Showing posts with label Hop Harrigan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hop Harrigan. Show all posts

Thursday, May 14, 2020

All-American Comics #12 - pt. 1

Our lead feature is again Red, White, and Blue, a feature I quite enjoy so far. This story takes place in the city of Montville, of which there are at least four, for real, in the Northwest. It takes Red, White, and Blue less than 15 minutes to get there by plane from Washington, D.C., making Montville, New Jersey, our safest bet, though at 220 miles that is one fast plane.

Our villain is an unusual one, a single saboteur working with a longbow to shoot thermite-filled arrows with blasting caps as arrow heads into munitions plants. He also carries a pistol as back-up, but the longbow is his main weapon, making him the first villainous archer in a modern comic book story. Some light detective work traces the archer to a Mr. Rausch, who works at the embassy of a "belligerent nation" Red refuses to identify. In a delightful twist, Mr. Rausch is innocent and being framed by an agent from another nation, who plants all kinds of evidence against him, but Red's girl Doris sees through it all by simply talking to Rausch and finds out he's in love with an American girl and looking to naturalize, removing any motive he might have had. Red, normally the hero of these stories, comes across as a real jerk by not trusting Doris. He does display a gift for tracking in this story, though.

Hop Harrigan sets out on a long plane trip just to blow off some steam, but he finds when he's way out to sea that his radio isn't connected and his compass is off. Maybe I haven't used enough radios, but I don't get what he didn't do to connect his radio. Unreliable compasses is another complication I wouldn't have thought of when planning a scenario. Somehow he crosses the entire Pacific -- 7,000 miles, we're told -- and winds up on the coast of China, where refugees are looking to escape from Japanese aggression. This is a fairly timely story, though by 1940 the Japanese were actually very far inland in China and it's unlikely refugees would be coming to the east coast; it would have made more sense for them to be fleeing to Burma or Cambodia by then. For flying across the Pacific alone and rescuing Chinese refugees, Hop becomes a national hero and gets a ticker tape parade. It's odd that this would create such instant fame for him, as two Australians had already crossed the Pacific by plane as early as 1928.

Adventures in the Unknown continues with Alan and Ted having to tangle with prehistoric ape-men. Producing fire triggers a morale save for them. Alan and Ted want to get into a cave the ape-men are guarding, but the entrance is only accessible by climbing vines and the ape-men can stand above them and drop rocks on them. Their supporting cast member, the ape-man Ikki, is still working for them and carries their guns; they talk about "rewarding" him by taking him back to the present and putting him in a zoo or a sideshow. Alan is captured and taken to a pit where a saber-toothed tiger is being kept prisoner by the ape-men; they throw their enemies inside for the tiger to eat. Ikki helps rescue Alan, but later at the cave housing their time machine, Ted "accidentally" shoots Ikki in the back of the head while aiming for a different ape-man in melee with Ikki, killing their ally that they were planning to put in a zoo anyway.

In Ben Webster, while traversing a desert, Taffy Tate says "water's as rare out here as a 'demmycrat' in Vermont!" That seems an odd saying to still be spouting in 1940, when the Presidential election results from Vermont were only 54% to 44% leaning Republican. In fact, you have to go back to 1928 to find a time when the Republicans had a strong 66% to 32% majority.

Ben seems to pick up a new supporting cast on every adventure. This time, he's looking for a missing prospector with old man Tate, the prospector's friend, Tate's pet monkey, Ben's pet dog, and they pick up a crazy guide in the desert. The guide takes them to a mountain trail hidden behind a waterfall (players should always check behind waterfalls!). The trail is treacherous; their burros slip and almost fall a few times, with it being implied that their chances of slipping and falling would have gone up on foot. The end of the trail is guarded by two bandits using a boulder for cover.

(Read at readcomiconline.to)



 

Monday, February 4, 2019

All-American Comics #11

The lead feature is still Red, White, and Blue, written by Superman's creator, Jerry Siegel. Like Bart Regan, Spy, the highlight of this feature is the fun romance between the lead characters, Red and Doris. Their interplay keeps the story light even when the subject is the murder-disguised-as-suicide of a U.S. Senator. The Senator's name is Clifton A. Carter, which is interesting because Lyndon Johnson would later have an aide named Clifton C. Carter.

