Rocket Comics #1 - pt. 2

We're still looking at the first comic book of March 1940, from Hillman!

Hurricane Hart, High Seas Hellion, is noteworthy because of this note, or more specifically the riddle on it. My players have always hated riddles, and they wouldn't like this one any better.  Indeed, I doubt many of them would have figured this one out.

Spoilers abound on this page for the riddle.

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Also note that, in Hideouts & Hoodlums terms, the monetary value in that treasure chest probably just bumped Hart up a level.

More riddle spoilers. The tide was so strong, it pulled his pants off between panels 1 and 3!

Moving on to the next story, this is Red Robert, the Electro Man. This guy kind of resembles Spider-Man's future foe, Electro too, though Red completely foregoes any kind of costume, and the Marvel comics version was over-the-top gaudy (in a good way).

Red is more powerful than Marvel's future Electro too, as in addition to (in H&H terms) Get Tough and wrecking things, Red can turn into electricity and travel through power lines, via the high-level power Teleport through Focus (more like DC's future Atom). Electro Man must be buffed a lot of brevet ranks.










Although buffed to the gills with brevet rank-enabled powers, Red is still a starting-level Hero and has starting-level funds; hence, his needing to borrow a car from his sister. And why would someone who can effectively teleport through power lines need to borrow a car? Because his H&H player wants to conserve his high-but-still-limited number of powers he can use per day for the big fights ahead.

Panel 4 is very confusing, as if panels are missing Where did that paper come from and what does it have to do with being too afraid to fight?

The villains' hideout just happens to be stocked with a vacuum-bell-drops-from-the-ceiling trap. Very dangerous, as long as one of the Heroes happens to step in just the right 5' x 5' square and -- oops, hasn't already demonstrated the ability to wreck things.

I need an invisibility power for superheroes besides Invisibly Fast...

Jumping ahead, this is The Steel Shark, which is the name of the villain, while the Hero is Lt. Dick Jones. You know you're dealing with a villainous mysteryman when they have a signature move like leaving a submarine-shape cut where they hit you.

Comics.org lists "?" for artist on this story, but I'll be darned if this doesn't look like our old friend John Paterson, so prolific at Centaur back in '38.

Bear in mind this was a coded message that's already been decoded; the decoders bothered leaving the "stop" words used in telegrams, instead of just writing periods.

I wonder if we should have a mobstertype called a suicide jockey -- a mobster who's not particularly tough, but never needs to check morale and will kill himself in the most spectacular way possible at the first sign of trouble.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Rocket Comics #1 - pt. 1

We made it to March 1940! At the same time, we're going into the future with Rocket Riley. I think I'm gonna get whiplash!

There's not going to be much Hideouts & Hoodlums content here today, more just frolicking in pure goofiness.

"How naive, Dad! Don't you know that the secret of exploding the atom will be made into a terrible weapon, not a tool for peace?"

Ah, how blissfully ignorant the next five years will be.

"I'm going to build a spaceship -- and mount it on my roof! I'm sure that won't harm the building at all!"

It seems crazy how gold is going to destabilize a nuclear reactor, but ignoring real world science, there is perhaps some logic to this. We know that mass can't travel at light speed, only energy. Three pages from here, we'll hear Rocket claim they are approaching the speed of light. What if the nuclear reactor isn't just powering the engines, but is transmuting the ship and its interior into energy? And the one element it can't transmute into energy is gold.

There's actually good science concealed on this page. Even the void of space isn't completely empty, and one of the biggest dangers of interstellar travel would be collisions with objects.

...Although, if they were being transmuted into energy for the trip, they would probably just bounce off the object. Not immediately fatal, but being thrown randomly off-course could be deadly in the long run.

There's a lot of aviation talk here that's surprisingly accurate; let's break it down. An aileron is a hinged flight control surface usually forming part of the trailing edge of each wing of a fixed-wing aircraft. Elevators are flight control surfaces, usually at the rear of an aircraft, which control the aircraft's pitch, and therefore the angle of attack and the lift of the wing. A heliometer is a refracting telescope with a split objective lens, used for finding the angular distance between two stars. An inclinometer, or clinometer, is an instrument used for measuring angles of slope (or tilt), elevation, or depression of an object with respect to gravity's direction. Laterals -- on a plane -- would be flaps on the wing that control lateral movement; lateral control on a spaceship would be something very different, like maybe mini-jets on the port and starboard sides. Ceiling, here, does not refer to maximum altitude, but to ceiling functions in mathematical formulae. 

