All-American Comics #10

Wrapping up this month's Red, White, and Blue...

Doris distracts the Master with a flash of light reflected off of her compact mirror so Red can paste him one. I don't think we need any game mechanics for that other than a simple initiative roll. If the players won, then Doris' distraction worked.

A lot of the Mutt & Jeff's featured in All-American Comics are reprints of comics already licensed to earlier comic books, but this one in particular I don't remember. It features a goat -- that very important animal featured in so many gag strips -- but maybe takes the cake for most exaggerated abilities for a goat. This time, the goat can not only push a car with its headbutts, but it eats half the car.  As crazy-powerful as goats are in joke strips, I'm thinking of pushing them up to 1+2 Hit Dice, and let them do 2-8 points of damage with a headbutt, limited to when they are combining pushing with damage (and 1-6 otherwise).

In Popsicle Pete (they wisely removed the The Adventures of part, since there's never any adventure), we learn that a plate of spaghetti could sell for a quarter at a restaurant, but for 45 cents if there is live music.

In Adventures in the Unknown, Ted and Allan continue to encounter anachronisms, as an early man is attacked by a triceratops that went extinct 67 million years earlier. Further, even though "tri" is right there in the name, the triceratops is consistently drawn with four horns. And, of course, they kill it, not caring if it is the last of its species. They also produce a medical kit/first aid kit, which they never listed having with them before. I wonder if I should be more lax on equipment lists and let players save vs. plot to have any common tool they need when they need it.

We learn that Ted's full name is Theodore Magroodle Dolliver. That doesn't make me like him any better.

With nothing but time on their hands, Ted and Alan begin a three-day trip of rafting upstream just to see where the river begins. While rafting, they are attacked by a huge river python -- and this might actually bear out, paleontology-wise, as pythons would likely have evolved by then. Now, aquatic pythons...that was probably an evolutionary dead end. Comically, when Ted is constricted, Alan keeps trying to shoot it with his pistol, regardless of how good a chance he has of hitting Ted by mistake! When Alan fishes Ted out of the water and pumps water from his lungs, we're reminded that -- back then -- people though you should lay someone on their stomach in that situation.

When Scribbly takes a week's vacation up north in the country, his mother gets fed up with his younger brother and mails the tyke to Scribbly. That might seem like child endangerment today, but apparently this was an actual thing that used to happen until 1913!

Lastly, in Gary Concord the Ultra-Man, we learn that they have "ray eye recorders" in the 23rd century, or what we would call security cameras today. "Televisors" are what they call television. An "electron racer" is a fast personal plane, but maybe that is a make and model (the 2236 Electron Racer)? Electron Racers are faster than cosmic ray craft (another type of personal plane, but a two-seater). Both look like jets. After being shot out of the sky, Gary and his sidekick Guppy encounter a land-tank (suggesting there are also sea-tanks or air-tanks) equipped with a raygun in its 180-degree top turret. When Stella Tor divebombs them after they take control of the tank, she drops poison bombs from the Electron Racer (probably not standard issue and something she loaded in herself).

(read at fullcomic.pro)

All-American Comics #8 - pt. 2

Continuing #8...

For comedic effect, Mutt of Mutt & Jeff is able to ignore below freezing temperatures through force of will, as soon as it allows him to ogle women. It makes sense to allow a saving throw vs. science to avoid some environmental factors, though once the temperature becomes extreme enough to start doing points of damage, I would stop relying on this practice.

I have previously written about how strangely common goats are in early comic book humor. In this issue's Daisybelle, three men are unable to push one goat against its will and it has to be moved by a tow truck. Now, it may be that the Editor was treating this as combat and making them all roll to hit before rolling for damage and then converting that into feet pushed, but they just keep missing their target number vs. the goat's Armor Class. But all this makes me think that maybe even 1+1 Hit Dice is conservative for how tough comic book goats should be treated.

Mystery Men of Mars becomes the more generic Adventures in the Unknown in this issue. Ted and Alan travel to Spottiscourt, Virginia, which sounds like a real place, but if it is, I can't find it. We learn that not only did their robot trophy's brain rust, but the entire body corroded and turned to ash -- much like drow magic items do in D&D when exposed to sunlight. Their second adventure follows the pattern of the first, but this time a scientist offers to take them to the prehistoric past in a time machine rather than to Mars in a spaceship. Appropriate for a time travel adventure, we know the date on which they leave for the past, October 24, 1939.

