Feature Comics #30 - pt. 2

We're looking at the second half of this issue of Feature Comics today, and are still in this month's Dollman feature. If you can't guess, Dollman has snuck aboard a German submarine since we last saw him. If you ignore the dynamic layouts and just concentrate on what Dollman is doing on this page, you'll realize there's nothing here he couldn't have done at full-size, backing my contention that a shrinking power is nothing but flavor text.

Now, he did, on the previous page, conceal himself in a crate too small for a normal-sized person to hide in...but the Editor could easily have changed the scale of the crates to fit the Hero.

I know where this is! the highest suspension bridge in the world was the Royal Gorge Bridge in Colorado from 1929 until 2001.

I am really impressed by the wrinkle in this story, that Rance leaves the time bomb intact to give the story a time limit. It's not really clear why. What would make this work so much better is if the time bomb wasn't safe to defuse, so the only way to do so is to find the man who left the bomb in the time they have available and trick him into defusing i for them. Which is almost exactly how this story goes, except for the necessity factor.

This is more of what I like from this story - not only finding out who the villain was, but finding out his backstory, looking for things to exploit so they can trick him instead of beating him up. It's all so ingenuously done that I would probably wind up giving Cameron a penalty to his save vs. plot to see through the disguise (the distance and bad lighting probably help too, so, -3?).

Here's an example of expert level sleight of hand from a non-adventure character. But I was more interested in sharing this page for the unusual word "bohunks." I don't know if you all knew this already, but bohunks is actually a racial slur, referring to an immigrant from central or southeastern Europe, especially a laborer.

We haven't looked at educational filler in a while. Things like this are very useful because, when I'm deciding how high or how far a Hero should be able to leap without some kind of buffing (either by skill or power or spell), I will look to world records, but of course world records keep going up over time. It's hard to believe that the pole vault record was "only" 14' back in 1940; now it stands at 20'!

We're jumping from there into Charlie Chan, where the artist does a great job of getting Warner Oland's likeness with all the shading. Here, Charlie lands on the nature of the bad guys' scheme from two clues. I've spoken about this before on the blog, how difficult it can be sometimes to distinguish the Editor misspeaking from deliberately leaving a clue in dialogue. The better clue, for a RPG, is having Chan realize the binoculars are expensive. I'm not even sure if one should need a skill check to determine that; I would think it would be obvious if a pair of binoculars was fancy enough to be expensive.

This page tells me pigeon blood rubies are worth twice what diamonds are worth. I wish it also told me what diamonds were worth in 1940, as that would be a good cipher for figuring out what all other gemstones were worth. Interestingly, I can find this information online, but only going back to 1960.

You don't hear about "pigeon blood" rubies often, probably because it is as violent as it sounds. Pigeon Blood Ruby meaning is primarily associated with its color that matches exactly with the blood drawn from a freshly killed pigeon.

I'm currently running a campaign where one of the Heroes is working to become a professional boxer, so I found this installment of Slim and Tubby particularly interesting. At first glance it seems that Slim needs a license and bond to become a boxer, but that's not true; he needs a license and a surety bond to work as a boxing promoter, something that's still true today (Slim is looking to become a promoter to promote his own boxing career).

We also see robbers armed with sub-machine guns here (well, sort of -- they never leave the car, but we're told they are that well-armed).

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)

Adventure Comics #46 - pt. 2

Steve Carson of Federal Men has an awful easy time investigating this one. When a judge appears to have been kidnapped, Steve naturally suspects the most current criminal defendant and just happens to spot two well-known mobsters outside the man's office. He follows them to a well-known pool-parlor (apparently pool hall is not a common term yet) frequented by the underworld. Now, how does Steve recognize all this? Maybe the Editor gave all that information away as freebies. Maybe he made Steve make skill checks to know it. Or, if Steve's player requested information, and the Editor could not decide if Steve should know it or not, the situation should be resolved by saves vs. plot instead. At lower levels, a basic skill check is easier than most saving throws to make, but an expert skill check is harder than both, so players might do well to be inquisitive and risk that saving throw.

Steve is shown to use an automatic pistol in this story. The judge was actually not kidnapped but was hiding out on his own after thinking he'd run someone over and killed him. The fake accident was arranged by the man on trial. Interestingly, the judge does not recuse himself, but continues with sentencing.

Socko Strong has a strange working relationship with Jerry Indutch; in addition to being Socko's trainer, Jerry is a photographer for the Daily Bulletin. Jerry and Socko are both lured out of town before a match by fake telegrams, but they luckily run into each other on the road as Jerry is driving back. The odds of that seem low, but a basic skill check could be allowed for each of them to recognize the other's car en route. A lucky encounter reaction roll from a motorcycle cop gets them a police escort back to the match (going over 80 MPH, no less -- must have rolled double 6's!).

