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.)


  

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 #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.)

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.)

The Funnies #20

I've gone over before how combat turns, particularly unarmed combat turns, work in Hideouts & Hoodlums, but the Alley Oop story in this month's issue of The Funnies urges me to revisit the issue. Though you're not seeing it here, there is a page of Alley Oop on a boxer's back, getting in six punches while his opponent seems to be getting in only one punch. This is, of course, not the case of how combat works in H&H, and it would not be fair if it did (can you imagine, though, a RPG where you got to keep attacking continuously until you missed?). Rather, both boxers are getting equal numbers of attacks, but only Alley is lucky enough to be hitting all the time, and his unlucky opponent keeps missing.

At first, I thought Alley being on the boxer's back was just flavor text, until I realized there was a game mechanic advantage to the hold he has his opponent in, as it continuously allows Alley to attack from behind (and thus at a +2 bonus). So Alley establishes the hold on turn 1, then proceeds to punch at a bonus for the next three turns (2 attacks per turn if both combatants are fighting unarmed) because his opponent keeps failing a save vs. science to get Alley off his back.

Now, how the other boxer punches Alley out of the ring is another matter entirely. This "slam" effect I'll have to deal with someday, as it becomes quite prevalent in superhero stories later on. As of right now, there is no mechanic for ordinary fighters to knock each other over long distances -- though Supplement V: Big Bang has two powers for Superheroes modified to do this very thing.

Goat joke #13!

Though Mutt & Jeff have graced this blog several times, I think this is the first time its companion feature, Cicero's Cat, has ever been featured here.  I include it here because it's a bit of a mystery to me. Some of the staples of the carnival are unchanging and easily recognizable here -- the fun house, the roller coaster, the bumper cars. But what is the saucer on tracks, that seems to be different from the roller coaster? And what was that spin-around ride like, back in a day when safety was apparently not a paramount concern at carnivals? Did people really all tumble together in a big spinning pot?

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)

The Funnies #14

Sneaky Dan Dunn imparts some good playing tips here on how to...be sneaky!  If your Heroes need to arrange a secret rendezvous, it's best to use a public payphone, meet via taxi at a random location, take a roundabout trip via taxi, and then walk the rest of the way, all to watch for tails.  Remember, the longer the trip, the more rolls you should get for spotting someone shadowing you (the same chance as finding secret doors).

In this age of miniaturization, it's important to keep in mind how BIG a mad science machine should be in Hideouts & Hoodlums.  Towering structures, operated by levers, huge pistons, gears, noisy, mechanical contrivances -- these are the hallmarks of comic book science.

If your Heroes stumbled into a vault filled with barrels of diamonds, what would they do?  The fastest way to level up in H&H is by finding valuable treasure, but if the Heroes keep trying to sell all their found treasure to the same merchants in the same area, they'll soon find they've caused significant inflation, turning their home base into a "boom town", perhaps as bad as back during the Gold Rush.

Superheroes can wreck their way out of binding ropes, but should other Heroes be able to wriggle themselves free?  Perhaps. As the Editor, I would have to rule on how expert the tyer was with rope use, if the job had been hasty enough to have allowed for some slack, etc. I would then decide if I would allow a single attempt at a save vs. plot to determine if the Hero can wriggle free.

Should hornet stings cause points of damage? Unless there was something unusual about the hornets (like giant hornets!), I would say no, let's not put half-pint Heroes in that much danger. Instead, I would require a save vs. science, per sting, or the victim is too miserable from the pain to do anything for a full turn.


(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)

The Funnies #11 - pt. 2

Tailspin Tommy is on one of those unusual tropical islands inhabited by gorillas. It seems to be a herd (is herd the word for gorillas?) of eight apes, which is pretty high and decidedly dangerous should they all turn hostile. The reference to a "big leader" is unspecific. It could be interpreted to mean "giant ape", but the art doesn't seem to support that. Perhaps it's just an unusually tough ape, with an extra Hit Die.

$40 seems to be the fine for breaking windows in the 1930s.

Here, the text describes Don Dixon's supporting cast as petrified, but they are not colored as if stone. What is more likely is that they are paralyzed, by a spell like Hold Person.

Kestra's Mirror of Time is a powerful magic item/trophy, if it's really depicting the future. Of course, this is very hard for Editors to do in a campaign that is not being railroaded towards a specific goal, and impossible in an open-ended or "sandbox" campaign. The Editor would have to keep precognitive visions in those situations deliberately vague.