The villain is a Mr. I.M. Glib, a refreshingly friendly mad scientist with an invisible car -- the same gimmick Siegel had recently used with the Ultra-Humanite against Superman. Glib has clothes that make him invisible too, and we even get an explanation for how that works; electrical impulses received by silver wire sewn through the suit cause it to become invisible. Unusual in a story, the Heroes decide to share this secret with the government and ask them to make more invisibility suits. It's unclear how this makes everyone wearing invisibility suits able to see each other.

Glib is foolishly killing senators because they won't agree to give him $1 billion for his invisibility invention; if he'd just taken out a patent and a bank loan, he might have made a billion dollars legitimately.

Hop Harrigan starts with a pretty exciting take-off; Hop's plane is parked on a frozen river, and has to take off just as the ice starts cracking underneath the plane. Mechanically, the Editor could decide this with a skill check for Hop, or maybe even an initiative roll to see if Hop can act before the ice does.

Adventures in the Unknown still has Ted and Alan 1 million years in the past, where they encounter ape men. One million years ago there were several real-life contenders for these "ape men," including neanderthals, homo erectus, and homo antecessor. The ape men use cunning tactics, having some of them roll around on the ground as a distraction while others jump down from the trees from behind. The ape men are also advanced enough to make cages and thatched roof huts.

The Scribbly installment clearly is taking place on New Year's Eve, 1939/New Year's Day, 1940.

In the reprinted newspaper feature Ben Webster, Ben goes on a trip in the first RV (recreational vehicle) in comic books.

In Gary Concord, the Ultra-Man, Gary is captured by Stella Tor, the wicked (and wickedly hot) dictatrix who has stormed Gary's lab with her men and found Gary (and his sidekick, Guppy) seemingly dead, but actually being revived from poison gas while in a comatose state. Recovering, Gary locks a door between them and Stella's guards' futuristic weapons are not able to get them through a steel door.

When Stella escapes, Gary's vibra-detector is able to hear the hum of her rocketship in the distance, and can tell it is hers and not anyone else's rocketship, apparently. Gary's helio-shaft is a rocket that is fired out of a giant cannon, making it faster than Stella's rocket. There's a catch to using it, though -- it can't be steered but will crash when it eventually lands. Rather than take her alive, Gary fires a giant bolo at her rocket; the bolo is made from "elasteel" with "destroynamite" on either end.

Luckily, the helio-shaft lands in water. Unluckily, it lands inside the territory controlled by Stella's father. Gary is captured, and observes first hand the flying guns and destroynamite torpedoes that the Tor Army is amassing. Gary's cell is protected by "ray-eyes" (electric eye beams?), electrified bars, and armored guards. In fact, one poorly drawn guard in the background might be wearing some kind of powered armor.

(Read at fullcomic.pro) 







Wednesday, August 1, 2018

All-American Comics #9-10

Continuing #9...

In Hop Harrigan...we have to talk about Gerry. Because either a retcon has made her older, or there was a lot less stigma on relationships with underaged girls back in 1940. We've already seen Gerry making out with Hop, but Hop seems to be 17 and Gerry seems to be 14, so that's not quite so bad. But in this installment, an older poet starts hitting on Gerry.  Hop doesn't like it -- but only because Hop doesn't like poets, not because the man is clearly over 18.

Gerry also gives a sick patient iodoform to drink. Today, you only give a patient iodoform for minor skin diseases, and this man is bandaged like he was hurt in accident -- but circa 1940, iodoform would have been used for more forms of treatment.

And, really, who doesn't like poets?

A page of Believe It or Not about Rob Roy McGregor claims that the term blackmail was coined because of the black armor McGregor's clan wore -- which sounds pretty cool, but isn't true; "mail" in this sense means "payment agreed on," with "black" being used a negative connotation.

Adventures in the Unknown has an interesting take on time travel; as it feels like physical motion to those experiencing it, and going back in time feels like falling downwards (of course, actual time travel over the span of 1 million years would also have to involve space travel, because the Earth has moved a considerable distance during that time). And it is not instantaneous or near-instantaneous travel; it is a process that moves them through 1,000 years a minute, so traveling 1 million will take them approximately "36 hours" (though I think Ted's math is off; by my count it would be 16 hours).

Once in the past, the strip falls into the fallacies of many time travel adventures, mixing dinosaurs (from the late Jurassic no less, which was a whole 144 million years earlier) with humans. The first things they spot are a pterodactyl and a brontosaur, though to be fair they also hear a non-anachronistic saber-tooth tiger. In a scene that makes little sense, they shoot and kill the brontosaur for getting too close to Ted. Lastly, they meet a group of nine early humans with spears. Knowing these guys, these early humans are toast.

