New Comics #1

We're at the end 1935 and New Comics #1!  I don't have direct access to it, but if this source is trustworthy then I know something of its contents.

In the "Vikings" historical serial a holy symbol of Odin is able to turn wolves away.  Undead turning was left out of the Hideouts & Hoodlums rules, or rather the game mechanic became the basis of the Superhero's wrecking things ability. Undead turning will be making a comeback as an optional rule in the next edition and, with the magic trophy item Holy Symbol of Odin, it will work on wolves as it does here.

There is also Oliver Weed, inventor of the first hi-tech time machine originating in the comic books.  I don't have any details yet on how that time machine operates, but I hope to by the time I cover New Comics #2!

Ah, that was then, but this is now!  I finally have access to this issue, thanks to the Comic Book Archives website.  And I can say, first and foremost, that I misinterpreted what I had read about the Vikings. It was not a physical symbol that was being referred to, but a manifestation or sign of Odin's will.  See for yourself --  

More interesting is this page from "Wing" Walker, the first aerial dogfight drawn for comic books.  Here, we see the Japanese Aviators use the stunt Shoot Gas Tank, and Wing using the stunt Dead Stick to fool them into thinking he's about to crash.

This page of Cap'n Spinniker features the first submarine and the first whale made for the comic books.  Submarines (or at least small ones, like this) were statted for H&H in Supplement I: National.  I never did bother statting whales, though.  When, I thought, would you ever wind up in a fight with a whale?  Well, when they're attacking your submarine, obviously. 

However, sperm whales are ridiculously massive for a game where the mechanics do not scale up exponentially.  Doing a quick combination of number crunching and guesstimating, for a 56+ ton animal, I figure a whale would have 70 Hit Dice, with each Hit Die being rolled on d20s!  Best to run away when you see a whale coming...

I also seem to have been wrong about The Strange Adventures of Mr. Weed.  Mr. Weed is just a historian and serves as the everyman hero; the real inventor of the first time machine made for comic books was Uriah Mowcher, the scientist.  There are yet no details about how the bathysphere-like time machine functions.

Don't get too excited -- that's not a giant ram you see; rather, the artist of Peter & Ho-Lah-An seems to have had some problems with perspective. I'm skeptical of the need to have rams statted for H&H, but just in case...I would make them 1+1 HD and allow half-pints to ride them over short distances.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Archives at http://www.luminist.org/archives/CB/#ADV)