Comic Pages v. 3 #6

After a long delay, I return to Centaur comics and the issue after the last issue of Funny Picture Stories.

And it begins with new character Lucifer, the White Devil. Lucifer is a British soldier and...well, it's unlikely his parents named him Lucifer (we soon learn his first name is Fred, so maybe his name is Fred Lucifer).  More likely it's a nickname he's gained from having a fearsome reputation in battle.

Here, Lucifer seems to have spotted something suspicious. It turns out, the native is wearing a ring that Lucifer thinks he recognizes. But the native doesn't appear to have walked anywhere near Lucifer. Maybe Lucifer is racist enough to think it suspicious for any natives to have nice rings. Or, perhaps, the Editor wanted the native to be a plot hook character, and just announced he looked suspicious. Perhaps Lucifer's player is lousy at altruistic or even reward-driven motivators, but is motivated better by curiosity.

Now this is interesting -- we've all seen the cliche of the rope bridge that falls apart as the Heroes are crossing it, but this time we see the rope bridge has broken before the Heroes reach it! This could be a good idea for handling all traps -- roll and there's a 1 in 6 chance of finding it already sprung and someone in need of help in the trap.

This is from His Highness. I only count eight different characters in those "crowd scenes", but there are supposed to be enough anarchists here to need an army to stop. The point is that, in foreign countries, expect to encounter anarchists in greater numbers.

Apparently, even a revolution can be stopped by just a single encounter reaction roll made in the right circumstances (maybe if the Charisma bonus is high enough?).

This is from Fury of the Foreign Legion.  I'm not sure what to make of Mary Desmon's assertion that she knows Paul/Michael so well that she can sense when he's being held against his will. A bluff? A psionic ability? Childhood friend as a supporting cast member type with a specific special ability?

This is from The Dopey Kits.  By my count, gangs of half-pints can be found in numbers up to 36. Note that some of the half-pints are wearing the costumes of Barry Finn, the Arrow, and what appear to be the Masked Marvel and the Shark, as well as costumes representing other genres Centaur had published.

(Read at Digital Comic Museum.)

Funny Picture Stories v. 3 #1

These Centaur titles were largely reprinting material from not that long ago by 1939, but so much of it is largely forgettable that I can't be sure if I've read something before, sometimes.  This is supposedly the second part of a Fury of the Foreign Legion serial, but I sure don't remember part 1.

In a pre-Pearl Harbor story, if Heroes really want to get involved in foreign wars, joining the French Foreign Legion might be the way to go. Indeed, one could conceivably run a Fighters-only campaign set in Africa with the Foreign Legion. This page-long scene would be handy reference material for such a campaign.

This is from a complete story called "The Amateur Murderer" and it's a slight tale of murder undone by entirely circumstantial evidence, but is worth sharing here because of the curious item called a "time torpedo".  Modern search engines seem to have trouble uncovering any real item called a time torpedo -- and this is surely not a time torpedo such as will later appear in Doctor Who stories. Rather, it seems to just be a firecracker with a slow, 3-minute fuse, or some other sort of timing device on it that can be set to go off after 30 minutes. I'm not sure such a device really existed, but it seems plausible enough that it could be a trophy item.

This is from a complete story called "Mountain Murder". It's a pretty decent fight scene, but note how each combatant seems to get in two attacks before his opponent gets in two more licks. This seems like evidence I was on the right track with allowing two attacks per turn in unarmed combat.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)