Champion Comics #5 - pt. 2

I'm not as big a fan of any of these other features, so we're going to jump through a bunch of them rather quickly this time.

This is a page of Neptina, the evil queen sub-genre done underwater. Sure, the Krakan just looks like a giant octopus and, to be honest, I would probably just stat it that way. It would be much more terrifying, though, if the guards were right, and krakan's had some kind of death gaze -- save or die if in line of sight of it.











This page illustrates how much fun random encounter reaction rolls are. This scene with the suspicious police chief plays out much more interesting than if the Editor had rolled a friendly reaction and the chief just believed the whole crazy story.

I share this story for the example of how cloth covered in wet clay can serve as a concealed door.

Blood-sucking moths, alone, are not very scary. Find them in their lair, where there are hundreds of them, and...

This is Blazing Scarab, by the guy who goes on to create Green Arrow for DC next! It's pretty goofy fair, but this priestess is pretty powerful, having teleported into their presence on the previous page.

What I didn't know, until I looked it up, was that Ammon was a real place. According to Wikipedia, it "was an ancient Semitic-speaking nation occupying the east of the Jordan River, between the torrent valleys of Arnon and Jabbok, in present-day Jordan."










This is the last appearance of Penny Wright, second best feature in Champion Comics. This chase scene has several London-specific complications in it, including military patrol cars and hedge-placed anti-aircraft batteries. Details help establish a sense of place, even in a chase scene.

The Owl, just one of many comic book characters to have that name, is called that simply for having thick glasses. The wrinkle here is that the Owl is really a woman, dressed as a man, making this one of the first cross-dressing villains.

I have trouble taking Jungleman seriously, not least for being called Jungleman (should Superman be called Cityman for living in a city?). While most jungle heroes would snap the net with their great strength, Jungleman is as helpless as a fish.

Ape people have been in Hideouts & Hoodlums since the beginning, but now we have a new name for them, the Moo-Nang. In the jungle, ape people live in numbers great enough to be village-worthy. So, several hundred?

Further embarrassing Jungleman, two tigers show up to rescue him (actually, it's not clear if Jungleman summoned them or if they are just a wandering encounter), but the ape men are too much for the tigers too.

In the conclusion of Yaqui Gold, a character called the Black Panther is challenged to a duel that goes against him -- surprisingly similar to when Killmonger challenges the Black Panther in the movie Black Panther.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Champion Comics #4 - pt. 3

This is from Blazing Scarab and...what's this? An immortal league of assassins? How can this not be where the idea for Batman nemesis Ra's al-Ghul came from?

The immortal city of Baracs, full of immortal assassins, is just begging for a Hideouts & Hoodlums adventure module. Who's going to volunteer to write it for me?

I'm also curious about this condition where, if they lose their heart or their brain, they live on, but lost their "identity" (all levels in their class/es lost?), and become only half-visible.

Here's an interesting description of how the magic portal to Baracs works, and why humans (and human-like races, I suppose) are the only ones who can cross through the portal.

This is Jungleman, who has a ridiculously large army of animals working for him, but what really gets me is that crazy spelling of orangutan. Orang-outang? Did someone not have a dictionary handy, or was the spelling that non-standardized by 1940?

A rare instance of a Hero using a blowgun as a weapon. The implication seems to be that the dart is poisoned, but we're never actually told that. Maybe he's just trying to distract the chief?

I'm amused that Louise immediately thanks Jungleman, but look how hard those monkeys have to work to take down the pygmies! And without knives, no less!

The death toll of animals in this feature is pretty staggering. Tigers, snakes -- they all bite it trying to protect Jungleman.

"Monkey-like people" seems to stink of racism a bit. I hope the gibbon men in H&H don't have the same odor...

This is Revenge of the Zombies. We're treated to a pretty standard pit trap (nice that there's a ladder at the bottom!), and an adventuring party that wisely puts their best fighters in the lead, the light source in the second rank, and keep to their marching order.

Giant death head moths are now definitely going into the AH&H Mobster Manual. I guess under D? They'll probably have only 1 hit point, and can only drain 1 hp, but when encountered by dozens or a hundred at a time, would be quite deadly.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)

Champion Comics #3 - pt. 2

Picking up where I left off, Penny Wright is tied to a tree by Santos and just left there (I guess he has to go somewhere to get his favorite whip).

While Penny's not that bright, Gus seems to be a quite capable assistant -- so much so that I hope he represents a played Hero and not supporting cast. Making a rope out of a blanket is clever, and I don't think I've ever seen a snare trap used like this.

