Need a Valentine's Day palate cleanser?

Whether you want to get the sticky-sweet taste out of your mouth because you're bitter, or because you want to prepare for what's to come on this Day of Celebrating Romance and Love, we have just the collection of stories for you to read!

Art by Basil Wolverton

Weird Romance, the latest release from NUELOW Games is a collection of short horror, humor, and fantasy tales that are all tinged with the rosey color of romance. These stories were produced by great talents such as Steve Ditko, Dick Giordano, Basil Wolverton, Sam Schwartz, and others. They are well worth your time and money, whether you are just looking for some great reading material or have an interest in the lesser-known works of men who helped build the foundation upon which modern sequential storytelling rests. In addition to the great comics, the book also features a series of tables with which you can randomly generate a love interest for a player character in just about any RPG syste, (It wouldn't be a NUELOW Games release if we didn't toss RPG support in with the comics!)

You can get Weird Romance at RPGNow, DriveThruRPG, and DriveThruComics.

And for good measure, here's a trio of Valentine's Day-related adventure seeds...

* A cleric (or otherwise spiritual character) is awakened in the night by a small, winged humanoid--Cupid! He is being hunted by a group of cultists who want to eliminate love and romance from the world, clearing the way for the return of the Great Old Ones. Cupid is begging for the character's help and protection.

* A sworn and very deadly enemy of a player character suddenly wants not only a truce but also a romantic relationship with him or her. If rebuffed, the enemy will start to make life hell for everyone around the character until he or she accepts the offer of love. Investigations reveal that Cupid missed a shot his magic arrowand has caused this trouble. The party must find the demigod and get him to lift the spell. (In the end, the enemy, if the situation is handled correctly, could end up as an ally of the party, due to residual effects of the magic;)

* Cupid is distraught, because his female counterpart has been abducted by persons unknown. He demands that the party find and free her, or he will not inspire love and romance in anyone every again.

Piper Perabo (cos)playing Female Cupid

Mad about Marvel's treatment of Captain America?

The latest bit of brilliance (?) from the House of Ideas has been to turn Captain American into a supervillain--a deep cover Hydra agent who never was the hero he pretended to be. A good number of people are upset at this, given that the character (and his alter ego Steve Rogers) have been a symbol of the American ideal from the beginning.

Instead of being upset, we here at NUELOW Games recommend that fans instead pick a point where the "real" Captain American stories ended and simply ignore whatever dreck Marvel prints. (For me, it's the end of the story arc where Steve Rogers returned to the role of Captain America after his stint as US Agent.). Then, to fill the empty space for reading material, you can turn to other patriotic superheroes. Here's a selection you can start with--all from NUELOW Games and all guaranteed to never be subjected to the sort of character assassination that Marvel appears to have visited upon Captain America.

MAJOR VICTORY AND YANKEE GIRL
These star-spangled heroes gave their lives for their country and were given the opportunity to keep fighting by the powerful entity known as Father Patriot. Every single one of their appearances from the Golden Age of Comics (along with the never-before-revealed origin of Yankee Girl) are contained in Complete Golden Age Oddballs: Major Victory & Yankee Girl.

Available at DriveThruComics, DriveThruRPG, and RPGNow

PAT PATRIOT
A working class daughter of immigrants, who devoted herself to fighting America's enemies on the home front while becoming a symbol of America, Patricia Patrios is as American and as heroic as they come. The Pat Patriot collection from NUELOW Games features four of her greatest adventures.

Available at DriveThru Comics, DriveThruRPG, & RPGNow

THE BRONZE TERROR
The Bronze Terror is secretly the successful attorney Jeff Dixon. A Native American, Jeff fights to defend the rights and reputations of Native Americans both in and out of the courtroom... and when the law comes up short, he dons a mask and continues the fight outside court as the Bronze Terror. Real American No. 1 collects the best stories featuring the Bronze Terror.

Available at DriveThruComics, DriveThruRPG, and RPGNow

Each of these books not only bring you adventures by great patriotic superheroes, but they contain rules and scenarios that can get you started on creating your own adventures featuring them--as you play ROLF!: The Rollplaying Game with your friends! Stop stewing over Marvel and start reading and creating something new and better!

