Number 2046: Rex Dexter: "Inhabitants of the Bald Spot"

You get a clue about some 1940 American attitudes toward other people living on Earth when you read this caption on page two: “The bare spot remains a mystery. As long as the Western civilization is unharmed, scientists pay little attention to the strange event.” The strange event is a meteor strike “grazing the surface of the Earth,” wiping out everything in its path. As a scientist opines, the Earth is “. . . just as well off without those barbaric people!” It is only when it looks like it might affect them that Western scientists think the problem needs solving. Rex Dexter is called on when some strange creatures, the Protoplasmen, appear on the flat spot.

Even though this was drawn (and probably written) by Dick Briefer, it reminds me of the type of story Basil Wolverton, or more likely, Fletcher Hanks, would have created. Rex flies 50 million miles to rescue the Earth. All in a day’s work for that hero.

Originally published in Fox’s Mystery Men #6. My scans are from the reprint in Rex Dexter of Mars #1 (1940).

Posted in: Pappy Comics