Tip Top Comics #42, 46

We'll start again with Hawkshaw the Detective, not because I believe that you could really use a magnet to detect a concealed sword cane (or at least no ordinary-sized magnet), but because this is the first time I've ever seen "corporation" used as a slang term for a fat stomach (apparently that's a real thing).

 Is $15 reasonable for a watchdog in 1940, or is it a bargain?

I think I can relate to Phil Fumble. Maybe not literally, but I've had days that felt like this.

Anyway, it's interesting to see the number of threats you can encounter in a farm setting, from runaway pigs, biting geese, charging bulls, terrorizing hawks, swarming bees, racing dogs, and butting goats. Of them, pigs, bulls, dogs, and goats are statted for the game. I really don't think a goose, a hawk, or a bunch of bees is enough of a threat for Heroes.

This is the first new feature in Tip Top Comics since I started reading these! We know Hal Forrest from Tailspin Tommy, another aviator strip that wasn't very good. I suspect he got so much work in comics because his name was so close to Hal Foster, the legend behind the Prince Valiant comic strip.

Anyway, here we learn that the license number for planes (like VINs on cars) are hidden on the underside of wings and you can check with the Dept. of Commerce to find out who owns them (actually, I think we learned at least most of this from another strip before; I just don't remember the numbers being on the wings).

Two points here: one, if I'm really serious about making half-pints an official H&H Hero race, I need to think about setting more strict encumbrance restrictions on them than for full-grown adults. What's a good weight limit for a 10 year old? 50 lbs.?

And the other issue is the very real issue of child labor that I keep seeing in these strips (I almost brought this up earlier this week, with evidence from another strip). It seems like any unsavory character could get away with charging a kid just $1-2 a week.

I'm even more concerned about this short strip, and the cheap availability of poison in 1940. It might tempt players to go out and buy 50 cents worth of rat poison if it can make hoodlums sick, but this seems very un-Heroic behavior to me and should trigger a save vs. plot to carry out.

And, lastly, Ella Cinders teaches us that balcony seats are just 40 cents. And the robber shows us an uncommon stick-up method (I feel like I've seen that in a movie before, but I can't remember which!).

And that's it! I am done with Tip Top Comics for quite some time!  Woo! Next time, we go back to More Fun Comics and the debut of the Spectre!

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Tip Top Comics #32, 35, 42

Almost caught up and going to be done with Tip Top Comics soon!  Woo!

Pricing information: $2 gets you a boy's shirt. Not as high-quality a shirt as Frankie supposed, since it tears so easily, but this ties in with what I was talking about yesterday; keeping starting price points really low, but increasing the price along with quality.

We have recently seen a heroic black lifeguard in the pages of this comic book, but we have perhaps seen no black character as heroic as this racistly-drawn maid who risks her neck to protect Frankie and disciplines the villain in the end.

I included this story because a jewel that can share a preprogrammed phantasmal image showing why the jewel was given as a gift seems like a pretty neat magic item for the game.

I include this one because the Mobster Manual is going to have an entry for sphinxes and I was perplexed by this reference to sphinxes having to do with the number seven. I have done some cursory research and can find no evidence to back this one up -- unless it is an obscure reference to the theory once proposed that the answer to the Sphinx's Riddle ("What has four legs in the morning," etc.) is the philosopher's stone, and the philosopher's stone apparently has some numerical symbolism with seven.

Jumping ahead to March 1939 (vol. 3, no. 11), we rejoin Hawkshaw discovering a gas trap with an unusual -- and a bit unbelievable -- trigger. I would not think the balloons would be able to fall onto even the sharpest arrowheads hard enough to pop them, assuming the arrowheads stayed upright...although, maybe razor-sharp caltrops would work?

I was really expecting there to be something in that barrel before Pastey rolled it at the cops ... glue, oil, razor-sharp caltrops, maybe? I guess it didn't matter because, if a barrel is rolling fast enough and hits your wheel hard enough, maybe it could do this kind of damage...? This will need to be an obstacle in vehicular combat.

