Red Fox in “The Voice of the Petrel” (Manhunt #5, February 1948) is a strange Northern that was written by another Fox, Gardner F. Fox. The Red Fox of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police began in Manhunt #1. He appeared in all issues though later ones were reprints (1948-1953).
The story opens with Red Fox patrolling icebergs. An Eskimo man throws a harpoon at him. As he points out, the Eskimos are usually peaceful. He follows the man then has to fight him.
Red locks the man up. While he does, he learns that a spirit called The Petrel is fomenting an uprising in the area. The Mountie wonders if a ventriloquist is behind the scam. He is right, of course. We see the villain, a bald-headed man who has made himself a god with his ventriloquist powers. He uses them to control the natives, to have them bring him gold and furs.
Red comes to investigate. The Petrel throws a harpoon at him and misses. The two fight on the ice. Using a harpoon, the villain trips Red Fox into the freezing water. Red returns the favor and pulls the Petrel in.
The two men struggle under water. Red has the upper hand until they come up for air. The Petrel has the Eskimos take the Mountie.
The Petrel plans to burn Red Fox alive on a stake in a fake ceremony. Red can’t even call for help as the cold water has given him laryngitis. Red is set up on his pole but he calls the Petrel’s bluff. He demands the god call down with his mighty voice. The Petrel can’t because he, too, having been in the water, can’t use his ventriloquism. Red Fox arrests him.
Fox was obviously aware of old American literature because the idea for this comic is taken from a Gothic novel from Charles Brockden Brown (1771-1810). The book was called Wieland, Or The Transformation (1798). In that novel the villain manipulates the players using ventriloquism. The idea that an author must prove all the ghosts are fake comes from the Gothic explique, a brand of horror novel best exemplified by Ann Radcliffe and her The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794). Since 1798, the use of ventriloquism has been a stand-by for writers who want to explain away their phantom voices, whether in the Shudder Pulps like Horror Stories, cartoons like Scooby-Doo, or in comic stories like this one.
Manhunt Comics can be read for free at DCM.