Sunday, February 26, 2017

Champion Comics #2

This is The Champ.  It's squarely in the sports genre and reads like Ned Bryant, but with better art. What amuses me on this page, though, is the commercial-like description of the Champ's tonic. If it is responsible for his top physical condition, then maybe it is a potion that bestows a +1 bonus to all physical skills.



This is from Neptina, Queen of the Deep.  As often as sharks get defeated with knives in comic books, I wonder if knives should do +1 damage against them...





These fish-men might be another variation of mermen...but they do look an awful lot like kuo-toa from That Other Game. There are at least seven of them.  One of them seems to have a paralysis raygun. And if that encounter wasn't dangerous enough, there's a giant eel too!



There is apparently an entire city of fish-men down here, so...10,000+ of them? They have advanced science, capable of producing trophy items like a bubble helmet that allows underwater breathing and a paste that makes his skin waterproof and resistant to water pressure. That last part is odd because pressure never seems to be a problem in underwater comic book adventures, or all these underwater encounters occur within 1,000' of the surface.

We learn the fish-men are telepathic too -- something neither mermen nor kuo-toa can do!

This is from The Blazing Scarab.  Yes, a Rochester-like manservant called Snowball is blatantly racist -- but, what I'd like to know is, what's that weapon he's holding? It looks like he's attacking that other man with a shaving razor. As an improvised weapon it would do 1-3 points of damage -- maybe 1-4, since I think getting sliced by a shaving razor sounds pretty nasty.

Okay, if you can choke your way past the racism on this page, there's a really neat teleport trap here, with a glowing scarab being the lure.





This is Jungleman.  The text calls that a huge viper, but it looks like an ordinary-sized poisonous snake to me. What's unusual about this Tarzan rip-off is that it takes place in Cambodia (full of ruins -- good for hideouts!), and Jungleman's animal companion is an albino tiger.



Here we see mobsters burying their treasure under the ruins -- a perfect explanation for where there is so much treasure and trophy items hidden in hideouts.




Not only does Jungleman have a tiger companion, but he has an elephant companion as well. That's a lot of cumulative Hit Dice for a 1st level fighter or explorer to have with him. I would probably not allow either, myself.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)



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