The strip takes pains to detail what equipment they brought on their expedition -- rifles, automatic pistols, field glasses, matches, axes, knives, cans of food (revealed later) and a movie camera -- but no mention of drinkable water. They also bring a large square of white canvas which they wisely use to mark where they left the time machine.

And, finally, catching us up to the "present" of January 1940. Issue #10...

Red, White, and Blue finally confront their first mad scientist in an adventure that takes place a few months earlier, in the Fall of 1939. It even takes us away from exotic locations to New York City, which will shortly become the hub of all superhero activities, and features the Empire State Building. The Master has created an electrical forcefield around the entire city of Manhattan. Cars are destroyed when they try to leave and the Master threatens to destroy the city if anyone tries to come in.

We also learn that, although "Blooey" and "Whitey" are nicknames, Red is not a nickname; his real name is Red Dugan and his nickname is actually "Smarty."  We learn that Doris West has the hots for Red and cries when she manipulates him into what seems to be a suicide mission to save New York.

Doris claims New York City has 7 million citizens; it actually had 7.5 million, but the 1940 Census would not have come out yet so Doris would not know that. It is also possible that the electrical field failed to extend around all five boroughs.

Red beats the forcefield by flying through on a parachute with no metal parts, but he's not done yet. The Master has an army of over a thousand Nazis and Nazi sympathizers working for him to control the populace. Further, the Master's electric fields can roast an entire city block -- and he has, killing men, women, and children to prove his power. Doris, Blooey, and Whitey join him by using a rowboat with no metal parts.

Red is SO Lawful that, when a clerk tells him he can't see the mayor, he just leaves.

(Read at fullcomic.pro)



Friday, July 27, 2018

All-American Comics #8 - pt. 1

On to #8...

Which starts out with new feature Gary Concord, the Ultra-Man. This is another one of those future adventure stories, this one taking place in 2239, but our first installment is largely flashback to Gary's father -- who was born in 1915!  Gary Concord Sr. (the son in 2239 is really Jr.) was considered a military tactics prodigy by 1936. But after WWII, he became a scientist and worked on an invention until 1950 -- when WWIII happened. The U.S. was invaded; it's not specified by whom.  The invention is confusing too; it creates a scrubbing bubbles-like foam that heals, clears the mind, increases size, strength, and intelligence, and makes you immune to fatigue, but also puts you to sleep ala Buck Rogers.

In Red, White, and Blue, Whitey is knocked unconscious with a vase over the back of the head, then kicked while he's down. According to the rules, if he took additional damage while unconscious, he would be dead. However, one way of interpreting the 2nd edition "zero hit points" rule is that if you are simply stunned while at 0 hp (you made your save vs. plot), then taking additional damage then makes you unconscious (as if you had failed your save).  But then, a third source of damage should then still be lethal.  All of this, by the way, is contradicted by the story, where Whitey is still only stunned, even after what seems to be multiple kicks.

Meanwhile, Red is able to make phone calls to the State Department, Naval Headquarters, and the State Police, and they all just do whatever he asks them to. Red should be a level 4 fighter by now, which makes him a lieutenant, which means his ability to boss people around automatically should be much more limited than this. Red is also able to wreck his way through the roof of a truck in this story.

In Hop Harrigan, we learn that he keeps his plane stocked with a pair of shotguns. When mobsters turn a plane loose on the tarmac to endanger other planes, Hop and his Supporting Cast manage to lasso the plane and pull it to a stop.That's interesting - and surprisingly difficult to moderate using Hideouts & Hoodlums, since it doesn't used opposed rolling. Ability score checks would work, if I had Hop and friends roll under their Strength or less, but I've been super-hesitant to bring that game mechanic into play. What I might do is assign a Hit Die to the plane so it can make a save vs. science each turn to see if it is stopped or not.

In an aerial duel, Hop and Gerry use the Stay in Blind Spot stunt  -- which can't be as hard as I always made stunts out to be, because Gerry, and not Hop, is the pilot here. In fact, maybe all piloting stunts should be basic skills, since non-aviators in comics are able to do them so easily.  Hop, meanwhile, gets a "lucky shot" against the wing-mounted fuel tank with his shotgun. The complication forces the smugglers' plane to land.











