Zip Comics #3 - pt. 4

Just in case I've never made this clear, I don't just include stories I like on this blog. War Eagles makes me a little sleepy...but I include pages that interest me, illustrate how well my game Hideouts & Hoodlums emulates these comics, points out ways it could do so better, or just things I need to rant about after reading. 

This page is the second of those, and it illustrates that administering first aid only required intent and physical contact; you do not need a first aid kit (they do help, though!).

Hoo hum, the ol' "Guards, come quick!" trick worked again like a charm and...ooo, what's this? One of them doesn't make it out? Now, this woke me up and made me take notice. We so seldom see failure in the comic books, but of course it's quite easy to hit a fleeing opponent, particularly with a high rate of fire. And missing your hear noise roll? Sure, that can happen in game. 

Of course, Kermit is only supporting cast. Would they have turned around and gone back for a player character?

 

It looks like the boys are escaping in a Fokker, or maybe a Heinkel, but it has to be a two-seater and that canopy looks odd for either plane. The pursuit planes look like Stukkas, and it's amusing to think of a Fokker outrunning a Stukka - but hey, it's comic books, and random chance is king in Hideouts & Hoodlums as well. 

Oh, these crazy kids. The number of things that have to go right for this plan to work...no wandering encounters en route to the air field, landing unseen near the airdrome, finding a single guard out of sight of all other guards...

...the guard knowing where the prisoner is, the guard giving up that information, the guard's uniform fitting, getting a surprise turn for the bombing run, not getting shot by anti-aircraft guns on the way out, only one guard left guarding the prisoner...

Mind you, a lot of these are familiar tropes of the genre, but still...

"He ain't heavyyyyy, he's my brotherrrrr" -- Oops, wrong war!

What? Tom is still flying around bombing the fields? Where are those anti-aircraft guns? Why are four soldiers manning a machine gun instead?

Yeah, the kids easily win in the end, so no surprises there. This next feature is Captain Valor, and with a witty script by unknown-to-me scribe Abner Sundell (a name to watch for here!) and lush visuals by Mort Meskin, I'm feeling like we should just ignore the jaundiced look of the orientals and soak in the rest of the story...but at the same time, it occurs to me that there must be a lot of junks floating around in the sea and, if Tsin hadn't fired on them, Valor would never have known this was the right one...

This mobstertype is going in Mobster Manual part II: M-Z as a pseudo-giant, a bad guy who is bigger and tougher than a thug, described as a giant, but obviously isn't literally a giant by any literal measure. 

"Bullseye!" seems to suggest a critical hit, but it also could have just been maximum damage. 

"That spinach I ate" -- great Popeye reference!

Hmm...here I was just raving about Meskin, but...look at those awful, stubby arms in panel 3...

You'd think that Valor would be taking continuous hit point loss by hanging from his thumbs, but he seems to be feeling like he just woke up from a nap here. 

I've no objection to the half-pint escaping from being tied up; supporting cast get skill checks too. And last-minute rescues are one of the reasons to keep supporting cast around! 

Valor doesn't seem to be actively recruiting supporting cast here, so the Editor must be elaborating on a very positive encounter reaction roll here.

Heyy...where did that flare gun come from? Did they tie him up with the flare gun still on him?

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Slam-Bang Comics #1 - pt. 4

 He may not deserve it, but we're back with another look at Lee Granger, Jungle King. The mentally augmented lion -- something Lee was not only able to do with 1940-era science, but with whatever equipment he was able to find in the jungles of Africa -- comes to Lee for healing, which makes me wonder if the Scientist class should be allowed to heal, or if this is just the first aid skill.

I feel obligated to point out how unlikely it would be for this plan to work in any game session I run. It's predicated on the Arabs splitting up so much that they not only can't see Hassan caught in the snare, but they can't hear his cries for help either. If not the first, surely the second would have happened and reinforcements would arrive before Lee has time to change out of his clothes.

Now this part of the plan is more sensible, and I like the extra detail of an underground stream with a fast-moving current being under a pit trap. The unusual thing is the shape of the pit trap, seemingly 5' x 30', which is great, I suppose, only if the enemy insists on traveling in single file.

By now I've seen a lot of fake names for Germans, but Kazilians has got to be the weirdest. "How many Germans are coming?" "Kazilians of them, sir!"

Also, and I know this is petty and nitpicky of me, but those have got to be the thickest lips I've ever seen drawn on a white man in a comic book.

Using logs dropped in the water to foil torpedoes sounds like a great tactic, and one likely to work. The torpedo then angling off the top of the log and shooting entirely over the ship seems entirely less likely...

This tactic would be difficult to duplicate in H&H with combatants on foot, as a shield between combatants only improves AC by one, and it is too easy to run around obstacles. With slower-moving and less maneuverable ships this should be more effective, so much so that I can't think of much in the way of game mechanics to assign to this. Maybe a skill check for each pilot to outmaneuver the opponent?

Aerial torpedoes look like rockets to me... 

This is from the next feature, Mark Swift and the Time Retarder. Mark is the boy in shorts, going back in time with his scientist neighbor friend (because it goes only back in time, that's why he calls it a retarder; no explanation how they get back if it only retards time...). The strip's author pulled 940 out of his hat as the year Vikings landed in North America, but it's not a bad guess; even today we can only guess the 10th century is when it happened. 

I've no idea why a Viking princess would have come along on this expedition...

How convenient that Mr. Kent just happens to know Old Norse! Perhaps he knows modern Icelandic, which is closest to Old Norse still spoken today. But then, in H&H, it doesn't really matter; we let everyone talk to everyone, like it happens in most comics.

It's typical racism of the period that the Indians are "savages" and the Vikings are "brave," but not savages. 

Mark and Mr. Kent don't make for good action heroes, but they can still be useful, as can your non-combat supporting cast during adventures. Just give them torches and tell them to set everything they see on fire!

Oh, and we also know that Vikings didn't wear horned helmets; that's a myth that came from 19th century art. And while I'm getting nitpicky, this likely is happening in Newfoundland, which means the Indians are Beothuk, and the Beothuk lived in conical dwellings known as mamateeks, not teepees. It's also unlikely they're all running around shirtless in Newfoundland, since only Alaska is even further north.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)

Jumbo Comics #13 - pt. 4

I've got time for one more rant session -- I mean review! -- of this issue of Jumbo Comics.

Wilton of the West is in Skull Valley, which is an actual place out in Utah. It should also sound familiar because of the White Boy in Skull Valley strip we already reviewed a few years back on this blog.

Drinking water does not restore hit points in Hideouts & Hoodlums, but giving water to a dehydrated person can count as first aid, and that does heal back 1 hp.

I'll skip most of the story; this page reminds us that the cowboy genre is often set in modern day times, so you can include modern cars in your stories.

I don't know how you jump off a horse into a speeding car, but I wouldn't make that easy. It should require an attack roll vs. a low AC, like maybe 2, or even 0.











Jumping ahead, this is our final story, Inspector Bancroft. Bancroft has been given a lot more supporting cast this story, including a fiancee and...well, I don't know what relationship those two kids are supposed to be to Bancroft or Wini, but they don't figure into the plot anyway.

Lumps of jelly used for containers in medicine that melt in heat are good clues to find in a poisoning murder.

"Swanky!" That's a word you don't see often enough in comic books. 

Bancroft gets incredibly lucky here; his accusation comes way out of left field, and all Benza has to do is deny it and Bancroft has no evidence. Things like this always seem to go incredibly easy for the Heroes in Golden Age comic books, so in a H&H campaign, if you accuse a mobster of a crime, that mobster has to save vs. plot or confess.

The author, "George Thatcher" (likely a pen name), likes unusual words, so he gives us "hoary creatures." I'm not sure if he's referring to the color of the spiders or how old they are...

But speaking of spiders, why place them so far from Bancroft, instead of, you know, throwing them in his lap? It seems like a particularly poor deathtrap, if the spiders choose to go in a different direction. 

Keep in mind, as you're reading this, how badly Bancroft has failed at this scenario. He gets captured. He fails to get himself out of his deathtrap. He fails to capture the killer. He doesn't even phone for the police himself; Wini does all of this for him. The moral is, it's okay to fail when you're playing H&H. You're still a Hero as long as you tried.

If I was Wini, I would be hesitant to untie him too. If Dayton had just stood by and let the cops take him, Benza would have gone to jail. Well, maybe. I mean, Dayton still has nothing on him for the murder other than a confession that Dayton has no corroboration for.

But punching him gives Benza the opportunity he needs to try and run, and the cops are so enraged by this that they don't even shout "Stop or we'll shoot" first. This lack of due process and vigilante justice, though, is entirely appropriate for Golden Age campaigns.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)

Jumbo Comics #13 - pt. 2

We return to Hawk of the Seas and the treasure hunt already in progress. The treasure is concealed by a boulder that looks to be the size of two men, and that's going to be a really heavy boulder.

Since we imagine these stories as scenarios of Hideouts & Hoodlums on this blog, I'm guessing nobody present is a superhero with the Raise Car power. So let's consider our alternatives.

The easiest solution is that the boulder is fake and mostly hollow inside. The next best solution is for the Editor to assign a target number of combined Strength, say 40, and if the party has at least that high a combined Strength they can all make Strength checks. If all succeed, they move the boulder. This is any official use of the H&H rules, as written, but not a great departure either, with precedent in that Original Game.

Another example of healing, when the Hero isn't simply stunned, taking a long period of time. This one even suggests that healing would not take place without the first aid skill being used first, which seems a tad excessive to me.

This seems a clever strategy, both to make your opponents think they've killed you (stated here) and to make them use up their ammunition (implied?). Perhaps rumor of this strategy would later inspire Sherlock Holmes in "The Adventure of the Empty House."

Order of combat needs to be determined by random initiative roll, to account for how Hawk was able to close the distance to this musketeer before the shot goes off.

Snyde has reason to feel confident; all but Chaotic Heroes are going to need to save vs. plot or be held by the Editor to whatever agreement they make during this parlay. 

Hawk is sometimes too good a man, to the point of naivety, like accepting Snyde's surrender without searching him first for concealed weapons. 

You'll just have to trust me that everything works out for Hawk in the end, as we jump into the next feature Spencer Steel. Artist George Tuska's inking seems unusual crisp, but maybe that's from skimping on the background art so much.

The backstory of the "famous Rembrandt that was brought over from Italy" seemed so precise that I did some quick research to see if that was a thing, but couldn't turn up any news stories about Rembrandt paintings coming to the U.S. during the late '30s.

Noticing that a rug has recently been tacked down might require a basic skill check/find concealed doors check.

Sometimes I'm just baffled by what Golden Age Heroes will do in comics. Spencer has two really good suspects to question or follow as soon as he remembers they are ex-cons -- and instead he goes back to the empty room to look for more clues.

It's like the Editor tossed him a bone, having that missing key turn up there, but then got tired of Spencer's player's poor attempt at detective work and tossed a wandering encounter into the room to shake things up.

The last game mechanic issue we'll look at today is combining grappling with pushing. Can grappling damage be substituted for distance pushed? I don't see why not, after reading this page. But would Spencer really want to? The falling damage on the stairs must be affecting both of them. Perhaps Spencer's player hopes he has the higher hit point total and will come out on top (which he does)...or, maybe Spencer's player was hoping that crashing him into the door would do enough damage, but forgot to ask if the door was closed...

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)

Amazing Mystery Funnies #18 - pt. 3

We're going to speed through the rest of this issue today, picking up where we left off with Larry Kane. This old castle is so like Old School dungeon design, with random layouts that don't make much real world sense -- like coming in through the main entrance and finding a long hallway lined with doors instead of, oh, maybe a foyer or something.

I didn't know this, but a garret is an attic that's been finished so it can be lived in.

Well, darn! Instead of some spooky ghosts, it's just some mobsters making all the noises. From the descriptions, if I was running this as a Hideouts & Hoodlums scenario (and don't think I wouldn't!), I would stat them as two robbers and a thug. Though I would personally shake things up in this story by having mobsters and undead in the house -- much like my Palace of the Vamp Queen module.

Spoilers: Larry wins. So let's jump ahead to the next feature, Spy A-5 (we're also told his name is Storm King, but that feels an awful lot like an alias as well).

The story is pretty run-of-the-mill, with this being like the eighth or ninth story I've read about an inventor with a stratoplane since I started reading these stories. The only thing worth considering here, then, is the game mechanic issue of the splashing-liquid-in-their-faces-to-distract-them trick. If I was a fan of the new edition of D&D and its mechanic of advantage and disadvantage, I might say the distraction gives them a disadvantage on their next attacks. While the mechanic is clearly popular with today's players, it's a big game-changer in that it alters the dice rolls far more than a small modifier does. I would have to say it goes against the flavor of H&H.

Speaking of flavor...the other use for this trick is simply flavor text to explain how Storm wins initiative on that turn. In H&H, the dice rolls determine the result, and then the result is described; you don't normally pick the result you want and then the mechanics help you get that result (although there are situational modifiers that will give you a 5-20% bonus).

Anyway, on to this next page. First, I wanted to point out that the mobsters are able to use escape artistry as a skill; normally we only see that working for Heroes.

We see corners being used for hard cover. We also see a Hero taking a rare hit and needing first aid afterwards.

For game balance, sometimes it's good to introduce trophy items with a built-in drawback, and this stratosphere has a doozy. Unless the pilot can keep the fuel mixing just right (skill check? Per take-off?), the plane explodes for, I'm guessing, a lot of dice of damage.

And now we get to Fantom of the Fair, and a really nice location for a hideout. I can imagine some cool, water-based traps in that place.


Is Dr. Loy babbling, or does he have voice-activated machinery?

So how tough are these things? We're not talking about golem-level tough if Loy can mass produce a thousand of them. Probably not even gargoyle-level tough, to make them immune to normal weapons. Rather, I'd say they have good Armor Class and that's why the bullet doesn't harm him.

But what to call them? Loy calls them his masterpieces, but that's a terrible name for a mobstertype.  "Weird hideous creature" is too long. I would shorten that, then, to The Weird.

Although the weird are undoubtedly tough, their chief advantage against The Fantom seems to be only numbers. I would give them maybe 2, no more than 3, Hit Dice.

The Fantom has gone from a mysterious figure with a fascinating backstory to just some redheaded guy in long underwear and cape. Or is the Fantom in disguise, as he definitely seemed to have black hair in his earliest appearances...?

I had to look up "water bubbler" and learned that it's a slang term for a water fountain, used in New England.

That the weird melt into puddles when hit with water makes them pretty useless, but also easy for low-level Heroes to face.

Fantom's chemical analysis seems like a longshot, depending on a) the weird's creator to not be from some foreign country, or smuggle the chemicals into the country, and b) that they were all made in the last six months.

And what is up with that ugly cowl the Fantom is wearing? It's like he has a red condom pulled down over his head...

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

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)?

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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.

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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.)