There's a couple freebies from the Editor here, though. One, I'm not crazy about allowing a snare to do knockout damage. At best, I would treat it as an improvised weapon and have it do 1-3 points of damage (of course, it could also just be a very weak guard). Second, the keys in easy reach is either a freebie or the result of a save vs. plot.

Government Man seems to be a wandering encounter, though he could also be a third freebie. Or a third played Hero who's player showed up late to the session!

Liberty Lads had me fooled with Wonocco for a bit there, as it sounds just convincing enough that I thought it might be an actual Indian name. I can't find any evidence of that being true, though. If this is Richmond, Virginia, then Wonocco is likely Algonquin or Sioux.

The mother bear, apparently, attacks just to defend her cub, but Wonocco ruthlessly guts her and then, also apparently, they just leave a motherless cub to defend for himself. Way to live with nature there, Wonocco!

Now I have to decide if I need to stat militiamen as a mobstertype. I could just leave them as fighters, but they are also characterized here as "yellow backed" (low morale), and we know their number appearing goes up to 400. They are shown to be racist -- but then, when even the good guys call you Possum, you know you're a black man in a racist society.

Quinine is a a medication used to treat malaria and babesiosis -- an odd remedy for a fever, but what do colonial-era kids know?

And maybe it's my modern sensibilities at play here, but that wood-cutter's intentions seem more perverted than "wily" to me. Maybe, if read from a 1940 perspective, it would seem more obvious that the wood-cutter is in league with the redcoats.

This is Jungleman. Evidence that the white (-ish) tiger is a supporting cast member and not directly under Jungleman's control is seen in how Jungleman leaves it behind to guard his prisoner.

That Jungleman's ability to speak with animals is not limited to one animal at a time is demonstrated by this communion with a small army of apes and monkeys (all living together, as if they were interchangeable).

Angkor is incorrectly described as a living city here, when it was actual already in ruins well before 1940.

Kalu is an actual name, but more often an African name than an Asian name.

The Blazing Scarab picked up where it left off.

More proof that languages spoken is unimportant in comic books.

Evidence of an unusual magic-user "wand" -- in this case, the scarab -- and evidence of a visual manifestation of the spell being cast.

It seems that the spell was Hold Person, but Walt can still follow commands. Hold Person II?

Interestingly, these men-at-arms that can step through walls are very similar to the hieroglyph guardian mobstertype that I introduced in the 2nd edition Basic book, only full-sized and not monstrous-looking.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Champion Comics #2

This is The Champ.  It's squarely in the sports genre and reads like Ned Bryant, but with better art. What amuses me on this page, though, is the commercial-like description of the Champ's tonic. If it is responsible for his top physical condition, then maybe it is a potion that bestows a +1 bonus to all physical skills.

This is from Neptina, Queen of the Deep.  As often as sharks get defeated with knives in comic books, I wonder if knives should do +1 damage against them...

These fish-men might be another variation of mermen...but they do look an awful lot like kuo-toa from That Other Game. There are at least seven of them.  One of them seems to have a paralysis raygun. And if that encounter wasn't dangerous enough, there's a giant eel too!

There is apparently an entire city of fish-men down here, so...10,000+ of them? They have advanced science, capable of producing trophy items like a bubble helmet that allows underwater breathing and a paste that makes his skin waterproof and resistant to water pressure. That last part is odd because pressure never seems to be a problem in underwater comic book adventures, or all these underwater encounters occur within 1,000' of the surface.

We learn the fish-men are telepathic too -- something neither mermen nor kuo-toa can do!

This is from The Blazing Scarab.  Yes, a Rochester-like manservant called Snowball is blatantly racist -- but, what I'd like to know is, what's that weapon he's holding? It looks like he's attacking that other man with a shaving razor. As an improvised weapon it would do 1-3 points of damage -- maybe 1-4, since I think getting sliced by a shaving razor sounds pretty nasty.

Okay, if you can choke your way past the racism on this page, there's a really neat teleport trap here, with a glowing scarab being the lure.

This is Jungleman.  The text calls that a huge viper, but it looks like an ordinary-sized poisonous snake to me. What's unusual about this Tarzan rip-off is that it takes place in Cambodia (full of ruins -- good for hideouts!), and Jungleman's animal companion is an albino tiger.

Here we see mobsters burying their treasure under the ruins -- a perfect explanation for where there is so much treasure and trophy items hidden in hideouts.

Not only does Jungleman have a tiger companion, but he has an elephant companion as well. That's a lot of cumulative Hit Dice for a 1st level fighter or explorer to have with him. I would probably not allow either, myself.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)