Captain Desmo's adventure takes place at "latitude 70 degrees, longitude 30 degrees," which is odd because that's nowhere, but if you flip latitude and longitude it would be in modern-day Pakistan, which makes perfect sense for the adventure. The villain in this piece is Vasili Gerke, the sort of Golden Age villain name that is almost impossible to take seriously. Vasili has yet another of those rayguns that can make planes stop flying, but also has a complex irrigation system that allows him to drain lagoons and make them look like suitable landing fields, then flood them again later to hide the evidence. I'm hard-pressed to think of any other adventures where a mastery of irrigation made a villain dangerous...

Skip Schuyler is referred to as a lieutenant in this story, but I had to go back nine issues to find a reminder that Skip works for the U.S. Intelligence Service. Skip is romancing a general's niece outside a party and goes back in to get punch when she is kidnapped and dragged off. Skip can see the evidence of where she was dragged away, but apparently blows his skill check and is unable to track them further. Skip covers for his failure later when talking to her uncle, saying it will be easier to find them in daylight...you know, hours later when they could have done anything to her. Her uncle doesn't seem remotely worried; when Skip tells him he just goes "Hmm..." like he'd just been told a good brain-teaser.

While flying around over the area in his plane, the only clue Skip gets is seeing the sun flash off of something metal among the trees. Skip's player meta-games and assumes this is too important to pass up. Sure enough, that was exactly where the girl, Linda, was taken. Though the story began in the real city of Shanghai, it moves now to the fictional island of Hanyow. The kidnappers try to move Linda again by boat, but Skip makes his skill check this time to spot her. The kidnappers have a repeating rifle (automatic rifle?). Skip flies too fast for the rifleman to aim, but Skip has no trouble hitting their boat at the same speed -- this could be easily explained by the luck of the dice, though.

Skip's shots disable to the boat, but the kidnappers bring up a good point -- Skip isn't flying a seaplane, so he can't get to them and it's a stalemate. The scenario is effectively over for Skip at that point, who has to radio in Army seaplanes to finish his rescue for him.

Rusty and His Pals are in England (still? I'm pretty sure this isn't where they started, but their parents must not be missing them). To get out of the rain, they have to go try to find shelter at a spooky old mansion.  I think I've written about this before, but in comic books, if it's raining, you have to save vs. plot to resist seeking shelter. The old man in the mansion seems paranoid, until his bodyguard (not much of a bodyguard) is dropped by a dart to the neck, and then the old man has a heart attack (Editor's fiat, no game mechanics apply to heart attacks).

(read at fullcomic.pro)

Blue Ribbon Comics #3 - pt. 2

Stuart Logan not only knows to look for clues, but knows that how a trail of blood moves around furniture can itself be a clue.

I'm not convinced this is a good way to murder someone, but it would make a good trap for injuring someone.

This filler page explains what most comic book robots of the time are based on, Elektro being the real life robot from the World's Fair.

This is Silver Fox, another detective. He wisely points out a problem with fingerprinting -- having one set of fingerprints does  you no good without another set of fingerprints to compare it too (which is why he's pretending he wants to buy the vase).

Personally, I feel like this is a bit of a cheat in an investigation scenario, but sometimes, if your player just isn't picking up on the right clues, you have to let his Hero overhear a confession. Or you can prearrange for there to be a confession, but the Hero has to be in the right place at the right time to hear it.

I'm pretty sure the police can't do this now, and probably not then either.

I have never been a fan of this guy, who's art graced all the early Centaur comics. Dick Ryan's "The Master Plan of Billy Wolf" ends in Billy being placed in a deathtrap and hurled off a cliff -- so, that's right, kids -- Billy is lying there dead at the end.

Note how quickly the reporter is deputized, just for being a played character who shows up at the crime scene.

Classic -- this is the 20th century version of hiding a gem in the head of a cane. Players often don't think of the versatile uses of chewing gum. Now that I think of it, I think I'll buy a pack for my own Hero!

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)

Keen Detective Funnies v. 3 #1 - pt. 2

No, this isn't a black and white reprint; Centaur was still having financial difficulty at the beginning of 1940 and could not afford to put color on every page.

Dan Dennis shows you that G-Men did not have to observe rules or laws in comic books. Here, rather than getting a warrant for an autopsy in a sterile medical lab, Dan sneaks a complicit medical examiner into a private funeral home and has the examiner perform one in the dark. Interesting verdict on that autopsy -- unless it was skin cancer, there would be no outwardly visible sign of cancer. I wonder how much cutting up the examiner did.

This is Ed Colton. It's interesting how many similarities there are between this scenario and the Masked Marvel story I shared from yesterday, despite that being a mysteryman story and this being a cowboy story.

Ed lays out a good series of clues that can be gathered at a crime scene.

In order to pull off this bluff, Ed took a deliberate 10' fall into a gulch in order to look injured.

I guess there were not too many ranches with plane hangars in the area, so solving the "who done it" part of this mystery was relatively easy. Finding one of them conveniently holding the murder weapon in the hangar certainly helps.

By making it a tripod-mounted weapon, the Editor has made it virtually impossible to use in melee range, to Ed's benefit.

I laughed at first when confronted with the term "liquid oxygen," but it is a real thing and has apparently been used in rocket fuel in the past.

Of course, the caption is way too long, taking up an entire panel, and includes a lot of detail we just do not need to understand the story.

This is Dean Masters, D.A. There are three ways to handle that trick where he sneaks the tear gas grenade out of his pocket. The player could either make a sleight of hand check (basic skill check) to palm the grenade, rely on surprise rolls, or even just rely on initiative rolls to see if he could set it off before Louie could take an action.

Dean tricks Sam into going out into the hallway and getting shot. My first inclination was to say Sam had to save vs. plot to resist fast-talk, but there's not really anything here to resist. Instead, I would say this is an encounter reaction check situation.

Dean wisely doesn't fire into the crowd -- if he rolls low, he runs a risk of hitting a civilian (there's no game mechanic penalty, by the way, for shooting a civilian, but there could be in-game repercussions, like him losing his job.

Sam takes three bullets before he goes down. With those hit points, he must be a master criminal!

Scenario map (though, admittedly, not very detailed).

This is Captain Forsyth & Sergeant Maclean, Spy Hunters -- a title almost longer than its own feature. Here, we see bandits. We are told they are Arab bandits, but counter to typical racism of the day, there are no visual cues to the bandit leader being an Arab, other than a caption telling us.

$50,000 is a fortune in 1940 money.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)

Detective Comics #28

We're back around to Detective Comics again already, with this being the second appearance of The Bat-Man.

The Bat-Man demonstrates voice mimicry in this story. That's not currently a skill in Hideouts & Hoodlums. I'll...consider how important/useful it would be.

When The Bat-Man kicks a thief off a roof (to the man's death, no less), he's using a throw attack. A flip/throw can make your opponent prone or move him 5', if you hit and he fails his save vs. science.

In the world of comic books, confessions signed under duress caused by vigilantes seem to be fully admissible in court. I wonder if H&H needs a short article on the law in a comic book world.

While most Buck Marshall, Range Detective (moved to here from Action Comics) stories followed the same pattern of following tracks to the killer, this one starts with the unusual premise of Buck being arrested, and then told he was arrested so he could talk to the prisoner in the cell next to him and try to get some kind of confession out of him. It's an interesting set-up for an adventure, though I could see players holding a grudge for the sheriff not telling them his plan first.

In the most ridiculous example of disarming a gunman to date, Buck does so by swinging a hat.

Someone else besides Joe Shuster is drawing Spy in this issue, and the story hurts for it. Bart's partner Sally is still missing from the strip, which also saps much of the uniqueness out of it.

I'm not sure what country "Baralia" is supposed to be, but unless it's Mexico or Canada I really don't see how they plan to get their tanks and infantry to the United States.

Bart demonstrates picking a lock (could be a spy class feature, but I plan to give it to everyone anyway).

Lee Travis, The Crimson Avenger, falls off the running board of a fast-moving car, fast enough that the damage makes him need to see a doctor afterwards. Maybe we need to fashion a game mechanic for horizontal falling? If speed was the only factor, then falling while going 20 MPH would do 1-6 points of damage, 40 MPH would do 2-12 damage, 80 MPH would do 3-18 points of damage, and so on.

The Crimson trades in his gas gun for itching powder in this story, though the itching powder is encountered off-panel and we never see how effective it's supposed to be. Speaking of effectiveness, The Crimson gets kidnapped, not once, but twice in this story by hoodlums.

Bruce Nelson is shown being able to read Spanish. The H&H rules talk about not bothering with making Heroes keep track of what languages they can speak; at least the common written languages need to be covered in that too.

A mastiff runs loose in Doctor Fu Manchu. Dogs were the pit bulls of their time, in terms of reputation for violence (and probably equally undeserved). While I had previously statted dogs as 1+1 Hit Dice, 2 Hit Dice might not be unreasonable for mastiffs.

(Batman story read from Batman Archives vol. 1. I managed to read most of the rest of the story at readcomics.net until malware on the site overcame my malware blockers. May have to stop using that site...)