Jumbo Comics #13 - pt. 1

We're back to Fiction House now and their main publication, headlined by Sheena, Queen of the Jungle. It's a peculiar story for a lot of reasons, so let's take them one at a time. First, it seems strange that Sheena is okay with elephant hunters. Second, Zulus come from southern Africa, and my understanding was that Sheena's adventures were in northern Africa. Third, Zulus didn't use bows and arrows, apparently exclusively favoring melee weapons (though I've only done a little research on that). Fourth, Zulu were not head hunters (again, limited research, but that seems highly unlikely).

Fifth, having the Zulu stream across the plain in, practically, single file is visually appealing and probably easier to draw, but not a sound strategy. Sixth, Bob is waaay too reckless when it comes to starting forest fires. Think about the environment, Bob!

Not a story flaw, per se, but I want to pause to talk about this lion combat and emulating it in the Hideouts & Hoodlums rules. Sheena climbing onto the lion's back to keep away from its bite and claws actually makes realistic sense, but does not work in H&H where facing is barely important in combat. If facing isn't important, then it isn't necessary that Sheena grapple the lion before attacking it, and then she wouldn't be thrown off. And even if the lion reversed the hold and threw Sheena off, there's nothing in the rules that mean Sheena would drop her weapon. Of course -- and I say this a lot -- there doesn't have to be game mechanics explanation for most of this; much of it could be flavor text.

I also keep saying two more things, how much I hate seeing animals killed and how sick I am of animals, or mobsters, being one-shotted.

Seven, it's weird that Sheena is only okay with male elephants being killed...

While exploring, they just happen to come across a cave. Can physical locations be wandering encounters? If you want them to be.

I had to double check to make sure I hadn't already covered this story on the blog because this is, what, the third time we've seen an elephants' graveyard in a comic book so far?

Eight, how are poachers worse than hunters? 

There's a lot of different versions out there of what happens to people who mess with elephants' graveyards. In this one, at least 10 elephants show up to stampede you to death. That's a pretty high challenge level.

Nine -- tripping over a snake is lame, Bob.

In a jungle genre adventure, animals need to have greater than animal intelligence so they can do things like rescue people and communicate to each other.

Having a few more pages to kill, another wandering encounter comes along. This is a good technique for when you've finished the scenario for the night, but Sheena's player says he can stay a bit later.

At least cobras are jungle-appropriate. 

"Golleh", or Dick Briefer (Bob Kane's replacement on this feature), really pulls out all the stops on this wacky ride, with figures squashed and stretched way beyond the point of cartooniness. Perhaps appropriately, Peter Pupp has been shortened to a mere three-page presence, of which I'll only share one of you here (and given how racist it is, consider that a blessing).

"Maravian Crater" is a clue for where this story is meant to take place, since the Moravian Crater is a real place in Germany. Why the villain is, then, a Chinaman, is beyond me...

This page is from Will Eisner's Hawk of the Seas, his great , unfinished pirate saga. Here we see a treasure hunt in progress, with some great ideas for wilderness dressing to look for on such a hunt.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)

Jumbo Comics #12 - pt. 1

Small village? Riyadha is the capital city of Saudi Arabia and had a population of 40,000 circa 1940.

So, the plot is that this rich guy wants slaves, but there are none left to find in the Middle East, so his head slaver offers to get him some nice ones from the "heart of Africa." The problem here is that Sheena is well over 1,000 miles away. Greece and India are about as far away as Sheena is.

This page is all about the evidence that grappling rules apply to human vs. animal combat as well. It's definitely not about the fact that Sheena's just been bathing.

I've struggled with what to do with slavers, as a mobstertype. Apparently, slavers can make anyone compliant once they're in chains. Even Heroes? Anyone, even Heroes, captured by slavers must save vs. plot or do as they're told until freed. Shades of Gor!

The point of this page is to show how easy it is to get into a hideout, and how few guards a main bad guy needs when a Hero is going in solo.

It's always good tactics to have reinforcements show up when the battle is already engaged, in case the Heroes burnt all their their best attacks at the beginning.

When you draw out your hideout maps on graph paper with 10' to a square, you wind up with large dimensions like that last panel.

Is "scattering the guards" an attack form? Are they being scattered by the trample damage the horses are inflicting? Or are they failing their morale saves when they see the horses coming at them?

Map! It seems that Sheena's original village was in the very west edge of Kenya, or maybe Uganda. Not that it maters now that the village has been razed. You can see how choked up Sheena is over it.

This is Hawks of the Seas, getting ready to defend a castle. He doesn't have much of a defending force -- heck, he doesn't even have a very good map of the island to plan with either! If he has enough time, he should probably send someone to scout around and get a better sense of the terrain.

Loyalty isn't just important for Heroes' supporting cast; the employees of non-Hero characters will need to be checked during stressful times too. You never know when those barracks may turn empty.