Wednesday, July 25, 2018

All-American Comics #7

Still catching up on All-American Comics. In #7...

Red, White, and Blue takes place at the New York's World Fair, as so many other stories do around the same time period. In fact, this might be the strongest case against shared universe campaigns, as otherwise Heroes would have been meeting up all the time at the World Fair.  Once again it's saboteurs at work, though slightly less menacingly this time, they are arms manufacturers agitating for war instead of foreign spies.  At first, these saboteurs seem content to sow chaos by doing things like tossing "stench bombs" into restaurants. Unless this is somehow weapons-grade stench, I would think this would be distracting, but not affect game mechanics.

There's a perplexing phrase in the story, where Red says "But if I catch you tanked up on circus water..." to Blooey, and I've had to research what that means.  I can't Google the phrase as a whole, but "tanked up" means to get drunk. "Circus water" probably refers to the fact that, before Walt Disney convinced the world there was money in family friendly entertainment, places like circuses and amusement parks actually catered to adults instead. So if you went to the circus, you were likely there buying beer to drink, or maybe even something harder.

Red also says "rushing a squaw around" to mean chasing women, which would certainly be considered racist today.  When the saboteurs turn to murder, Whitey grapples with one of them, but the man is able to evade him, straight out of melee (he becomes "lost in the confusion").   

Ben Webster and his friend Pat search the roof for signs of the saboteurs in their story, only to find a cryptic clue -- a card that says only "Success or death, 251."

A salesman in Reg'lar Fellers gives some suggestions for what the children can buy with 25 cents for a gift -- a toothbrush, writing paper, two cigars, a metal pencil, and a safety razor. I'm wondering if "metal pencil" means a mechanical pencil.

In Mystery Men of Mars, Ted and Alan lose their robot trophy -- when immersed in salt water, it rusts its "brain." Before it goes, we see it leap once, like an alien Hero.

In Hop Harrigan, we see that SCMs can have their own Supporting Cast too, as Gerry has two German shepherds she wants to fly with her. Hop proves to be a terrible flight instructor; when Gerry freezes up at the stick, Hop clobbers her over the head with a fire extinguisher instead of just grabbing the stick from her. That the dogs then attack him is a sweet bit of justice. A reference to a "Kenosha Dam" makes me doubt my proclamation in the last post that Hop's adventures took place in the Northeast, as this makes me think maybe he's in Wisconsin. In the craziest moment of Hop Harrigan yet, Gerry -- who's supposed to be much younger than Hop, who himself seems to only be 18, rescues him and her father, then makes out with Hop in front of her father.

Speaking of dated humor, both Reg'lar Fellers and Toonerville Folks have jokes about parents beating their children.

(Read at fullcomic.pro.)


  





Tuesday, July 24, 2018

All-American Comics #6

Picking up where I left off in #6...

After seeing references to Clyde Beatty in both a previous Mutt & Jeff and this month's Reg'lar Fellers, I looked him up and -- sure enough -- Clyde was a real person and not just a comic strip character!

In Mystery Men of Mars, Ted and Alan don't feel they've killed enough Martian pill-bug men yet, so they drop dynamite on them.  They return to Earth with a trophy, a robot they can control. Despite crash-landing in the ocean from orbit, the boys only take enough falling damage to fall unconscious.

Hop Harrigan is probably only a second-level Aviator by now, but he's already upgrading to a trophy plane -- an autogyro that can drive on the ground as well. A chase takes place over Route 26. If this is U.S. Route 26, then Hop's adventure takes place in either Nebraska or Oregon. It turns out that taking on Gerry as a SCM has extra bonuses; she's a plot hook character, in that she introduces Hop to a kidnapping scenario, and then she comes with the bonus of rich parents who want to pay Hop for keeping her on as his SCM. It's like having hirelings, but in reverse!

In Bobby Thatcher, they escape the old man who wants their map, but encounter a riverboat on the river as a wandering encounter. The riverboat accidentally smashes their rowboat. I would assign the riverboat a Hit Die for the purpose of making an attack roll, and then instead of assigning hit points and damage, I might just make a common sense ruling that a riverboat, with its size and mass, would easily smash a rowboat. That Tubby can't swim is a serious complication, and one I would not burden a Hero with, or even most Supporting Cast Members. SCMs meant for comic relief, I might save vs. plot for them to see if they can't swim.

