Tex Thomson

**Tex Thomson** is an American man from Texas in Earth-Two. Thomson became rich thanks to fertile oil fields in his home state, and is now devoted to exploring the world. He is a genial cowboy who tries to do the right thing wherever he goes, but he's also not above saving his own skin when the time comes. He is allied with Bob Daley, another wealthy Texan explorer, and Gargantua T. Potts.

## Biography

### A murder in England

In mid-1938, Thomson visited peaceful rural England, where he met a young boy named Bobby. The two went out on a stroll together through the wood, and happened upon a dead body. Thomson sent Bobby to get the police while he kept watch. As he did so, a young woman came up and accused him of murdering the victim. The sheriff soon arrived, without Bobby, and the woman accused Tex of murder. Tex adamantly denied the accusation, but the sheriff was ready to arrest him. Tex knocked him out with one punch and dashed off. Later, he spotted the woman walking with an odd sense of glee, and followed her to a small hideout. There Tex discovered that she was part of a small gang of criminals who had committed the murder and planned to frame the first passerby for it. They had also abducted Bobby, preventing him from ever getting to the police. One of the criminals went outside to shoot the boy, allowing Tex to intervene and save him. As Tex eluded the others, he sent Bobby to get help once more. Bobby went and asked his friend Betty to get the police, and returned to help Tex. They bought time until the police arrived, led by the sheriff Tex had knocked out. One of the criminals attempted to bolt, but was shot down, while the others were brought to justice. Tex apologized to the sheriff for punching him, but he simply blamed himself for jumping to conclusions. The sheriff offered Tex a reward for the gang's capture, which he handed off to Bobby and Betty.

### The Sealed City

Continuing his globetrotting, Tex allied with adventurer Bob Daley to seek out the legendary Sealed City which had supposedly been covered up by volcanic activity in a remote area of the world long ago. After several weeks of exploration, the two reached a wall bearing a symbol that Daley recognized as being emblematic of the city. Immediately, the two received a note by a dagger thrown into a tree, requesting in a friendly but firm tone that they leave. Undeterred, they further examined the wall, opening a secret entrance. They soon became acquainted with some hooded natives, and though their initial meeting was defensively hostile, the two adventurers were soon led into a building where they met the apparent leader of the city, a strange one-eyed man. Though initially hospitable, the leader, known as the "Gorrah," proved malicious, but Tex and Bob were able to escape. On a beach nearby, they found a man buried up to his neck in sand. They rescued him, and he told them he was the true Gorrah, having been falsely usurped by the current ruler. Tex and Bob accompanied him to his battle and victory over the impostor Gorrah. With the true Gorrah restored, Tex and Bob went on to protect the city from an external threat, using deception to repel a would-be conqueror of the Sealed City.

### Nestralia and Captain Diablo

Tex and Bob continued to seek out adventure, traveling to the small European nation of Nestralia, where they helped quell a violent revolution. While flying his plane through Europe, Thomson was forced to the ground by another plane. The pilot came out and was soon joined by a group of soldiers who took him to see a man called Captain Diablo, who ran a sort of makeshift, independent army. Diablo was planning to recruit Thomson or kill him if he refused, as he had done to many others—but both men were stunned to discover upon meeting that they were virtually identical to each other. Diablo was all the more adamant that Thomson join him, but Tex managed to escape and fly away. Captain Diablo put out an anonymous radio signal declaring that Diablo had been seen flying through the sky, and a local government forced Tex down and jailed him as a result of mistaken identity. Soon, Bob Daley tracked Tex down and confirmed his innocence to the authorities by way of personal belongings. The authorities cooperated with Thomson and Daley to track down the real Captain Diablo, which they did during a chance meeting in a nightclub. Diablo was taken into custody.

### The ape-men of Dr. Kichung

Tex and Bob next traveled to the east, to a small city called Sung-Wei. The city was largely empty, and the man who examined their passports kindly advised them to stay away, but they insisted on entering. Arriving at their hotel, they were stunned to find that their bellhop was some sort of ape behaving as a man. They heard a man's screams from within the building, and the proprietor of the establishment, Dr. Kichung, calmly showed them that he was conducting a brain transplant from a human to an ape. Kichung had one of his apes escort the two to a small jailhouse nearby, but Tex managed to fight him off. At the jailhouse they released Alicia Stockton, a missionary. More apes arrived and took the three back to Kichung, who sought to make Alicia his first female test subject. The three escaped however, and commandeered a boat to paddle up the nearby river. Their escape was short-lived, as Kichung and an ape entourage met them at a nearby shore. Tex and Bob were imprisoned, and Alicia was taken in to reattempt Kichung's experiment. The adventurers managed to escape their cell and rescue Alicia, escaping Sung-Wei as a group of apes stormed and killed Kichung.