In The Adventures of Popsicle Pete, Pete and his friends are able to fix up a broken radio, suggesting to me that electronics is a basic-level skill in 1939. We also learn that the license to open a radio station cost $100.

Scribbly's humor tends to be hit and miss, but maybe the best joke yet is this exchange, after Scribbly is sent to the principal's office for drawing an unflattering picture of his teacher.

Principal: That's awful! It doesn't look like you at all! It looks like a pig!

Teacher: Well? Aren't you going to say something about it?

Principal: Oh, my!  I certainly will!  Young man...this is terrible!  The next time you draw a pig, remember to make it look more like your teacher!

In Ben Webster, Professor Mattix returns and smashes the last thought recorder, having decided that it is an "agency for trouble" after spies tried to get it. Using shaky science the author doesn't even try to explain, it is claimed that only one thought recorder can ever be built following the same design. But that doesn't insult our intelligence nearly as bad as Ben Webster creator Edwin Alger's bizarrely racist depiction of black servants, drawing them to look more like bears than humans.

(Read at fullcomic.pro)

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.

All-American Comics #2-4

In Bobby Thatcher, Bobby and his friends are setting up for the night in an old abandoned cabin when they stumble across a secret compartment in the fireplace, containing a box of old letters and a simple treasure map.

Skippy is pranked with a trick camera that squirts blinding ink.

On to #3...

This month's Red, White, and Blue is the first story to take place in Baja California, Mexico. The story moves to Hermosillo, Mexico, showing that someone really paid attention to his atlas -- just maybe not the artist, as we never get a sense of Hermosillo being such a big city. The three of them also "dicker" (a rare word for bartering or bargaining) for horses to get to Hermosillo instead of taking a car or train, which probably was not necessary in 1940.

Instead of answering to some office in Washington, D.C., Red, White, and Blue are headquartered out of a San Diego G2 intelligence office. I can neither confirm nor deny that such an office existed in real life.

Red learns a lesson from Whitey about reading both sides of secret notes for clues.

Blooey stops a plane from taking off by standing on the tail and making it too heavy (let's assume for now that is how it would work). He's not using any real skill to do it, he's just resisting the science of wind resistance that would normally sweep him off. That's why this would be a passive saving throw instead of an active skill check. I would still allow a mysteryman to burn a stunt to do it automatically.

Skippy tells us that butter went for 24 or 25 cents per lb.

Ma Hunkel and the Hunkel Family debut in Scribbly this month. While Scribbly's family always seemed like how Sheldon Mayer imagined gentile families lived, the Hunkels are a breath of fresh air and the truest-feeling New York ethnic ghetto dwellers since Moon Mullins. 

In Mystery Men of Mars, Alan empties his pockets. Many times after defeating hoodlums, Heroes will pause to search their pockets. I even put a table for random pocket contents in adventure module RT1 Palace of the Vamp Queen.  In this story, Alan has 56 cents, a knife, and a slide rule in his pockets. Funny, but I never would have thought of a slide rule!

When the three men are thrown in a cell, they are locked in with what appears to be an automated stenotype machine that records their every word, but turns out to be a talking computer. Although drawn comically, the concepts here are pretty advanced for their time.

It's an interesting story detail that the Professor establishes communication with the Martians by solving math problems with them.

Mutt & Jeff tells us you could buy a dozen eggs for 40 cents, or a dozen cracked eggs for 25 cents -- which says a lot about how poor people were in the '30s.

In Ben Webster, we learn that "all the jack" was slang for "all the money."

On to #4...

No sooner are Red, White, and Blue assigned to investigate saboteurs, than a saboteur tries to drop a cement block from a roof onto their heads. It seems obvious that the cement block would have done considerably more than just the standard weapon damage of 1-6 points of damage, and probably more like 3-18.  The block appears to be a 5' cube, which I would only allow to hit one target. Further, even though the saboteur has a more passive role in the attack once gravity takes over, timing is a critical issue in the attack and so I would require an active attack roll, rather than just passive saving throws from the targets.

Another point to consider is, does a Hero's save vs. missiles apply here, after the attack roll? The missile is larger than average -- almost large enough to count as an area effect attack -- but is also slower than bullets. I would allow the save.

Blooey comically says "Well blow me down!" -- a line Popeye would already be famous for.

The saboteurs are an oddly multicultural bunch; one uses the Italian word "signor," while another uses the French exclamation "sapristi," and still another uses the Latin word "amici."  Either the author grabbed words at random, the saboteurs are deliberately trying to throw people off as to what country they are from, or there are an awful lot of countries engaged in this conspiracy!

