Slam-Bang Comics #1 - pt. 1

This is my first time ever looking at this issue. I know none of these characters become hits, but I'm hoping for a gem in the rough...

This is Diamond Jack, the Green Lantern before there was Green Lantern. He's got an interesting amount of hubris to him for what should be a 1st-level Magic-User. Of course he's not; the Magic-Users never are. Here he casts Protection from Missiles and Polymorph Any Object, neither of which are 1st-level spells.

I was long ago asked why Hideouts & Hoodlums bothers emulating D&D's low-level Magic-Users at all, if you never find them in comic books; but this is precisely why comic book Magic-Users are always so boring, so unbeatably overpowerful. I choose not to emulate that.

A gangster chief is a master criminal, while thugs are their own mobstertype. 

Magic-Users never seem interested in keeping secret identities, or keeping their magic a secret. It's a wonder that the existence of magic stayed secret as long as it did. 

I think this is the third time we've seen Cure Light Wounds being cast. 

Here's where things start to get interesting for me. The mobsters just happen to know a witch? And what to make of this smoke dragon? Is it a spell, like an Aerial Servant? Or is it a conjured, living (or "living"/enchanted) creature?

That the smoking dragon disappears as if dispelled instead of killed makes me lean towards treating it as a new spell. Speaking of which, this Create Sword spell may be a new spell too. What he does to the spell is the all-too familiar Polymorph Any Object spell.

On this page the dragon is now consistently called a demon and is treated as if it is a mobster instead of a spell. You would think the witch would know which it was...but I'm thinking consistency isn't the priority in this story.

It's possible that Jack was able to use the Disguise spell here, but only if the smoke dragon-demon is in humanoid form here. Otherwise he had to conceal himself with a higher-level illusion, or even a Polymorph Self spell. 

The witch's spellbook is her "wand," just as Jack's ring is his "wand." 

This suggests that Polymorph Any Object is a permanent spell, or this is a higher-level permanent version.

It's interesting how Jack uses no magic to disguise himself as one of the thugs, but still can't help himself and uses a Knock spell on the door.

If jack opens the safe for them, has he really caught them in the act of doing anything...?

I wonder if magic-users should get extra XP for when they defeat opponents without spells, given how many times I've seen powerful heroes choose to settle things with normal fisticuffs instead.

Tom Sharp would itself be a pretty decent name for a strip. 

This is not the first time I've seen fighters given experience in the Spanish Civil War. I wonder if this is how you explain brevet ranks for fighters, circa 1940? 

The Lafayette Flying Corps was the name given to the American volunteer pilots who flew in the French Air Force (Armée de l'Air) during World War I. I don't think its name was changed to the French Flying Corps during WWII.

Sermia sounds like Serbia. It's an unfortunate bit of naming, since Serbia was a victim during the war, invaded and occupied, with many deaths.

This is not the first radio-controlled plane we've seen, and it's far from the first ray gun that kills engines we've seen -- surprisingly, this is the first searchlight mounted on a plane we've ever seen. Apparently it's a rare feature, but then so is night flying...

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)

Popular Comics #49 - pt. 3

UGHH...the new Blogger is so terrible, I hate to even work with it. We'll see if I can plow through and at least finish this issue.

Captain Tornado finally earns some points -- despite how Jane is dressed, he keeps his eyes facing nice and high -- and then promptly tosses them away with senseless violence. "Giant eyes! I can't even see what it is, if it's dangerous or not, or what it's intentions are -- but I'm a'gonna shoot it anyway!"  

That's a pretty dynamic first panel for a strip this otherwise...well, I still don't know what to make of this strip. Let's try to work it out together, shall we? 

Pro: Moon Mountain Manor sounds like a great name for an adventure module.

Pro: Although the Village of Rose Hollow seems to be fictional, there is a Rose Hollow Valley in Baxter County, Arkansas that is near the Ozarks.

Con: A minor quibble, but newspapers don't print their headlines in color.

Pro? Con?: The story turns conventions on their head by having the unattractive scientist in the lonely laboratory overlooking the village be the hero instead of the villain.

Con: The laughably named Mancho Phyroe. Mancho makes me think our hero is Spanish, but what to make of Phyroe...?

Using field glasses to read cablegrams at a distance is a sound tactic.

"Yugrarvia" surely refers to the then-Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

This page brings up a good point about the importance of thinking about where your hideouts are getting their electricity. If from the local power grid, it is too easy for the Heroes to turn that power off, but if the hideout has its own dynamo, you must place it somewhere. 

I am wondering what is supposed to be so "horrifying" about that laboratory. It looks more "intriguing" than anything.

"Soft-shoe prowl" is a cool term.

This is a rare occurrence of a Hero using a chimney to navigate vertically through a hideout, but it is a good idea to be prepared for this in-game.

I'm amused by, not only how the death ray says "death ray" on it, but that he's advertising it took nine tries to perfect it. 

There are no unexplored frequency bands in the vicinity of the X-ray; those are ultraviolet rays and gamma rays.

1,000 miles is a crazy long range for trophy weapons, but not that unusual in the comics. Consider carefully its effect on game balance, since players can get their hands on these. 

Wing-walking was a stunt for Aviators in 1st edition Hideouts & Hoodlums.

Gas tanks exploding is a fairly critical complication for aerial combat.

Shark is smart to rescue his opponents, as it does give him people to question for information.

In 1940, the "medical magic of the hypodermic" likely refers to morphine.

Here is a rare occasion of Asians speaking an actual foreign language instead of broken English.

The Syndicate sounds like a criminal organization, but here seems to be refer to a national alliance (the Axis, perhaps?). It does not seem to be a coincidence that the bad guys here seem to be Japanese.

Being able to throw destroyers against the Heroes does make it a seriously high-level challenge.

 

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)