Manic Monday--The Unexpected Virtue Of Ignorance, Or, Nazi Ringmaster!!

Every time I think I know a lot about comics, I find out that I don't know a damned thing about comics.

The other day comicsfan wrote about Captain America #112 (1969) in his super blog The Peerless Power of Comics.

The issue was a flashback issue, as Captain America was dead (SPOILER ALERT: he wasn't dead), and Tony Stark was reminiscing about Cap's life. Included, of course, were flashbacks to the Star-Spangled Avenger's WWII days, and I was stunned to see this guy:

Whhhhaaaaattttt?? 

(Very sadly, the Swastika did not spin to hypnotize victims)


Before Ringmaster and The Circus Of Crime, there was Nazi Ringmaster and The Circus Of Espionage?!?

How could I possibly not have known this before?!? Is this some fever dream??

Nope, it's as real as this:

Holy crap.

That is one ugly buncha circus folk!

And as the title tells us, Nazi Ringmaster has the gimmick of using a "Wheel Of Death" to decide who to kill next:

Now, Nazi Ringmaster dreams BIG!

Good luck with that, sir!!

Nazi Ringmaster loved to use circus-themed stunts to kill his victims, like "accidentally" letting tigers loose...

And well he may not have had Princess Python available, snakes were still on the agenda:

But just like modern-day Ringmaster...

...Nazi Ringmaster is a real loser when it comes to actually fighting heroes!

Many, many decades later, they decided that this guy was Fritz Tiboldt, the father of the modern Ringmaster, Maynard Tiboldt. Glorious!!

Now, do you see why I have to keep reading comic books?!?! There's always some bit of knowledge that I don't possess yet, always some character I'm not aware of yet...

From Captain America Comics #5 (1941)

Won't Somebody Think Of The Children?!?

I will bet you 70 zillion dollars that this was how the Circus Of Crime got it's start:

Ah, heck, it's just a fairly innocuous giveaway comic for hardware and appliance stores. But you can be sure that Maynard Tiboldt saw this and thought, "Hey, you know..."

It's actually a fun little book, with lots of fun advice on how kids can do the costumes and many of the various sideshow acts:

And...

...and...

Of course, it was all a ploy to help move appliances:

Geez, lady, how much food can you stuff into that fridge?

Ringmaster's Guide is from 1956

These All Make More Sense Than Aliens Vs. Predators

To hell with Amalgamations, alternate worlds or other stuff...these are just straight up Marvel/DC crossovers I want to see:

**Nightwing Vs. The Circus Of Crime

**Killraven meets J'onn J'onzz

**Kid Eternity Vs. Thanos (and throw in Nekron, if you must)

**The Mandrill Vs. Wonder Woman

**Batman Vs. Arcade. I can't tell you badly I want to see this one...

Hmmm, this list is mostly DC heroes vs. Marvel villains. I'm not sure what to make of that...

**Black Bolt Vs. Sonar

**Ka-Zar vs. Grodd

If you don't want to see all of these, you are dead to me...