All-American Comics #9-10

Continuing #9...

In Hop Harrigan...we have to talk about Gerry. Because either a retcon has made her older, or there was a lot less stigma on relationships with underaged girls back in 1940. We've already seen Gerry making out with Hop, but Hop seems to be 17 and Gerry seems to be 14, so that's not quite so bad. But in this installment, an older poet starts hitting on Gerry.  Hop doesn't like it -- but only because Hop doesn't like poets, not because the man is clearly over 18.

Gerry also gives a sick patient iodoform to drink. Today, you only give a patient iodoform for minor skin diseases, and this man is bandaged like he was hurt in accident -- but circa 1940, iodoform would have been used for more forms of treatment.

And, really, who doesn't like poets?

A page of Believe It or Not about Rob Roy McGregor claims that the term blackmail was coined because of the black armor McGregor's clan wore -- which sounds pretty cool, but isn't true; "mail" in this sense means "payment agreed on," with "black" being used a negative connotation.

Adventures in the Unknown has an interesting take on time travel; as it feels like physical motion to those experiencing it, and going back in time feels like falling downwards (of course, actual time travel over the span of 1 million years would also have to involve space travel, because the Earth has moved a considerable distance during that time). And it is not instantaneous or near-instantaneous travel; it is a process that moves them through 1,000 years a minute, so traveling 1 million will take them approximately "36 hours" (though I think Ted's math is off; by my count it would be 16 hours).

Once in the past, the strip falls into the fallacies of many time travel adventures, mixing dinosaurs (from the late Jurassic no less, which was a whole 144 million years earlier) with humans. The first things they spot are a pterodactyl and a brontosaur, though to be fair they also hear a non-anachronistic saber-tooth tiger. In a scene that makes little sense, they shoot and kill the brontosaur for getting too close to Ted. Lastly, they meet a group of nine early humans with spears. Knowing these guys, these early humans are toast.

The strip takes pains to detail what equipment they brought on their expedition -- rifles, automatic pistols, field glasses, matches, axes, knives, cans of food (revealed later) and a movie camera -- but no mention of drinkable water. They also bring a large square of white canvas which they wisely use to mark where they left the time machine.

And, finally, catching us up to the "present" of January 1940. Issue #10...

Red, White, and Blue finally confront their first mad scientist in an adventure that takes place a few months earlier, in the Fall of 1939. It even takes us away from exotic locations to New York City, which will shortly become the hub of all superhero activities, and features the Empire State Building. The Master has created an electrical forcefield around the entire city of Manhattan. Cars are destroyed when they try to leave and the Master threatens to destroy the city if anyone tries to come in.

We also learn that, although "Blooey" and "Whitey" are nicknames, Red is not a nickname; his real name is Red Dugan and his nickname is actually "Smarty."  We learn that Doris West has the hots for Red and cries when she manipulates him into what seems to be a suicide mission to save New York.

Doris claims New York City has 7 million citizens; it actually had 7.5 million, but the 1940 Census would not have come out yet so Doris would not know that. It is also possible that the electrical field failed to extend around all five boroughs.

Red beats the forcefield by flying through on a parachute with no metal parts, but he's not done yet. The Master has an army of over a thousand Nazis and Nazi sympathizers working for him to control the populace. Further, the Master's electric fields can roast an entire city block -- and he has, killing men, women, and children to prove his power. Doris, Blooey, and Whitey join him by using a rowboat with no metal parts.

Red is SO Lawful that, when a clerk tells him he can't see the mayor, he just leaves.

(Read at fullcomic.pro)

Jumbo Comics #10

It finally happened!  Jumbo Comics is now in color!

Sheena benefits from color, but the lion benefits from a narrator describing his actions as if it had human-level intelligence. It's a tradition going back at least as far as Tarzan to ascribe animals with names, motives, and cognitive thought. But is that fair to your players? It's up to each Editor to decide how smart animals and mobsters are in their games; Hideouts & Hoodlums 2nd edition will not be including an Intelligence stat for mobster types.

That's a weird muzzle on that cat, but I suspect that's supposed to be a leopard. Leopards are statted as cougars in H&H.

