Champion Comics #5 - pt. 2

I'm not as big a fan of any of these other features, so we're going to jump through a bunch of them rather quickly this time.

This is a page of Neptina, the evil queen sub-genre done underwater. Sure, the Krakan just looks like a giant octopus and, to be honest, I would probably just stat it that way. It would be much more terrifying, though, if the guards were right, and krakan's had some kind of death gaze -- save or die if in line of sight of it.











This page illustrates how much fun random encounter reaction rolls are. This scene with the suspicious police chief plays out much more interesting than if the Editor had rolled a friendly reaction and the chief just believed the whole crazy story.

I share this story for the example of how cloth covered in wet clay can serve as a concealed door.

Blood-sucking moths, alone, are not very scary. Find them in their lair, where there are hundreds of them, and...

This is Blazing Scarab, by the guy who goes on to create Green Arrow for DC next! It's pretty goofy fair, but this priestess is pretty powerful, having teleported into their presence on the previous page.

What I didn't know, until I looked it up, was that Ammon was a real place. According to Wikipedia, it "was an ancient Semitic-speaking nation occupying the east of the Jordan River, between the torrent valleys of Arnon and Jabbok, in present-day Jordan."










This is the last appearance of Penny Wright, second best feature in Champion Comics. This chase scene has several London-specific complications in it, including military patrol cars and hedge-placed anti-aircraft batteries. Details help establish a sense of place, even in a chase scene.

The Owl, just one of many comic book characters to have that name, is called that simply for having thick glasses. The wrinkle here is that the Owl is really a woman, dressed as a man, making this one of the first cross-dressing villains.

I have trouble taking Jungleman seriously, not least for being called Jungleman (should Superman be called Cityman for living in a city?). While most jungle heroes would snap the net with their great strength, Jungleman is as helpless as a fish.

Ape people have been in Hideouts & Hoodlums since the beginning, but now we have a new name for them, the Moo-Nang. In the jungle, ape people live in numbers great enough to be village-worthy. So, several hundred?

Further embarrassing Jungleman, two tigers show up to rescue him (actually, it's not clear if Jungleman summoned them or if they are just a wandering encounter), but the ape men are too much for the tigers too.

In the conclusion of Yaqui Gold, a character called the Black Panther is challenged to a duel that goes against him -- surprisingly similar to when Killmonger challenges the Black Panther in the movie Black Panther.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Action Comics #22 - pt. 1

It blows my mind that, 5 1/2 years into this project, I still haven't finished the first 2 years of Superman stories yet!

In Cleveland, the Daily Star wants its star reporters, Lois and Clark, to cover the War in Europe. Only this war is between Toran (Germany) and Galonia (France?). Rather than sending them to either country, they are shipped (literally, by steamship) to Luxor (Luxembourg), one would assume for the protection of Luxor's neutrality. That won't last much longer, as Luxembourg will be invaded in May 1940 -- but gets bombed already in this story!

Superman's telescopic vision makes him extra-observant/more alert, allowing him to spot a shadowy figure and foil his surprise. Superman, still dressed as Clark Kent, foils the would-be assassin with a thrown belaying pin. Since the panels don't give us a sense of the distances involved, it's impossible to say if Superman is using his powers here, or if he is throwing the pin as far as an ordinary person would be able to throw one.

When the bombs start dropping on Luxor/Luxembourg, Superman leaps up to engage the bomber. He is clearly still leaping at this point, since he has to hold onto the plane to keep from falling. A low-level bomber was probably flying at 15,000 feet, meaning Superman is using Leap III, a 3rd-level power. He wrecks the propeller using his wrecking things mechanic, but choosing to wreck it in such a way that it would normally hurt him, and it doesn't, means he's also already activated his Invulnerability power (level 4). We know he's impervious because he then plunges to the ground from that height and is unharmed. His invulnerability lasts three turns, meaning that Superman is 9th level. At this time, Superman has been around long enough to have enough XP to be 6th level, which means at some point his Editor has given him three brevet ranks to accelerate his power inflation. That...or I need to make the Invulnerability power last longer...