There is no precognition spell and, for the reasons above, I would not recommend it. If a Mirror of Time was allowed in the game, I would set some limitations on it, like only usable once per week by Magic-Users.

If you're worried about the boy on this page, relax; he's in more danger of being psychologically scarred by being called "Pinhead" by everyone than by those crabs. Ordinary crabs are far too small to be able to do even 1 point of damage. As a general rule, an animal should weigh at least 30 lbs. to be able to do 1 point of damage, or an absolute minimum of 10 lbs.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)

The Funnies #11 - pt. 1

I don't know how accurate it is to say people would pay $1-2 in the 1930s for retrieving golf balls, but if one were to run a Reg'lar Fellers-style game with kid characters, they would earn Experience Points slowly by earning money in such a fashion.

A player recently asked me why starting money is so much when everything was so cheap. It's true that competition and scarcity of money drove prices for most things pretty low, but when you absolutely have to have something -- like a secret plane trip to the coast -- and the pilot knows he's got you on the spot, $1,500 should not surprise you as his asking price.

Hideouts are often going to be guarded in some way, like by sentries expecting some sort of signal from those approaching.

It's also useful to not leave even "empty" rooms empty. A simple barrel in the corner makes an empty room more memorable and, if nothing else, gives the players something to visualize as they are exploring.

Dan Dunn's player isn't cheating; it's fair game to take a Supporting Cast Member with special skills, even if it's a trained dog with tracking skills, into the hideout with you. Of course, you risk putting your SCM(s) in harm's way the longer they are in a hideout, so use this strategy with great care.

Another playing tip from Captain Easy. If someone shows up claiming to be your new chauffeur, check them for a chauffeur's license. Pointing a gun at their head first is entirely optional.

It also pays to thoroughly search every new environment your Hero finds himself in. You never know where mobsters might be hiding!

This one's a tough call, game mechanics-wise. Should Supporting Cast Members be able to recruit other SCMs?  I'd probably allow it this time since the charismatic priest is not converting bad guys to directly aid Bronc Peeler, but there is definitely a dangerous precedent here for sending 1 SCM out to recruit 2 others, sending each of them out to recruit 2 others, and so on until the Hero has an army on his hands.

Of course, if the priest were a player-ran Hero, then this would all be fine.

Heroes turning down treasure should still be awarded Experience Points for earning it -- unless the 100 xp award for doing a good deed is larger, and then award that (provided the Hero is truly giving his share away to a good cause!).


(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)

Popular Comics #7 - pt. 1

Another issue of Dell's Popular Comics has a lot to teach us!

Here, Gasoline Alley shows us that Fighters should be able to climb.  Well, actually, I think every class should have the ability to climb trees. Some games would just assign a big modifier to a skill check, but I think we can waive a mechanic entirely for tree climbing.

Ultra-obscure comic strip reprint A Strain on the Family Tie is going to illuminate some aspect of Hideouts & Hoodlums for us?   It does when it reminds us that fireworks are legally available for sale (though not on the starting equipment list, they should be easily picked up in game play), and make great diversions for Heroes to use.

Hatchet men would be another name -- and perhaps a less offensive name, for Yellow Peril Hoodlums.  I plan to retain this mobster type, though I'm seriously considering adding to them that they are adept at ambushes, with perhaps a 3 in 6 chance of surprise.



The Dick Tracy installment reminds us of more tools available to "modern day" Heroes of the '30s and '40s -- though not as available as fireworks -- the lie detector and the "trick mirror" that can be seen through from the other side.

Little Joe's bandit general pal here demonstrates two combat moves: disarming (which will have its own game mechanic in the next edition) and the technique that only seems to exist in comics -- picking up someone and using them as a club against another target (Batman will do this frequently in his early days).  After grappling the first target, the attacker can use this technique to do clubbing damage to both opponents at once.  Editors might want to limit this technique only to Heroes with a Strength of 15 or higher.

Reg'lar Fellers reminds us of two more potentially useful items for Heroes to acquire -- stilts and glue.  Glue is even going to be on the starting equipment list.

This panel of On the Range reminds us that bisons have not been statted for H&H yet, and perhaps they should be. Wikipedia tells me that bison at Yellowstone National Park are three times as likely to harm people than bears, and I've long since statted bears!  The American bison would have 6 HD, trample for 1-10+1 damage, and use 12-siders for Hit Dice because of their mass.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)