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.)