If you've ever wondered where monkey sidekicks in comic books come from, you could buy them in pet stores, according to Dick Moores.

For all your 1939 selfie needs, yes, cameras had timers back then.

And we return to Hawkshaw now a few months later (Oct. 1939, vol. 4, no. 6) because he's encountered some traps both mundane and hi-tech. A mundane trap is having trellises appear to be easy access to your hideouts' second story windows, but then rig the trellises so they are easy to push over, or to fall on their own. A hi-tech trap is to rig machinery to the window that passes current through it, shocking anyone who comes in for x amount of damage.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Tip Top Comics #30, 32

Today's entry might be mostly price examples, but we'll get to game mechanics later on.

First, in Fritzi Ritz, Nancy finds a wishing stone that doesn't work for her -- but this made me think about wishes, or just powerful magic in general, and the issue of how common these things should be in a Hideouts & Hoodlums campaign. Should a wishing stone be just randomly hidden in plain view in the urban setting, that the Heroes may or may not find? Or

should it be at the end of a long quest involving beating dragons and giants?

In the next page, Fritzi rents a canoe for $3, and that does seem like a lot, because Ella Cinders was able to rent both a boat and aquaplane for just $3 per 15 minutes three issues ago. Now, maybe Fritzi can keep the canoe much longer, but the point to remember here is that you can't separate Heroes from the money they've been accumulating with high starting price points,

because that's not how things worked in the '30s and '40s. You didn't just go up to a guy with a canoe and offer him $100 to buy it outright; he'd look at you funny like you were up to no good, or trying to pull one over on him.

Also, on the subject of pricing, Frankie Doodle buys baloney by the nickel and buns are two for a nickel at the grocery store.

I can never tell if the dates are legitimate or just made-up, but How It Began seems to be legit when it gives us things like a timeline for bullfighting -- which could be handy during a time travel adventure. You wouldn't want to plan a bullfighting scene in a 1350 scenario and have a smart player telling you that bullfighting wasn't happening then.

Electric toasters for just 69 cents. Granted, it's a special sale price, but still...

We're now jumping ahead to vol. 3, no. 8 (Dec. 1938).

We do have a game mechanics issue to discuss on this one. The grappling rules, as they currently stand, require both the attacker and defender to spend the whole combat turn making grappling attempts at each other; the only time a bonus action is inserted is when the victim wins initiative before the grappling combat starts. But here, the Professor is able to get "bonus actions" of slipping capsules out of his belt and rubbing them under noses during grappling. Or is he? He doesn't manage to when facing a Hero in battle, and I've already established that the Editor can hand-wave combat rules applying to non-Heroes.

As to the wrestling moves: the "aeroplane spin" is a simple throw. I don't have a good equivalent for the drop kick, but I don't think I would count that as a grappling move anyway; kicking is just another form of unarmed combat and I treat it no differently than punching.

I'm not going to bother showing you how Jim Hardy finds the clue that there's a secret door by the half-footprints right up against the wall, and I'm going to spare you how Dick Moores consistently spells clue as "clew", but I did want to show you this page because of the example of how the catch for opening a secret door can be hidden in plain sight. Also, the novelty diner as hideout was an idea I thought worth sharing.

Here we see that animal attacks can disarm as well as attacks from people (indeed, just a page earlier, a mountain lion swats Bill's rifle from his hands in almost identical fashion).

Large eagles might need to get statted at some point, as this one is strong enough to partially raise a young man into the air. It's tricky to do and stick to my formula of 1 hp = 30 lbs, since the largest eagles in real life are no more than 17 lbs.

And now we come full circle back to Fritzi Ritz, with an idea you can use in your hideouts -- a trophy room where all the animals are stuffed, except for one real one hiding among the others, that can really attack!

