Welcome, Congo Billions, to an internet first - a blow-by-blow indexing of the heroic exploits of that dashing daredevil of the Dark Continent, CONGO BILL!
Congo Bill (real name: unknown!), a "two-fisted globetrotter" who is half Indiana Jones, half MacGuyver, and all-MAN, has endured as a beloved character since his 1940 debut, and yet has not one single website devoted to his thrilling exploits. I plan to rectify that gross oversight, and along the way explore what made this handsome, confident "confirmed bachelor" (who had a penchant for associating with older bearded men and/or athletic loinclothed teenagers, isolating himself from normal society in pursuit of fame and excitement) tick!
Congo Bill first appeared in More Fun Comics #56 (June, 1940) sailing down an unnamed African river (The Congo, one assumes?)with his older mustachioed male friend, Professor Kent (no relation, presumably, to milquetoast American newspaper reporter Clark Kent, himself the subject of several adventurous tales of the same period) seeking a rumored lost city.
The boat is attacked from the shore (sadly, killing the pair's native guide, "Toto" -one hopes this is his actual African name, and not derived from a famous fictional dog)Bill and "Prof" (Bill's pet name for Kent) are overtaken by a native attacker, or as the politically-incorrect omniscient narrator likes to say, "a huge black". (We will, regrettably, occasionally be presented with some unfortunate descriptors of the early 1940's, mostly aimed at Africans, Asians, Germans, and women.)
Bill and Prof are taken by the natives to the very lost city they had been seeking, where they meet the mastermind of the operation, that terrifying purveyor of evil, THE SKULL!
Wow, Skull, that's a lot of information for a panel!
And what's up with The Skull's face? Is that a mask? A deformity? It's one effed-up grill, whatever the cause.
The Skull apparently wants Kent to find the city's hidden treasure, but Kent refuses and he and Bill are locked up. Note Bill's concern about what might happen to the two of them - perhaps he's spent time in the pokey before? - and Kent's tender concern for his bachelor friend....
The pair find a secret passage leading from their cell directly to the treasure, defeat The Skull and his henchmen, "One-Eye" and "Slats", and escape with the loot back to their boat - but not before The Skull makes a spine-tingling promise:
Will The Skull deliver on his ominous threat? Will Congo Bill conquer his fear of lock-up? Will Professor Kent take the treasure to a museum, as he says he will, or keep it for himself and his young companion Congo Bill? STAY TUNED!
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