’s monster springs to life and begins wreaking havoc on his lab… but upon seeing Marcia,
the monster begins to calm, and Landor then pulls a gun on his guests, demanding that
Marcia stay to soothe the create until his work is completed. Anthony springs forward to fight back,
but is quickly subdued. As Landor then attempts to put Marcia under anesthesia, the monster becomes
incensed and lashes out at him. Anthony reawakens, and seeing Marcia in the monster’s arms, goes on
the offensive… a fire is sparked in the ensuing struggle, and as the betrothed make their escape,
the castle is engulfed in flames, presumably killing the mad doctor and his horrific creation.
In the next issue of speed comics, while Shock Gibson saves the day, Landor - now a ghastly
ghoul himself - has survived the fire, and brings another creature to life: a winged seven-foot tall
undead woman, and sends her after the couple as they make their way away from the wreckage. When
Anthony is knocked out cold, Marcia thinks fast and takes a torch to the monster’s wings. As it
plummets to its death, Landor calls out to the couple, proclaiming that he will have his revenge,
before he himself leaps off the ruined castle’s balcony to an uncertain end.
He’s still alive. Don’t worry. He’s still alive.
In the following issue, Landor creates supersized mosquitoes and sics them after
the couple who are now back at their own home. Which is also a castle, oddly enough…
One of the mosquitoes grabs Marcia and takes her back to Landor’s hideout. There
she finally pulls off his hood and reveals the monster beneath. Anthony shows up with a gun
and blasts the mosquitoes to bits. The pair short circuit a generator in Landor’s lab,
then hightail it out of there before the entire place explodes into pieces.
Anthony then exclaims, “No one could live through that! Landor must have certainly been killed!”
He’ll be back! He’s like a bad penny, this guy… he just keeps turning up.
Next issue - it gets weird…
So there’s this group of armored madmen with flamethrowers terrorizing New York City. We
learn that Anthony works for a branch of the military, and despite his efforts, the government
is totally unable to stop the threat. Out of nowhere, Landor shows up and offers to build a
monster that can kill the mysterious firemen, on the condition that if he is successful,
the military will turn Anthony over to him so that he can finally get his sweet revenge.
Ready to die for country, Anthony agrees and heads to Landor’s lab, where the
dastardly villain has been working on a giant 20-foot-tall robot infused with a human brain.
(Robotic groaning.) Landor switches the monster on, and
orders it to attack the fire brigade. In seconds, it demolishes the enemy, but then turns to attack
its maker! In a climactic chase scene, Anthony puts his life on the line to down the rampaging
robot, saving Landor from sure destruction. Grateful, Landor releases Anthony from captivity,
but again pronounces that one day, he will have his revenge.
Issue #5! Landor’s got a new spooky castle, and he’s called upon by two mysterious men
asking him to tunnel into a government treasury vault to help them steal a large sum of money.
Maybe he’s paying for his new castle by doing a bunch of odd jobs… who knows?
Landor agrees to help them if, in return, they capture Marcia Torrence for him.
So they agree and head off to snatch her, meanwhile Landor injects a mole with growth
serum to turn it into a twelve-foot-tall menace. Marcia gets kidnapped, the Baddies start
tunneling, Anthony gives chase, and foils the attempted robbery by causing a massive cave-in.
And at this point, even HE’S not buying that Landor will stay dead.
Next episode’s pretty much the formula. Landor makes a 2-foot-tall cat-lady hybrid,
sends it to attack Anthony’s niece, Anthony then shows up, beats Landor to a pulp,
and escapes his castle as the villain appears to meet his doom.
Don’t worry it’s gonna get better.
In the next issue Landor gets visited by a lady caller! Dr. Sina Zurat, one of the world’s leading
biologists. Zurat has been following Landor’s work, and wants in on his experiments. So the two
enter into a partnership, combine their knowledge, and just a couple of weeks later have made Creeta,
a decidedly un-monsterous-looking monster, who agrees to act as Landor’s eternal servant.
With the experiment a success, Zurat has fallen madly in love with Landor… but he’s hesitant to
fully return her feelings, worrying that his physical deformities will eventually
drive her away. Despite himself, Landor embraces her… but their moment of affection
is quickly interrupted when Creeta appears, mad with jealousy, and lashes out at Zurat!
The Torrence’s of all people show up to join the fight,
and Landor and Anthony have to work together to kill Creeta… they succeed! But,
the damage has been done - Dr. Zurat dies from her wounds, and Landor is arrested
for his various crimes against humanity. The issue ends with these solemn words:
With the doctor in his arms, Landor is led away to prison, a dejected figure, hating the world.
(sad, somber music)
By the next issue, Landor has escaped from prison, returned to his lab,
and constructed yet another monster to kill the Torrences. Malfunctioning equipment leads to the
damage of his perfect super soldier, and with disgust, Landor realizes he now has a ghoulish
hunchback named Ganda to do his bidding. It soon becomes apparent that this botched creation
has got a few screws loose… he accidentally kidnaps a guest at Anthony Torrence’s house,
and ol’ Tony mounts up on horseback, rides to Landor’s castle and settles the score.
Something weird happens in the next story. Out of nowhere, Anthony’s name gets changed to
Jack. Jack Torrence. I have no idea why. Jack and Marcia go out sailing, and Landor sends a
fish-human hybrid after them. The creature manages to get ahold of Marcia, and brings her back to
Landor’s lab. Landor gets far enough to inject her with a serum that turns her blind. Enraged,
Jack travels to the castle, beats him to a pulp, and forces Landor to give him the antidote.
You think this guy would give up, right? Nope! Next issue, Landor has hired a pair
of hoodlums to capture both Jack Torrence and a famous criminologist named John Powers. He
places Powers in the hot seat and reprograms his mind, then together they head to a bank
and frame Jack Torrence for a jewel heist. I guess he’s robbing banks now, my guy!
Now facing prison, Jack hires a detective to take his case, who in return, tracks down Landor,
frees Powers, and exposes the scheme. Jack Torrence is freed from prison,
and is it just me, or did a comic book somehow recast the main character?
The final issue of Landor: Maker of Monsters starts out innocently enough…
a frustrated and utterly defeated Landor goes for a stroll outside of his castle,
at a loss for how to get revenge. He happens upon a crook named Spike Hart, and enlists
his services. Hart is soon led into his lab and transformed into a monstrous Tiger Man, then sent
out to deal with Jack Torrence once and for all. That night, the Tiger Man springs into action,
knocking Jack out cold. Thinking quickly, Marcia and her butler fetch a pistol and shoot the Tiger
Man dead… Landor then shows up on the scene, finally with a gun of his own, and the butler
takes a bullet, giving a resuscitated Jack the opportunity to throw Landor out the window.
His beast defeated, Landor drags himself to his car and drives off.
The butler survives, just in case you cared. The comic concludes by asking “Will Landor
DARE to strike at Jack Torrence again? Watch for the next issue of Speed Comics.
To which we can safely conclude that the answer is NO! Landor’s story never showed up in Speed
Comics again. In fact, without warning, Speed Comics itself went on a seven month hiatus.
So it took me about a year of looking into this, but evidently the magazine’s publisher
went out of business and their periodicals were eventually acquired by publisher Harvey Comics.
It took til March of 1941 for the publication to finally start back up, but when it did,
the original creator of Shock Gibson had left the series, leaving the headline character in
limbo. And, filler stories mean nothing if the comic’s main players go undrawn! So,
the company turned to Bob Powell to continue writing and illustrating their big headline hero.
And all at once, the Maker of Landor was onto bigger and better things.
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