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Tip Top Comics #17, 20, 22

Also known as vol. 2, no. 5, 8, and 10. Outside of Tarzan, the strip I can't see because of strict copyright laws, the race for second-best ongoing story line is a contest between Billy Make Believe and Peter Pat. Like The Adventures of Patsy, these were parts of a minor and unsuccessful movement to merge the kids' adventure and fantasy genres. Both Billy and Peter have exciting adventures and reveal themselves to be capable fighters despite being half-pints, though Billy's seem less dangerous, as it is not clear whether his adventures are actually taking place or are only imagined by him, as the title suggests. 

I include this page's How to Make It sub-feature because, of all the mini-craft projects I've seen described in filler material so far, that one about making paper tepees is the only one I've actually done.

 ===

Billy is still fighting toy people (and contributing to racism?). It looks like toy people can be encountered in groups up to 30, and do not have to be human-like in form.

Captain and the Kids gives us wild men, another name for cave men, and reminds us how strong they are. Maybe all cave men should have the Raise Car power?

The reference to state police in Hawkshaw the Detective suggests that, despite being based on Sherlock Holmes, this takes place in the U.S.

Here's an issue we've discussed here before: when do powers/spells/stunts need to be activated? Does the wild man need to have used the Raise Car power to lift that tree out of the ground, or is simply flavor text accompanying the attempt to wreck the rope? It may depend on what comes next. If the wild man simply escapes the tree and ignores it afterwards, the Editor can rule that the tree was lifted out as just flavor text, as it has no bearing on the story. If, however, the wild man tried to pick up the tree and use it as a giant club, then the Editor should rule that a power needed to be used, even if he has to retroactively make that ruling.

We're now on issue # "20"...

This really takes me back to the early days of the blog when I used to keep a running tally of how many goats appeared in the comics. It's true, before there were supervillains, goats seemed to be the supervillains of comic books.

Here we see how little provocation goats need before attacking.

Ella Cinders addresses the issue of language. It's been a Hideouts & Hoodlums rule since the beginning that languages aren't important and all characters speak the same one. Ella Cinders makes it clear (or even more clear, we just assumed so before) that the language we all speak is English.

In a more capable artist's hands that first panel of Fritzi Ritz could have been downright scandalous. But I include this strip not to titillate you, but to point out that fur wraps cost $150 and that, if you're going to haggle, maybe you should wait longer before suggesting furs depreciate in value.

Peter Pat's first big adventure has been wrapped up and he's returning the princess to claim his reward -- and is seemingly very well rewarded too. Peter should be at around 3,000 XP right now, which means his title should be an officer, but colonel seems really high...

 ...but then, it depends on the perks that come with it. Peter, after all, won't be commanding large armies or have access to heavy artillery -- it looks like he gets a fancy helmet and a pony, and the chance to perform in the rodeo.

This page also reminds us that, when developing alien cultures on the fly, all you really need to do is swap out one detail, like pigs for horses at the rodeo.

And we'll wrap up for today on this first share from issue # "22" and Hawkshaw the Detective. It's a rare, early occurrence of bad guys using passwords or phrases to get into their hideouts.

A question to ponder, that I'm not sure how to answer yet: when Heroes are on a stakeout, should they make a save vs. plot or science to determine if they sneeze...?

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Tip Top Comics #10, 12

Still reviewing Tip Top Comics #10, from Feb. 1937. It is packed with United Features' also-ran comic strips -- though, to be fair, it was headlined by L'il Abner and Hal Foster's gorgeous Tarzan, but I just don't have access to those pages.

Which is why we're concentrating on strips like Chris Crusty, a strip that not even the most resolute platinum age comic strip fans talk about, but we're talking about it here because I am fascinated by this tiny gum vending machine which, if it did exist, must have predated the gumball machine we know and love but never use today.

This Joe Jinks strip is so meta that we can't ignore it on a blog as meta as this one. While Joe complains that bad things never happen as often in the comics as they do in real life, it begs the question -- for us, looking at it from a RPG perspective -- how many bad things do we want to have happen in our game sessions, in order to simulate real life?

I don't have an answer to that, as it's something for each Editor and his players to decide on as a group. When I'm running a game, I prefer to emulate real life as much as possible, with comic book characters and tropes just inserted into it as if it all made sense. But even I see that if you heap too many challenges onto your players -- without equal rewards -- they are going to be discouraged.

