Thrilling Comics #3 - pt. 2

Here we have Dr. Strange using wrecking things, only to find his great strength "sapped." This actually happens just like that in Hideouts & Hoodlums, when activated powers run out and you're out of powers to activate. By waiting until the next day for his deathtrap, the villains have actually given him time to regain all his powers from the previous day.

I'm tempted to stat wild hill warriors as berserkers. I could also make them 2nd level fighters, using the level title of warrior from That Other Game.  I could also just use natives, since that's the broad stereotype being used here. 

I've never seen elephants in an arena before! Too bad Doc has Raise Elephant prepared. And a Leap power (looks like II or better) that makes escaping from an arena super-easy. 

As unstoppable as Dr. Strange seems to be, you have to wonder why he doesn't stay at the arena and take out Kong then, and sneaks back in disguise later. Maybe because there's more pages to fill...?

"You're fighting for freedom, men! Don't waste your shots! Keep dropping like flies - even though I could have wrecked my way through that wall for you at any time!"

Or could he? Dr. Strange has to be at least level 3, the bare minimum for wrecking stone walls, but he could also just be rolling poorly and failing to wreck the walls the whole fight so far. 

Or..maybe he really did not try wrecking through the wall until now. This is an early precedent for a trope of the superhero genre to come, that says superheroes try to stay neutral in the course of events until something occurs that ordinary people can't deal with on their own, like a deathray. Of course, not every superhero respects this trope - like Superman himself, who almost exclusively dealt with mundane crime despite being able to do so much more. 

Is this our first evidence that Doc is Neutral in Alignment? Hmm...

Interestingly, the deathray can only affect a single target at a time. So, even though it is killing them like a deathray, it is also, game mechanics-wise, perhaps no different than a Magic Missile spell (with cool flavor text). 

And here we've got a line-up of standard cliches - the big cat (a panther, this time) in the cage, the damsel in distress...and somehow Doc gets to the panther before it gets to the damsel? Now, I've covered many times before in this blog that random initiative needs to trump common sense when it comes to who goes first in a comic book story, but, Doc is wrecking things in the same turn that the panther is first attacking. So, we can only assume, then, that the panther missed with every attack on Virginia, even though it didn't even need to roll very high (reminds me of my rolls when I'm playing!). 

So, we also get the cliches of a big cat being killed (SIGH), and the villain threatening to blow himself up to take out the Hero. I bet it doesn't work...

Hmm...now, if I was running this scenario, I would have let Kong drop the potion as a free action; that is too easily done, and not a direct attack, for it to be trumped by initiative. 

Also, why not use Kong's raygun to revive the men, instead of experimenting with Alosun in a totally untested way (though, I suppose, Doc could argue that they're already dead, what worse could happen to them?)?

Here's a new character and an interesting twist on Tarzan and the Jungle Book. Instead of the infant being raised by animals, he's raised by yogis in India. They teach him potent spells like Rope Trick and ...Wall of Force, to stop mad dogs with? That seems a bit like overkill.

*SIGH* ...what I wouldn't give to read a magic-user story that doesn't throw around ridiculously overpowered spells all the time. Causing a submarine to rise into space ...well, that's got to be a Wish spell. So we've already given The Ghost 17 brevet ranks! Just to get him through a wandering encounter!

Here we get a dose of more insanely powerful magic being tossed about haphazardly -- a Telekinesis spell as powerful as the Raise Trolley Car power, and a Teleport Sandwich spell able to reach around the world. 

Chance's only interest in fighting crime is when the man who just hired him to entertain at parties was murdered. Had the man not been murdered, would Chance have been content to be a party magician instead?

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)

 

Mystic Comics #2 - pt. 5

We're back with The Invisible Man Known As Dr. Gade, which is admittedly a really unwieldy title and perhaps one reason why Gade literally disappeared from comics after this. 

While visible, Gade is no better at fighting than an ordinary person, which makes me wonder if he isn't a Magic-User with some brevet ranks at all, but should be statted as a 1st-level Mysteryman given a powerful mad science trophy item by his Editor. 

Gade also has a disintegrator - and not just any disintegrator, but an "old disintegrator" - like he'd invented it ages ago and then lost interest in it. Maybe it didn't work proper, because Gade has to throw his enemy into it and make it explode to kill the man.

I think I'm more turned off by heroes who kill now than I was a few years back, as I'm only giving that story a B+ now.

The next story is Zara of the Jungle, a Sheena clone (but with dark hair). It starts with Captain Jeff Graves, heading out into the jungle to try and stop the local tribes from fighting. He has a wandering encounter with a lion that he ... *sigh* kills with a single bullet. 

The native tribes are drawn...really weird. I've seen a lot of racist depictions of black people in these early comic books, but these guys look almost like aliens. 

Jeff is captured after falling into a concealed pit (even though it doesn't look even 5' deep). Zara rescues him, first by shooting the natives who are about to execute Jeff with her bow, and then by shooting the ropes off of Jeff -- which would be a near-impossible trick shot for anyone but maybe a Mysteryman using a stunt. So Zara is a Mysteryman instead of a jungle Explorer? 

Again more racism -- it is implied that Zara is able to stop the tribes from fighting just by the "white goddess" showing up on the battlefield. But I wonder, would they have stopped fighting if a pretty woman of any color had shown up? And if so, this speaks to the power of a having a high Charisma score.

The last story is Dakor the Magician. Dakor is unusual in that he has a personal secretary. He also needs to cross the Pacific by plane instead of magic. To rescue a British consul from Chinese bandits in Singapore (quite the international adventure!), Dakor disguises himself as Chinese, apparently using makeup instead of magic, and pretends to be a pistol peddler to win the bandits over (instead of just charming them). When a guard catches Dakor at the consul's cell, Dakor punches him out instead of using a spell. 

The spells don't start until page 4, at which point Dakor Polymorph Weapons (3 spears into cornstalks; I think I've talked about needing this spell before). He then creates magic scissors that cut the ropes binding him, which could be flavor text for a Knock spell? Then he casts Knock again for sure on the cell door, with the added wrinkle being that he can make the door swing open so hard that it hits a bandit enough to hurt him (a freebie from the Editor? An extra-strong Knock spell?). 

The biggest takeaway from here should be that Dakor can cast spells with his arms bound, proving that Hideouts & Hoodlums magic-users need to be flexible in what disrupts their spellcasting. The second biggest is that Dakor casts the same spells twice. I have long toyed with the notion of a mechanic that would give magic-users a chance to retain a cast spell...and it seems that Dakor has that, unless he just happened to memorize the same two spells twice. Actually, three times with Polymorph Weapons, as soon he's changing a thrown knife into a bird. 

I have serious issues with Dakor being able to cast a spell, while falling into a pit trap, to polymorph the spikes at the bottom into springs. Casting a spell in melee is one thing -- he could have started casting that Polymorph Weapons spell before the knife was thrown -- but he doesn't know about the pit until he's already falling, and it should only take 1 second to hit bottom in a pit that shallow, which is way too little time to cast a spell. The only other suggestion I have is that maybe one of these polymorph spells has a duration and he can change anything at will during the spell duration.

The last spell he casts makes a giant net, but ...man, that sure looks like a Web spell to me!

 

Target Comics #3 - pt. 1

Welcome back to Target Comics! As you can see, Manowar, the White Streak, is in Chicago, planning to clean up the meat packing industry. Chicago's big three meat packers were Philip Armour, Gustavus Swift, and Nelson Morris -- which one does Leighton represent, I wonder?

We also see Manowar activating his X-Ray Vision power.

As crazy as I think Manowar is for ignoring the fact that he's literally witnessed Leighton committing murder and going after more evidence from the inspector, I just saw this same thing happen in an episode of Superman & Lois last night, where Superman could stop Morgan Edge's scheme any time he wants by simply abducting Morgan and locking him away in a cave somewhere. But this is a trope of the genre, and so Manowar has to save vs. plot to go after Leighton directly. 

There is no game mechanic involved in a grappling match that would be a fumble, or other explanation for causing the car crash. This could be Editor's fiat. This could also be prompted by the player, who suggests, "You know, with all this tussling around in the car, does that make us crash?" And the Editor says, "Gee, I don't know, and either gives Manowar a save vs. plot, or perhaps a save vs. science for the driver to determine if his player was right or not.

Wha? No, I am not creating a new power called Create Ladder Out of Electrons. This is flavor text for the Levitate power, and I'm sticking to that story!

I've seen the need for a Messaging power before, as we see in panel 4. 

Manowar's earlier X-Ray Vision power is still active, even though this would seem to be a lot of turns later. 

Slipping on a greasy floor may seem silly by modern superhero standards, but it is just the sort of embarrassing thing that can happen in any RPG scenario where random dice rolls determine results.

A player would need to be a really good sport to put up with that headblow from a burning falling timber. 

It's a nice twist that Leighton shows no interest in monologing, or even putting Manowar in a deathtrap and then leaving the room. 

Unlike magic-users, superheroes don't need their hands free to activate their powers (normally; this could make a good weakness for alien superheroes) and here he uses Wreck at Range on that gun. 

Explaining how he electrocutes the door with an already established power is trickier. I'm thinking we might need a new power like Shocking Touch, that a hero can do hand-to-hand like Shocking Grasp or project it onto a nearby conductive surface. 1-6 points of damage +1 per level at a max range of 10' per level?

At first it seems like, to me, that Manowar is using Hold Person, but this is a more dangerous version of that where you can move, but take damage for doing so. But would that be a higher level or lower level version of Hold Person? On one hand it has an extra effect, but on the other hand you can simply choose to take the damage and escape the other effect. Aw, I'm going to split the difference and leave Minefield as a 2nd level power (and maybe set the damage at 2-8 points?). 

This is the second time in the same story Manowar is knocked out cold by a head blow. What terrible luck!

 

Hmm...I wanted to explain away that electricity ladder as flavor text for a power we already have, like Levitate. And it does look like levitation, until he goes sideways over the street. It doesn't look like Fly, but that is the only power that really fits, unless we accept this as a new power. Something like Create Normal Item? There is an AD&D spell like that, Minor Creation, but it's a surprisingly high-level one, 4th level. Even if we nudge it down to 3rd level, that's pretty high for Manowar, though a lot of our characters need to be explained with brevet ranks. 

One could argue that, if superheroes in their third issues can do these things, that maybe every superhero should be able to do these things, but it is important that some superheroes can't be able to do these things -- the "if everyone is special, then no one is" argument from The Incredibles.

 

We're going to jump into Bill Everett's Bull's-Eye Bill in progress. This page jumped out at me because of the "Bottles don't mean nothing" comment, and not just because it's a grammatically poor double negative. What it could mean, game mechanics-wise, is that the bottle hit, but didn't "hit" to the point where it did damage, or it could mean that it only did 1 point of damage, and Bill has so many hit points that he can confidently not worry about it. 

I also think it's interesting that Bill isn't the one who wins the quick draw contest, but the sheriff, who just conveniently appears in that moment. It's like the Editor saw where the dice were falling, was afraid Bill was going to get killed in this turn, and intervened on his behalf.

Here Bill, by virtue of being a played character, and possibly because of his level title, is able to tell the sheriff what to do. The sheriff, for his part, is perfectly fine with locking the bad guys up, not for disorderly conduct or anything like that, but for being strangers. In the Mythic West, it's important to know someone!

That "trip" into the ravine just reeks of plot convenience. I would normally never require a saving throw to stay on a trail unless it was extremely narrow.

Huh? Okay, it wasn't a plot convenience at all; the fall was just to fill panels. I seem to recall a recent Amazing Man story by Everett had a similar thing where a giant ball of ice was blocking his way for no other reason than to slow the pace of the story down. Of course, in a RPG, random setbacks occur all the time, but you're not as used to seeing them in stories, especially ones with such tight page counts as golden age stories. 

I can't decide if that is a caricature depiction of a black man or as realistic as Bill could draw him; his art can be quite stylized sometimes, and I want to give him the benefit of a doubt. Also, I'm quite familiar with the "girl pretends to be kidnapped to get the western hero's attention" story because I had re-published an old Centaur story very similar to this in Funny Picture Stories. Order your copy today!

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Miracle Comics #2 - pt. 1

This is Sky Wizard's feature, but we're going to start focused on the bad guys. It's not easy being a Sky Wizard bad guy; not only does Sky Wizard have way more resources than you, but he's got you outnumbered if you count both kids! They are a handy source for slang, though. "Croaked" and "deader than a mackeral" make plenty of sense, but "he did a Brody" took a little research. It's a phrase that was still in use at least up to the 1960s, but actually dates back to 1886. Steve Brodie was a saloon owner from Manhattan who claimed to have jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge and survived, so any seemingly impossible jump became "doing a Brodie/y."

Remarkably, no one seems cold at 10,000 feet, even though they should be freezing already.

New to the author? Modern hydroponic research began in earnest in 1925. Of course, there is little preventing this story from taking place in the past..

The science here might seem more plausible if Hawk had some super-sciency-looking device to send the damaging frequency from. Instead, it looks like he's using a ham radio he picked up at Sears for $5. 

It does not seem in keeping with Arabic culture to suggest djinni come from the underworld. Although, if you believe Wikipedia on this one, the jinn entry conflates jinn with ghouls, and ghouls definitely are from the underworld. I think the entry is wrong on this, though.

Spoiler: Sky Wizard saves the day, though the kids are nearly killed. Oops!

It shouldn't surprise anyone that the New York Blade wasn't a real newspaper -- at that time. Interestingly, a newspaper with that name, focused on gay rights issues, first appeared in New York in 1997.

300 MPH is actually an unusual speed for a plane of that time. It's much faster than a trainer, a little faster than a transport plane, but slow for the average small passenger monoplane, like this. 

Now, the story isn't clear about this, but I'm guessing the blimp island needs to at least get close to the ground before it gets its helium chambers refilled, so it's not like he's giving them glider wings at 10,000 feet and sending them over the side of the island...right?

Oh, and "hey, Jerry, you're, what, 10? Here's a gun. I'm not even going to show you how it works. Just have fun!"

Why does a 10 year old have a paralyzing gun with a kill setting??

C'mon, kids, it's a 25 lb bird, 1-1 HD at best. If the condor is bothering you that bad, how about just flying back to the island and asking Sky Wizard to help?

I like how Vera is so mean-spirited that even when throwing the message she hopes it hits Sky Wizard. It's a pretty innocuous way to deliver the message; if they had really wanted to hurt SW, they could have at least taken the time to find a bigger rock.

Maybe SW should try negotiating. Is there a softer part of Guatemala (consistently misspelled here) they could throw the kids out over instead? Maybe over some peat moss?

You know, rather than take the time to paralyze them, it looks like they could have just hit Sky Wizard with their plane and been done with it.

The paralyzer leaves them free to talk, so this must be its lowest setting.

 

We know how long the Paralyzer's effect lasts from this page (although I suspect the lethal setting is more permanent). One hour is a duration that doesn't fit well with 4-hour rest turns. Of course, since SW is in danger, it's not appropriate to count this in rest turns. One hour is six exploration turns. He's not exploring except to find out how comfy the floor is, but that length of time fits the scenario here.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)

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)

Speed Comics #6 - pt. 1

We're back to Brookwood, predecessor of Harvey Comics, and home to Shock Gibson. Shock is, despite being human and having electrical-based powers, very Superman-like. This is great for Hideouts & Hoodlums, because these superheroes are all using the same powers and that makes them easy to catalog.

Here's Shock using the 1st-level power Feather Landing.

And here Shock is using the power Raise Elephant. Since he's not using the truck as a weapon, that is just flavor text assigned to the Raise Elephant power.

Shock would already be a 4th-level superhero at this point, but he still doesn't have enough of a reputation that ambulance drivers recognize him on sight.

Although he's outrunning a motorcycle and a truck, the power in use here is Race the Train.

There are Hold powers, like Hold Plane, that Shock could be using here against the truck, but since he doesn't seem likely concerned about whether the truck is damaged, it's more likely he is simply trying to wreck it.

It's also conceivable that little enough time has passed that the duration is still ongoing for his earlier application of Raise Elephant.

I love how Shock is interrogating the mobsters through the truck while he's holding it up.

Shock's forcefield is likely the power Imperviousness.

Unconcerned that the mobsters on the radio were listening in earlier, knew Shock had the truck, and were attempting to lure him off-track -- Shock just drives off to Kentucky because he was told to.  This is why it's a great idea for Editors to be flexible with their plans. If you weren't expecting them to go to Kentucky and your players go anyway, then it's time to relocate the adventure to Kentucky.

New York to Kentucky, incidentally, is about an 11-hour drive. I wonder if Shock drove straight through or stopped overnight. There's no indication in the story either way.

I love the idea of hiding hideouts in famous, real world cave complexes. I wonder if a map of Mammoth Caves is available online somewhere.

I've talked about Von Kampf zombies before and how they will be in the Mobster Manual (to be released eventually!). I really like how steady Von Kampf is; he's not a Lex Luthor who flits from world conquering plan to plan. Von Kampf is always focused on one plan, taking over with zombies!













I include this page because I very briefly wanted to mention that, in a modern setting, it is very easy to transport mobsters to wherever you need them for your scenario. Mobsters typically found in a different climate -- or even in a lost world setting -- can be flown or trucked into other areas to be encountered.

I'll have to add to the Von Kampf zombie entry that their creator can see what's going on through their eyes (I would assume, so long as he is within so-and-so range and has the appropriate equipment to do so).

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)

Pep Comics #2 - pt. 3

We're still watching Sergeant Boyle's one-man war against the Nazis -- not fictional stand-ins either, mind you, but real deal Nazis. By 1940, more and more comic book creators are going to take a more direct position on the War in Europe.

===

Game mechanics discussion: I'm less interested in how black eyes are achieved (flavor text) or how Boyle rips down that telephone line pole (wrecking things), but by the double agent's sudden recovery from failing a morale save. I never addressed this before, but should morale results have a random duration? Or did he just get a new morale save when the circumstances changed?

That's a fairly impressive rendering of a battle scene, but it's all flavor text if the Hero is not involved in it. Or is it? Hideouts & Hoodlums does not emulate this sort of large-scale battle well -- I can't think of any RPGs that do -- but what if the game was set aside at this point and the referee and player switched to wargaming to resolve the scenario?

Boyle has until June 14, 1940 to enjoy tranquility in Paris.

 ===

Wowee, look at that Mort Meskin half-splash page! You know, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby were still a year away from the iconic work they are best known for, so at this early stage it may be Mort who comes in second behind Eisner for most dynamic page layouts!

Although we aren't given an exact time frame, it seems clear that Press Guardian has been undercover with the bund for some time, possibly weeks.

"Moronia" is a great fictionalized name for Nazi Germany.

===

Although this page superficially looks pretty good, the combat is confusing and hard to follow. Press Guardian was shot on the previous page but is fine now. Was he buffed with a defensive power? Wearing a bulletproof vest? Just took minimal damage and shrugged off the hit point loss?

When he's knocked down, is Press Guardian just playing possum until Von Leo turns around, or was PG really stunned?

PG's leap seems like something a normal person could attempt with a skill check.

Calling in the valet who also happens to be a pilot is an excellent use of Supporting Cast.

This is Manly Wade Wellman's Fu Chang. The art by Lin Streeter is amateurish and the story is not much better, though I am intrigued both by the summoning spell, which seems to require a magic potion...

...but more importantly, the tiger-devil. A tiger-devil has a gaze attack that paralyzes...

















...and I think we see here that it can also turn to gaseous form. I'm inclined to give tiger-devils 8 Hit Dice, making them on par with vampires.

Although this fight is said to take seconds in length, in H&H terms it is three turns long, or 90 seconds (in 2nd edition, 180 seconds in 1st edition).

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)

Miracle Comics #1 - pt. 1

Sky Wizard! I was pretty impressed with this guy when I read all his published stories to research his write-up in Supplement IV: Captains, Magicians, and Incredible Men. Will he hold up to a re-read?

In 2019, it takes approximately 24 hours to fly from Texas to China (depending on where in China you're going), which means the stratosphere plane is three times as fast as a modern commercial jet.

I appreciate the names in Sky Wizard -- Captain Dare is a good enough name to have his own feature, but he's just supporting cast here. And I like how the guy with the monocle isn't called "The Monocle" or "Baron Fritz" or something so obvious, but is called Hawk Armand, which you would never expect.

Being "Pathan" means that Kee-Shan is one of the Pashtun people who settled in the Punjab region of Pakistan. Kee-Shan seems an unlikely Pakistani name, but I love how he looks tailor made to be played by John Rhys-Davies in a Sky Wizard movie.

The paralyzer gun looks suspiciously like the toy raygun that is advertised for sale elsewhere in this comic book. The difference between the first setting, that paralyzes, and the second setting, that kills instantly, seems pretty grim. I hope Sky Wizard never sets his gun to the wrong setting by mistake!

Oh, Sky Wizard, the crazy things that come out of your mouth when you've been inhaling chemical fumes! By even the most generous estimates ants do not have 6,000 times the relative strength of a man. More perplexing is the notion of an "ant virus" -- what is that? An illness that only ants can get? A germ that makes you more ant-like?

The land speed record at this time was

369.7 mph, a record set in August 1939. But that would be on a straight line -- Sky Wizard's supercharger can go 175 MPH on country roads with bends and corners, something I wouldn't want to try in even a modern day car. 

Whether or not SW can make it to save the kids in time seems like a math puzzle worthy of Jim McClain's Solution Squad.  He has six minutes left to get there. His supercharger can go 175 MPH, which is 2.9 Miles Per Minute and some change. It's 10 miles to Lone Pine, so it should only take him approximately 3.4 minutes to get there. This is close to SW's dialogue in panel 4; perhaps he just rounds up to four minutes. 

The trick then is to find the fiends once he reaches Lone Pine. Clearly they aren't standing in the middle of the main road through town, for he has to spend two minutes searching the woods outside of town (I'm assuming Lone Pine is a town and not an actual lone pine tree!), which is less than a full exploration turn in Hideouts & Hoodlums game mechanics. 

This brings me to two questions that I can't fully answer. One, why does Hawk set such a difficult deadline for SW to save the children by? Two, how does SW find them in the woods so quickly? I actually have a guess at the second answer -- the Editor may have allowed SW to spot their car from the road, which told him that they were nearby. 

Here we find out that the duration of the Q-beam is 1 hour (though a save vs. science to resist should still apply!).

Although rubberium is a goofy name, metal rubber has been a real thing since 2004; it is a conductive plastic polymer with metal ions and is used today in aerospace/defense, as well as other applications.   

Sky Wizard must not plan to stop at 50,000 feet, as the ceiling record for planes was 56,000 feet (set by the Italians in 1938). Now, this is spectacularly high for a blimp -- the record for a blimp is still a modest 16,000 feet, and that was set in 2016!

That same blimp, the Airlander 10, was a record-breaking size for a blimp -- 302' long, and filled with 1.3 million cubic feet of helium. This blimp is said to be acres in size, though it fair to say that dialogue was intended to come out of one of the kids' mouths, and was a gross exaggeration. 

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)