This leopard's hide, incidentally, becomes the swimsuit-like outfit that Sheena wears for the rest of her run (it must be machine washable).

This is Stuart Taylor in Weird Stories of the Supernatural, and if that long title doesn't sound familiar, this was The Diary of Dr. Hayward. Dr. Hayward had long since become supporting cast to Stuart in the title. Unresolved is their imprisonment by Ali Pasha, who was forcing Stuart to test his time travel machine for him; now all the good guys seem to be free to time travel on their own without worries.

Here, they are 20,000 years in the past, where they are running afoul of ape-men. Ape-men will be statted in 2nd ed. Here we see ape-men can be good archers.

A tyrannosaurus rex? Really? That looks more like a diplodicus to me. But my real issue is the tiger-man. I already have ape-men and ant-men -- do I need a different entry for every animal-headed man variant that comes along? Or do I need to drag out the beast-man from 1st ed. (found only in one issue of The Trophy Case and pretty much abandoned after that) and fold all of these into that?

It's pretty cool how the tiger-men can control tigers like that. They also seem to prefer human queens. Or are there no female tiger-men? This could get weird...

Still, I like the detail here, of this prehistoric setting. Not sure if tiger-men will survive to the present day, but maybe I'll find out as the story progresses.

I think these are the first bolas I've seen in comics! I may have to include them in the 2nd ed. rules now, alongside lariats.

Hawk of the Seas has now been shortened to The Hawk. Here we get a map and a really good sense of place. But is that any surprise, coming from the Eisner shop?

ZX-5 is looking particularly good in an Eisner-like way this month. Here we have a lonely castle in the middle of a really big lake. We also can see some of the layout of the castle, and how big and empty the rooms are.

More trouble with distinguishing nobles from spies. And are female spies also vamps?

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Mystery Men Comics #2 - pt. 2

Richard Kendall is getting his butt kicked by Chen Chang's men, in part, because they have a +1 height advantage bonus to hit while on horseback.

I thought it was refreshing to see a Dragon Lady-like villainess here, not falling for the Hero ala Terry and the Pirates.

 The narrator says Richard "missed", but it appears that he tried to grapple, Chen got the upper hand, and flipped Richard instead. I've finally worked out what I think is a fairly elegant, one-table grappling system that would allow for those results within 1 turn.

Again I have to question the narrator; there is no real reason for Chen to "stumble", either game mechanics-wise or even visually explained in the story. More likely, Richard grabs Chen successfully this time and throws him so hard that he lands without his coat!

It does seem odd that stopping to open secret doors never gives Richard a chance to catch up during this chase through a hideout, but maybe Chen is making better skill checks to pick up speed in the long stretches (this is a new game mechanic from 2nd ed.!).

Wing Turner, Air Detective, executes a power dive to give him an advantage in this aerial dogfight. This is actually a good example of a stunt from 1st ed. that isn't translating well into 2nd ed's skill system. Aerial combat will probably need more complex rules that will have to wait for the Advanced Hideouts & Hoodlums game.

Normally I like Zanzibar the Magician, but this story is just plain loopy. When a famous statue goes missing, instead of looking for it...Zanzibar goes back in time to get the statue from the past? Way to mess with all of time and space, Zanzibar!  Not to mention that a time travel spell that lets one go back over 2,000 years is super high-level.

"Hey, I'm in ancient Greece! I might as well visit the most powerful of the Greek gods while I'm here!"

What interests me is the serpent dragon guarding Zeus' house.

We don't get to see what it can do because Zanzibar blows it up with a single spell on the next page, but the serpent dragon looks huge and must have had a good chunk of Hit Dice.

And then thinks get even wackier! Hercules is polymorphed into a bird. Zanzibar takes on Zeus in a wrestling match, and is winning. I'm having a very hard time believing these are the actual gods of myth, and not some guys using the same names.

Zeus doesn't appear to have been petrified into stone, so I'm guessing this is Hold Person. Zanzibar releases the manacles with a Knock spell. But then he...takes Venus (actually Aphrodite, if this is Greece) into the future...to replace the missing statue? Is she going to turn into a statue as soon as she reaches the future, to close up the time paradox Zanzibar is creating? Way to be a total jerk, Zanzibar!