Mutt & Jeff show us that you can get a used jalopy for as little as $10 back in the '30s, but there was a good chance (3 in 6?) the brakes would not work.

We learn in Scribbly that, as of September 1939, Scribbly is 13 1/2 years old.

Boxing champ Jack Dempsey guest-stars in The Adventures of Popsicle Pete -- given the accuracy of the likeness -- very likely with permission.





Monday, July 23, 2018

All-American Comics #4-6

From the tail end of #4...

From Hop Harrigan, I learned that air mail pilots were required to be armed.

Spot Savage, a humor/adventure strip with an odd sense of humor, has had Spot locked up in an insane asylum, in a straight jacket, for one week of "game time" now. I can't imagine any players being happy with that game session.

Moving on to #5...

From Red, White, and Blue, we learn that a live turkey is worth $4.  We see the boys, on leave, playing banko, which as late as the 1980s was still another name for the game of bingo. They also play the card game hearts. While searching a room for clues, they find money and a note hidden in a hollow ashstand (a stand for an ashtray to sit on).  Instead of spies, they seem to be opposing anarchists this time. The chief anarchist calls them "cannon fodder," which is amusing because the term gets thrown around a lot in RPG games. It's also interesting to me that they go to a carnival with a shooting gallery and an old mill ride, as both figure into the upcoming adventure module RT2 Adventures in Fun World.  Policeman Mike Flynn (another old friend of Red's) joins them as Supporting Cast this time, and is helpful at catching all the lookouts posted by the anarchists. Lastly, it is interesting that after beating up the anarchists, the policeman admits that the only charge they can charge them with is for concealed weapons. This could be another good reason for Heroes to go into scenarios barehanded instead of using weapons.

According to Reg'lar Fellers, admission to an all-you-can-eat strawberry-eating festival would be $1. I wonder how common those were.

Ben Webster meets an inventor who has put together a thought radio. It can record and play back someone's thoughts, but the person has to be standing about 5' in front of the radio and has to stand still for at least 1 melee turn. It even works on animals.  Curiously, people they meet are quick to believe in the thought radio, rather than suspect Ben and his friend of some kind of hoax.

In Mystery Men of Mars, the Martian pill-bug men have a melting ray that looks sort of like a planetarium projector. It is revealed that Ted's gun is an automatic, and he has to change the clip between throwing slugs into advancing Martians. In fact, so many Martians fall to his vicious onslaught that the bodies become stacked up too high for more Martians to enter the tunnel. I suspect that Ted is making a lousy first impression of Earthlings for them.

Hop Harrigan runs afoul of an arsonist, a mobster type that debuted in Supplement V and will be in the 2nd edition Mobster Manual. Hop can't escape the deathtrap the arsonist puts him in and would have died, but a new character (Gerry) shows up and saves him, then becomes a temporary Supporting Cast Member for next issue. Because Hop's cheap plane (he'll get fancier ones later) is still lined with paper, he has to be very careful about burning embers falling on it and combusting his whole plane.

In Bobby Thatcher, a half-pint is able to kick open a stuck door. For that matter, Gerry was a half-pint too and was able to do pushing "damage" to Hop to land him in a fountain after his clothes caught on fire.  Being young and small does not affect their abilities much -- except in Scribbly, Scribbly is so sickened by a dollar cigar that he's effectively stunned.

In Spot Savage, the "Duchess" breaks into a safe and finds $60,000 in negotiable bonds.

In Scribbly, we learn that Scribbly earned $8 a week as an office boy, plus $2 for every cartoon of his that got published.

I don't know if I've ever gleaned RPG material out of Toonerville Folks before, but this one page tells me that a carpenter would work to fix a shed for $7 back in the '30s.

And on to #6!

In Red, White, and Blue, it appears that Doris lives with her aunt, and that Whitey still lives at home with his parents. Blooey has a pet parrot that stays with him like a Supporting Cast Member.  Of course, the parrot saves the day later by repeating something it hears. Red is thwarted from snooping at a window by a noisy cat, which in this instance is just as effective as a watchdog.  The bad guys are saboteurs again, but since they are all kind of Japanese-looking, this time they are spies. There are five spies, and one of them has a sub-machine gun.  The leader has a pistol and knife and goes by "The Eye." Although much of the fight happens off-panel, Blooey beats a saboteur with a shovel so hard that the man has to go the hospital. 

