We return to this extra-special issue of
Amazing Mystery Funnies. I had thought that the most special part of this issue was going to be seeing the first appearance of The Fantom of the Fair, but it was actually this installment of "Air-Sub DX" that was the big find.
And what's so special about this installment? Note the storyline. Tim and his friends are concerned about a "Montan", who found "the living diamonds" on "Mystery Isle"...
Here, Tim and his friends are traveling through the upper atmosphere in their rocket when they are caught in a "cosmic storm".
The rocket loses power and lands on the island, where they encounter giants. Not giant monsters, but still giants.
By now, I shouldn't need a road map for you to catch the parallels to a famous 1961 story.
Interestingly, rocket ships do not need pressurizing and you can open side doors to shoot electric cannons out of them, as if it was just a helicopter.
Now this is a different story, one of the many one-shots Centaur would publish. And the clue about "C-20" is one of those terrible clues no player would ever guess. No one would ever hear that and go "Gee, I wonder what all the boats down at the dock are named. Could one of them be C-20?" It would have to be a clue that a non-Hero character at the scene would give away, but then there's little point in using clues if your Heroes have no chance to figure them out.
I'm a bit surprised by this one. Though the correct spelling is benzene, not "benzine", the author is actually pretty spot-on for how dangerous a large quantity of benzene is in a poorly ventilated room.
I had to look it up, but that stuff would make a good trap.
A subtle feature here is how the concept of hideout is tipped on its head. There's a suspicious-looking warehouse right there on the pier that turns out to be completely innocent; the gang is small enough that they work entirely out of the scow, using a separate motorboat nearby as their getaway vehicle.
(Scans courtesy of
Digital Comics Museum)
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