Comics on Parade #17

One of the earliest mentions of bulletproof vests in comics.

Bill and Nell use fire, strategically, as a barrier. I had just written about this for 2nd edition Hideouts & Hoodlums not too long ago, under combat options.

This is from a gag filler called Grin and Bear It. It's a rare sighting of anarchists in comic books, sightings that will become increasingly rare as Fifth Columnists replace the role of anarchists in stories during the war years.

I also think the top and bottom gags are pretty funny here...

As are the top right and the bottom left panels here. There's a lot of gag filler in this comic book.

Here we see a surprise turn, a morale save made, a successful disarming attack (I've already hinted that disarming guns is going to be much easier in 2nd ed.), and a really successful unarmed grappling attack, throwing this guy on the ground for damage. I have just recently, finally, written grappling rules I'm happy with.

I'm not sure how taking his boots are really going to stop Dave the Fox if he gets loose. Unless maybe he'll be at a -1 penalty to Move because of his bare feet...?

Here's an example of taking environmental damage from really cold weather, enough in fact to knock our hero Billy unconscious. We also learn here that Dave the Fox is actually Neutral in Alignment, making for an unpredictable reaction when meeting Billy again.

This is a reminder to myself to consider putting gnomes into 2nd ed.'s mobster section. On one hand, I'm getting interesting ideas for gnomish culture here (like flower shoes). On the other hand, it seems like gnomes are so tiny in this strip that they might not even qualify for 1 hit point.

Surprisingly, this might be the first mermaid I've seen in the comic books.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus)