Wednesday, July 6, 2016

Popular Comics #40

The Hurricane Kids are lost on a hidden land/lost world island. You can tell that it is by the over-sized fauna and, of course, the presence of dinosaurs. But what kind of dinosaurs? Some variety of carnosaur, it seems. I wonder if I should keep dinosaurs equally generic in Hideouts & Hoodlums, so one carnosaur entry could represent a variety of species.


Although also unnamed, this is likely a pteranodon (or simply pterosaurs if I want to keep labels more generic). Pteranodons are strong fliers and need some special ability for snatching and flying away with people.




Toby might be a surprising source for a consideration of the undead -- but what exactly is that thing Oomog is fighting, and what can it do? It is called both a spook and a ghost in the text. If it is a ghost, then ghosts can be hit by normal attacks (or perhaps only by powerful opponents, of 4+ HD, using normal attacks). Or perhaps spooks are something else, a weaker version of a ghost. Spooks can fly, spook people, and turn invisible, but nothing else (no other special defenses in particular).

I think the mobsters are onto something here. Horned toads may not be dangerous, but I always thought they were creepy. If nothing else, they're good hideout dressing.


From Shark Egan, a rare appearance of a huge eel (not a giant eel, and not an electric eel either). I gave giant conger eels 3 Hit Dice in Supplement II, so a huge eel should have 1+1 Hit Dice.


The Masked Pilot must be using the Aviator stunt Wing Walking to climb out safely onto the tail assembly. He then offers a good suggestion for investigators with bombs -- or any hi-tech item -- to search for clues. Every component has a chance of containing the manufacturer's name or mark on it. Find out who bought the pieces, and you may find the maker.


Here's an early precedent for rubber masks being able to fool people in comic books.



From filler called George Clark's Carnival, I thought this was a pretty good joke.

(Scans from Comic Book Plus)





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