Slam-Bang Comics #1 - pt. 4

 He may not deserve it, but we're back with another look at Lee Granger, Jungle King. The mentally augmented lion -- something Lee was not only able to do with 1940-era science, but with whatever equipment he was able to find in the jungles of Africa -- comes to Lee for healing, which makes me wonder if the Scientist class should be allowed to heal, or if this is just the first aid skill.

I feel obligated to point out how unlikely it would be for this plan to work in any game session I run. It's predicated on the Arabs splitting up so much that they not only can't see Hassan caught in the snare, but they can't hear his cries for help either. If not the first, surely the second would have happened and reinforcements would arrive before Lee has time to change out of his clothes.

Now this part of the plan is more sensible, and I like the extra detail of an underground stream with a fast-moving current being under a pit trap. The unusual thing is the shape of the pit trap, seemingly 5' x 30', which is great, I suppose, only if the enemy insists on traveling in single file.

By now I've seen a lot of fake names for Germans, but Kazilians has got to be the weirdest. "How many Germans are coming?" "Kazilians of them, sir!"

Also, and I know this is petty and nitpicky of me, but those have got to be the thickest lips I've ever seen drawn on a white man in a comic book.

Using logs dropped in the water to foil torpedoes sounds like a great tactic, and one likely to work. The torpedo then angling off the top of the log and shooting entirely over the ship seems entirely less likely...

This tactic would be difficult to duplicate in H&H with combatants on foot, as a shield between combatants only improves AC by one, and it is too easy to run around obstacles. With slower-moving and less maneuverable ships this should be more effective, so much so that I can't think of much in the way of game mechanics to assign to this. Maybe a skill check for each pilot to outmaneuver the opponent?

Aerial torpedoes look like rockets to me... 

This is from the next feature, Mark Swift and the Time Retarder. Mark is the boy in shorts, going back in time with his scientist neighbor friend (because it goes only back in time, that's why he calls it a retarder; no explanation how they get back if it only retards time...). The strip's author pulled 940 out of his hat as the year Vikings landed in North America, but it's not a bad guess; even today we can only guess the 10th century is when it happened. 

I've no idea why a Viking princess would have come along on this expedition...

How convenient that Mr. Kent just happens to know Old Norse! Perhaps he knows modern Icelandic, which is closest to Old Norse still spoken today. But then, in H&H, it doesn't really matter; we let everyone talk to everyone, like it happens in most comics.

It's typical racism of the period that the Indians are "savages" and the Vikings are "brave," but not savages. 

Mark and Mr. Kent don't make for good action heroes, but they can still be useful, as can your non-combat supporting cast during adventures. Just give them torches and tell them to set everything they see on fire!

Oh, and we also know that Vikings didn't wear horned helmets; that's a myth that came from 19th century art. And while I'm getting nitpicky, this likely is happening in Newfoundland, which means the Indians are Beothuk, and the Beothuk lived in conical dwellings known as mamateeks, not teepees. It's also unlikely they're all running around shirtless in Newfoundland, since only Alaska is even further north.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)

Slam-Bang Comics #1 - pt. 3

Hello! We're back, still looking at the Lucky Lawton feature. We could talk about the oddly rectangular word balloons (the very next page goes back to rounded corners), or the terrible coloring job on this page, but I'm going to focus on the "no guns" law, which was actually quite common in the "Old West," and is something we badly need more of today. Personally, I would like to run a "no guns" H&H campaign, but I know that wouldn't emulate the comics well.

If you've followed this blog long enough, you've probably seen plenty of examples where the artist just seems to be guessing what an animal looks like without using a reference. The artist here is Hal Sharp, and I have a feeling Hal owned a dog; Pal is in real dog poses every time we see him.

Lucky does the smart thing, circling the perimeter instead of barging right into the bank. 

Also note how not going solo gives Lucky twice the chance to detect the activity in the bank that he would have had walking along alone.

There are two ways to achieve Lucky's noiselessness. One, he can make a skill check to move silently. The other is that he trust to his surprise roll and, if successful, means he must have been moving silently. Since chance of surprise is normally 2 in 6, it seems like that would be easier for most Heroes (unless Lucky is a mysteryman using a stunt, but I doubt it). 

Combat in the dark adds a greater level of challenge, what with the -4 penalties to hit. Just by not flipping the lights on, every unarmored combatant is now effectively at AC 5. Now, from the panel art it appears that there is plenty of light coming in through those front windows, making the scene only dimly lit, but this could just be artistic license so we can see more than five black panels with word balloons in them.

And yet, in this scene, the bandits are silhouetted in front of the windows, so it wasn't really that dark after all? And the remaining band sees Lucky in the darkness now? To emulate this scene, we need a new mechanic for eyes adjusting to darkness after a certain, or maybe random, number of combat turns. 

Although the rest of this story is seemingly set in the Old West, the remaining bandit's hat looks suspiciously modern.

The bad coloring job on the lower half of this page might be fooling me, but it appears that the rancher is wearing his bandana up over his mouth. I only mention it because I see so many people wearing their masks wrong like that these days...

There aren't game mechanics on display here, but I like how Lee is a scientist/explorer. Both were classes in Hideouts & Hoodlums 1st edition, and while both classes did get playtested in my campaigns, no one ever thought to combine those two.

My initial reaction was that having the slavers be Arabs was racist, but while there have been many white slavers through history, there was a strong tradition of slavery in the Middle East, with several countries not outlawing it until 1970. Also in the writer's favor, Ali and Hassan are real Arabic names, and not gibberish names meant to sound Arabic (I know, some golden age writers set the bar really low!).

Wow, we're in pure fantasy territory at this point. First, there's no way a plane explodes, and someone sitting in that plane falls from that wreckage completely unharmed. This should be a save for half damage situation at best. 

Then, there's no way someone's coat would be big enough to create enough wind drag necessary to cushion his fall, so there's more damage Lee should have taken by now. I think we're looking at the tune of 55d6 damage at this point - and that's assuming the plane was at a near dangerously low altitude for flying.

As unlikely it is that all the spear attacks Lee left himself open to while charging the pygmies missed, it is even more impossible for him, game mechanically, to push the leader onto a spear, unless the Editor was house ruling a fumble mechanic. More likely, this is just a freebie from the Editor.

Neutralizing poison is really easy in Lee's world. All you have to do is stick someone with a knife and the poison leaks right out of you! If I was willing to implement this as a new rule (and I'm not), for every point of damage you do to the wound, you would give the recipient a new saving throw. 

The pygmies are very patient in indulging Lee's rampant passive-aggressive racism. "Uh...ever heard of donkeys? The domestication of donkeys started in Africa. And we know what iron is, iron smelting and forging technologies were discovered in Nigeria as early as the 6th century BC. Bricks too, since about 7,000 BC. And just what are you whittling? A giant banjo?"

I am so torn on this page. On one hand, I think it's great that, for once, a lion shows up in a story and the Hero wants to capture it alive instead of stabbing it to death, or snapping its jaws, or shooting it. But that he wants it so he can perform experiments on its brain doesn't sit well with me, even though I get that the author is trying to offer a scientific explanation for how the jungle Hero is able to talk to animals. 

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)