Later, when Superman stops a torpedo and throws it back at the submarine that fired it, that could be the power Turn Gun on Bad Guy in play, but the sequence lasts a whole seven panels, suggesting that other game mechanics might be involved. This might be because the torpedo is slow enough to give him a turn of action first before it strikes, and he grapples it to in order to make it miss, then throws it as an "ordinary" missile weapon.

Next, Superman's X-ray vision picks up a new danger, just as his telescopic vision had before. In this regard, his vision is just a "super-sense" that warns him of danger.

When a ship captain wants Superman to answer some questions, Superman makes a topical reference to "Professor Quiz." Professor Quiz was radio's first true quiz program, broadcast with many different sponsors from 1936 to 1948 on CBS and ABC.

In the end, Siegel naively assumes that German attacks on neutral nations must be the work of insubordinate underlings, and they are punished after Superman confronts them.

In Pep Morgan, we find out that Pep is a volunteer fireman and likes to play pinochle. Firefighting is much more exciting than sports, so I wish they'd stuck with this! When someone is unconscious in a burning building, Pep finds her by methodically searching, no doubt making search rolls each turn. He never seems to be in danger from fire or smoke damage, though.

The next day, having no investment in the storyline other than personal curiosity, Pep returns to the scene and searches for clues. He now finds a match and the smell of gasoline in the grass. A generous Editor could give him both clues with one successful search roll, particularly since he finds them together. Had he thought to search the night before he might have noticed the gasoline smell, but the Editor would likely make a common sense call that the match could not be found in the dark. Naturally, no non-Heroes notice the gasoline smell, to give the Hero a chance to find the clue first.

This is the second suspicious arson in town and Pep finds out all he can about his suspects by pumping non-Hero characters, like a bartender, and his own supporting cast, like his dad, for information. That Pep is getting a drink from a bartender is very interesting, since Pep always seems to be around 18. In 1940, there were 14 states where an 18 year old could legally drink, including New York, where Pep's stories most likely take place.

Pep and his friend Ted stake out the next house Pep thinks will be burnt down for six days before they get lucky and catch the arsonist in the act. All this time, they don't tell the owner, for fear the man will tell his wife -- the implication being that you can't trust women with gossip. While chasing after the arsonist, Pep slips in "wet grass" - very convenient, but likely just flavor text for having failed a skill check to catch up in the chase sequence, and not an indication of any kind of fumble mechanic for chases.

Pep is able to borrow the owner of the house's car to continue the chase, meaning Pep either stole the keys from the house earlier or Jack (the owner) leaves his keys in the car at night. The car chase ends with Pep sideswiping the other car with Jack's car and wrecking the arsonist's car. A fighter has no chance of wrecking things vs. cars -- by himself, but I could see giving him an additional d6 back (normal wrecking things chance, up to 4th level), if using a vehicle to wreck with.

In a sort of a plot twist, the arsonist turns out to be just who you expected all along, instead of going for someone surprising.

"Chuck" Dawson is tracking a killer and finds a clue on the ground -- the silver honcha Chuck shot off his hat band as the killer was riding away. If you're wondering what a honcha is, so was I...it's what looks like a little buckle on some hat bands. You don't call it a buckle because, in most cases, the honcha is merely decorative and doesn't work like a buckle.

I don't normally like "Chuck" Dawson, but he gets in some good dialog in this installment that makes him more enjoyable; my favorite line is, "You're going to feel about as comfortable as a sage-hen in a coyote party..."

(Superman story read in Action Comics Archives vol. 2, the rest read at readcomiconline.to)

Fight Comics #3 - pt. 2

We're going to skip the introduction and jump right into this issue's Kinks Mason story. These mermen are too strange to stat as ordinary mermen. They are called nothing but amphibians all through the story, so I'll keep that name. They don't seem all that tough; I wouldn't give them more than 1+1 Hit Dice (Kinks kicks their butts bare-handed), plus a -1 to hit because of their monocular vision. As true amphibians, they suffer no penalties for fighting out of water. Maybe they get a +1 to grappling rolls too, since it seems to be the only thing they're good at? It looks like they can be encountered in groups up to 8.

I don't have much to say here, but I like the layout of this factory. There's enough detail that one could start to fashion a map based on it.

"Huge fish?" Is Kinks not aware that looks like a dolphin or porpoise?

Kinks is immune to the bends, or just making all of his saving throws?

It's unclear if Kinks has more than one crew member on his boat. It doesn't seem to be that big, so it's possible there is just this one guy.

Wait, didn't they want to test that ray on Kinks first? I guess Plan B was to invade the surface world without running any tests on the ray yet.

Kinks' strategy might work over time in a chase scene; if not everyone makes their skill checks to increase speed, then some pilots will fall behind and create these gaps between ships.

This is also an interesting example of rayguns having limited charges. 

Spoiler - Kinks wins. So let's jump ahead to Fletcher Hawks' favorite lumberjack, Big Red McLane. We've talked before about pacing golden age scenarios and sometimes they can require a lot of patience (this is baked into Hideouts & Hoodlums in various ways, from the low chance of wandering encounters to the slow rate of healing from hit point loss). Here, we see that Big Red has to wait out in the woods for two whole days before this encounter finally happens.

The six bad guy lumberjacks -- what do I stat them as? Brigands, maybe? -- they don't fare well against Big Red despite two of them having weapons vs an unarmed attacker, and using the tactic of surrounding him to make sure at least some of them are getting an attack-from-behind bonus to hit.

This is an unusual reward for a scenario, both the flapjacks and the percentage stake in the company rescued. The latter is actually a great idea, giving the Hero(es) incentive to keep protecting the company against future threats.

The lumberjacks were careful to use facing to their advantage in the above encounter, so I share this page of Oran of the Jungle to show how Oran deliberately tosses away any benefit he would have from it by jumping down into the middle of the group of natives. It seems like the smart thing to do would have been to jump down before they reached him, so he can block them from getting to the village, or jumping down after them, so he can attack them from behind. The only benefit I can see here is if he is expecting to get the "combat machine" advantage of fighters and multiple attacks against low Hit Die mobsters, so he places himself within reach of the maximum number of opponents.

Oran tracks them all night. Just think about how dark that second panel would really be, then, compared to how clearly we see the tracks in the dirt, and try to imagine what kind of penalty you would assign to Oran's tracking skill check. Then he successfully tracks them for hours. How many skill checks should that be? I would count this time in exploration turns, which means he has to succeed at six skill checks per hour. That is a lot of lucky rolls!

Oran is overwhelmed because the natives use "heavy weapons." H&H doesn't distinguish between normal weapons and heavy weapons. I would take this simply to mean that the weapons feel heavy as they are bludgeoning him for so many points of damage.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Popular Comics #48 - pt. 3

The sports genre doesn't get a lot of attention on this blog, and Wally Williams gets even less (in fact, debuting here on the blog), but this story deserves special attention. Instead of the college kids fending for themselves, they unrealistically approach Wally's grandpa and ask him for help.

How old is Gramps? Gramps claims to have worked with Mark Twain, which may sound off, but Samuel Clemens died in 1910. Someone who was 18 in 1910 would be only 48 now in 1940. This bears in keeping in mind, when considering who your Heroes might have known in their backstories...

And Gramps actually has some good ideas. This underground newspaper is a sort of pre-Internet crowdsourcing for crime prevention.

I'm not sure if $10 is a reasonable rental price for a wagon and two horses in 1940, but it is for at least this old geezer.

This page raises other questions. Can a pea shooter/slingshot launch a dart? How great an effect would a small dose of carbolic acid have on an elephant?  If a person drank carbolic acid, it would cause acute gastroenteritis (inflammation of the stomach and intestines), leading to vomiting, collapse and death -- but only on a failed saving throw.

This is where game mechanics surrounding poison kind of break down in the game. The effects described always assume human mass; not only should increased Hit Dice allow mobsters to shake off the effects of poison, but should lessen the effect of poison when it does take effect. But how to adjudicate that?

I share this page so we could talk about movement rates. Can a charging elephant really overtake horses pulling a wagon? There are a lot of unknowns here, like how much weight the wagon is loaded down with, but generally speaking - an elephant runs up to 16-25 MPH. How this translates into movement rate is that an elephant would have a Move of 21, but with a skill check can manage a burst of speed that raises it to 24 (both for convenience and because of precedent, movement rates are rounded off to the nearest divisible of 3).

A horse can run up to 30 MPH; if we assume that the wagon halves their movement, that brings us down to 15. So, yes, even if the horses make their skill checks and the elephant fails its check, the elephant would still win. Of course, if the wagon was very light, this might not be the case.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)

Champion Comics #4 - pt. 1

Time to revisit the only comic book published by Worth Publishing, before being absorbed by Harvey. And the first feature is still The Champ.

I'm already intrigued by this first panel, and the suggestion that the helping hand helps the "dwarf" win the foot race. I've just recently talked about offering assistance in combat, but what if you could assist any roll in the game, like a skill check in a chase scene?

The traffic cop is an obstacle in a vehicular chase, even though only one party in the chase is using a vehicle.

The flying tackle is an attack roll, but desperately clinging is a skill check and not a grappling attack because the spare tire can't attack Champ back. 

By hitting the hedge, the driver introduces a chase obstacle; this means the chase rules are still in effect, even though Champ seems to have won the chase by catching up to the car. Because Champ is on foot vs. in a car, he is going to have to make his roll to overcome this obstacle at a severe penalty.

The Yellow Spider is Champ's first named villain.

The theta-ray is a new name for a raygun so cliched that I should just assign a 1 in 4 chance for every mad scientist to have one.

I'm much more interested in whatever device the Yellow Spider is using to make untraceable phone calls and, presumedly, monitor conversations in the room using the same phone while it's not in use.

Here's an unusual entrance to a hideout -- a cylinder suspended on a single cable that is lowered from and hoisted back up to an airship (blimp?) concealed in the clouds. The sleeping gas in the cylinder makes it difficult for guests to get the drop on the guards up top.

The ominous curtain, and talking from right behind the image of the huge yellow spider, are good details for a hideout.

The lie-detector chair is a good invention for both bad guys and good guys to have.

The midget has been called both a dwarf and an imp up to this point, but to be fair he does turn out to be the main villain, so I guess it's more fair to have made fun of him.

The Champ beats 7-to-1 odds -- pretty good for a fighter who would only be 2nd-level so far.

I really like the detail of how the airship has a catwalk around it and sections of it can be made to drop away by pulling levers. Sounds really dangerous for Heroes without parachutes!

This is from the next feature, Yaqui Gold. The Aztec sculptures look suitably authentic and were probably taken from photo references, but what I'm really interested in is the feel of the discovery of an underground passage and slowly exploring it with a flashlight -- this is what Hideouts & Hoodlums is all about!

I've talked on here long ago about how splashing water doesn't revive people at zero hit points, game mechanics-wise. I might, however, be willing to hand wave that if the victim was only stunned and about to wake up anyway.

Gold is not really a good substance for chains; I would give Jose a +1 bonus to wreck his way out of them.

Here at the beginning of 1940, it's interesting that Paris is still a city for espionage and not for open warfare.

Here we see thugs working for spies (I'm guessing I would stat Nina as a spy and not as a palm reader).

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)

Crackajack Funnies #20 - pt. 1

It's been a while since we visited the comic strip reprints Dell was running with. This post is mostly about tactics.

Here, Don and company show us the best way to get through a minefield.

I didn't really need to share this page; I just think "Doctor Thor" is such a cool name. Don Winslow had a good rogues gallery.

In this age of automatics, we forget how easy it once was to stall your motor. There should maybe be a small chance (1 in 10?) per turn of a car chase of stalling your motor, or it could be just added to the list of halting obstacles listed in the chase rules in 2nd edition.

The scale seems to be  off on the Dwarf in that last panel -- he looks huge in that front seat.

"Espionage, eh? Sounds like a good name for a feature!"

Trying to pass yourself off as an inspector is one of the great RPG ruses and works perfectly here. You might have to forge some credentials, as not everyone will take you at your word like Mr. Rello seems to.

Note that Ed Tracer did not have to actively feel around on that wall to spot it was fake; secret door checks can be done on sight only.

Hideouts on piers with motorboats docked underneath them is practically a cliche by now on this blog.

This is the same year Dell will begin publishing squeaky-clean Disney comics, so I'm amused that they're still publishing stories about dope smugglers in February.