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus)

Detective Comics #24

In Spy, preserving the U.S. neutrality is crucial to the mission.   Bart and Sally get caught and wind up treading water in the middle of the ocean. How long they can tread water is not clear by the Hideouts & Hoodlums rules. Luckily it didn't come up, because a U.S. submarine just happens by and picks them up. But how? Is the submarine just a wandering encounter, a planned encounter, or did the Editor fudge and make it happen to save them?

Crime Never Pays is filler material. It talks about how dental work is nearly as reliable at identifying bodies as fingerprints by 1939.  There's a good tip about how hoodlums often keep the same nicknames even when they're using aliases. There's also a claim that the FBI convicts 98% of everyone they bring to trial.

In The Mysterious Doctor Fu Manchu, I learn that Fu Manchu-types have a paralyzing gaze!

Bruce Nelson gets in a shootout with a thug.

The only installment I plan to talk about from this issue is Slam Bradley, which still takes place in 2 billion AD. Jerry Siegel makes some remarkable predictions here. One is uplifted animals that can walk and talk like humans, a common science fiction staple today, and two is communicators sewn into shirts that you just press to activate, such as seen decades later in Star Trek: the Next Generation. Jerry also wisely predicts that our modern languages would be unintelligible that far into the future, but luckily people wear thought translators (I guess so they don't have to wear out their lips with talking?).

Another curious feature in the future, which could be a good trick to feature in a mad scientist's hideout, is a room that has to be entered from above. If you fall through the room, you fall slowly, as if through a "jelly-like substance". It isn't clear if there's really a column of jelly there, or if the anti-gravity effect just feels like moving through jelly, but it's an interesting detail regardless.

Slam fights a monster that seems to be ogre-sized, with metal claws. His opponent also seems to have the Super-Tough Skin power activated!

In the far distant future, death is reversible and Shorty is brought back to life as a routine matter. Heroes with access to a time machine could essentially be immortal, going into the far future whenever they need to be resurrected.

One of Siegel's misfires on future tech is motorized propeller shoes that let people walk on air. But - ow! -- what if one of your legs brushed against the other? Sounds like 1-6 points of damage to me, followed by falling damage.

(Issue read here)

Detective Comics #23

Speed Saunders investigates a murder committed with a sharpened ski-stick that can be thrown like a javelin. Speed reveals that it has a range of 50', so a javelin would too.

Larry Steele, Private Detective, is hit with a blackjack and knocked out for 20 minutes, after which he wakes up.

The Crimson Avenger runs afoul of zombies in this issue; zombies made by science instead of magic. The science zombies are called "mechanical men" and "zombis", and are driven around by two hoodlums who work for a mad scientist. The scientist has a "giant" king cobra that the zombis are worship (though why they would worship the snake if they were mindless eludes me), but it's not really that giant -- large, maybe. It's also worth noting that they can be fooled by disguises, as The Crimson disguises himself as a zombie and successfully moves among them (definitely calls for a save vs. plot, that trick).

The Crimson also hides in shadows and the zombis are unable to spot him.

Bruce Nelson goes back to his alma mater of Princely University, clearly a stand-in for Princeton. He stops a murder from happening with a blowgun.

Speaking of stand-ins, Jerry Siegel likes to kill off stand-ins for famous people. In Spy, a senator is murdered (no indication as to which, but there's only 100 of them), and then a famous aviator who sure seems to be Charles Lindbergh is killed. The murderer is a mad scientist who has his hunchbacked assistant swap out buttons on the victims' clothes with buttons containing a radio receiver. The receiver buttons trigger heart attacks in the victims, apparently over long distances. the whole set-up is a pretty dangerous trophy item to put into the Heroes' hands.

The assistant, Rutsky, is quite capable. He climbs a tree with cat-like grace, sneaks up on a trained spy like Bart Regan, and almost throttles Bart to death with his bare hands. Maybe assistant should be a mobster type!

To find out where Dr. LaForge is, Bart just has to call the local newspaper office and talk to someone in the research department. The paper has on file what country Dr. LaForge is visiting from and where he's staying. Newspapers sure used to have generous budgets for research departments!

