Famous Funnies #46 - pt. 1

Good question!

According to Eagle Scout Roy Powers, land was dirt cheap in the 1930s. While it is not clear how much land is in the "strip of land" being sold here, $300 for a half-acre would be a very good deal.  Also note the importance of paying in cash to bank-shy people of the 1930s.

Skyroads doesn't mean "a natural dungeon-like canyon" in the sense we might be thinking of a dungeon...but that doesn't mean the idea doesn't bear merit and discussion. Could a canyon be set up so one could wander through a maze-like construct to isolated locations with pre-set encounters in them? Yes...though not as it's drawn here. Although the deep crevice and the dark corners are intriguing, there's just too much empty space here to be more than 3-4 encounter areas. At the least, this canyon would be a simple wilderness encounter and, at best, could serve as a tiny "sandbox" campaign setting (pre-mapped areas, but no schedule or agenda for the Heroes to visit them in any particular order).

I'm sharing this just for some interesting slang that I'm guessing was in common usage in the 1930s, as the character doesn't seem to be the sort to spout unusual things. So, "jack" was apparently another way of saying "spending money", and "blow yourself to a" meant "get a".

We revisit Hairbreadth Harry during his planet-hopping phase. Here's an unusual world populated by ostriches and giant creatures that look like a cross between bull, a triceratops, and a stegosaurus. What a shame this page suggests no name for these creatures! Note also how plants grow at a fantastic rate on this world (or at least Earth plants do), reminding us that we can ignore natural laws if we wish to when using alien worlds in a Hideouts & Hoodlums campaign.

Dickie Dare is looking even more like a Terry and the Pirates rip-off than usual here (and just as racist), but there's an interesting lesson in keeping an envelope in your wallet and a pencil stub somewhere on your person.

Arminus -- inspiration for Marvel's Thor?

According to Holly of Hollywood, you could buy a parrot for $5.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)

Famous Funnies #36

A magic trophy item that could double as a deadly trap is the Mystic Mirror. It's perfectly harmless most of the time, but if anyone invisible passes in front of it, he has to save vs. spells or become a permanent reflection in the mirror. As the next page shows, though, the mirror can be reversed with a special process.

Besides the reversing process for the Mystic Mirror, this page of the Adventures of Patsy makes a passing reference to a new spell.

Change People into Animals sounds powerful, particularly if it affects a group of people. I would make it a 5th level spell, limit it to 1 target per level of the spell caster, and make the effect last maybe 2d6 hours.

A doctor's house call cost $50 in the 1930s!

This one might be a bit of a stretch, but since witchcraft and taming snakes is mentioned in the same caption, we might have the first instance of the spell Snake Charm in comics here.

Part of the fun for the Editor is finding clever places to hide treasure/trophies in the game. You don't want to make it too easy for players to find all the good loot!  So hiding diamonds in a box of chocolates seems like a great move, even if Jane Arden is a bit non-plussed about it.

History hasn't born this out, but the Flight author seemed quite convinced here that "roadable gyros" were going to become a legitimate thing soon. Of course, cars that can transform into planes and vice versa have long been staples of comic books; so much so that I just posted about it yesterday.


(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)

Famous Funnies #34

You'd think a kid who's name is Dickie would be more sensitive towards minorities, but that must just be my modern sensibilities talking. Once you get past the "me savee good!", you get modern and antique diving suits, a giant octopus, and a giant clam. The suits and the octopus are in Book II: Mobsters and Trophies.

Giant clams I'm a little less sure about. Is it a mobster, because it's alive, or is it a trap, because it's stationary and reacts to being stepped on, not unlike a bear trap?

A witch never leaves footprints, because it's a trait all witches have, or because it's a spell? Do witches need a mobster entry, or a Pass without Trace spell?

"Magic Moccasins" look a lot like a magic item, but it's probably the spell Locate Object we're seeing here.

Hideouts & Hoodlums does include three kinds of antique armor already. Here we see Roman segmented armor, which could fill a gap in the Armor Class scheme at AC 6.

One of the antique armors is platemail, but this isn't platemail -- this is full plate armor. Full plate would be AC 2.

Chloroform is a common story device and acts as a sort of poison -- save vs. poison or fall asleep.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)

Famous Funnies #32 - pt. 1

Watchdogs may not attack on sight, but they are noisy and that could be enough to alert a hideout of approaching intruders.

Firearms owned by mobsters will often have the serial numbers filed off.  In fact, it's a good way to identify a gun owner as a mobster! Without the help of the FBI, local police are unlikely to be able to ID a specific gun if its serial numbers are filed off.

Goat joke #8 (last goat joke here).

The supernatural in Hairbreadth Harry?  No, it's hi-tech pills of transparency. Good for spooking non-Heroes, or being a model for a biology class, but likely not much else.

There's a useable plot for a Hideouts & Hoodlums scenario right here.  Also note how quickly the trip to get to the plot hook is glossed over. This is entirely optional -- but probably a good idea. One of the last times I ran H&H, I spent too long on the trip to the adventure locale and it drained a lot of the momentum from the scenario.

The Phantom Magician debuts in Adventures of Patsy -- and the Magic-User class is born!

(Yes, Mandrake the Magician has already been around, but not in comic books I have access to)

H&H has, up to this moment, always relied on the spells of The Original Game for Magic-Users, but here we see the Phantom Magician using considerably different spells, mostly of the alteration school of magic.

I call the first spell "Poof!" after its sound effect, and it allows the M-U to teleport over a short distance.

The second spell we see here is Alter Costume, which allows a M-U to change his or someone else's clothes (or even add or subtract armor?).  I see both of these spells as being 1st level spells. 

We also see some familiar spells as well.  Invisibility is referred to.  Thimble seems to be under the effects of a Polymorph spell, including the possibility of losing your mind to the assumed form. But the short duration of the polymorph and the ability to dispel the mental change by a blow to the head seems to have weakened the spell, perhaps to a 3rd level variant called Minor Polymorph.

The joke ending is harder to define. Some sort of illusion spell that distorts people's sense of proportions?  It's hard to imagine how this would affect game mechanics. I'll work on it.

High Lights of History tackles mythology instead of history again! This time we get a magic item, the wax wings (or simply wings of flying).

Jane Arden provides good tips on how to look for secret doors without relying on a d6 roll.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)

Famous Funnies #31

Police stations are loaded with items that aren't on the starting equipment list, like sub-machine guns. Enterprising (and definitely non-Lawful) Heroes who can pull off a daring police station burglary will have a leg up on the bad guys when it comes time to raid hideouts!

Also, once Heroes do have money, they can commission Scientists to develop new weapons for them.

The lesson here is, if you can't stop the mobsters from getting away, shoot all the nearby tires, so they have to flee on foot.

There's a lot going on here in Skyroads, not all of it I can recommend for Hideouts & Hoodlums. Shooting throwing knives in mid-air?  Assuming that's even possible, I don't think we need a game mechanic for that; it can just be flavor text for the knife missing.

But Stephanich's trick of feigning death through breath control?  That definitely needs to be a stunt! 

Note the bulletproof vest, perhaps the earliest time in comic books one is actually shown and not just referred to.

There's some suspicious science here, with the explosion in the well, but the idea of throwing prisoners into a poisoned well is a pretty decent deathtrap.

The first Greek sphinx in comic books, curiously presented as if it was history. Does that make it fair game for H&H..? 

Modern-day Editors could be forgiven for forgetting that homes used to have laundry chutes. It would be a good thing to add to an above-ground hideout, for a different way for Heroes to get around.

Solo flying courses: $35-150
Private pilot's license: $400-$700
Flying time: $4-15/hour

Unexpected encounter on a deserted island: cavemen!


(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)