The Black Dwarf and his Gangbusting Gang

The never-before-revealed origin of the Black Dwarf and his cadre of crime-fighting semi-reformed criminals! (By Steve Miller, based on characters created by Paul Gattuso. Read more in The Black Dwarf from NUELOW Games.)

Art by Paul Gattuso.

In 1940, professional football player Peter "Shorty" Wilson was injured during a game and left unable to play. He retired and managed to turn his small nest egg into a large fortune with a series of successful investments With his new-found fortune Shorty became a target for grifters, gangsters, and thieves. As fearsome has he had been on the football field, Shorty was unequipped to deal with this new onslaught... and his new fortune was almost taken from him as soon as he gained it. Even his own accountant was stealing from him.

But one of the grifters came to his aid. Patricia "Arsenic" Gaynes originally entered Shorty's life looking only for his money, but his good humor and good heart soon made her fall in love with him. She revealed herself to him,  showed him all the ways he was being taken advantage of, and helped him bring several of the crooks to justice and recover as much of his money as possible.

One of the predators who had come after Shorty's fortune was not going to go away easily--Victor Spunetti, One of the city's most feared gangsters, Spunetti operated a number of illegal gambling parlors and other shady businesses. Shorty's accountant had been paying off gambling debts to Spunetti using Shorty's accounts, and he had further led the gangster to believe that Shorty was paying the mortgage on one of the gangster's buildings as an investment. When that stopped, the gangster came to meet Shorty and demand his money. Shorty, over Arsenic's warnings, beat him up and threw him into the street.

Spunetti vowed revenge against Shorty. To protect her love, Arsenic turned to some friends--cat-burglar Terry "The Fly" Holcomb and pickpocket Matthew "Dippy" Mason. She asked them to keep an eye on Spunetti and his key hoods and give her warnings if they were moving on Shorty--something they did gladly, since they had themselves been threatened by Spunetti's crew. Within days, the warning game that Spunetti had dispatched expert safe-cracker and reputed assassin Joseph "Nitro" Lemerise to rob the safe in Shorty's home. If Shorty also happened to get blown up in the process, Nitro would receive a huge bonus.

Shorty and Arsenic grabbed Nitro the moment he entered the apartment. The safe-cracker offered to help them deal with Spunetti if they would forget he tried to rob them. When asked why they should trust him, Nitro explained that he wasn't an assassin--and that anyone who thought he was was dredging up memories of an accident he'd rather forget. THOSE people, like Spunetti, he didn't mind blowing up,

A few nights later, Shorty, Arsenic, Nitro, and The Fly struck at Spunetti's fortified mansion. The Fly climbed the walls to an upper window and let them in through a side door. Arsenic distracted a guard, so Shorty and Nitro could get into Spunetti's office and break into his safe where the ledgers of his illegal businesses were kept. Before they managed to crack it, Arsenic and The Fly were captured by Spunetti. Shorty, desperate to rescue them, but knowing he was out-gunned, grabbed a blackout curtain from the office windows and a gaucho hat from a rack, put them on, and burst into room where Spunetti was about to torture Arscenic for information.

Shorty's bizarre appearance startled the assembled thugs to the point where Arsenic was able to snatch Spunetti's knife and use it to stab him, while Shorty gunned down the rest of the gangsters. As they prepared to flee the scene, the sole surviving gangster asked, "Who are you?" of Shorty.

"I am the one who's going to put an end to all crooks and racketeers in this city," Shorty replied. "Tell your gutter-scum friends that the Black Dwarf is coming for them."

Safely back in Shorty's apartment, Arsenic asked where the "Black Dwarf gag" had come from. Shorty replied that it was just a spur of the moment thing, but that maybe it was worth pursuing. For all of them.

"If you three go straight," he said, "together we can go good for the law-abiding citizens of this town. We can use your knowledge of the underworld to bring it down. In the process, you can make more money than you could if you continued being crooks: Everyone gangster we bring down will have a bankroll that we'll skim part of that you can split. How does that sound?"

"For love or money, darling," Arsenic said, "I'm in."

"I'm okay with just the money," The Fly said, with a broad grin. Dippy nodded in agreement.

"We'll need a hide-out that can't be traced back to your lovely home, boss," Nitro stated. "I know just the joint..."

--
The Black Dwarf is available at RPGNow and DriveThruComics. It collects six tales with art by the character's creator--Paul Gattuso. It contains the selection of RPG material you've come to expect from our releases. Meanwhile, here are ROLF! stats for Shorty and his pals.

Art by Paul Gattuso

THE BLACK DWARF (Male)
aka Peter "Shorty" Wilson
Brawn 22, Body 15 (includes +1 Hat Bonus), Brains 7
  Traits: Honorable, Martial Artist, Nimble
  Combat Maneuvers: Basic Attack, Dodge, Double Tap, Kung Fu Face, Murderous Mitts, Run Away!, Sure Shot, Withering Insult
  Important Stuff Worn/Wielded: Two Automatic Pistols (Medium Weapon, both fire simultaneously. Deals 4 points of damage that ignore armor.) Black Gaucho Hat (+1 Body when worn). Black Cassock and Cape (Superhero Outfit, armor, absorbs up to 2 points of damage).

ARSENIC (Female)
aka Patricia Gaynes
Brawn 17, Body 17, Brains 6
  Traits: Dead-Eye, Improv Master, Nimble
  Combat Maneuvers: Basic Attack, Castrate, Disarm, Run Away!, Seduce, Strike Pose, Sure Shot
  Important Stuff Worn/Wielded: Fashionable Clutch (Purse, Small Melee Weapon, deals 1 point of damage). Pistol (Small Weapon, deals 2 points of damage that ignore armor). Slinky Dress (Clothes).

DIPPY (Male)
aka Matthew Mason
Brawn 16 (includes +1 Hat Bonus), Body 15, Brains 5
   Traits: Nimble
   Combat Maneuvers: Basic Attack, Knock Out, Snatch Weapon, The Walk, Walk and Chew Gum
   Important Stuff Worn/Wielded: Sap (Small Melee Weapon, deals 1 point of damage that ignores armor. If used at the beginning of the ABBA sequence, a struck character must make a successful ATT Brawn check or be knocked unconscious.) Fedora (+1 to Brawn when worn)

NITRO (Male)
aka Joseph Lemerise
Brawn 13, Body 11, Brains 5
   Traits: Coldhearted, Dead-Eye
   Combat Maneuvers: Basic Attack, Disembowel, Double Strike, Run Away!, Signature Move
   Important Stuff Worn/Wielded: Knife (Small Melee Weapon, deals 1 point of damage). Mini-bombs (Ranged OR Melee Weapon, deals 5 points of damage that ignore armor to all characters within Melee Range of where the bomb goes off).

THE FLY (Male)
aka Terry Holcomb
Brawn 18, Body 13, Brains 5
   Traits: Improv Master, Nimble
   Combat Maneuvers: Backflip, Basic Attack, Climb the Walls, Dodge, Run Away!
   Important Stuff Worn/Wielded: Nothing.

Five tales of one of comicdom's original androids... and OGL Modern rules!

Androids are a mainstay of comics, and in our new comics/rpg hybrid book, Dynamic Man, NUELOW Games presents the adventures of one of comicdom's earliest androids--before he was ret-conned into a high school basketball coach named Bert. As far as we know, this is the first time these stories have ever been collected in one place.

Art by Bill Madden & Charles Sultan

Dynamic Man features five tales of superhero action straight from the Golden Age of Comics. In addition, it contains rules for creating your own super-powered android player characters for OGL Modern and other d20 System-powered games that use feats and talent trees. (This system is fully compatible with other NUELOW Games OGL supplements, such as Feats of Mysticism and Magic and the superpower rules in Madden's Boys.)

Click here to get your copy of Dynamic Man, or to see previews.

Y is for Yankee Girl

Among the obscure superheroes that came out of Harry "A" Chesler's production studios perhaps Yankee Girl is the most obscure--but also among the most well-known. She had two appearances, none of which were in titles Chesler himself was involved with publishing and one of these sat undistributed in a warehouse from around 1947 until 1964. However, she was revived by AC Comics in the 1990s, and she was most recently seen in a 2012 graphic novel titled Stars and Stripes Forever. I don't know anything about the AC version, other than they seem to have explained where her magic powers came from.