Cosmo, the Phantom of Disguise, has to shoot the head off a cobra to save someone. I'm as yet unsure if I need to distinguish between varieties of poisonous snakes, stat-wise, in 2nd edition, other than perhaps the large/huge/giant distinctions.

Slam Bradley and Shorty explore the distant future of 2 billion AD with the help of a scientist with a time machine (specifically a "time-flier" -- it looks like a plane, but it moves through time instead of space).  The time machine seems to work an awful lot like Wells' The Time Machine, down to history playing out at super-fast speed through a view screen.  Something else to point out is that time machines must be remarkably easy to make; in comic books, a single professor working alone is often responsible for creating them.

It's perhaps easier to send your time-traveling Heroes to the ridiculously distant future so it doesn't have to even resemble the present world anymore. But there's a danger of too powerful hi-tech trophies winding up in the Heroes' hands in any future scenario, as well as the temptation to find out knowledge of the future the Heroes can exploit to their advantage.

The future is sure different in some ways, with a metal sun in the sky shedding green light, and a mysterious body orbiting the artificial sun. Cities surrounded by a screen of death rays. There's still jungles in the future, and wild leopards in them, but if the time-flier hasn't moved through space, then the jungle is at the same latitude as New York City. Anticipating global warming...?

Shades of Gamma World, the future is ruled by humans, living with uplifted/mutant bird-men and uplifted/mutant plant-men!  They live on a monarchical society once again, answering to a prince. The weapons of the future consist of odder fare than Laser guns. They use pipes that can paralyze others with sound, or living missiles -- plants that can dodge in mid-air and spray poison gas.

(Issue read at Read Comics)

New Comics #1

We're at the end 1935 and New Comics #1!  I don't have direct access to it, but if this source is trustworthy then I know something of its contents.

In the "Vikings" historical serial a holy symbol of Odin is able to turn wolves away.  Undead turning was left out of the Hideouts & Hoodlums rules, or rather the game mechanic became the basis of the Superhero's wrecking things ability. Undead turning will be making a comeback as an optional rule in the next edition and, with the magic trophy item Holy Symbol of Odin, it will work on wolves as it does here.

There is also Oliver Weed, inventor of the first hi-tech time machine originating in the comic books.  I don't have any details yet on how that time machine operates, but I hope to by the time I cover New Comics #2!

Ah, that was then, but this is now!  I finally have access to this issue, thanks to the Comic Book Archives website.  And I can say, first and foremost, that I misinterpreted what I had read about the Vikings. It was not a physical symbol that was being referred to, but a manifestation or sign of Odin's will.  See for yourself --  

More interesting is this page from "Wing" Walker, the first aerial dogfight drawn for comic books.  Here, we see the Japanese Aviators use the stunt Shoot Gas Tank, and Wing using the stunt Dead Stick to fool them into thinking he's about to crash.

This page of Cap'n Spinniker features the first submarine and the first whale made for the comic books.  Submarines (or at least small ones, like this) were statted for H&H in Supplement I: National.  I never did bother statting whales, though.  When, I thought, would you ever wind up in a fight with a whale?  Well, when they're attacking your submarine, obviously. 

However, sperm whales are ridiculously massive for a game where the mechanics do not scale up exponentially.  Doing a quick combination of number crunching and guesstimating, for a 56+ ton animal, I figure a whale would have 70 Hit Dice, with each Hit Die being rolled on d20s!  Best to run away when you see a whale coming...

I also seem to have been wrong about The Strange Adventures of Mr. Weed.  Mr. Weed is just a historian and serves as the everyman hero; the real inventor of the first time machine made for comic books was Uriah Mowcher, the scientist.  There are yet no details about how the bathysphere-like time machine functions.

Don't get too excited -- that's not a giant ram you see; rather, the artist of Peter & Ho-Lah-An seems to have had some problems with perspective. I'm skeptical of the need to have rams statted for H&H, but just in case...I would make them 1+1 HD and allow half-pints to ride them over short distances.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Archives at http://www.luminist.org/archives/CB/#ADV)