Funny Picture Stories v. 2 #7

Ah...back to Centaur.

Jack Strand has always been a peculiar feature, but if you can overlook capsules that "should shrink your brain in a manner to cause you to understand these undersea people" (Really, Dr. Powers? you want me to voluntarily take capsules that will shrink my brain?), the rest of this set-up seems fairly normal for a Hideouts & Hoodlums scenario. We have the plot hook character, Dr. Powers, who sets up the parameters of the scenario and offers some incentive.  In my latest live session of H&H, the players refused to take up a rescue mission until paid in advance with magic weapons. Maybe I should have offered them brain-shrinking capsules!

Another handy capsule takes care of both breathing underwater and ocean pressure. I don't recommend that for ordinary Pills of Water Breathing; this would seem to be something superior, like Pills of Aquatic Adaptation.

Here's our best look at the undersea people. The text is careful not to call them mermen, but that's really what they are.

I wasn't expecting such a handy playing tip from Rattlesnake Gulch but, if you ever find yourself thrown into a rattlesnake gulch, make sure you have bats handy for feeding them.

All facetiousness aside, we game referees often make the easy calling, seeing all encounters as opponents for the Heroes. It's helpful to take a moment and think about what their motivation is. Are they just hungry snakes looking for a bite to eat? Is there anything present that looks to be an easier meal than the Heroes? In fact, I wonder if I should start having my characters go exploring with a sackful of live mice for tossing to dangerous animals I come across (since bats are too likely to just fly away if thrown)...


(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)

Funny Picture Stories v. 2 #5

Jack Strand seems to be dealing with stupid people, but then, a lot of bad guys take bad deals like this in stories. Apparently, anytime you ask a leader of bad guys to resolve the conflict in single combat -- no matter how many forces the bad guy has and how bad a deal that is -- he has to save vs. plot or actually go along with it in order to save face.

Exploration is a major theme of Hideouts & Hoodlums, and there can be no better places to explore than wacky-fantastic places that make no sense. A land where breathing deep allows you to float and jump really far?  Sure, why not?

This is from a standalone story called "Range Poison". While a sack full of arsenic disguised as a bag of flour is an interesting trophy item, my main interest here is how that bad guy manages to miss our good Cowboy at point blank range, while the Cowboy isn't even moving. If you're ever running H&H, and a player complains about guns and realism ("I couldn't have missed at this range!"), show him this page and explain that this is how things work in comic books.

"The Mad One" is another standalone story. Is this the first portcullis trap in comic books? I think it might be. The two jaguars that emerge from secret doors is a nice touch to the trap...



(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)

Funny Picture Stories v. 2 #1

Centaur was right to start a volume 2 here, as they must have been infused with enough cash to pay Chesler for more, better material. We're still not talking about a lot of quality here (I suspect we've seen the last of Will Eisner from Centaur already), but some that was better.

Case in point, the first of what was promised to be a continuing serial of Jack Strand. Here, we get a good story set-up, with a dying man handing off a valuable item to the Hero of the story, and his Supporting Cast Member.

Here, poor Jack's player just can't roll well enough to find secret doors, no matter how long he searches that closet. Time to switch dice, Jack!

The item, a magic pin, can transform into a gem that serves as a Crystal Ball.

And here's where things start to get Eisner-/Ditko-esque funky.

Possession of the mystic pin seems to make Jack Strand a Magic-User. He engages in a contest of wills, which was already given game mechanical form in The Trophy Case v. 2 #3.  Only a contest of wills can, apparently, open the magic gate through which Diana fled. The gate opens onto some sort of magic realm/dimension with a giant, echo-filled forest and, on following pages, fantasy trappings like a castle with a moat and drawbridge. These are the places Editors will rely on more and more as Heroes advance in level, and fighting ordinary hoodlums just isn't challenging anymore.

I include this page from the Shore Club Window Mystery, not because I expect Editors to run full-blown murder mysteries as scenarios (every player I've ever had would balk at the challenge of this), but because the detail of a sniper replacing a pane of glass with cellophane in advance is remarkably clever and worth re-using.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)