(Read at fullcomic.pro.)



















Saturday, July 14, 2018

All-American Comics #1-2

This is out of order, but I finally have access to the early issues of All-American Comics and I thought I'd play catch-up!

The first issue opens with Red, White, and Blue, my personal favorite feature from All-American Comics until the introduction of Red Tornado in Scribbly.

Some unusual 1940 lingo from this story:  a found purse is called, instead of a purse or even a handbag, a "pocketbook."  The owner's ID card inside is not called an ID card, but a "name card."  An agent of G-2, the U.S. Secret Service (as it was also known at that time) presents her credentials and they look like a pamphlet.


Reg'lar Fellers features a simple trap -- or is it simply a trick? -- where an intruder trips a tripwire that rings a gong and announces his presence. There's also a good chance of the tripwire simply knocking the intruder prone (save vs. science?).

The very first Hop Harrigan adventure begins with his origin story -- how, as a young boy, he flees by plane after getting in a fight with his evil uncle. Hop and the uncle have a short, but dramatic struggle over a weapon -- a hatchet -- that the uncle planned to use on the plane. Rather than a disarming attack, it seems Hop initiated a grappling contest instead.

Hop makes reference to his aviation heroes Lindbergh and Corrigan. Everyone has heard of Charles Lindbergh, but Corrigan was Douglas "Wrong Way" Corrigan - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Corrigan.

Hop's first plane is a "Jenny" biplane, which is very appropriate because that's the plane I assigned to 1st level aviators.We also learn that a Jenny was worth $500, used! 

The Mystery Men of Mars is a great name for a feature, but it starts with some shaky science; three men are going to fly to Mars in an anti-gravity ship. "I don't work with power! I work with the laws of gravity! I found a vay to reverse them und ve can reach Mars by simply falling upwards!"  For one thing, there's nothing simple about that. Two, even if you could repel yourself from a center of gravity, how would you gain speed? The further away you "fell," the weaker the repelling force. The trip is going to take a month, which may seem like a long trip to a young reader in 1940, but means that the ship is "falling" at roughly 50,000 MPH.  Despite this, the ship does not disintegrate on contact with Mars' atmosphere, and lands so safely that it occurs off-panel.  Oh, and Mars has breathable atmosphere and even a pleasant clime. Who knew!

In Ben Webster, we learn that the most expensive fur-lined winter coat in a men's clothing store was $200.

Moving on to issue #2...

Red, White, and Blue find they have to catch a train for a secret mission, so quickly that they don't have time to get their baggage from the hotel. Red isn't worried, because he can wire the hotel from the next town and have them send the baggage to them. Which I point out because it seems an outdated service and one we wouldn't think of hotels doing today.

Red's friend, Christophe Amore, who conveniently shows up has psionic powers (see 1st edition Supplement III). Psionics is, of course, my go-to whenever some form of magic in the comics breaks the rules of magic. Here, Christophe has the ability of Detect Thoughts -- like any magic-user of level 3 or higher -- but with the extra ability of being able to transfer that ability to others for 24 hours. What's more, the range on this power is measured in miles, making it fantastically powerful (and well beyond the 3rd level spell!).  I'm beginning to think that psionics needs to be kept out of the players' hands and used by the Editor whenever he needs a magical effect like this that breaks the rules of magic.

The science about helium is actually good in this story, including about how it is extracted from natural gas, but the stuff about it only being produced in the U.S. and the U.S. having a monopoly on helium is pure bunk.

In Mutt & Jeff, we learn that a pedigree dog goes for $60.

That Hop Harrigan's mentor's plane has a ceiling height of 22,000 feet just shows what humble beginnings Hop has; planes were breaking that ceiling height record as early as 1916.

Hop's first SCM, "Ikky", faints in a tense moment. I actually added "fainting" to the morale save results table for just such an occurence.

In Mystery Men of Mars, Ted, Alan, and the Professor encounter Martians riding around in somewhat resemble the dreadnought crabs we saw in Amazing Man Comics a while back.  These crabs can go 600 MPH despite walking on stilt-like legs. The Martians inside are called bugs, and look like pillbug men. They have telescoping third arms that come out of the center of their chests. They are encountered in groups as high as 13. The Martian bug men have advanced transportation, but primitive weaponry; they are armed only with spears. They use simple traps like portcullis traps.


(All-American Comics read at ReadComicOnline.)