A "highpowered launch" sounds like a trophy item motorboat that goes faster than normal (Boat +1?).

This adventure takes our boys to Honolulu (via Pearl Harbor, though the story does not pause there), where there is another G2 office.

In Mystery Men of Mars, some of the Martian bug-men are revealed to be robots, and it is not clear if all of them are actually robots.

Daisybelle teaches us that ice cream cones only cost a nickel.

According to Reg'lar Fellers, movies cost 25 cents -- but there might be a free gift for attending, like a shaving cup.


(Scans courtesy of fullcomic.pro/read-comic-online.)

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.)

Popular Comics #33

We move into October 1938 now and start with this offering from Dell.  I don't actually have a lot to say about it, but I'm going to share some of it anyway.

Among the gag filler is this panel -- I'm really surprised it took this long to see the cliche of the "Indian rope trick".  Still...Hideouts & Hoodlums is going to need a Rope Trick spell.

I like this Shark Egan; it's got dynamic art and a fast-paced story.  We also learn why it's not always a good idea to keep a crate full of grenades in your plane -- because someone else might find their way into your plane.

We also see that it's awful hard to hit even a target the size of a boat with a grenade, when thrown from a fast moving plane. This matches up with the penalties to hit at high speeds given in the vehicular combat rules of Book III: Underworld and Metropolis Adventures.

And I'm sharing this page only because I think it's funny. I would not expect any Editor to ever let this work in H&H, no matter how light the mood of the campaign was. Now, in a game like Toon, then this could work...

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus)

Funnies #16

We finally have reached 1938!  And we'll start with the Alley Oop feature from Dell's The Funnies.  I'm still not sure about showing Alley Oop pages here, so I'll just mention that Alley Oop has to deal with that old trope of crossing a pond full of crocodiles here while hunting for a flightless bird. Crocodiles would be statted the same as alligators, which can be found in Book II: Mobsters & Trophies (and, in fact, the alligator entry supports this).

Goat joke #12!

According to Dan Dunn, at least, a used car in good working order could be had for just $10 in the late '30s.

Bronc Peeler brings us the first instance of "being tied to the ground over an anthill as a deathtrap" in comics, as well as possibly the first instance of male nudity in comics. As far as deathtraps go, this one's pretty mild, since Mexico isn't known for having overly aggressive ants...

Here, Don Dixon tries to make a case for weapon proficiencies, or a rule that limits Fighters to only knowing a limited set of weapons. Or maybe Don is just pretending he doesn't know how to use a bow, because he wants that high Strength modifier for melee combat...

Hideouts & Hoodlums, of course, does not use proficiencies or weapon skills, though some classes are restricted in what weapons they can use.

I can scarcely pass up an opportunity to share a page of my personal pre-Superman favorite, Captain Easy. Here, we're left to interpret how effectively mobsters can feign death. Was Easy really fooled when he checked the man's pulse, or was picking the man up and threatening to throw him out the window just an elaborate way of calling him out? I'm half-tempted to give cowardly hoodlums the ability to feign death...

Here, Easy sees through a disguise, demonstrating that disguise should either have a percent chance of success or a saving throw to see through (auto successes should only occur by magic).

Mutt & Jeff (or at least Mutt, in this case) demonstrates that ability scores like Strength don't rise in H&H no matter what training you do.

...Unless they do. There is an optional rule in H&H that allows for ability score advancement. It has proven to be popular in past campaigns, though it really only seems to apply to Superheroes in the actual comic books...

Renting horses, for 60 cents an hour.



(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)

The Funnies #15

We've made it to December 1937!

Tad's player is taking a huge risk here, shooting at a snake, while his friend is standing directly on the other side of the snake. Given the circumstances shown here -- and provided Tad's player understands those circumstances, and still chooses to shoot -- I would give the bullet a good chance of hitting his friend if the shot missed the snake (maybe a +1 situational modifier to hit).

Captain Easy is like a comic strip tutorial for playing Hideouts & Hoodlums.  Here, Easy shows you how to create your own plot hook characters!

Scribbly's Mom shows us that, even when a mobster encounter begins hostile, you can still ask the Editor for another encounter reaction check (finally -- finally! -- I found an excuse to showcase a page of Sheldon Mayer's remarkable Scribbly!)

Goat joke!  I've lost track of how many goat jokes we've had so far...