We never get a good sense for just how many pirates are swarming around the castle, but if it's 25+ then I can see why Hawk and his pals are having trouble holding their own. The tactics of forming a living shield wall around the less capable fighters, and switching to melee weapons when they run out of ammo, are sound, though throwing rocks instead of switching to melee weapons, maybe not so good (unless he has a DEX bonus to hit, but not from STR!).

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)

Jumbo Comics #10

It finally happened!  Jumbo Comics is now in color!

Sheena benefits from color, but the lion benefits from a narrator describing his actions as if it had human-level intelligence. It's a tradition going back at least as far as Tarzan to ascribe animals with names, motives, and cognitive thought. But is that fair to your players? It's up to each Editor to decide how smart animals and mobsters are in their games; Hideouts & Hoodlums 2nd edition will not be including an Intelligence stat for mobster types.

That's a weird muzzle on that cat, but I suspect that's supposed to be a leopard. Leopards are statted as cougars in H&H.

This leopard's hide, incidentally, becomes the swimsuit-like outfit that Sheena wears for the rest of her run (it must be machine washable).

This is Stuart Taylor in Weird Stories of the Supernatural, and if that long title doesn't sound familiar, this was The Diary of Dr. Hayward. Dr. Hayward had long since become supporting cast to Stuart in the title. Unresolved is their imprisonment by Ali Pasha, who was forcing Stuart to test his time travel machine for him; now all the good guys seem to be free to time travel on their own without worries.

Here, they are 20,000 years in the past, where they are running afoul of ape-men. Ape-men will be statted in 2nd ed. Here we see ape-men can be good archers.

A tyrannosaurus rex? Really? That looks more like a diplodicus to me. But my real issue is the tiger-man. I already have ape-men and ant-men -- do I need a different entry for every animal-headed man variant that comes along? Or do I need to drag out the beast-man from 1st ed. (found only in one issue of The Trophy Case and pretty much abandoned after that) and fold all of these into that?

It's pretty cool how the tiger-men can control tigers like that. They also seem to prefer human queens. Or are there no female tiger-men? This could get weird...

Still, I like the detail here, of this prehistoric setting. Not sure if tiger-men will survive to the present day, but maybe I'll find out as the story progresses.

I think these are the first bolas I've seen in comics! I may have to include them in the 2nd ed. rules now, alongside lariats.

Hawk of the Seas has now been shortened to The Hawk. Here we get a map and a really good sense of place. But is that any surprise, coming from the Eisner shop?

ZX-5 is looking particularly good in an Eisner-like way this month. Here we have a lonely castle in the middle of a really big lake. We also can see some of the layout of the castle, and how big and empty the rooms are.

More trouble with distinguishing nobles from spies. And are female spies also vamps?

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Jumbo Comics #8

We rejoin Hawks facing 20 to 1 odds on board an enemy vessel -- and those are not good odds for a 3rd-level Fighter with no armor and armed with a sword, even if he does get to combat machine these guys. Luckily, a quick-thinking supporting cast member creates a trap for the opposition by turning a sail into a net. Nets seem to be particularly effective in comic books. Whatever the size of the net, half that space below it will be covered in net and all in that area must save vs. science or be trapped underneath for 1-3 turns (you can see the two who made their saves here).

I'm less charitable to the use of the cloak during the fight; I really don't see what game mechanic advantage to give to someone fighting with a sword in one hand and a blinding cloak in the other. Hawks' player is going to have to choose between the two each turn. On turns Hawks uses the blinding cloak, his opponent will, if he's hit, have to save vs. science or lose his attack that turn. It's not an effective attack, but more of a delaying move, really.

This is not the first, nor will it be the last, time I see a half-pint kicking a mobster in the shin and disabling a grown man. Half-pints might need a special power of getting a +1 to hit mobsters in the shin, requiring a save vs. science if they hit or the mobster is stunned for 1 turn.

This is a special feature related to the World's Fair. Frank Buck reminds me that cobras and pythons need to be statted for Hideouts & Hoodlums 2nd ed. Pythons were not singled out by name in 1st ed., but there were stats for regular constrictor snakes. 2nd ed. will have stats for both regular and giant constrictor and poisonous snakes. I might include a note about how cobras can be caught in a sack, if you beat them in initiative and successfully hit them with the sack.

Is Wilton taking a risk, bringing Snorty back to town to see a doctor, or is he close to leveling and looking for that 100 XP good deed award for fixing up Snorty? Plus another bonus for including a supporting cast member in the story?

Ignoring the fact that Doogah looks more like a Muppet than a real person, this page is worth pointing out for the new trophy item -- the language chair. Anyone putting on the attached helmet and sitting in the chair will immediately learn the language of the next person to speak to him.

Here is an Editor at work trying to balance the challenge level of this scenario. Knowing that he plans to put Sheena and Bob up against a machine gun, he makes sure they have access to grenades to even the odds.

In this instance, Bob is not rescuing Sheena for a good deed XP award, since it does not count towards saving fellow Heroes. Instead, Bob is just playing smart and working to keep his comrade-in-arms alive.

