Who Is the Skull Killer?

[egypturnash]

I was idly chasing links through the world-wide web and ended up looking at a thread on Warren Ellis' board in which he invites people to reimagine an obscure bit of pulp nonsense:

One of the more outré of the pulp characters—and given the genre, that’s quite saying something, believe me—the Octopus was actually the villain of the piece in his single issue, The Octopus v1 #4, 1939, written by...well, it's not exactly clear. It might be Norvel Page, or it might be Ejler and Edith Jacobsen. A rather over-the-top mad scientist, the Octopus worked from a big city hospital and plotted world conquest. His appearance might explain his desire to dominate the world; he's sea-green, with four "suction-cupped weaving tentacles" set above "hideously malformed" legs. He wears a small mask, and behind it can be seen two enormous, luminous, purple eyes. He was the leader of the Purple Eyes, a cult bent on world domination and mass destruction. The Octopus’ chosen method was an "ultra-violet ray" which devolved men and women and turned them into deformed, life-hating monsters hungry for human flesh and glowing with “ultraviolet purple.” Against the Octopus was set Jeffrey Fairchild, a young millionaire philanthropist (he eventually stopped the Octopus, of course). He had three identities. The first was Jeffrey Fairchild, hospital administrator. The second was was kindly Dr. Skull, the old man who made a practice of helping the poor in the slums. (His good works didn’t help him when everyone thought that he was the Octopus, however) In his other identity he was the “Skull Killer,” who fought crime and left a skull-imprint, ala the Spider, on his enemies. Fairchild was assisted by Carol Endicott, Dr. Skull’s nurse.

I found the Skull Killer to be more interesting to play with than some guy with tentacles. He kinda ended up being a Baron Saturday-looking guy, which is maybe kinda appropriate for a doctor.

edit: Oh, awesome, it was the first piece Ellis showed on the blog post he made about this round.

Comments

[athelind.livejournal.com]

This is really, really cool -- and yes, Fairchild is at LEAST as interesting as his adversary.

Reading through the comments and submissions on Ellis's blog, though, is one big Reading Comprehension FAIL. Like the misled public in the original tale, everyone seemed to think that The Octopus WAS Fairchild.

So, one gold star for a visually interesting piece, and another for being the only person in class who can READ.

...incidentally, I think I may steal BOTH of these guys for my Mutants & Masterminds game.

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was gonna say something about how most of the previous participants mixed them up, but... I figured the insanity of the setup was enough text already!

And feel free, I'm not planning on doing anything with these suckers!

[postrodent.livejournal.com]

Never mind Skull Guy there, that is one distinguished looking octopus. Maybe it's the time I spent on Saturn, but I find it difficult to resist a cephalopod in uniform.

[dv-girl.livejournal.com]

I know just how you feel...


Well... Except maybe Squidworth. I don't think burger-shop uniforms count though.

[paka.livejournal.com]

So. Given E Gary Gygax's steady diet of pulp fiction, what do you think the chances are he pulled on that octopus mask for Mind Flayers? They've always been specifically four-tentacled, rather than actually octopoid or the random-mass-of-Cthulhu-face.

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

Hm. Does it say that in the MM text, or is it solely an artist convention? I would be willing to believe he read that story if the text specifies "four tentacles on the face"!

[enui-iune.livejournal.com]

apparently Mr. Ellis likes it :)
http://www.warrenellis.com/?p=7311

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

ooh, awesome! first one he excerpts. Thanks!

[athelind.livejournal.com]

"Suckers."

http://www.instantrimshot.com/

[athelind.livejournal.com]

If Geek Memory Serves, Mind Flayers got 4 tentacle attacks/round, but the physical description in Original D&D and AD&D1 didn't mention if that was ALL the tentacles.

Most artists just made the leap that this meant four tentacles -- though all those races running around with two hands usually just got one attack per round.