Blue Ribbon Comics #2 - pt. 1

This is shaping up to be my least productive month on the blog in the past two and a half years! And we end this month, revisiting MLJ's second issue of their first comic book.

Hmm...according to Rang-a-Tang the Wonder Dog, dogs can make high jumps into second story windows. Or maybe I'm selling the "wonder" in "wonder dog" too short. Could this be the first dog superhero?

Hmm again...if you see unusual tire tracks, you can call the Rubber Manufacturers Association and they can tell you where the tires were sold? It seems implausible..and yet, players sometimes need really easy hints to keep them moving in the right direction.

Assuming this page is referring to the North Bay in Ontario, it seems very unlikely that Detective Speed is going to need a dog sled to get around. This would be an example of adding "local color" to a foreign scene by utilizing common cliches about it.

It seems unlikely that seeing the same tire tracks in Canada would signify anything, since Speed was already told that those tires were only sold in Canada, and hence would be more common there. This would be another example of keeping the clues really simple.

You heard Speed -- rifles way a lot and slow you down! No complaining about encumbrance rules allowed now.

Okay, think about this one. Dan Hasting's friend, Dr. Carter, wants to set Dan up with an assistant. First, he picks one with an obvious personal grudge against him. Then, he talks up what a "fine technician" he is, when Barnes is almost 50 and still just an assistant. The lesson here is -- if your Editor tries to set you up with a supporting cast member who seems suspicious -- ask questions. Check references. Your Editor could be setting you up for a trap later.

That's right -- if an atomic blast hits your spaceship, it's not the heat that will get to you -- it's the humidity. I love how clueless people were about atomic radiation in 1939. You can use this in your campaigns to have atomic radiation do any crazy thing you want it to. Humidity? Sure, why not!

This is Buck Stacey. Now, it's true that low-level Heroes and mobsters with low Hit Dice have a roughly 50/50 chance to hit something. Some people might think that seems low. I give you this page, then, as evidence of how hard it is to hit someone. That gunman is shooting at Buck as Buck rides away with his back to him, in a straight line, at short range -- and misses. Now, there is also the Hero's save vs. missiles to factor in here, but I believe a low chance to hit is still justifiable.

This is Scoop Cody, and Scoop is the guy in orange. That might surprise you, because the guy dominating this scene is the mysteryman in a suit and ski mask. The guy (his calling card says he's called Marvel) just wanders into the scene like a wandering encounter -- proving that Hero classes need to be featured on the wandering mobster tables.

This is Bob Phantom -- one of my favorite characters to make fun of about his name. You can tell Bob is low-level; here, Bob warns the bad guys not to kill this guy. But, hey, they've got Tommy guns, so Bob is just going to warn here where it's safe. Hey, he did warn them, at least!

(Read at Comic Book Plus.)

Blue Ribbon Comics #1

This was the very first issue from MLJ, later known as Archie Comics. It was published by them, but likely not produced in-house; it contains some characters that had already been published by Centaur that Centaur apparently didn't own. In both cases, the producing company was likely Chesler.

Now, with that bit of explanation out of the way, we find ourselves reading Dan Hastings again after a short respite. Dan Hastings is a pretty obvious Buck Rogers rip-off. Space opera, without the opera, and even light on the space. Indeed, the initial plot hook about hijackers doesn't need to take place in space at all.

What do we get here for hi-tech? We have some kind of rocket ships, an invisibility field generator, and an "ultra-scope." I can't even figure out what the ultra-scope is supposed to be doing. Is it detecting the invisibility field? Is it allowing them to see the space freighter before it disappears?

It's also telling that the first two items are not only already statted for Hideouts & Hoodlums, but have been already seen in stories set in the 1930s. So the future is only hi-tech in its trappings.

More examples of how wussy guards are in H&H.

Another example of 1930s tech -- an electric eye triggers a recorded message that serves as an alarm. You'd think a louder whistle or siren would work better, but okay...

Another handheld paralysis gun -- just like we just recently saw getting used against Shock Gibson back in the "present."

More evidence that falling damage is seldom fatal. Even a pit so deep they call it the "ghastly living tomb" isn't deep enough to kill him.

The tactic about using a blast gun to propel himself into the air in low gravity is a clever one. This is also the first time we've seen this referred to as a rocket blast gun. I don't know how much damage to assign to a rocket blast gun -- maybe 3-18? It doesn't look that impressive, despite the cool name.

I laughed out loud at this and have to share it. Okay, this space-warp raygun is powerful enough that it's going to plunge the Moon into the Earth and destroy them both. But Dr. Carter stops it -- by loosening a wire with his foot.

It's always a good idea for your boss villain to have an escape route handy.

This cowboy hero is called Buck Stacey -- which is interesting, because that makes him sound like a Buck Rogers rip-off. But Buck Stacey is pretty smart, or pretty lucky -- here, he seems to easily recognize a masked man by his voice, despite the fact that the conventions of every comic book genre say it should not be so easy.

These awful little creatures are called Sugar, Honey & Huggin. I am not putting bear traps on the starting equipment list because I don't like to think of Heroes using them. I could see me using them as traps for Heroes, however. Wait -- does that make me an awful little creature?

Fifty pounds of radioactive quartz was worth $10 million?? Remind me never to make 50 lbs. of radioactive quartz available as a trophy!

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)