Here we see the importance of commas; note that Prof. Sterling is not saying, "I must start the vacuum, retards, or we will crash!"

This is also where Rocket says they are approaching light speed, as I mentioned earlier.

That there are four moons means, if they are still in this solar system, they must have entered orbit around Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, or Pluto. The surface clearly doesn't look like a gas giant -- though the dialog only says they entered orbit of a planet, not that they were landing on the planet; they could well be landing on a fifth moon.

Traveling to even Pluto at light speed would take less than five hours. They have clearly not left our solar system, because that would take over 4 years to reach the next closest star, Proxima Centauri, at that speed.

Now here's where things get really weird, as whatever world this is, is home to octopus men. They are encountered in groups of over 100 at a time.

Octopus men are fast on land, with a slightly faster move than normal humans (13-14?).

I'm not sure that's a sound tactic Rocket tried. By dodging, he makes two of the aliens crash into each. What is the other 100 doing, standing and watching behind them? I think Rocket really did fall, and the narrator is just covering for him.

Nope. Uh-uh. The wind resistance as they approach escape velocity would mean saving throws vs. science with a -11 penalty to keep from being blown off. Rocket should be taking 20d6 falling damage by the end of this page!

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Famous Funnies #67 - pt. 2

Just a few pages left to share from this issue...

Jack Kirby isn't doing the art anymore on Lightnin' and the Lone Rider at this point, but it's still an interesting set-up with some unusual additions to the cowboy genre -- a Dragon Lady-like femme fatale, and "advanced" technology, like television, in the villains' lair.

This is from Mescal Ike, and while I think the top strip is pretty funny, I'm including this for the interesting turn of phrase in the middle tier. "Head of the class" is still a common term in use today, but if there's a head it stands to reason there's also a "foot of the class," with the bottom scores. Today's school system would not emphasize this fact and humiliate the student, but in 1940...?

This is from the one-page gag filler, Life's Like That. I'm partial to librarians, even though the "Squeaky" panels aren't as funny. What I found really funny was the baby panel.

We're checking in on Homer Hoopee again for the first time in awhile for several reasons. One, even though the chase sequence is over, it alludes to two important factors -- attack penalties for hitting a target moving at great speed (found in 1st edition Hideouts & Hoodlums' vehicular combat rules, but should also apply to attacking movement-buffed speedsters), and ranges on missile attacks. Further, Homer's prize is an example of how generous monetary rewards can be at the end of a long adventure ($50,000 -- in 1940 no less!).

If you can ignore the racism in this page of Spunky Dory, you'll see perhaps the first critical hit to the groin in comic books, and delivered by a goat no less (longtime readers of this blog are aware of the importance of goats in golden age comics)!

The question then is, is this evidence of the need for a critical hit mechanic in H&H, or does the headbutt to the groin simply explain how it did maximum damage on the damage die? I lean towards the latter.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)

Famous Funnies #67 - pt. 1

We rejoin Roy Powers, Eagle Scout today after a long time separated. Here, we see how easy traps are in the modern age of Hideouts & Hoodlums. A simple oil flask hanging from a string in D&D would be of little threat to anyone, but substitute it with nitroglycerine and suddenly you've got a trap that can be deadly for even mid-level Heroes.

We also see some nice tactics from Roy, using role-playing to his advantage against the mad scientist.

Just a couple pages later, Roy is already jumping into his next scenario.

Editors may be tempted to roll randomly for mobsters to see which target they choose; I've done this many times, and it does present an element of fairness that keeps players from feeling picked on. And yet, if there are common sense reasons to attack one target over another, the Editor should follow his common sense.

I'll be honest; Skyroads is such a generic aviator feature that I have no idea who this guy is!

Whoever he is, he comes up with a good rationale for getting a +1 modifier to his wrecking things roll. He probably asked if there was a hoisting tackle lying around and the Editor, unprepared for that tactic, had him make a save vs. plot to determine if there was or not.

