Enter the Dread Doctor – Chap. 5, Act 1, Strip 9

And here Professor Dr. does his best to verbally set up the piece’s villain, Dr. Dutchman Fu, in style. Classic style, as befits such an obvious pastiche of such a famous villain as Dr. Fu Manchu. The give-away is the distinct, if rather arbitrary, ethnicity of the henchmen. Just like Dr. Fu Manchu, for reasons of the author’s conven…uh, I mean, for reasons that are entirely his own, relies on Indian dacoits, Dr. Dutchman Fu surrounds himself with an elite guard of Ukrainian cossack. Just because he can. You’d do the same if you could, just come right out and admit it.

Anyway, the Professor does his best: he lists Fu’s various titles and ranks, probably increasing in volume, and only then, after a short, tension-building pause states the name, accompanied by a silhouette-only shot of the subject. Too bad the others on his team are young people, who just have no sense of decorum and no understanding of proper villainous-introduction style. It’s the schools, I tell you. They just don’t teach proper introduction of villains anymore. It’s the videogames, I tell you. Kids these days just…wait, did I blame the schools first? Uh…well, it’s the schools and the videogames, I tell you. And surprise. UH…I’ll just come in again.

More on Thursday.

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