Famous Funnies #32 - pt. 1

Watchdogs may not attack on sight, but they are noisy and that could be enough to alert a hideout of approaching intruders.

Firearms owned by mobsters will often have the serial numbers filed off.  In fact, it's a good way to identify a gun owner as a mobster! Without the help of the FBI, local police are unlikely to be able to ID a specific gun if its serial numbers are filed off.

Goat joke #8 (last goat joke here).

The supernatural in Hairbreadth Harry?  No, it's hi-tech pills of transparency. Good for spooking non-Heroes, or being a model for a biology class, but likely not much else.

There's a useable plot for a Hideouts & Hoodlums scenario right here.  Also note how quickly the trip to get to the plot hook is glossed over. This is entirely optional -- but probably a good idea. One of the last times I ran H&H, I spent too long on the trip to the adventure locale and it drained a lot of the momentum from the scenario.

The Phantom Magician debuts in Adventures of Patsy -- and the Magic-User class is born!

(Yes, Mandrake the Magician has already been around, but not in comic books I have access to)

H&H has, up to this moment, always relied on the spells of The Original Game for Magic-Users, but here we see the Phantom Magician using considerably different spells, mostly of the alteration school of magic.

I call the first spell "Poof!" after its sound effect, and it allows the M-U to teleport over a short distance.

The second spell we see here is Alter Costume, which allows a M-U to change his or someone else's clothes (or even add or subtract armor?).  I see both of these spells as being 1st level spells. 

We also see some familiar spells as well.  Invisibility is referred to.  Thimble seems to be under the effects of a Polymorph spell, including the possibility of losing your mind to the assumed form. But the short duration of the polymorph and the ability to dispel the mental change by a blow to the head seems to have weakened the spell, perhaps to a 3rd level variant called Minor Polymorph.

The joke ending is harder to define. Some sort of illusion spell that distorts people's sense of proportions?  It's hard to imagine how this would affect game mechanics. I'll work on it.

High Lights of History tackles mythology instead of history again! This time we get a magic item, the wax wings (or simply wings of flying).

Jane Arden provides good tips on how to look for secret doors without relying on a d6 roll.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)