Keen Detective Funnies #18 - pt. 3

We're getting to the back of the book now and this month's semi-colored installment of Spy Hunters.

There is a village in Punjab, India called Abdal, but I don't know if that already existed in 1940, or would be a place an American author then would know about. There is an Abdal people in India, Urdu-speaking Muslims, that might be where the author learned the name from.

It's also worth reminding players that this was a time before portable radios, so communication by flashing light off of mirrors was a thing your Heroes might have to employ.

I'm including this page because it's important to note that not everyone everywhere had a radio by 1940. This whole village has no radio, and it's not just natives in the village.

You don't see "Unlimber your machine gun" every day, so I thought I'd include this page, and then look up what "unlimber" means. Apparently, it's a real word that means "detach (a gun) from its limber so that it can be used."

Okay...then I had to look up what a "limber" is. It's 
"a two-wheeled cart designed to support the trail of an artillery piece, or the stock of a field carriage such as a caisson or traveling forge, allowing it to be towed." Huh, who knew?

I'm interested in this page for the map, and wondering how authentic it is. Again, series creator Lochlan Field (according to comics.org) has done his research; Chitral is a real place, both a state and a city that serves as the capital of that state. The Mahi River flows past Chitral at the same angle as that road in the drawing. 

Chitral is significant for the British because of the
Chitral Expedition. It was, according to Wikipedia, "a military expedition in 1895 sent by the British authorities to relieve the fort at Chitral which was under siege after a local coup. After the death of the old ruler power changed hands several times. An intervening British force of about 400 men was besieged in the fort until it was relieved by two expeditions, a small one from Gilgit and a larger one from Peshawar." In other words, a major wargaming scenario.

And this page I'm sharing because it's a rare time when we see first aid being administered (rare, despite how common it is in all Hideouts & Hoodlums scenarios).

Moving on, we have another adventure of the inspiration for the floating eye mobstertype in H&H -- The Eye. We see here that there is a peculiar feature to its invisibility, as one of the workers is able to see it. Does everyone in line of sight need to save vs. spells to see through its special invisibility (the spell does not act this way)?

---

The other reason to share this page is to speculate as to which real country "Osthania" represents. Remember that, this early in 1940, Germany has hardly invaded any countries yet. Further, "bombarded on all sides" seems to only apply to Poland, uniquely caught between Russian and German advances.

---

The Eye can talk! Or is it telepathy, like I had floating eyes use? It's hard to tell because the "science" of word balloons is still in its infancy; there's not even a uniform balloon shape for thought balloons yet, let alone ones that denote telepathy.

Here the Eye demonstrates telekinesis, and not particularly strong telekinesis either, just like the spell. Though maybe he's just being very careful at not setting off the explosives.















"Alfonsky" even seems to confirm this is Poland. But there wouldn't be a Pole in charge of Poland past September 1939, meaning this story had to have taken place earlier than that. The President then was Ignacy Moscicki, which doesn't even rhyme with Alfonsky. Our ambassador to Poland at the time was Anthony J. Drexel Biddle Jr. -- and we know what date he left Poland, September 5, 1939, so we can date this story to the specific day thanks to this page. Anthony even had two daughters, though they were named Mary and Margaret, neither being Sandra.

Further, applying Polish history to this scene explains why the bombers are coming; this would be Day 5 of the German Invasion of Poland.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

War Comics #1 - pt. 1

This is an interesting filler page; I'm skeptical that these numbers are accurate, but they're probably close enough that you could use these to keep track, as a roster of enemy planes, in a war-themed campaign.

This is Scoop Mason, War Correspondent. Scoop and "Sleepy" Samson make their expert skill checks, as they can tell these shells are duds just by looking at them.

Does Baron Treville need to make any kind of roll to identify Scoop and Sleepy? He's seen them before and they have only changed clothes. On the other hand, a costume is also a change of clothes. I would, however, rule that the saving throw required to identify a disguised person would be waved under these circumstances.

This is not the first time we've seen someone jump from a height into a car and land safely on this blog. Am I going to have to make this a thing? Maybe save vs. science and take no damage if you land in a car?

Not the first time we've seen carrier pigeons used in comics, but perhaps the first time they were owned by the Hero.

Now, think about this in context -- because this is during the period of American non-involvement in the war, it's okay that Scoop's solution to the scenario is to reveal Treville is selling dud armaments to the Germans. Two years later, the scenario would be tricking the Germans into taking the dud armaments.

This is 1940, remember, so an employer taking advantage of his position to sexually harass an underling of the opposite sex is still funny.

More interesting is the fact that No Man's Land, as described here, sounds an awful lot like Wonder Woman's Paradise Island, well in advance of its debut.

This is the stereotype of the Russian anarchist that has served as the Hideouts & Hoodlums anarchist since Supplement I: National.

Sky Hawk is essentially DC's Red, White, and Blue played more serious. A $50,000 bribe is more money than most players would need to bait them into a scenario, but it's interesting how Allen, Lane, and Magee all turn it down.

Allen remembers something very suddenly at the end, almost as if he had asked the Editor if he knew anything about Ah Fong and was told he would if he made a save vs. plot.

Not all Heroes in the same group need to be of the same Alignment. Note how Allen is Lawful and won't think of being bribed, while Magee is Neutral and, being more of a mercenary, wishes they had been given separate checks to cash.

This is an interesting scenario because the Japanese are clearly the antagonists in this story, but America is still officially neutral in their war on China, so they have to dogfight without shooting at each other.

Forcing down a plane is a special kind of stunt where the pilot still has to burn a stunt slot, but instead of getting an automatic success, the opposing pilot then has to fail a save vs. science to avoid being forced to land.

Also note that neither the Chinese nor the Japanese in this story are depicted in stereotypical racist ways.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Smash Comics #6 - pt. 3

Long-time readers would know that I've been a fan of John Law, Scientective, since I first discovered him. This installment has a great opening scene with a challenge Heroes seldom have to face -- get someone to the other side of an angry mob, without hurting anyone. Luckily, John has useful contacts all over, including an autogyro owner at the local airport.

It's interesting that June's jitters isn't a character trait, but a valuable clue.

By "cyclatron," John means a cyclotron, a type of particle accelerator invented in 1932. I'm not sure if a cyclotron big enough to fit in your room would be strong enough to stop your watch...but it's just the sort of plausible science that this feature was so good at.

That the murder weapon is a phonograph is a great idea, no matter how shaky the science behind it is.

Sure, John could have just hopped over to the clock and knocked it over to break it, but taking the bigger risk of relying on the cyclotron to stop it is more science-y!

Lastly, before being critical of how lame The Avenger looks with a white hood over his face, just think of what other bad guys wear white hoods...

Another Hero rendered unconscious overnight, and perhaps the first one ever knocked out by a self-inflicted head blow.

Like I said, the science may be iffy, but it's a situation created by science that can be solved with science.

Too bad we get such an abrupt cliffhanger!

Because next thing we know, we're already in the Invisible Hood feature. IH is just tagging along on top of the truck and watching all this, but I wonder what players would do when confronted with the cliche of the fallen man in the road -- just drive over him and go faster?

And it's stolen helium again!

It's worth being reminded how primitive communication technology still was compared to today. Public telephone conversations could be overheard, radio signals could be intercepted, so carrier pigeon is actually still a reasonable alternative circa 1940.

This is Wun Cloo, and while a racial caricature, it's not making up the $1,000 bill -- they were really printed until 1934.

Here's a rare early appearance of FDR and the "conquest-mad dictator" looks more like Hitler than even Eisner has been drawing him so far. Vernon Henkel is on the cutting edge of how the war will soon be treated in all comic books.

Wings seems to have bitten off more than he can chew when he flies over a shipload of smugglers. He stays out of range of their autocannon by staying near the aft end of the ship, but there's a machine gun there and his plane goes down after complications from all those bullets.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)