KARLOS KONAK
Real Name: Karlos Konak
Identity/Class: Human technology user
Occupation: Scientist
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: The unidentified village simpleton (employee)
Enemies: Zuka (but only because he provoked her)
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: "The Invisible" (in story title); "King Konak, ruler of the world" (in his delusions of grandeur)
Base of Operations: His workshop somewhere in Europe
First Appearance: Tales to Astonish I#15/3 (January, 1961)
Powers/Abilities: After being exposed to his invisibility ray, Konak was rendered invisible but, as an unforeseen consequence, the rest of the world was invisible to him such that he perceived everything as a blank nothingness.
History: (Tales to Astonish I#15) - Trying to discover the secret of invisibility (so he could rule the world, of course), Professor Karlos Konak met with only failure and frustration. The village simpleton he hired to clean his equipment told Konak that none but Zuka the witch could make herself invisible. Remembering the strange tales that he heard of Zuka, Konak made the simpleton take him to Zuka's home on Black Thunder Mountain. Konak went inside Zuka's house and demanded the secret of invisibility, but she refused to give it to him because it would be too dangerous in the hands of a greedy fool. When Konak threatened to destroy Zuka's home, Zuka relented and gave him the two enchanted lenses that held the power of invisibility and told him how to utilize them, but warned him of the dreadful fate he would bring upon himself. As Konak left with the lenses, Zuka called out with a final warning not to attempt his plans.
Returning to his workshop, Konak fashioned a crude projector for the lenses, then successfully tested it on a cat in a cage. After further tests, Konak next reversed the lenses and tested the projector to make sure that it would make things reappear before he used it on himself, and again met with success.
Walking into the projector's ray, Konak began to vanish and he scoffed at Zuka's warnings because he felt fine. Suddenly, he cursed himself as a poor, blind fool -- he would never be able to reverse the lenses again because he didn't realize one simple thing -- for while Konak was invisible to the outside world, the rest of the world had become invisible to him!
Comments: Created by an unknown writer and Steve Ditko.
Since the rest of the world was invisible to him, Karlos Konak was effectively blinded by the ray. Konak's final fate is unknown, but I suppose he could have felt his way around the lab, found the projector, reversed the lenses, and restored himself to normal.
This story -- "I Am the Invisible!" -- was reprinted in Chamber of Darkness#8.
Profile by John Kaminski
CLARIFICATIONS:
Karlos Konak has no known connections to:
Zuka the witch has no known connections to:
An old witch who gave Karlos Konak two enchanted lenses and told him how to utilize them so he could build a ray projector that would turn him invisible.
--Tales to Astonish I#15/3
A crude instrument built by Karlos Konak, it served to project a strong beam of light through the two properly spaced enchanted lenses and focus it into a ray that rendered whatever it struck invisible. Reversing the lenses would cause whatever the invisibility ray had struck to reappear.
--Tales to Astonish I#15/3
images: (without ads)
Tales to Astonish I#15, p14, pan1 (main image)
Last updated: 09/06/06
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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