Smash Comics #8 - pt. 1

It's good to be back around to Quality Comics again. Not that we haven't seen plenty of Will Eisner over at Fiction House and Fox, but I have a special love for Espionage, and I think Will did too. There's a lot of good anti-war messages in Eisner's early work, and here we see a pretty good summary of how terrible the war in Europe is going so far, with accurate dating for Germany's early conquests and only the curious prediction that they would move to China next.  The prediction that Germany's army would be stymied at France will turn out to be disastrously false over the course of just four days, two months after the cover date of this comic. 

Eisner put a lot of work into this story -- almost as much as he will soon into The Spirit -- so we won't skip a page of it.  Luckily, I think we can find something to talk about on every page.

Here, in the final panel, we see the value of relying on random rolls to see if anything turns up in a search. Just saying "I check the closet" shouldn't give you an automatic success, though being specific should give you a bonus.

We don't often get treated to foreign languages in American comics, but the German in panel 9 is asking "Where is the one we are looking for?"







I'm not convinced the name of the former high official of the German intelligence would have been common knowledge to an American in 1940, but we know today that this is likely General Kurt von Schleicher, who was head of the Ministry of Defense until Hitler changed it to the Ministry of War in 1935.

I think it's interesting that Black X refuses to take on the same plot hook from one character, but will take it if given by another. This reminds me of a player I have right now.

Saarbrücken is the capital and largest city of the state of Saarland, Germany. Saarbrücken is Saarland's administrative, commercial and cultural centre and is next to the French border.

There are great details here, from the strategy of substituting for a corpse to get on an ambulance (I'm guessing he let them make sure the man was dead first, then created a distraction and replaced the corpse on the stretcher), to needing to shave because it took so many days just to cross the French-German border. Panels 1-3 are great action scenes, while panels 8 and 9 are dramatically angled. And yet, despite 12-panel pages, it hardly feels crowded on the page.

Koblenz, spelled Coblenz before 1926, is a German city situated on both banks of the Rhine where it is joined by the Moselle.

When the secrets Gale is carrying are revealed, they don't sound that valuable to me.

It seems incredible that Madam Doom just happens to be hanging out at this particular guardpost when Black X happens by. Still, it's very comic book-y if you insert a recurring villain into your wandering encounter table every so often.

I wouldn't say it's incredible, but perhaps remarkable (forgive me, I've been playing more Marvel Super Heroes lately) that the shrapnel blast somehow misses both Gale and Black X, but does enough damage to kill the driver. I suppose they were outside the "save for half" radius and in a "save for none" radius.

 Batu uses...the Phantasmal Image spell? It's been a loooong time since I first discussed in Supplement IV if Batu is an example of psionics or not, and we don't have to revisit that here. Just enjoy some delightful character moments, followed by one of Eisner's signature anti-war messages direct to the reader in the final panel.

And, as an added bonus...it's been a long time since I last shared single panel comic strips. I like these two, particularly the one on the right. I had to think about it about as long as that girl is...

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)

Detective Comics #35 - pt. 2

Speed Saunders, Ace Investigator is next. Speed calls himself a detective in this story, but by now he should have enough accumulated XP to be a 5th-level captain. He goes against a villain called the Snake Master in this Cuban-/voodoo-themed story. According to this story, Cuba is inhabited by natives who attack with darts. Speed is able to identify hemp rope as coming from Haiti just by looking at it (expert skill check?). Despite darts not having a great range, Speed has darts thrown at him three times before he is finally able to spot the thrower. By using a guide, Speed is able to avoid concealed snake pits on his way to the Snake Master. Not one of the Snake Master's followers has better than darts for weapons, so Speed just waltzes in with a gun and takes out the cult leader.

This month Cosmo, the Phantom of Disguise seems to be all over the place. He starts out looking into the case of a man who escapes jail by appearing to be dead, then he's investigating the murder of a police captain who was looking into the case (weird, that a captain wouldn't have delegated that responsibility), then he's following a Hindu because the captain had mentioned a dragon before he died (even though India isn't known for its dragons), then he's in disguise as a bum, trying to get invited into the home the Hindu went into (why he thought a bum would be invited in, I don't get, but somehow it worked). The best part of the adventure is that the bad guys trap him in a room and talk to him through a bronze dragon statue, as the room slowly fills with poison gas. Cosmo survives by making his saving throw (with some likely modifiers for laying on the floor and covering his mouth with a wet handkerchief  -- wetting the handkerchief in a fish tank was particularly ingenious).

There's a second trap that's not as good -- he drops through a pit trap into a room the floods with water -- but the plot twist is rather clever that Cosmo is saved by city water works employees, investigating that the house was leaking water into the street. It turns out that the owner of the house is the man who escaped jail by using the "Oriental trick" of suspended animation. That doesn't sound like an Oriental trick -- that sounds like a psionic discipline.

Bruce Nelson is continuing an adventure in ...Africa? I forget. He and his native guide Mambu are canoeing along rapids, dodging whirlpools, probably requiring expert skill checks to avoid being in situations where they have to save vs. science to avoid drowning (I would be okay with affording them that double layer of protection because the penalty for failure is so steep). The "white goddess" they rescued last time wakes up after being splashed in the face, something I don't recommend for H&H play, so maybe it just coincidentally coincided with a duration ending.

Bruce learns the name of the "white goddess" and immediately recognizes who her father is. Should recognition be a skill check? The girl, Toni Hutton, was drugged by the natives with something that would knock her out for two days at a time (long duration!).

In Slam Bradley, Slam and Shorty are paid to bodyguard a group of swells on a "slumming tour" of dangerous dives. This should be an example of a situational modifier that increases chance of wandering encounters. Someone is murdered and Slam beats people up until a barkeep gives up the name of the murderers. Slam and Shorty deliver the suspects' names to the police and Shorty is ready to end the scenario, but Slam wants to pursue it further. This is one of the ways that traditional RPGs are so flexible, that the players can decide -- not just the referee -- when the scenario has been successfully completed. Luckily, Slam must have some supporting cast in the FBI, because he is able to just waltz into their HQ and request to see the files on the suspects.

On a crazy whim, Slam decides to sign them both up for the French Foreign Legion just because the suspects used to be Legionnaires (apparently it was for strictly enforced five-year stints too). Now, I'm not a very flexible Editor. When I'm running games, I have a story in mind and when Heroes go too far off the rails, I'm comfortable with just saying there are no leads in that direction. But Slam and Shorty have a very flexible Editor, because he rules that the killers are exactly where they get shipped off to, and even tosses in the wrinkle that one of the suspects is their sergeant!

To get rid of Slam, Sergeant Jensen sends them out into the desert and they are attacked by nomads. Slam, who can usually handle any fight, is overwhelmed by six-to-one odds. In fact, the scenario gets way out of hand and Slam is about to be executed by firing squad, so the Commandant of the Foreign Legion has to ride in at the last moment and save the day for him.

(Read at fullcomic.pro)  

All-American Comics #1-2

This is out of order, but I finally have access to the early issues of All-American Comics and I thought I'd play catch-up!

The first issue opens with Red, White, and Blue, my personal favorite feature from All-American Comics until the introduction of Red Tornado in Scribbly.

Some unusual 1940 lingo from this story:  a found purse is called, instead of a purse or even a handbag, a "pocketbook."  The owner's ID card inside is not called an ID card, but a "name card."  An agent of G-2, the U.S. Secret Service (as it was also known at that time) presents her credentials and they look like a pamphlet.

Reg'lar Fellers features a simple trap -- or is it simply a trick? -- where an intruder trips a tripwire that rings a gong and announces his presence. There's also a good chance of the tripwire simply knocking the intruder prone (save vs. science?).

The very first Hop Harrigan adventure begins with his origin story -- how, as a young boy, he flees by plane after getting in a fight with his evil uncle. Hop and the uncle have a short, but dramatic struggle over a weapon -- a hatchet -- that the uncle planned to use on the plane. Rather than a disarming attack, it seems Hop initiated a grappling contest instead.

Hop makes reference to his aviation heroes Lindbergh and Corrigan. Everyone has heard of Charles Lindbergh, but Corrigan was Douglas "Wrong Way" Corrigan - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Corrigan.

Hop's first plane is a "Jenny" biplane, which is very appropriate because that's the plane I assigned to 1st level aviators.We also learn that a Jenny was worth $500, used! 

The Mystery Men of Mars is a great name for a feature, but it starts with some shaky science; three men are going to fly to Mars in an anti-gravity ship. "I don't work with power! I work with the laws of gravity! I found a vay to reverse them und ve can reach Mars by simply falling upwards!"  For one thing, there's nothing simple about that. Two, even if you could repel yourself from a center of gravity, how would you gain speed? The further away you "fell," the weaker the repelling force. The trip is going to take a month, which may seem like a long trip to a young reader in 1940, but means that the ship is "falling" at roughly 50,000 MPH.  Despite this, the ship does not disintegrate on contact with Mars' atmosphere, and lands so safely that it occurs off-panel.  Oh, and Mars has breathable atmosphere and even a pleasant clime. Who knew!

In Ben Webster, we learn that the most expensive fur-lined winter coat in a men's clothing store was $200.

Moving on to issue #2...

Red, White, and Blue find they have to catch a train for a secret mission, so quickly that they don't have time to get their baggage from the hotel. Red isn't worried, because he can wire the hotel from the next town and have them send the baggage to them. Which I point out because it seems an outdated service and one we wouldn't think of hotels doing today.

Red's friend, Christophe Amore, who conveniently shows up has psionic powers (see 1st edition Supplement III). Psionics is, of course, my go-to whenever some form of magic in the comics breaks the rules of magic. Here, Christophe has the ability of Detect Thoughts -- like any magic-user of level 3 or higher -- but with the extra ability of being able to transfer that ability to others for 24 hours. What's more, the range on this power is measured in miles, making it fantastically powerful (and well beyond the 3rd level spell!).  I'm beginning to think that psionics needs to be kept out of the players' hands and used by the Editor whenever he needs a magical effect like this that breaks the rules of magic.

The science about helium is actually good in this story, including about how it is extracted from natural gas, but the stuff about it only being produced in the U.S. and the U.S. having a monopoly on helium is pure bunk.

In Mutt & Jeff, we learn that a pedigree dog goes for $60.

That Hop Harrigan's mentor's plane has a ceiling height of 22,000 feet just shows what humble beginnings Hop has; planes were breaking that ceiling height record as early as 1916.

Hop's first SCM, "Ikky", faints in a tense moment. I actually added "fainting" to the morale save results table for just such an occurence.

In Mystery Men of Mars, Ted, Alan, and the Professor encounter Martians riding around in somewhat resemble the dreadnought crabs we saw in Amazing Man Comics a while back.  These crabs can go 600 MPH despite walking on stilt-like legs. The Martians inside are called bugs, and look like pillbug men. They have telescoping third arms that come out of the center of their chests. They are encountered in groups as high as 13. The Martian bug men have advanced transportation, but primitive weaponry; they are armed only with spears. They use simple traps like portcullis traps.


(All-American Comics read at ReadComicOnline.)

Fight Comics #1 - pt. 2

Last time, we were about to meet the newest hero of futuristic 1997. It's this guy, Saber -- which is, admittedly, a pretty cool name for a Hero -- and you can tell he's a Hero because these U.S. government guys say so (U.S. government guys are all good guys in comic books) and because, well, he's almost naked. In addition to being athletic (high Dexterity score) and has a great mind (high Intelligence score), he has telepathy, which sounds a lot like psionics -- remember the 1st edition psionics system from Supplement III?

I would hand-wave the leaping over the desk thing; if he has enough Movement to get around the table so he could reach melee normally, I'm willing to accept the leap as flavor text.

Saber is pretty vicious -- I noted that the officials have to pry him off the spy or Saber might have beat him to death. No one offers to get him a shirt or pants.

750 MPH was considered near-impossibly fast circa 1940; this speed was not reached until 1947, and not publicly known about until 1953.

"Teloradio" seems like a common cliche of science fiction, combining the television with a telephone, or webcamming, as we call it today.

It will be interesting if we see exactly what the "destroray" does exactly. It sounds like something that would have came out of G.I. Joe...

"Deland" is a strange spelling for Clinton, who was of course the U.S. President in 1997. The actual Secretary of State was Madeleine Albright, so Fight Comics got that even more wrong.

It's curious how the Alaskan uniform looks so Russian, if Alaska is under U.S. control in this future. Maybe control was only recently wrested away.

One-man submarines are as old as 1776. The submarine sled is different in that it seems to be a submersible motorboat, something we still don't have in 2018.

Still no one has suggested that Saber put on a shirt yet.

Saber's sub sled crosses the 827 miles between Washington, D.C. and Bermuda in three hours -- meaning the sled can go 275 MPH, a water speed record that was not broken until 1964, but even now never maintained over three hours.

Rewards can come in all forms for a successful adventure. Here, Saber not only gets to be head of the Super-Intelligence Department, but they give him a shirt! (The first one would come with an XP reward; the second one...not so likely.)

This is Kayo Kirby, which looks like it's going to give us a combination of the crime fighter and sports genres. Note that Kirby manages to force morale saves on the thugs only by injuring them, not by knocking at least one of them out first.

Now, this page gives me a thought...what if coach was a Supporting Cast Member type, who gave Heroes advice while fighting, and it gave them a +1 bonus to hit? That would be pretty cool (though dangerous for the coach, bringing him along into hideouts!).

In my current campaign, there's a jail overcrowding problem that my players have had to deal with in creative ways, including this one -- just letting crooks go with a warning. Not every encounter needs to end with mobsters going to jail.

And this page made me think of something I've never considered for a game mechanic. What if Heroes needed supporting cast to be present in order to fight at maximum effectiveness? Could players who insist on their Heroes being lone wolves suffer a -1 penalty to certain rolls, like attacks and saving throws? I'll have to give it more thought.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Smash Comics #4 - pt. 1

And we're back to Will Eisner's Espionage, still featuring Black Ace instead of Black X.  This installment is the debut of Madame Doom, one of the best femme fatales invented for comic books and the precursor to, well, every femme fatale in The Spirit later.

From this page, we learn that a map of the California Coast's military defenses would be worth about $10,000.

200 MPH was certainly doable for a plane circa 1939. Pursuit planes, transport planes, and bombers all moved at about that speed.

In Chicago, in 1939, they would have likely landed at Midway Airport. But the city looks too far away in the background for this to be Midway. They might have landed at a smaller airport out in the near suburbs to evade notice; this could conceivably be the Pal-Waukee Municipal Airport (in Wheeling).

In Supplement IV, I spent a little while discussing Bantu and if he was a magic-user or psionic. Here, he seems to be casting the spell Phantasmal Image. There is no equivalent psionic power in Supplement III, where the psionics rules are.

When I cataloged various aviator stunts for Hideouts & Hoodlums (for The Trophy Case no. 6), I neglected the Immelmann Turn. Putting it in simplest game mechanic terms, the Immelmann stunt would be used immediately after attacking, and it gets you into position to go first in the following turn (you cannot lose the initiative for that turn).

The Immelmann is a popular maneuver from my limited experience playing Dawn Patrol; I may have to investigate that game more deeply.

This is likely Salt Lake City Municipal Airport.

Black Ace makes his save vs. plot to see through Madame Doom's disguise.

I am not a fan of Clip Chance at Cliffside, and you'll probably never see it here again. But it's worth pointing out that Ray Snort has got to be one of the worst names in all of comicdom. If you meet a character in a comic book story with a name like that, it should send up all kinds of red flags that you're dealing with a bad guy. Names like that, they scar a young man...

Two things here: one, The Green Lizard is not a fearsome name for a master criminal; and two, hiding a radio in a globe is a great detail for hideout dressing.

Invisible Justice calls this a giant crocodile, but it really doesn't look as big as some other crocodiles we've seen in the comics -- this is a large one at best.

It seems IJ only has to shoot it twice to either kill it or chase it off. Indeed, there are a lot of examples in comics of really big, fearsome monsters going down in one or two hits. I'll continue to ignore that for H&H, to keep big battles longer and more exciting.

Invisible Justice looks for tracks, which is now an option for all classes in H&H 2nd ed.

Despite being an underground hideout in a swamp, it seems the hideout is nice and dry. For convenience, and RPG tradition, underground hideouts will seldom have to worry about the local water table.

Concealing the door inside a tree is a nice hideout feature, as is the alarm on the door.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)

Mystery Men Comics #1 - pt. 2

We're still on Wing Turner today, and that's because of the "large Coast Guard auto-gyro" pictured here. Now, it's true we do have helicopters that big (and bigger!) today, but I wanted to look up if there really were transport auto-gyros in 1939. Now, I didn't make an exhaustive search, but the biggest auto-gyro I've found so far is this two-seater, which is clearly much smaller. But if this auto-gyro seems fanciful and futuristic, that makes it perfect for a Hideouts & Hoodlums trophy item!

This is George Tuska's Zanzibar, probably my second favorite Golden Age Magic-User after Yarko the Great. While Yarko deals with metaphysical threats, Zanzibar is a street level M-U, dealing with hoodlums. That doesn't mean he isn't crazy powerful (and way too powerful to be dealing with hoodlums!), as demonstrated by him casting a 5th level Telekinesis spell here.

But Zanzibar must not have too many hit points, because here he is getting clocked with one blow!

Now, this page is slightly problematic. Traditionally, a Magic-User can't cast spells with his hands tied, yet Zanzibar casts Knock by just looking at the door. There are two explanations here: one is that every M-U Hero should get to choose which factor he can't cast his spells without -- seeing, moving hands, or talking -- or the other possibility is that Zanzibar is actually a psionic. I'm thinking some pared-down version of psionics might have to go in the basic book as an appendix at this point.

It is not clear at all how Zanzibar snaps his bonds. Brute strength?

Zanzibar casts Knock again (he had it prepared twice), Disguise Self (very clever use of a spell), and ...Hypnotic Pattern? We don't see a pattern, but we can't see how often his eyes were flashing.

This is the Waco Kid, coming into a new town where a gang has killed the sheriff and taken over. Now, normally, most players would get that this is a situation they're meant to fix. But every once in awhile, your players might need a little more motivational kick to get them going. So have the gang approach the Heroes and threaten to take their stuff. That'll motivate them fast!

Also, "Brazos Teale" has got to be the lamest name for a Western bad guy I've ever seen.

This is Inspector Bancroft of Scotland Yard. Now you, as the Editor, might draw a map and think it's a great clue, but it may not be as easy for your players to draw the same inferences from it. Maybe your players infer that the bomber was riding the morning train, and you only meant to clue them in that the bomber is a train enthusiast. You can, at that point: a) change the plot to fit their idea, b) let them pursue a false lead that goes nowhere (frustrating, but it happens!), c) have someone else present suggest the inference you planned (not recommended -- your players will stop trying to solve puzzles and wait for you to tell them the answer), or d) let them learn a new clue while pursuing their inference.

Sometimes you just have to let a stupid plan work. There's no reason why the conductor should implicate himself by filling out the questionnaire, when he knows he's been hand-writing all his threatening letters. But it's the best plan your players have come up with, so you sigh a little inside and roll a save vs. plot for the conductor to see if he falls for it.

This is The Blue Beetle -- yes, just a Mysteryman with goggles on in his very first appearance. There's a couple of points to take away from this:

If you're playing a Hero with a job, and you want to get sent home from work so you can do some heroing, just get hurt. One or two hp of damage, and you're on sick leave!

I'm not sure if this chemical that reveals scratched out numbers is a real thing -- so it seems like a trophy item!

There does seem to be some psychological benefit to being announced by your calling card (in this case, a scarab). I haven't decided yet if there should be a game mechanic benefit, but I'm leaning towards no...

This is a pretty clever, but chancy, strategy, and only works for new Heroes without a reputation for being honest. Claim you want to work with the bad guys, offer them information, then have someone working with you offer the bad guys the same info in an anonymous call to corroborate your story.

There is no game mechanic for having a reputation, though how much XP the Hero has could serve as the Editor's guide. A good rule of thumb might be that you have a reputation within 1 mile for every 100 xp you have.

The first wireless phone wasn't invented until the 1970s, so this is a pretty advanced trophy item!

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)

The Funnies #29

Alley Oop (not pictured here) doesn't name the dinosaur in the background this month, but it's very clearly a triceratops. For such a well-known dinosaur, I'm frankly surprised there have been so few triceratops in comic books so far. Triceratops was, of course, statted in Supplement I: National for Hideouts & Hoodlums.

This "rough and tumble" style of fighting might need some examining. Bat's leap attack reminds me of the panther attack we just saw in Gallant Knight the other day, and is clearly a trip/overbearing type attack. Bat's "claw yer eyes out" attack is a bit harder to quantify in H&H.  Do we need a blinding attack? I don't see most comic book characters fighting this dirty. For Bronc's turn, he kicks, and Bat hits his head. I would not add extra damage for Bat hitting his head; rather, this could be flavor text explaining a high result on the damage die.

I tell my players that they should bring supporting cast members with them so they'll earn more xp -- but the big secret is that's not really it. The reason I want them -- like Wash -- along is in case I expect the Hero to rescue the femme fatale in the next cell over and he surprises me by refusing. If it's really important to me for the plot that she be around, then I can have the supporting cast go free her!

Book III: Underworld & Metropolis Adventures had a list of metropolises and their challenge ratings, but that was just a broad overview -- if each metropolis was detailed gazetteer-style (like the treatment Duluth got in The Trophy Case v. 2 no. 1), there would be sections of each city with different challenge ratings. That would give you parts of town so tough they are "too tough for the cops".

Ben Webster and his pals have special glasses that allow them to see invisible things.

The missing links have a special kind of invisibility that makes you unable to hear them as well as see them. It's more like the psionic disicpline of invisibility that just makes people unable to notice you. Psionics were introduced in Supplement III: Better Quality and will probably not go in the 2nd ed. basic rulebook.

Here's a nice selection of spells being cast. We see Wall of Stone, Wall of Fire, a new spell -- Wall of Water -- and several castings of Dispel Magic.

I call your attention to The Crime Busters because it makes me question if a sub-machine gun couldn't be on the starting equipment list. It seems that people in the '30s only had to wait a few days to get one!

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)

Feature Funnies #16

Forgive the graininess and (this pun) quality, but I wanted to share at least a portion of this page of Joe Palooka so I could share this idea of a "sandbox" setting for Hideouts & Hoodlums.  For those not up on all their gaming terminology, a "sandbox" setting is an open setting prepared in advance for a campaign. The adventures are keyed to set locations or set events and are only encountered if the players choose to go that way. The whole sandbox is open to play.

Now, I am on record as hating the term "sandbox", but the idea itself still intrigues me. What would a sandbox setting for H&H be like?  Well, I imagine it could be a city-based campaign -- sort of a modern-day version of Citystate of the Invincible Overlord, with a high chance of certain types of encounters on certain streets.  So, if you want down this one street like Joe Palooka did, it would be a good place for running into wandering hoodlums.

The Gallant Knight fell in a pit trap with a slight twist, a secret door in the side that lets a "great" black panther into the pit. Great is a superlative that doesn't have any game mechanic value in H&H, but perhaps it could be considered a large panther (5 HD?).

Code breakers in real life require a lot of intelligence and skill. In comic books, as this installment of The Clock Strikes reminds us, the only ability you may need is being good at unscrambling words. Of course, this is a lot easier a code to spring on your players without making them hate you too much.

I haven't got to post a map in awhile. While Low Lake seems an intriguingly named local (why is it so low?), the real mystery seems to be why so many roads converge in such a lonely stretch of woods.

I would have to say, if I were the Editor running this game, that the Clock's player is being awfully reckless and doesn't care if his Hero lives or dies. While I should probably have a good long talk with him about why he's so unhappy with the campaign after this session, in this instance I would forget about trying to computate how many dice of damage to roll based on the speed of the cars, minus the amount of dice the cars would absorb, and just have all occupants save vs. science to jump out in time or die.

In this installment of Espionage is the debut of Black X's manservant, Batu. As I discussed in Supplement IV: Captains, Magicians, and Incredible Men, Batu is a good candidate for having psionics, and definitely the first non-Magic-User psionic in comic books.

I've shown pit traps before that combine with flooding traps, but they usually imply some complex plumbing going on behind the scenes to flood the pit. Here we see the au natural option of dumping your foes into a subterranean cavern that floods with tide water. Of course, then the time of day makes a big difference in how dangerous this trap is.

I'll spare you the whole story, as it's not very good, but the set-up here is the old chestnut of the voice in the statue talking to the gullible natives and making them give over their treasure. The wrinkle here is that there's actually a bit of a hideout here -- a concealed cave that connects to a cabin, with a tunnel that leads under the cabin and back to the big hollow totem, which has a secret door entrance in it.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)