Popular Comics #27

We've finally reached April of 1938 and this issue from Dell leads off with Dick Tracy and a trapped safe. The Purple Cross Gang kept a safe so obvious it even said "Purple Cross records" on the front of it. Of course, the safe was rigged to explode with a dozen sticks of dynamite -- that's at least 24d6 damage -- with the only safe way to open it being to cut the power to the room it was in (since the trap was electrically wired).

Spooky how the Asp just seems to spring up out of that bush, eh? (Yes, I realize he probably stepped out from behind the tree behind him and moved forward.) More important is the failed morale save from the mobsters. Pulling guns on mobsters will require a morale save from Fighters, but these mobsters aren't looking at the guns, they're looking at the Asp himself. This is the intimidate power of the Mysteryman class, forcing a morale save just with a look.

Another trophy item idea is the master switch -- something that turns off all of one type of hi-tech item -- machines, robots, guns -- that were created the same way -- in the same factory, by the same inventor, from the same kit.  It seems to have a generous range, maybe 200 ft.?

I haven't included a page of This Curious World in a while.  This page introduces us to the peccary, the only wild pig indigenous to the Americas.  It's not very big -- certainly no boar -- and more the size of a giant rat. I'd only give them 1/2 HD.


(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus)

Popular Comics #12

We're finally up to 1937, a year and a half pre-Superman.

And first up is Dick Tracy, who demonstrates disguise skills. Should this be available to everyone, or a special feature of the Detective Class?  The Detective Class debuted in The Trophy Case v. 2 no. 7, badly needs playtesting, and will probably have to sit out from re-release in the next edition of Hideouts & Hoodlums.

There's also a neat ambush trap, with gunmen loaded up inside a fake gas tanker blocking the road.

One of the oldest tricks in the game for making mobsters seem fresh and different is to combine them. So here we get a mad scientist, coupled with a jaguar on a leash, and you get an encounter more interesting than it would have been with either one of them alone (who were statted in Book II: Mobsters & Trophies and Supplement III: Better Quality respectively).

Tiny Tim has graced these pages before, but no previous installment looked as gonzo-creative as this one!  Here we get ride-able giant robots in the shape of a man (large robot?), a stork robot, "Dreadnaught Crabs", and a mechanical dragon.

Despite how impressive the latter two sound/look, I'd guess they're really no more than 6 HD robots, since they are easily destroyed by the "fire-spitter" weapon mounted in the beak of the stork robot. This seems to shoot fireballs or concussive blasts of devastating effect.  At least the stork robot has to be piloted by a midget or child-sized pilot.

Skippy learns that the most satisfying traps are sometimes ones the victim has to trigger himself -- like a camera that sprays ink in the face of the person activating it. In a more dangerous hideout, you could replace the ink with acid -- but be careful of clever Heroes taking that trap and turning it into a weapon!

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus)

Popular Comics #4 - pt. 2

Don Winslow U.S.N continues to fight "The Scorpion" -- actually just a colorful name for a South American dictator.  Two-seat fighter planes were statted in Hideouts & Hoodlums Book II: Mobsters & Trophies.  Heavy artillery was not statted until Supplement I: National, but the closest thing to these heavy cannons in that book is the howitzer (in a pinch, I would use those same stats).

Luckily, "the canon-fire has uncovered an ancient underground passage".  Now these Navy boys can do some hideout delving!

Bos'n Hal continues to learn about the lost world in the Arctic and what would, before modern times, be considered hi-tech trophies -- solar-powered motorboats and solar-powered cars!

Little Joe is going to grow up to think all Mexicans are bandits.  If the roles were reversed and the bandit was the Hero and Little Joe was just a half-pint, the bandit's $10 bill would have entitled him to a new encounter reaction roll, to see if he could get a better result.  Also note the reference to the Foil Tracking stunt in the second-to-last panel.

"Whiteboy" has got to be the worst name for a comic book character ever, though it probably comes from the "Paleface" name that Indians always used to use in the movies.  Here we get to see an elephant (never statted for H&H, but will be in the next book to come out).

We also get to see some trick riding, which might warrant a stunt to do. Should circus animal trainer be a mobster-type...?

Tiny Tim has an interesting encounter with Rip Van Winkle, though Rip is curiously not referred to by name.  Assuming the story is the same, then this is the first appearance of ghosts in a comic book story.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum at 

http://www.digitalcomicmuseum.org/index.php?dlid=3808)