And lastly -- I'm not sure if this was a real thing or not, because we typically haven't seen $100 fines for anything so far in the comics, but according to Daisybelle you could get a $100 fine for picking up a hitchhiker on a highway.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)

The Funnies #12 - pt. 2

Flavor text during combat can be confusing, and perhaps rightfully so. Is it true that "bullets don't seem to stop 'em", or are you just not hitting them well enough?  If the players are not sure, it should not necessarily be the Editor's job to correct them. Rather, players should find out what weapons can hurt certain mobster types through trial and error. Who knows -- perhaps they're ghost apes who can only be hurt by silver or magic weapons?

Og stumbles onto a hidden land where dinosaurs still exist! This is still as big a deal in caveman days as it would be in modern times.

It's interesting how Og mistakes the pteranodon for a giant vampire bat. I'm not sure a caveman would even know what a giant vampire bat is, but okay. It's fun, for the Editor, to try to withhold from the players what they're fighting for as long as possible. For another example, instead of saying a stegosaurus is approaching them, say "the stalking death" is coming for them.

Pteranodons were statted in Supplement II: All-American. Stegosaurs have never been statted for Hideouts & Hoodlums yet. Stegosaurs were 3 ton beasts -- I'd put them at 14 HD, with d10 Hit Dice.  Stalking death indeed!

What Heroes wouldn't want to go exploring underground and run into Sibyl. Agree to obey her commands and she'll give you each an Amulet of Protection (functions like the Ring?)!

And this should happen in H&H more often than you might think. Requiring Heroes to loot and steal for all their trophy items is harsh and forces them to act out-of-character -- better to hand out trophy items as rewards instead (and not all the time, but sometimes).

Also note that Sibyl seems to have a new magic item -- the Wand of Knocking, that will open any portal...

And, on the lighter side, Mutt & Jeff run afoul of $10 fines. I think we've seen speeding fines on this blog once already. I don't expect to see fines always be the same, since fines would be set locally and naturally subject to variation, but it's good to see what the overall range winds up being.

$14 for two to eat in a fancy restaurant? When preparing the price list for Book I: Men & Supermen, I found a site with scanned menus from lots of 1940s restaurants. I suspect you could still spend a lot at an upscale restaurant in the 1930s, so Mutt & Jeff must have been eating on the lighter side of the menu.


(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)

The Funnies #6 - pt. 2

A long-standing trope of the action adventure genre (of which one could argue even the superhero genre is just a sub-set) is that prisoners can be intimidated into giving up valuable information. Here, Tailspin Tommy takes an unusual aeronautical approach to this, while taking advantage of the fact that his prisoner is afraid to fly.  Without that disadvantage, it seems unlikely that loop de loops would trigger a morale save.

The people of the Hidden Empire call these terods (or is that teroos?), but they look an awful lot like dragons to my trained eye.

Since terods breath poison gas, it seems safe to stat them as green dragons, despite the fact that they seem to come in every color but. They are defeated, not by Don Dixon, but by the magic ring worn by one of his supporting cast. It is unclear exactly what the ring is doing, but it seems to be a Ring of Light Rays that shoot like lasers (for at least 4d6 damage, I'd guess).

Og and friends manage to hug the ledge, even during an earthquake, by virtue of saving throws vs. science or plot, depending on which is better (or worse, depending on the severity of the quake).

One could make an argument that balance would be measured by Dexterity and that the Dexterity score should be somehow tied into this decision (whether to fall or not fall).  However, even assuming there was a modifier for ability scores that could be applied to any roll, it would still be a random chance of success, and there already is a mechanic for random chance of success in the saving throw mechanic. So ability score checks seem, to my mind, superfluous.  Though some game referees do love them, and they could certainly use them if they really wanted to.

Eggs are 40 cents a dozen.

The Funnies #5

Here's an interesting reversal on the traditional hideout crawl: Captain Easy and friends are the defenders, while the mobsters work to get in.



In Alley Oop, we're introduced to the ophiacodon, a 1-1 HD lizard; muraenosaurus, a 6 HD smaller cousin of the pleisosaur; mystriosuchus, a 4 HD crocodile; phenacodus, a 1/2 HD early mammal; and of course the well-known triceratops, which was statted in Hideouts & Hoodlums Supplement I: National.

Don Dixon continues to show us archaic weapons, some of which I thought were never going to need to turn up in H&H. Swords, yes, but javelins?  Apparently they're very useful for taking down subterranean kings.

Before that, the king delivers a "crushing blow" that drops Don to his knees. Could this be a combat-related stunt that renders your opponent prone?