### The white queen

Tex and Bob traveled elsewhere in China, and got in a brawl in a bar with an aggressive sailor named Devoe. They spent two days in jail, and upon getting out were attacked, kidnapped, and forced into service on Devoe's boat. As it turned out however, the financier of the voyage, Lord Raynolds, had a niece on the boat, Deborah, who had long been a friend of Tex's, and she essentially confirmed that he and Daley were wealthy Americans who deserved better than to perform menial labor. Raynolds explained the point of the voyage: there was a legend of a white baby who had washed up from the sea in a boat and was taken in by the king of a small island nearby. That child, a girl, had grown up to rule the island. Raynolds now sought to prove that legend true and vindicate himself for having been regularly mocked for writing about it. The party arrived at their destination and peacefully spoke with the queen, who indeed was a white woman ruling over a community of natives. The queen ordered Deborah be imprisoned, and Tex responded aggressively, firing his gun at one of the queen's servants. Before his arrival, the queen had learned of a prophecy whereby she would know her destined mate by a loud noise. She believed the gunshot to be that noise, and began prostrating to her new king. Tex was subjected to a series of dangerous physical challenges to prove his worth, which he passed with flying colors. Thomson truly had no desire to marry her, but the high priest wanted the queen for himself, and tried to kill Thomson. A guard stopped him, and the priest was executed for his treachery. The priest's twin brother emerged pretending to be the priest himself and tried to gain revenge, but Thomson shot him in self-defense. The queen allowed Thomson and the others to leave peacefully, and Reynolds secured enough evidence to write reliably on the matter.

### Further adventures

Tex and Bob spent a quiet evening with their friend Colonel Rushmore, but their time was interrupted when Rushmore was shocked to receive a message from a notorious criminal known as the Ace of Spades. After a series of murders and attempted murders of Rushmore's associates, Tex deduced correctly that Rushmore was the Ace of Spades himself, and brought him to justice. Tex put an ad in the newspaper seeking adventure. Tex wound up getting more than he bargained for when a woman who turned out to be a government agent who sought protection from foreign spies. Tex and Bob then silenced a gem-smuggling operation, recovering a particularly sought-after diamond along the way. They also unwittingly recruited Gargantua T. Potts to their team of adventurers, a man who'd been working as a deckhand. Gargantua was regularly abused by the captain for perceived laziness, and Tex saw this and knocked out the captain in retaliation. Gargantua was endlessly grateful, and decided to quit his job and tag along with Tex and Bob on their adventures. The three visited France during carnival season, but soon found themselves being mistaken for spies. A shadowy man gave Tex a mission to retrieve information from the French government. Tex told all of this to a French representative, who encouraged him to play along with the spies. In truth, the representative was a deeply seated spy himself, and Tex soon uncovered the vast conspiracy in this spy ring and brought them to the proper French authorities.

Tex visited the Turkish prime minister, who asked for his help investigating a potential threat to allied ships nearby. Investigating incognito, Tex stumbled upon none other than the one-eyed Gorrah from the Sealed City. The Gorrah hypnotized Tex to do his bidding—it failed, but Tex played along to get more evidence on him. He subtly notified Bob and Gargantua of his predicament while he carried out the Gorrah's wishes, planting bombs on the Turkish ships. He soon pulled the double-cross on the Gorrah, cornering him with his allies. The Gorrah consumed some sort of suicide pill, falling limply to the ground, seemingly dead. The Turkish prime minister commended Thomson for his help to the nation. Near the end of the year, Tex, Bob, and Gargantua traveled to Africa to save a famous actor's son from natives who were using a chemical injection to turn men into mindless zombies.

## References

1. ↑ *Action Comics* #1i: "Tex Thomson." (June 1938) Bailey, Bernard.
2. ↑ *Action Comics* #2g: "Tex Thomson." (July 1938) Baily, Bernard.
3. ↑ *Action Comics* #3g: "Tex Thomson." (August 1938) Baily, Bernard.
4. ↑ *Action Comics* #4g: "Tex Thomson." (September 1938) Baily, Bernard.
5. ↑ *Action Comics* #5h: "Tex Thomson." (October 1938) Baily, Bernard.
6. ↑ *Action Comics* #6g: "Double Trouble." (November 1938) Baily, Bernard.
7. ↑ *Action Comics* #7h: "Double Trouble." (December 1938) Baily, Bernard.
8. ↑ *Action Comics* #8g: "Tex Thomson." (January 1939) Baily, Bernard.
9. ↑ *Action Comics* #9g: "Tex Thomson." (February 1939) Baily, Bernard.
10. ↑ *Action Comics* #10g: "Tex Thomson." (March 1939) Baily, Bernard.
11. ↑ *Action Comics* #11f: "Tex Thomson." (April 1939) Baily, Bernard.
12. ↑ *Action Comics* #12f: "Tex Thomson." (May 1939) Baily, Bernard.
13. ↑ *Action Comics* #13f: "Tex Thomson." (June 1939) Baily, Bernard.
14. ↑ *Action Comics* #14f: "Tex Thomson." (July 1939) Baily, Bernard.
15. ↑ *Action Comics* #15f: "Tex Thomson." (August 1939) Baily, Bernard.
16. ↑ *Action Comics* #16e: "Tex Thomson." (September 1939) Baily, Bernard.
17. ↑ *Action Comics* #17f: "Tex Thomson." (October 1939) Baily, Bernard.
18. ↑ *Action Comics* #18f: "Tex Thomson." (November 1939) Baily, Bernard.
19. ↑ *Action Comics* #19f: "The Zombies." (December 1939) Baily, Bernard.
20. ↑ *Action Comics* #20e: "The Zombies." (January 1940) Baily, Bernard.