That Bob is able to rush into the line of fire of the machine gun, pick up Sheena, and run out either means the Editor has rolled horribly for that machine gunner, or he's being too merciful to his players and deliberately unbalancing his game.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus)

Jumbo Comics #7

With this issue we reach cover date April 1939 in comic book history.  To say that Peter Pupp begins it with a bang might be a forgivable pun since we are dealing with resistance to firearms here.

The giant robot seems to be immune to bullets, a special defense that doesn't exist yet in Hideouts & Hoodlums, but could. Quite a few mobster-types are immune to all non-magical and/or non-silver weapons. Of course, it is equally possible that the robot just has so many hit points that Peter Pupp can't observe any obvious damage yet.

As hesitant as I am to allow vehicles to crash into opponents for large amounts of damage, it does seem to happen with a fair amount of regularity in comic books. Perhaps a counter-balance would be to insist the driver/pilot/passengers will always run the risk of taking damage too.

One of the earliest Carpets of Flying in comics. Note the Bat-Man-like silhouette in the second to last panel, in a comic done by Bob Kane, pre-Bat-Man...

This is from Sheena Queen of the Jungle, and I would never encourage an Editor to do this -- let the heroes stumble across an unguarded seaplane loaded with machine guns and TNT -- unless they desperately needed more firepower to finish a scenario.

Evidence that Golden Age comic book characters start out weak and get stronger over time -- Sheena is here knocked out by a mobster so weak he isn't even a named villain, in just three combat turns.

This is from Spenser Steel.  They say the Internet has made the younger generations today less concerned with privacy, but apparently there was a time when you could walk up to a train conductor, ask him where a passenger purchased his ticket, and not be told it's none of your business...

Even Wilton of the West learns that cave-ins can be a random occurrence in caves, and events like cave-ins can be treated as wandering encounters.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus)

Jumbo Comics #6

I'm not a fan of The Adventures of Tom Sherrill and can't get into this highly stylized art, but with this issue the adventures move off of Tom Sherrill to covering Indian legends...which I suspect are just made up and not actually researched. That said -- I like the idea of a magic rain-making arrow. It's a good one-shot trophy item for Hideouts & Hoodlums.

Bringing in a new supporting cast member can be an excuse to interact with all your old supporting cast, by way of introductions. Of course, in this case, it was an excuse to introduce an all-new supporting cast for Hawk.

Zula's giant robot has the power Turn Gun on (Good) Guys. That is one powerful upgrade on a robot!

But if you're reading Jumbo Comics, it's probably for Sheena Queen of the Jungle here.

Leopards have been discussed on this blog so often that they really need to replace cougars in the next edition.

Oily leaves are probably not ever going to be on the starting equipment list, but maybe there does need to be a game mechanic for blinding attacks.  I'll give it more thought...

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)

Jumbo Comics #4

Ouch!  Take that, Bob Kane -- Peter Pupp is bumped off the lead feature this month in favor of Inspector Dayton.



This page reminds me that not all traps need to be intentionally left in a hideout. Rotting floorboards giving way (maybe a 2 in 6 chance if normal weight steps on them) could lead to a serious fall.



And if any one ever says to you in Hideouts & Hoodlums that there is only a 1 in a million chance of something working, you know that's got to be only character-driven hyperbole!  In H&H, there should always be at least a 1% chance of anything happening.

I have no game mechanics to discuss from this page of Will Eisner's Hawks of the Seas.  Just enjoy this page layout, as Eisner slowly develops into the powerful storyteller he will become.

This is quite a horrible death trap -- not only is the old man about to be impaled and crushed by a spiked platform descending towards him, but his daughter is chained up nearby and being forced to watch! Extrapolating from this, an evilly-inclined Editor can see how a Superhero could be forced to remain in a deathtrap, without wrecking his way out, by threatening innocents (especially supporting cast!) within sight if the Superhero foils the trap.

Didn't I just see a one-eyed oriental in Tex Thompson? Is this a pulp novel archetype I'm just seeing now?



I think it's interesting that the little girl calls this guy a bogeyman. H&H doesn't currently have any mobster type called a bogeyman. And I like how he can hypnotize and levitate others. Maybe this needs to be a thing? Maybe they could even all have a weakness for tea...

Maybe a pepper jar should be on the starting equipment list? It does seem to be particularly good at blinding bad guys, besides the more obvious use of making people sneeze.

Bob seems to be changing classes (something that was detailed in Supplement I: National). He's going from a Fighter to an Explorer (a class introduced in The Trophy Case v. 1 no. 2) and picking up the tracking skill, plus he seems to be improving with his chance to hit with thrown missile weapons (a bonus not currently available to the Explorer class).


In H&H 2nd ed., though, the Explorer class will likely no longer exist. In that case, Bob's training is all flavor text describing his leveling.

This seems like it would be an interesting jungle-based hideout. The natives here have a lair in a petrified forest so dense that it's just like tunnels underground.

This page shows that even a thrown rock should be allowed to do real damage. But how much? The full 1d6 in the original, more abstract weapon damage system, but probably 1-3 in the expanded weapon damage system.




(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus)