Mystic Comics #2 - pt. 3

Let's resume with Dynamic Man, just as DM is surprised by a headblow that knocks him out for 1 whole hour. When he comes to, he's in one of those cliche deathtraps where the spiked walls are closing in on him. Rather than fretting, he simply wrecks his way through the ceiling and escapes. This is a problem I have in Hideouts & Hoodlums, where it is hard to stick superheroes in deathtraps if they can just wreck their way out, but I'm glad that the earliest superhero writers seemed to be grappling with this problem too.

It's important for mobsters to leave clues behind in their desk drawers. I'm amused that the ship they plan to sabotage is called the Batavia, as there's a town near here called that. It's odd, though, that Dr. Vee goes along personally to sabotage the Batavia, but stayed in his hideout when the train was to be sabotaged. Maybe Vee just doesn't like trains?

One punch from Dynamic Man sends Vee flying off the ship and, it appears, Vee goes sailing pretty far through the air. We're told he survived, but it's hard to imagine an old man being able to take that kind of punishment. To have punched him so far, DM must have been using the power Super Punch power, which means Dynamic Man has access to a 4th level power. 

Lastly, I think it's interesting that DM loses interest once the master criminal is defeated and lets the police mop up the lesser spies.

Space Rangers is set in the year 2300 and it's a future where just about everyone has spacecraft that you can crisscross the solar system in and space rangers dress like 1940 police officers. New elements have been discovered, and "plinium" ore is the "only substitute for radium" -- which is a really unusual thing to say. Has all of the radium in the solar system been used up by 2300? This is a pretty forward thinking sci fi strip if it's thinking about the depletion of natural resources already in 1940. 

Space rangers' ships can travel from Earth to Mercury in two days, and they need to find the space bandit Black Hawk. It's hard to take Black Hawk seriously since he wears pointed shoes and what looks like a bathrobe. 

The rangers, Bob and Nibbs, are overwhelmed by at least 11 bandits, probably more. For some reason, they don't have a weapon more hi-tech than wooden clubs among them (even for missile weapons all they have is wooden clubs!), but that's okay because Bob and Nibbs have lost their guns, somehow, between panels -- but we're reminded twice that they lost them! We're left to imagine what their handguns could do, but the weapons on board the spaceships can paralyze and disintegrate. 

And it's not just weapons that are low tech on Mercury; once they captured Bob and Nibbs, the two rangers are tied up with simple hemp rope. And they don't even tie good knots!

Moving on to the next feature, that's Blue Blaze, the super hi-tech zombie. When I saw this scenario was about sabotage at an anthracite mine I was expecting something hi-tech, but that's just a fancy word for hard coal. The hi-tech comes in Blue Blaze's new car, a "supercharged speedster capable of unlimited speed." Infinite is awful fast for a Movement rate, though comic book captions are notorious for hyperbole.

Reaching the mine super fast, almost like he's teleported there (hmm...), Blue Blaze searches the wreckage and his "superior knowledge of science" helps him identify bomb parts, which sounds like a successful Intelligence check to me.

(Read in Marvel Masterworks: Mystic Comics Vol. 1)

Amazing Mystery Funnies #18 - pt. 2

We're still looking at Jon Linton's adventures in the future; a future where men wear robes and women wear short skirts.

It seems like a huge design flaw that Satan Rex's atomic power plant is controlled by two exposed electrodes. I was going to say the place should also have some fail-safes in place, but I suppose the power shutdown is a fail-safe, preventing something worse like a meltdown.

I don't think any 1940 writers knew about meltdowns yet...and yet, Harry Campbell did seem to have more knowledge of science than your average comic book writer of the time, so...?

I just complimented Campbell for his smarts, but there seems to be a glaring mistake here; two pages back, Jon learned the systems would need 30 minutes to reboot, and here the "wall of force" is rebooting well before then. Of course, maybe Satan was smart enough to have a back-up system kick in for the force wall.

It's interesting that Campbell calls it a wall of force and not the more common term, force field (in use in science fiction going back to 1920!). Wall of Force is, of course, a magic-user spell as well.

The second to last panel spells out that the Scientist class normally takes a week of downtime to invent something, but has a chance to kit-bash something in just a day.

The Mount Wilson Observatory telescope would be the largest in the world until 1949. I'm not sure where the "6,000 billion million miles" came from, but researchers could see nebulae over 5 trillion miles away.

The "reveal houses on the moon, if there are any" is as optimistic as telepathic television-phones.

Bill and Davey is an odd duck, a comic strip coming from a minor league syndicate that was picked up by both Dell and Centaur (though neither for long). It's hard to see what they saw in it -- unless they just picked it up cheap.

There were headhunters, and cannibals as well, on the Solomon Islands, so while the depiction of Ajax might seem racist, the description isn't. 

This is Tippy Taylor on Fantasy Isle, a non-subtle rip-off of Swift's Lilliput. This scenario should be a cakewalk for even a class-less half-pint; since I'm still working on the assumption that 1 hit point represents roughly 30 lbs. of mass, and a 6" tall person would weigh less than an ounce, then Lilliputians...or Fantasy Islanders don't even come close to having a full hit point, or being able to do any damage themselves.

The tank poses more of a threat, even scaled to tiny size. Since it's the size of a gun, I would allow it to do a full 1-6 points of damage if it shot Tippy in the leg.

That must be a 3' high jump by Tippy. Impressive! 

This is John Degen, Private Detective, from a one-shot called "The Fiend of Halwith Hall." Shadowing someone, by car, on a country road, should be a basic skill check.

John is smart to head straight to the cellar, as most of the good stuff in a hideout is underground.

John has a skeleton key, a minor trophy item that gives him a bonus to skill checks when opening locked doors.

Here we have a mad scientist with the emphasis on mad. Like many mad scientists, he wants to do a brain transplant. Now, he might be just a raving loon, or maybe he has the science to do it; we never do find out.

Two wolves are unusual pets for a mad scientist.

The pit trap in the driveway is very unusual. It also doesn't make a lot of sense, since the car was parked when John goes inside, and is in the pit trap after he gets out. Maybe it took a long time for the weight of the car to activate the trap?

That's a lot of blood loss, to make the gunpowder too wet to burn. The Hideouts & Hoodlums rules don't account for blood loss and there's no way to make yourself bleed faster to foil traps.

Wow, that is one dark ending. It's rare for Heroes in comics to fail, but John not only failed to save this poor guy, but we find out just what horrible fate befell him.

Lastly, we're going to look at a verbose page of Larry Kane, investigating "The Ghost of Kirkwood." There's a pretty good set-up for a haunted house scenario here, with lots of rumors being supplied on this page.

My curiosity has been aroused too, but it's late and I'll read the rest next time!

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Science Comics #1 - pt. 2

It's likely that Electro is expending the new power, Light, again. The light generated by the power can be set motionless and does not need to follow the superhero. Plus, in rest turns, the light spell will likely last for many hours.

Restoring power to the power plant, though...that might be a different power entirely. The 5th-level power Control Electricity (from Supplement I: National) might be able to cause this effect, at the Editor's discretion. Or maybe it's some lower level power, like "Recharge."

Then he hits five spies with a lightning bolt. Note the lightning bolt does not appear to need to emerge in a straight line from him, but strikes in a straight line perpendicular to him, passing through the conveniently lined up spies.

There's that Recharge power again? We also need a power that duplicates the effect of those rayguns we keep seeing that stall all mechanical engines. Maybe Stall Motor can affect one plane per level of the superhero?

===
It should come as no shock that there is no town of Summerville within 20 miles of Washington, D.C., though there is a Springfield, Virginia, and a Silver Spring, Maryland, both representing a close season.

===

Electro uses wrecking things on the door. He does not need to use the Wreck at Range power to shoot electricity at the door; since there would be nothing stopping him from stepping up to the door, the ray emanating from his forehead is pure flavor text.

===
Since it is unlikely that a "little cottage" has a "huge, central hall" in it, it seems to be implied that Electro is exploring an underground hideout, which is very much in keeping with our game.

I'm not sure how this switch is going to cripple five dams in different locations all at the same time. Maybe it will signal saboteurs in each area?

===
Electro uses Hold Person and then Protection from Missiles, followed by what appears to be a higher-level version of Hold Person (Hold Person II?) that can paralyze up to six people -- although, since he's able to compel them to answer questions, this is more like the spell Hypnotic Pattern.

And here Electro seems to be casting Cure Light Wounds -- Electro is actually a Magic-User/Superhero (which explains how he had Light prepared before).

This power was something I already needed to work on for my upcoming high-level campaign, because Green Lantern also uses this Mass Flight power (by 1950, anyway). Bonus content follows:

Spells

Seventh Level

Mass Flight: The magic-user can move in any direction through the air at a movement speed of 192 (93 through water), and can by the same power move up to 1,100 lbs. of cargo with at the same speed, or up to six other people if they remain motionless (either willingly or forced into motionless, say by a Hold Person spell). Anyone else can try to opt out of being transported by making a saving throw vs. spells, but any modified saving roll still less than 20 results in the victim being moved 10-40’ per number of the result below 20 (falling damage may ensue). Duration: 1 turn per 2 levels. Examples: Science Comics #1, All-Star Comics #52.

So now the last issue is, how many brevet ranks is Electro boosted? Because he's clearly not a 1st level Hero. He must be an 8th level Superhero/15th level Magic-User (that's some lop-sided XP distribution!).  So, not as ridiculously powerful as Stardust, but still brokenly powerful, and not one campaign friendly.

===

Moving on quickly now, we check in on the next feature, Cosmic Carson.

And I share this page, not because the idea of aliens populating our solar system is that new -- and definitely not because "Fang Men of Jupiter" are so new they deserve statting -- but I did want to point out another staple of the early science fiction genre, that imagined there would be unique elements on other

worlds -- unique elements which can serve as treasure, or power trophy devices.

Although visually exciting to see rocket ships blasting out of the roof of a building, one has to wonder about the grasp of science that would lead someone to think this would not blast the whole building into scrap.

Coupled with this is either the inability or the patience to deal with the vast size of space. Even if the ship traveling from Mars to Earth was passing by at the upper edge of the atmosphere, it would take these rocket ships so long to reach it that it would probably pass them by -- unless we imagine some fantasy propellant that is not only non-destructive, but faster than any modern mode of travel known to us.

And I haven't even brought up yet -- where is this pirate base?

surely not on Jupiter, or it wouldn't be anywhere near the shipping lane between Earth and Mars. Maybe it's based on an asteroid...?

I share this page mainly for the overhead map showing us the layout of the pirate base, as well as demonstrating the VTOL capabilities of the pirate rockets.

Also, that these reinforcements are able to reach the battle in the span of combat turns just reinforces how fantastically fast they must be.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Planet Comics #1 - pt. 1

Fiction House debuted three new titles this month of January 1940, and Planet Comics was the third of them.  Here is Flint Baker, by Dick Briefer.  Flint is a scientist who has created a rocketship capable of reaching Mars, something that did not happen in real life until 1964, and never with a manned craft yet.

I include this page because, by counting the portholes, we may be able to estimate the length of this Mars rocket. If each porthole represents a 10' wide room, and the portholes cover just under half the length of the ship, then I'd guess that is 220' in total length, or if I initially misjudged the perspective and that is more like the top one-third of the ship, then we're looking at 300' in total length.

Eight miles per second may seem fast, but it is just 20% over escape velocity and that would take 136 days to reach Mars. Since the story tells us they reach Mars in just a few weeks, it seems the ship picked up considerable speed en route.

The ship swerves? Is it on autopilot?

Flint, product of his times that he is, is immediately placated by a little "accidental" chest rubbing. Oh, Flint!

Flint must be listening to these stories and thinking, "Okay, that sounds plausible...that sounds plausible...what the--?" Note the range on that hypnotism; while hypnotism is now treated as a skill anyone can try in second edition Hideouts & Hoodlums, it is meant for short range. Nothing short of a Charm Person spell works that well in H&H.

I just have to say here, the suspense might be thrown off by the frantic pace of this story, but this suspenseful plot development is genius. What a hook!

This is clearly a rocket car. I'm not sure how Flint knew Mars' terrain would be flat enough to warrant a rocket car instead of, oh, an all-terrain vehicle. Note how Martian rocket cars are even faster than Flint's rocket car.

Perspective makes the Martian city look gigantic, though counting windows, the tallest building may be no more than 19 stories tall.

Everyone who's read John Carter knows that a Martian dog is a calot, but this creature resembles more closely an Asian fu lion. It looks big, but it's hard to say how big it is. I'm guessing it would have at least 3 Hit Dice.

Speaking of John Carter, this goofy-looking dark side Martian looks like it could have came from one of Edgar Rice Burrough's later books. Dark side Martians possess advanced technology, which is pretty remarkable considering they have neither hands nor arms.

They do have prehensile tails, which I guess they use to grasp the controls in their planes. At first they look pretty puny, as if they would only have 1 Hit Dice. But they are also capable of fantastic leaps. If they are truly leaping over the buildings in the city, then they can leap 100-200'. That makes me think they are a lot tougher than they look, maybe 3-4 Hit Dice.

Here, Sarko has the upper hand after a grappling exchange with Flint (indeed, choke hold is one of the results on the grappling results table). On the following turn, Sarko's intention is to switch to shooting at point blank range, and if he won initiative he would have enjoyed a +2 bonus to hit because Flint was still prone. Instead, he loses initiative and gets shot in the back. Good thing Harry didn't miss Sarko, as he would have had to roll again to see if he hit Flint!

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)

Blue Ribbon Comics #1

This was the very first issue from MLJ, later known as Archie Comics. It was published by them, but likely not produced in-house; it contains some characters that had already been published by Centaur that Centaur apparently didn't own. In both cases, the producing company was likely Chesler.

Now, with that bit of explanation out of the way, we find ourselves reading Dan Hastings again after a short respite. Dan Hastings is a pretty obvious Buck Rogers rip-off. Space opera, without the opera, and even light on the space. Indeed, the initial plot hook about hijackers doesn't need to take place in space at all.

What do we get here for hi-tech? We have some kind of rocket ships, an invisibility field generator, and an "ultra-scope." I can't even figure out what the ultra-scope is supposed to be doing. Is it detecting the invisibility field? Is it allowing them to see the space freighter before it disappears?

It's also telling that the first two items are not only already statted for Hideouts & Hoodlums, but have been already seen in stories set in the 1930s. So the future is only hi-tech in its trappings.

More examples of how wussy guards are in H&H.

Another example of 1930s tech -- an electric eye triggers a recorded message that serves as an alarm. You'd think a louder whistle or siren would work better, but okay...

Another handheld paralysis gun -- just like we just recently saw getting used against Shock Gibson back in the "present."

More evidence that falling damage is seldom fatal. Even a pit so deep they call it the "ghastly living tomb" isn't deep enough to kill him.

The tactic about using a blast gun to propel himself into the air in low gravity is a clever one. This is also the first time we've seen this referred to as a rocket blast gun. I don't know how much damage to assign to a rocket blast gun -- maybe 3-18? It doesn't look that impressive, despite the cool name.

I laughed out loud at this and have to share it. Okay, this space-warp raygun is powerful enough that it's going to plunge the Moon into the Earth and destroy them both. But Dr. Carter stops it -- by loosening a wire with his foot.

It's always a good idea for your boss villain to have an escape route handy.

This cowboy hero is called Buck Stacey -- which is interesting, because that makes him sound like a Buck Rogers rip-off. But Buck Stacey is pretty smart, or pretty lucky -- here, he seems to easily recognize a masked man by his voice, despite the fact that the conventions of every comic book genre say it should not be so easy.

These awful little creatures are called Sugar, Honey & Huggin. I am not putting bear traps on the starting equipment list because I don't like to think of Heroes using them. I could see me using them as traps for Heroes, however. Wait -- does that make me an awful little creature?

Fifty pounds of radioactive quartz was worth $10 million?? Remind me never to make 50 lbs. of radioactive quartz available as a trophy!

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Mystery Men Comics #3 - pt. 1

I've talked before on this blog about feeling free -- as many Golden Age comic book writers did -- to mine classic literature for story ideas. Here, The Green Mask borrows heavily from Oliver Twist.

The Green Mask seems to "suddenly appear". It is likely that he merely achieved surprise when encountering them, though he might have used the move silently skill to sneak up on them, or even (in 2nd edition) burned a stunt to perform it extra well.

"Talk up!" seems to have been a common way of saying "Speak up!" back in 1939.

More evidence of 1) how easy it needs to be for Heroes to climb. If there's less than a 50% chance of scaling nine stories to that window, then Green Mask here -- who can't be higher than 2nd level, tops -- would find this a very dangerous fall. And 2) it's ridiculously easy to knock someone out from behind. I have added a combat rule about this for 2nd edition, but it's only good during a surprise attack, not during regular combat.

Okay, now that's just silly. Pushing their guns into their chins is just going to make them look at you funny, not knock them out. Sometimes players get bored with their normal combat options and try new things like this. Well, not exactly like this, but it reminds me of the old "Can I stab him with my arrow instead of shooting it?" question.

I've talked about this before on the blog too, weapons that aren't really weapons, and having them do 1-3 points of damage instead of a full die.

Where did that air pocket come from? A freebie from the Editor when the player seemed stuck? A random encounter? The player asking for something to happen, and using asking the Editor to allow the save vs. plot mechanic to determine if it happens?

Also note the handwritten letter from Green Mask, now in police custody. Golden Age Heroes don't have to worry about anyone being able to trace their identity from even fairly obvious clues.

It's amazing how prescient Dick Briefer was about watches being able to make phone calls, and then how goofy he was with the cone-shaped planet. Don't be afraid to mix stuff we know now makes sense with stuff that we know now is just plain crazy talk.

I'm sharing this page because I love that crazy ship design. Spaceships designed like giant shovels -- why not? It reminds me of TSR's Spelljammer setting. I wonder if H&H will ever have a supplement like that someday...

Although the last panel calls those things "creatures", the next page reveals them to be more spaceships. Perfect Spelljammer fodder.

Yeah, don't worry, players, I'm not including a 150' giant in the 2nd ed. basic book. The story only ever calls it a "beast" or a "monster".  I'd probably call it something like a "gargantuan" to distinguish it from a normal giant.

Chen Chang's men are consistently called bandits in this installment of Chen Chang, but stat-wise they seem more like nomads.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)

Mystery Men Comics #2 - pt. 1

We finally reached September 1939! And Mystery Men Comics #2!

We meet up with The Green Mask again, this time involved in a tong war. Tong wars apparently were real things, plaguing New York and Chicago into the 1930s, so they seem to be much on the mind of comic book writers even years later.

The Fu Manchu-like villain this time is called San Sin and, luckily, Green Mask seems to know exactly where San Sin is headquartered as if there was a sign out front. And, amazingly, the very first Chinaman Green Mask points a gun at just happens to know exactly where San Sin is and leads him there.

After that, things get a little more interesting. Sure, pit traps are old hat already, but San Sin doesn't try to flood it, or let in a crocodile, or have the walls close in -- he plans to just hold Green Mask there until he starves or gives up.

Green Mask playing along seems, at first, to be a cheap trick to stretch out the story, but the Green Mask has information we were lacking, that San Sin is a smuggler. Green Mask is playing along in order to be led to the people San Sin is getting his contraband from.

How long was Green Mask staking out this hideout before the adventure started? Somehow he knows even the hidden entrances to this place, even though no one ever showed him.

Hostage-taking can lead to some tough problem-solving situations for players to role-play through.

It's the futuristic year 2000!  Rex Dexter wants to go to the planet Capris -- Capris? Okay, I can buy that maybe people in the "future" would know of planets the rest of us didn't know about, but how does Rex from 1939 know about this radium-rich planet? Reading travel brochures?

The planet Capris looks an awful lot like Saturn there. Is it just the future name for Saturn? Then again, they're clearly walking on a planet with ground, so they're not visiting a gas giant like Saturn. Maybe Capris is one of Saturn's moons renamed then? Most likely I'm over-thinking this.

A planet so radioactive that it isn't safe to come within 1,000 miles of it -- that seems at least possible.

The Capris-Men (Caprisians?) are some freaky-looking aliens; I'm thinking I would give them 5 Hit Dice. Wilder yet is putting your Heroes in a scenario where they lose if they're stripped naked.

I like how, in the year 2000, we have magnetic ships that can make it from Earth to Saturn (maybe Saturn?) in four days, but men still wear top hats. It's true what they say, men's clothes never go out of fashion!

"I have a vision...of using interstellar tugboats to haul a planet-sized mass within the length of four of the Moon's orbits from Earth, and watch the gravitational pull tear Earth apart." What a Charisma score he must have to make the nations of the world go along with this!

This is from Billy Bounce, and it demonstrates what creative uses pepper and a fountain pen can be put to, so long as your Editor allows it. In some ways, this is no more ridiculous than pulling planets into Earth's orbit...

Chen Chang has thugs working for him. Given they have 2 Hit Dice, that might explain how they are able to pitch men over the railing so easily.

If I haven't said so before, I really like the artwork on Chen Chang...

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus)