Champion Comics #5 - pt. 3

Before we quit this issue of Champion Comics and move on, let's visit one last feature. The Adventures of Bill Handy is yet another Terry and the Pirates clone, with the Asian sidekick replaced with a black sidekick.

I had to double check, but there is no country called Palay. It appears to be in the West Indies.

"Wanga," amazingly is a real thing (and I was sure that was the fake one!). It's a magical charm packet found in Haiti, so that explains which country "Palay" really is.

Putting a machine gun nest may have seemed like a really good idea while stocking the castle, and it's definitely a good defensive position that can attack the Heroes at various locations, so long as they're out in the open. The problem is what happens when the Heroes get their hands on that machine gun and that position, and can essentially take over the whole castle at that point. The lesson: don't leave trophy weapons sitting out where Heroes can find them unless you want them to have them.

It's a castle with dungeons! I wish we'd seen more of this place.

Smashing the radio room may seem an odd extra step. Bill must not be certain the dungeon will hold his prisoners.

I wish we got to see the other side of that map where the good stuff is! A map that shows the location of a new hideout is as good as a treasure map.












If you don't look closely at that last panel you'll miss their strategy. Bill pounds on the side of the tower. The Nazi climbs up the tower. At the top, Marco surprises the Nazi and takes him prisoner. I would expect this to work once, maybe twice, before the crew below gets wise and takes other actions. A wiser course of action would just be taking the sub down and making the good guys tread water. 

A wisecracking player might say, "Gee, what good is someone else's medal gonna do me?", but a smart player would know that medals are rewards and rewards are worth XP!

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Champion Comics #4 - pt. 2

This is Penny Wright, girl reporter. We can see here how useful it is carrying glass compacts, especially if you get tired up a lot.

I still do not plan on statting henchmen as their own mobstertype. Hair-pulling? This henchman fights like a girl...

Although, according to Penny Wright, the way a girl fights is to put out a cigarette in your opponent's eye. Normally I wouldn't allow a called shot, but a lit cigarette to any other part of the body would barely qualify for a point of damage. An eye is going to be a small target -- AC 2? If it hits, I would let it do 1-6 points of normal damage.

The people in the sewers are not labeled, but they are "Apaches," also known as bloodthirsty hoodlums.

Waist-deep in raw sewage, Penny is going to have to save vs. poison or be diseased after this.

Doormen are good bad guys because they see everyone who's coming and going.

Until this page it wasn't clear what Nina's scheme was or that she was mesmerizing people. That would be simple skill-based hypnosis, rather than a magic spell.

The guy from the window is actually smart to put away his gun, since Penny can save vs. missiles to dodge getting shot...

But he's maybe not so smart to choose grappling, because grappling can always turn against you.

Typewriters, particularly 1940 typewriters, are heavy. I would let that do normal 1-6 damage.

The French police talk about being indebted to Penny, but it seems like the squad did all the hard work, except for the one guy she hit with the typewriter.

This filler page has an interesting image of what a Martian could look like. It's distinctly different from any other Martians we've seen. Do I need to stat another Martian??

This is Neptina, Queen of the Deep, though the cast is expanding so fast that Neptina only gets a cameo on this page. It is worth pointing out that the top two tiers of panels are told from point of views that no hero in the story is present to witness. This kind of "set-up" scene is common in modern comics with their infinite subplots, but is virtually unheard of this early in comic books.

That second tier of panels clearly illustrate what bothers me the most about so many underwater adventures -- how do merpeople or fish-men smelt ore to make things out of metal underwater? And these giant tools we see in the background, winches and cranes -- would they really be the best way to move things underwater?

Now, what interests me on this page are the fish-men "shadowers," which makes me think of allowing fish-men to be classed as mysterymen, or the obscure 1st edition class, the spy. But, on the other hand...they aren't very good secret agents, are they? They fail to blend in, inside a city of fish-men, and then easily fall prey to an ambush.

Note the merwomen's antiquated weapons. Brad's tuning fork, as we've seen previously in this serial, is a thought transmitter, which explains how the merpeople can talk to each other underwater (except for, again, how they smelt the ore to make the metal to make the tuning forks).

Sub-plane? Why would it need to be a plane underwater?

I'm half-convinced I should make some kind of a joke about revolting seamen here, but probably won't.

Remember how the merwomen "took care" of the shadowers on the previous page? So they've already been beaten or surrendered, but here's our murderous Brad, still going around stabbing them to death and getting to the battle at the palace late. Way to lead, Brad!

Lastly, note the hydraulic jet pack on Brad's back, which would be a handy way of getting around underwater.

These are the Liberty Lads, appearing three years before Johnny Tremain was published.

Liberty Lad Tom here demonstrates what not to do when trying to find the American Secret Service headquarters -- walk up to complete strangers on the street and openly ask them.

Sgt. Upjohn triggers a morale save with just a trip attack.

This is from the Adventures of Bill Handy. Here we get a rare look at a wild boar in comics. Curiously, guns are less effective than stabbing weapons against boars. Who knew?

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)