I like how, in 1940, the U.S. government is never a suspect. Conspiracy-based scenarios need not apply in the golden age!

Clipping the spark plugs is one of those complications I'll have to add to my vehicular combat rules.

The fighter aircraft pictured here is most likely a P-35. It's an interesting choice to compare the stratosphere plane to, as Wikipedia claims the "P-35's performance was poor even by contemporary standard" and "it was already obsolete by the time deliveries were finished..."

Wash gives us some more pricing information, with $830 being the cost of all new windows for a building and $300 being the cost of repainting a building.

Extortionists can be statted as bandits, at least according to Wash.

Rather than stat bodyguards, I think we need to recognize that Easy's pals are probably mid-level fighters, like he is.

Another example of non-Heroes needing longer to heal, in this case the hoodlums need three weeks to recover from being reduced to zero hit points.

Wire-tapping your own phone seems a sound strategy, especially if you suspect you have a spy in your midst.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

More Fun Comics #49 - pt. 2

The Buccaneer picks up with a sword duel about to begin between Dennis and Dr. Killmen -- which would be a pretty good name for a supervillain! Instead, Killmen lasts about one melee turn before getting run through. Such are the vagaries of randomly generated combat results!  Dennis is trying to get the crown prince of Natria back on the throne, Natria being a fictional country on some island near Mexico, despite it looking an awful lot like Europe.

In Radio Squad (another feature ruined by lackluster post-Shuster art), Sandy and Larry are called to the scene of a stabbing, but can't reach the fleeing suspect because of people in the way. This would be an example of a "slowing obstacle," as defined on page 113 of the Basic rulebook, in the chase section. Outside, Sandy and Larry "take aim," and unload their pistols in the suspect's direction as he climbs a fire escape to the roof. Granted, the fire escape probably gives him cover and hence an Armor Class bonus, but this illustrates how there is a good chance of missing even for fourth level fighters (by my page count conversion, Sandy is just shy of 10,000 XP now and is a "lieutenant" for level title).

Sandy, Larry, and the guy they are pursuing all jump down through a skylight and seemingly land unharmed in the apartment below, demonstrating that a jump/controlled fall maybe should not cause damage. Sandy and Larry, twice, enter the apartment without a search warrant. Larry is shot in the arm and takes a week to heal from his injury.

Lieut. Bob Neal of Sub 662 is sent from Panama to Honolulu for maneuvers, but the scenario quickly becomes fighting ruffian/kidnappers in an alley hand-to-hand. They fail their surprise attempt on Bob and one of them gets thrown (grappling result), then punched out. The scientist he rescues lives on "Kolawura" Island, which could just be a typo for Kolavara Island.  "Mt. Palolo" erupts while they're there; Palolo Valley is where Ka'au Crater is. An interesting twist to the scenario (which seems to have no connection to the kidnapping attempt) is the volcanic eruption, forcing the submarine off its maneuvers to evacuate people from the island. Sadly, the native Hawaiians are treated like primitives.

Bob takes precautions like pouring water on himself and wearing a wet handkerchief over his face before approaching a fire. I'm not sure that should have any affect on if he takes damage. It could translate into a saving throw bonus, but there's not a save vs. fire damage under normal circumstances, only against magical fire. Bob takes "a few days" to recover from smoke inhalation.

The Flying Fox tangles with two "rough hombres," but I hesitate to stat them as anything other than fighters. The hombres/ruffians work for air pirates, some of whom are armed with sub-machine guns.

Detective Sergeant Carey is needed on a murder investigation because Captain Dart, who looks pretty long in the tooth, might be getting a little senile. Dart has his suspects -- dancing girls at a nightclub -- reenact their dance to pinpoint the killer, without even considering that the killer could guess the purpose of this and switch places with another dancer. Carey seems a little loopy too, he seems to not be able to resist saying the word "voodoo" every other panel, just because it's the theme of the nightclub.

Luckily, Carey just happens to know the bartender. Maybe he really did meet the bartender and add him to his SCM list during downtime between scenarios, but something that recently came up in our message board game was the possibility of switching out a SCM you already have after a successful save vs. plot. This is not an official Hideouts & Hoodlums rule, but it does not run counter to the spirit of the rules.

(Read at fullcomic.pro)
 









  

Pep Comics #1 - pt. 4

This is still Bentley of Scotland Yard, and I share it to point out something I had long thought was obvious, but perhaps should not have assumed it -- that facing is unimportant when considering if one side has surprise or not.

This is Press Guardian and he does not make the mistake of assuming the police already searched and found all the clues -- he wants in there to make his own search checks!

You would think a reporter would want more corroborating evidence before going to press, but okay...

In an unexpected twist, Flash Calvert seems to be the Hero of our story, but when a costumed mysteryman shows up, he's neither Flash nor seems to have any connection to him -- he's just a wandering encounter! 

A mix of gangsters and thugs are ready to teach Flash a lesson about not doing a better job on his skill checks while tying up bad guys.

Unusual for the comics, we see this adventure is dated -- it takes place on either December 1 or 7 (I'm having trouble reading that number), 1939.

This is The Midshipman.  Again, it makes me think that vehicles need hit points for combat, in case they are directly attacked during chases.

This also points out that fatigue rules, which have only been applied to combat so far, should apply to chases too.

Can strength stop heat damage? Since this is just conversation between two characters, and not hard evidence, I'm be fine with dismissing it.

But the propping up of the falling girder, that looks an awful lot like an ability score check (where you roll under your Strength score to succeed), definitely more than it looks like a skill check or a saving throw (mechanics actually used in Hideouts & Hoodlums).  Officially, H&H does not use ability score checks, but an Editor could use them anyway, if he feels the situation warrants it.

$250 seems like a pretty sweet pot for a first-time fight.

Although we are told that Hogan is using "tricks" and "dirty work," it doesn't appear to me he's doing anything other than throwing punches that would do normal damage.

In the Golden Age, not every story has to end with the bad guys being turned over to the police!

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)

Mystery Men Comics #6 - pt. 1

I'm pretty sure this information was all made-up in this poor man's Believe It Or Not -- but I'll be darned if these wouldn't make good plot hooks anyway...

This is The Green Mask, and it shows that even cultists tended to be handled with a racist/bigoted air in comics; the cultists are called both cultists and Hindus. And then there's that obvious anagram of Taj Mahal -- ugh...

We do see The Green Mask using a fence as one-time Supporting Cast.

Mind you, the idea of a "skull crown which gives its holder control of a vast robber tribe" seems like a potent trophy item.

Are they cultists, Hindus, robbers, or thieves? Make up your mind, story!  The cult leader is a trickster. The current entry for cultist in the Mobster Manual states that cult leaders are high priests, but that might need updating.

One of the earliest assassins in comics, or is a thug?  Now we have the original meaning of the word thug being conflated with all these other words. The assassin is overcome quickly, so don't really see what he can do -- though surprise attacks seem to be an important part of it.

I wonder, if this was a RP scenario, if the chase scene back to Carmella's home would have to be acted out...

And, speaking of badly obvious anagrams, we have El Rakif, for the word fakir.

That looks more like a spike than a knife to me, but I suppose it hurts a lot either way, and is just as terrifying. Game mechanically, I suppose the victim would get a save vs. science each turn to take half-damage from falling on the knife/spike, and the torturers don't have to worry about rolling to attack.

It's unclear if the paralyzer gun works like the Hold Person spell and affects multiple targets at once, or if he's firing multiple times and burning five charges. I like to think it's a weapon with charges, which explains why he uses it so sparingly.

Um, no...for one thing, a meteorite could not strike the Earth at such an oblique angle that it would shave the planet smooth like that; it would always produce a messy impact crater. And, really, if that map is even remotely accurate about the size of the impact site, we're talking extinction-level event here. Rex Dexter of Mars must be taking place in a post-Gamma World campaign setting.

Wow. I haven't seen anything that racist in a comic book in a while. Thank goodness it came out of a character's mouth and not the narrator!

Statting these creatures shouldn't be too hard; we have lots of slimes, oozes, jellies, and puddings to base them off of.

50 million miles from Earth means that Rex and Cinde were almost to Mars, but had to turn around and come back.

It seems odd that spaceports would be on Earth instead of in orbit. I wonder when the first off-Earth spaceport was dreamed up; I was not able to research this one.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)