Depending on its state of maturity, a baby elephant is probably no more than 2+1 HD and is unlikely to yet have the ability to wreck things like walls.  Whether or not elephants are frightened of mice is up to the Editor's discretion. In a campaign with a light mood, perhaps a morale save would be in order.

Sometimes trophies are not just found in hideouts, but offered as rewards. In this case, Jack got a plane for his troubles, plus a valuable necklace for Myra.

Myra, meanwhile, has encountered a drug that dulls the senses and makes people obey simple commands. This would be like a Potion of Charm Person, but weaker than the spell.


(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)

Funnies #4 - pt. 1

Knock-out drops seem to be a surprisingly common trophy item, and surprisingly effective; in fact, they seem to get used so often that maybe they have a -1 penalty to save against?

But what to make of Easy's bait-and-switch stratagem?  Is this simply role-playing, bereft of game mechanics?  Compliance determined by an encounter reaction roll?  Or does resisting the trick require a save vs. plot?  Luckily, all three are valid solutions for a Hideouts & Hoodlums campaign.

Bandits continue to be a very common encounter in comic books.  So, the Captain Easy bandit eluder is a handy transport-trophy, at least on icy terrain.  Easy's claim that it can do 100 MPH is actually modest; on the next page it's clocked at going 120 MPH by the narrator!

Dan Dunn hasn't been on this blog for awhile, but here we have a hideout map -- not of the hideout itself, but of the terrain around one.

Hats cost $2 in the 1930s, or at least this guy's hat did.

Perhaps even more common than knock-out pills is chloroform.  New thought: perhaps instead of dealing with each of these individually in the trophies section, poisons and sedatives should be dealt with in their own section of one of the H&H rulebooks.

A note about concealed doors vs. secret doors. A concealed door is an ordinary door, concealed behind something else.  A secret door can be a door concealed to look like something else, like a stone.

I have considered before adding sleight of hand, as a skill, to the Magic-User class, but it only seems to be used for flavor text -- like here -- and never in adventure scenarios.  We'll see, though, if other trends develop...

Freckles' scientist friend is a little off his rocker, thinking he's going to be traveling at the speed of light in his moon rocket.  Or is he?  Should science just work the way comic book scientists think it does in a comic book campaign?  It boggles my mind to think how that would even work.

Mutt buys a used taxi cab for $20.



The Alley Oop featured creates are cave bears, moas, mastodons, and "Devonian fish", like holoptychius.  Cave bears are mentioned in Book II: Mobsters & Trophies as having more Hit Dice than regular bears. Actually, 7 HD for a brown bear might have been a bit high (5 HD would make more sense) and 7 HD should be reserved for the cave bears.  Moas would have been 10' tall 3 HD flightless birds.  Mastodons have not been statted for H&H, but woolly mammoths were and mastodons are basically less hairy and smaller mammoths -- still 10 HD, but of the d10 instead of d12 variety.  Holoptychius, a 3' long prehistoric fish, would barely have qualified for a hit point.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)

Funnies #1 - pt. 2

Freckles and His Friends reminds us that a hidden land can be placed anywhere so long as the entrance is inaccessible; here, you have to swim 10' deep and under a ledge to reach this mini-hidden land where cougars nuzzle with lambs (cougars being statted in Supplement III: Better Quality).

This also illustrates the importance of everyone in the party carrying a flashlight, like if you fall into deep, murky water and the others need to see how far down you sank.



Yeah, okay, Ben Webster.  It is left up to the Editor's discretion if Indians should ride around topless on horseback in the 20th century (and be statted as Natives, from Book II: Mobsters & Trophies). 

If nothing else, this page illustrates the importance of carrying binoculars -- it might give you a head start when someone is chasing you!

Don Dixon and company encounter a constrictor snake -- with a twist!  Considered sacred by the local natives, killing the snake brings their wrath.

Tad of the Tanbark illustrates the usefulness of having an elephant Supporting Cast Member.

This half page of This Curious World shows the water buffalo, an animal that was on every continent but North America and Antarctica by 1940. Water buffalo fighting (like bull fighting) is practiced in some Asian countries. I would stat them as 4+1 Hit Dice, using d12 dice.

Mutt and Jeff put the value of a fur coat at $60 or less (oops, I had made them far more valuable on the starting equipment list!).

Most every comic book for 45 years had a page like this in it. Pocket telescopes, microscopes, high-powered air pistols, luminous paint, whoopee cushions -- smart players should find ways to use all this stuff!

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)