Tip Top Comics #26, 27

Welcome back! Still going through back issues of Tip Top Comics, and we're still on v. 3, no. 2 (June 1938) from last time. I actually don't have a lot of game mechanics to discuss this time, so let's just jump in so I can talk about why I've chosen these pages to discuss.

This page is rather exciting because -- well, look at that lifeguard! At this same time, Centaur Comics was still publishing minstrel show-type strips of blacks eating watermelon, and here we have a normal-looking black man, acting in a heroic manner.

Less PC as far as devils are concerned, How It Began has a very interesting history of cider that makes me want to run a medieval campaign like this someday, where the Devil isn't evil so much as he's just lazy, and you never know where you might trip over him.

There is a lot of filler in this issue, which means more learning for me; I never knew this about envelopes.

We're now in vol. 3, no. 3 (July 1938).

I had never encountered the term "sky pilot" before being used to refer to a preacher. It certainly gives new meaning to the 1960s song for me.

I'm so amused by this page, probably more than I should be. Just the thought of running scared from a cow...

The polevaulting over a river that wide-looking would probably take a stunt, or at least an expert skill check (atheletes can clear 20').

Both a boat and aquaplane can be rented here for just $3 per 15 minutes. Of course, the operative word here is rented. Most businessmen will be disinclined to rent to vigilante heroes, as they tend to get things wrecked.

I'm really surprised this was ever published, teaching kids how to make firecracker bombs in people's cars and telling them it's a funny prank adults do too? Geez.

Well, this is how you set a bomb in a car with a firecracker and some spark plug wires, apparently. Knock yourselves out, future H&H Heroes needing a diversion.

In module RT 1 Palace of the Vamp Queen, I added a table that was really useful for me, a list of random things mobsters might have in their pockets. I'm pretty sure they are on it, but I'll have to go back and see if I thought of handkerchiefs, cigarettes, and a license. I'm really surprised a common mobster would be carrying $485 on him, unless he just came back from a job. Although...I'm thinking from my modern perspective of how little cash I need to carry around these days, thanks to debit cards. Maybe, back when we paid for everything in cash, this wasn't so extraordinary? If so, then I would need to rethink $1 = 1 xp if I was going to have wallets this full.

I'm hoping this filler was well-researched, because I'm certainly putting a lot of stock in it lately. This is a fascinating explanation of where the Jack and Jill story came from that I'd never heard before.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)