Hairbreadth Harry leaps back and forth between being a credible source for H&H inspiration and outlandishness too zany to emulate with any seriousness game mechanics. Here, Harry swings towards the latter, as he claims to have used the pushing mechanic to push his melee combat with Rudolph 3,000 miles, or the equivalent of 15,840,000 points of damage, by H&H's current rules.

When I see panels of villains trying to bribe heroes, and I remember that taking money is a huge motivation in H&H, I wonder if we need to have different mechanics, even if only optional. Or would a saving throw vs. plot cover this? Yes, I think it might, at least for Lawful Heroes to take a bribe. But would that just deter players from playing Lawful Heroes...?

Sergeant Stoney Craig, even without his U.S. Marines, really (ahem) mops up with an improvised weapon in this combat. The spears are uncommonly short, and are maybe harpoons instead of spears. A harpoon would not count as an improvised weapon.

The knife is thrown by an assassin. There's a considerable amount of racism here, with the half-Asian man being called a "breed," but this actually plays well in the story, with the locals' racism explaining how quickly they accept this scapegoating.

Near Island is a real place, in Alaska. It seems strange that anyone in Alaska would hear "They had Jeremy Blade at near" and not think of Near Island...but this would make sense at a game session; players never get clues.

Dickie Dare is relegated to cheerleader in this month's installment, as these pages focus on the gorilla-lion battle. I'll have to add a note to the lion entry that, even when grappling, lions still get raking attacks.

I'm not even sure what's going on here, so it's even harder to figure out how this might apply to game mechanics. I guess...hearing Miss Karson's voice reminds Tiny that someone loves him, and gives him the will to keep fighting, even as his body tells him to quit...?

Yeah, that's really hard to quantify into crunchy rules. I suppose you could include a rule that supporting cast can rally you once per day to give you a +1 bonus to something -- and that would give players more impetus to bring supporting cast along besides the meager XP award.

Or, this is all flavor text and Miss Karson's rallying cries didn't influence Tiny's dice rolls at all.



(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)

Comics on Parade v. 2 #11 - pt. 2

We're wrapping up with just a few more pages from this issue, starting with Looy Dot Dope. Here we get a glimpse into salary information, though we likely could have guessed that $20 extra a week would be too steep a raise for his boss.

More interesting, for me, was seeing the verb "buttle" in use.  We see the word butler all the time, but we forget exactly what it is that butlers do -- butlers buttle.

This is Ella Cinders, and I only share it for an example of how high reward money can go for even low-level mobsters.

This is the filler page Grin and Bear It; I particularly like the bottom left gag.














I've showed pages with salary information before, but this page of Dynamite Dunn reveals how expensive it is to hire a vamp to break up a couple.

Lastly, Knurl the Gnome intrigues me this time with the concept of goat-mounted mobile radios. Would Heroes ever consider buying pack animals to carry radios for them?

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Comics on Parade v. 2 #11 - pt. 1

I have been reading Tailspin Tommy off and on since this blog began, but never enjoyed it until this storyline, with an eccentric group of passengers and crew trapped in a remote valley. There is all kinds of survival advice players could use if someone sprang a similar scenario on them, like how important rationing food is, how many watts of power it takes to power a radio to reach 50-60 miles, and slang terms like "fan his conk." I'm pretty sure that means punch him in the nose...

The stranded passengers and crew do all the right things, figuring out how to hunt birds (they have to improvise missile weapons), foraging for edible berries, and looking for frogs down by th' creek.

We see a rare example of cussing from a newspaper strip as Tommy fails to see the value in trigonometry -- and, to be fair, I'm not sure how the professor's plan helps them any either.

Also note how soap opera relationships help keep tensions high among the cast.

Sorry if you planned on building your own Seversky Trainer out of paper; I'm more interested in capturing its max. speed and landing speed.

I never thought we'd talk so much about Abbie an' Slats -- but I've said that about a lot of strips by now, haven't I?

What I like about this page is that it deals with the main character's failure to win a scenario. Good guys always win? Not in Abbie an Slats they don't, and your players shouldn't feel like victory is always assured either.

Here we get some pricing information and, while some of it suspect, since the man paying is filthy rich and showing off that fact ($50 a day for room and board?), $40,000 for a high-end Rolls-Royce is definitely still believable, even for the 1930s.

And now, since it's much in the news these days, let's discuss misogyny in golden age comic books. Or, is it ever okay for your character to spank a lady?

Since the object of many role-playing games is to kill your opponents, spanking them seems pretty mild in comparison. I think it's also relevant that she slapped first, and he's doing the same amount of damage back. Would it be worse, or better, if he returned the smack instead of switching to spanking? From a game mechanics standpoint, he has to initiate grappling before he can spank, meaning he's invested more actions in his violent act than she did. And he would have taken an extra element of risk to do so in Hideouts & Hoodlums, as she would have an equal chance as him of reversing the hold!

I would say, had he spanked her butt as she walked away, that would have been a more tit-for-tat for the slap.

Moving on, this is from a full page of For the Record, but I only found the bottom two funny.

The Captain and the Kids also takes an unusual turn this issue, as it becomes a long flashback sequence for the Inspector, in his "youth" back in the 1890s. Note how Mitzi was of age to marry at 16, and everyone objects to the Inspector for leaving her at the altar, not for clearly being at least in his 40s at the time.

A few new nuggets turn up on this page. One is that the steamer's voyage across the Atlantic takes 30 days. Two, I love the detail about finding your way in the New York of the 1930s -- turn right at the lamp post with a cop tied to it. It's a grim detail if the cop happens to be dead, but certainly a good clue for any H&H Heroes that they are about to be on an adventure!

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Planet Comics #2 - pt. 4

Last post on this issue! We're still looking at Captain Nelson Cole of the Solar Force. On this page, their tiny fleet encounters floating radium asteroids. Instant destruction within 1,000 miles? I don't know about that...how about giving them a saving throw vs. poison at least? Saving throws don't work like that for inanimate objects like spaceships, but if the crew all dies, that's effectively the same as destruction, right...?

Skipping ahead...Nelson is the sole survivor of his entire fleet and when he arrives on the planet they were heading for, he gets upgraded with magic trophies. How awkward it would have been had more crew survived than there was magic trophies to go around to!

So, one, it's a pretty weird shift to go from a science fiction story into a magic-fantasy story. Weirder, he's given a fake mustache and told he has to pretend to be this world's Zorro now. What a mid-campaign shift!

Two-headed giants are already planned to be in the Mobster Manual, but this one at 40' tall might mean revising the entry to be tougher.

In Hideouts & Hoodlums terms, it's possible that Nelson/Torro hasn't been given actual trophy items at all, but has been allowed to switch classes to Superhero. Or maybe one or more of the items gives him levels in Superhero. Because the first thing he does seems very much like the 1st-level power Feather Landing. And then he wrecks things on the tree with his magic whip.

Wrecking things in front of mobsters provokes a morale save, as we see here.

"Boy, let me tell ya all about what my magic clothes can do! And don't get me started on what my socks and underwear are capable of..."

This makes me even more strongly suspect that "Torro" is a superhero now using flavor text to describe how his powers work -- because it seems a lot like he's describing Nigh-Invulnerable Skin, Leap I (well, technically, a much higher level Leap power, but maybe he's exaggerating), and wrecking things to me. Or maybe the clothes give him 1 level in Superhero, and the whip gives him another.

And lastly, we're going to jump ahead to the final feature, Auro, Lord of Jupiter. Again, there's a lot of John Carter of Mars influence here, right down to how common apes are just wandering around.

Auro is likely another superhero, buffed with one of the Get Tough powers, to be able to beat a gorilla bare-handed like that.

It's going to take weeks for that bite wound to heal? Does Auro have an immune system deficiency, or is he just making that up to score pity points from Ava?

Actually, if he was statted as an alien, and needed to have a racial weakness, I would allow slow healing to be his -- though I can't imagine a player choosing such an agregious handicap.

So the game mechanic question here is, is there a combat penalty for fighting with one hand behind your back? Technically, no, and judging by this page, there shouldn't be. However, I think an Editor would be well within his rights to assign a -1 penalty to attacks, and maybe a -2 penalty to grappling, while one-armed.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)