What's So Funnyman?

Baily Publishing Company had a sparse collection of releases in the 1940s, including a series of one-shots titled Illustrated Stories Of The Opera. One of their comics was an anthology starring the first comic book appearance of the titular Cisco Kid. Aside from the gag character of Super Baby, the only horror feature in this comic highlights the enigmatic Funnyman, and this was four years before the creators of Superman made their own mirthful crimefighter of the same name. Just before his comic story, Funnyman gets a one-page prose tale written by former magician Bruce Elliott where a police detective goes to investigate the urban myth of a supernatural bad guy. Chamber Of Chills artist John Giunta worked his weird ways for the 8-page comic that follows which opens up on a bunch of men hanging out at the barber shop telling their own horror stories, which is like getting a mini-anthology horror comic inside an anthology comic. The barber facetiously named Dead Pan begins his own story about the mysterious Funnyman where he was a former Gestapo officer that faked his way out of Hitler's little helpers to cause real mayhem on his own in America. The ex-Nazi was disfigured by his prisoners, so he now had a permanent smile, similar to a certain Batman nemesis. Funnyman pulls a bank job with some thugs that he later murders, so he doesn't have to split the spoils, and killed of the bank patrons with laughing gas, again, like a certain Batman nemesis. Dead Pan continues his yarn about how the cops came to him after the robbery to look out for the disfigured crook who happens to come into his place for a quick cut but takes the barber captive after he recognizes him. Funnyman takes Dead Pan to his hideout and tries tickling him to death and then he leaves him tied to a table to be eaten alive by rats. The rodents nibble the barber's ropes free, and he punches Funnyman into a river where he evidently drowned. The story concludes with Dead Pan revealing himself to really be Funnyman in disguise and then makes his escape through a trap door that he had rigged, unless this was something the real Dead Pan had set up. Funnyman runs away laughing threatening to kill the men he just wasted his time telling his origin story to, so he is more of a compulsive sadist than a criminal genius. The larcenous laughing boy might appear to be a counterfeit Joker, but for a single-shot supervillain he managed to carve out an unorthodox niche for himself.