In Broncho Bill, we get a tactical suggestion of setting a grass fire to serve as a distraction, and

perhaps Bill can be forgiven for taking such an extreme resort since a life is at stake. And yet, from our modern sensibilities, it may rankle to see him run the risk of starting a fire that could get out of control and cause wide environmental damage. And herein lies a difficult call for the Editor and the use of the save vs. plot mechanic to restrict non-Heroic activity -- do you restrict according to the standards of the day, or our modern standard of heroism?

Let's leave aside such heavy questions to look at

Billy Make-Believe for (ahem) a spell. We have seen tree-like creatures before in comic books, but this is the closest to Tolkien's ents I have yet seen. And this is for sure the first appearance of Jack Frost in any comic book. He certainly looks comical, with his icicle nose, and he has fairy wings despite being a taller than Billy.

Not only Billy Make-Believe, but Peter Pat is turning into a font for new mobster-types -- except, as much as I'd love to stat that pink thing, what should I call it? A turtlesaurus? 

Besides that, the tactic of tying the rope to

the turtlesaurus and having it pull the door open for them is pretty clever.

The only time I ever see gryphons in comic books seems to be from adaptations of Alice in Wonderland. Does this mean I need to stat mock turtles too? Should they be distant cousins of turtlesaurs?

Jumping into issue #12, this installment of Hawkshaw the Detective borrows more than usual from Sherlock Holmes, with the action being borrowed almost wholly from the story "The Adventure of the Empty House." And yet...this tiny strip also, in a way, anticipates Batman and how so many of his adversaries

have psychological hangups. One could imagine this foe being called The Pinner, if Batman faced him...

Another bizarre critter in this issue's Peter Pat! Maddeningly, these inventing animals are never given names. What do I call this? A Cheetah-Bull? It looks tough, but Peter backs it into a corner, drops a net on it, and it's completely out of the fight on the next page.  2 Hit Dice, maybe?

The madman is called a "monster," and I did stat madmen in Supplement V: Big Bang. I'll have to make sure they are featured in the Mobster Manual.

When looking for hideout dressing for scary rooms, perhaps I'll draw inspiration from this page of Fritzi Ritz.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Tip Top Comics #7, 10

Moving through Tip Top Comics quickly...

Hawkshaw the Detective introduces us to the idea of non-classed characters/mobsters being able to "level up" certain skills.

The Captain and the Kids reminds us that stilts could be a good way for Heroes to enter hideouts on an upper level.

Chris Crusty gives us a good idea for a trap; the Hero touches something and a paralyzing electric current keeps him there (on a failed save vs. science, of course).

One does not normally run the risk of having to roll again to see if you hit a random target after missing in melee, but if the Editor wants to run a campaign with the feel of Phil Fumble, he can add that rule.

I think bison are way too cute to be shooting at, but a bison could be a fierce opponent for low-level Heroes, so I'll make sure they're statted in the Mobster Manual.

$2 is a sufficient bribe for a waiter at even the fanciest of restaurants, according to Looy Dot Dope.

If taken seriously, Billy Make Believe would definitely need to be statted as a magic-user -- but note the peculiar effect here, where shrinking Bub ends his invisibility. What that suggests is that spells cannot be stacked, but casting one ends the duration of the previous spell on that person. Luckily for magic-users, I don't intend on making magic work like that in Hideouts & Hoodlums -- unless I see a lot more evidence of this happening...

Peter Pat is going to require more watching, as this dinogator is rather interesting. The lights shining from its eyes reminds me of the blindheim, a monster in the old AD&D Fiend Folio. I'm thinking I would stat a dinogator as a ...6 HD mobster?

From issue #10...I thought this was good, subtle humor.

And, coming full circle back to Hawkshaw the Detective, we learn that laughing gas (nitrous oxide) can be mixed into milkshakes and retain its properties. Who knew? (Actually only works in comic books -- in real life nitrous oxide is a safe food additive and is even used as a propellant in whip cream cans!).

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)