Yankee Girl takes flight. Artist ID uncertain, but maybe Ralph Mayo

Yankee Girl is secretly socialite Lauren Mason, who, when she utters "three magic words" of Yankee Doodle Dandy, is transformed into a flying, super-strong defender of truth and justice. The source of the magic she draws upon, and the extend of her powers are unknown, but it is established that she is not invulnerable, as she knocked unconscious by bad guys in her first appearance. Or maybe she is invulnerable in some cases, as she seems sturdier (perhaps even bullet proof) in her second appearance.

Yankee Girl first took flight in Dynamic Comics #23 (from Superior), with her second adventure showing up in Danger #16 from I.W. Publishing where she was featured on an excellent cover by Ross Andru and Mike Espostio.

The writer and artist on the Yankee Girl stories is (are?) unknown. Ralph Mayo is credited as the writer and aritst on both her appearances by some sources, but I think someone else whas doing the inking when I compare the on Yankee Girl to his many Judy of the Jungle stories, especially the ones we're including in Judy of the Jungle: Warriors of the Laughing Hyena..

Our discovery of Yankee Girl was the final piece we needed to firm up our plans for volume of Complete Golden Age Oddballs to coincide with the Fourth of July this year. She'll be joined by Major Victory, and we'll be revealing the REAL source of her magic (at least in the NUELOW Heroes and Villains universe.)

And, just for fun, here's a totally off-the-cuff Talent Tree for use with the OGL d20 Modern superpowers system featured introduced on this blog, and expanded upon in Madden's Boys and the Complete Golden Age Oddballs series. This hasn't been play-tested and it amounts to little more than me typing thoughts as they occur. If someone DOES have an opinion on this talent tree and its playability (or lack thereof), please speak up; That's what we have a comments section for! (The rest of the post is Open Game Content and may be reproduced in accordance with this license.)

NEW SUPER TALENT TREE: MAGICAL TRANSFORMATION
You have transformative powers!
   Prerequisite: Any one Minor Power Feat.
   Simple Transformation: When you utter a magic phrase, your clothes become your superhero costume. The transformation lasts until you say the magic word again.
   Minor Transformation: Same as above, but you gain +1 increase to two stats of your choice (determined when this talent is chosen).
   Prerequisite: Simple Transformation
   Major Transformation: Same as above, except you gain an additional +1 increase to your chosen stats, as well as two Minor Power feats (determined when this talent is chosen).
   Prerequisite: Minor Transformation.
  Total Transformation: Same as above, but all attributes are increased by +2, you gain 2 bonus talents, and two bonus feats, Minor Power feats or any others available in the campaign).

V is for Vapo-Man!

Another weird creation from the comic book production studios run by Harry "A" Chesler was Vapo-Man! He by-product of a lab accident caused by enemies spies, he had the ability to turn into a gas, become large or tiny, fly, disintegrate matter (living or otherwise), and probably anything else the writers might have dreamed up. He spent the first three published stories running around in his skivvies, but by his fourth appearance, he was given a proper superhero costume.

Vapo-Man appeared in Liberty Scouts #2 and #3, and here he battled a corrupt official, the "Director of Defence" and the enemy spy ring he secretly headed up. At the end of each story, he promised that he would be taking ot the Director next issue.. but he never did.

Or maybe he dispatched the Director and his spies between issues, because when Vapo-Man next coalesced in Man of War #1, he was fighting Nazis and the Director and his agents were nowhere to be found. With Man of War #2, Vapo-Man, freshly outfitted with one of the goofiest looking outfits any superhero ever dared to wear in public, fought his last. With the cancellation of his second home, he was never seen again.

All four Vapo-Man stores were drawn by Sam Gilman, an artist who appears to have worked only briefly in comics, with only a dozen or so stories to his credit, all in magazines from Centaur Publishing during 1940 and 1941. Given the disconnect between the Vapo-Man storyline in Liberty Scouts and Man of War, I can only assume that he didn't write the stories... although that could be a bad assumption, as continuity was not a priority during the Golden Age, and Chesler's crews seemed to ignore such niceties more often than many others.

Vapo-Man is a great example of the no-holds-barred weirdness and casual violence of early Golden Age stories. He may have been an attempt to capture the success of Centaur's more successful hero Mighty Man, as the two characters share some powers in common, but that was not to be. Readers may also feel that he reminds them of Plastic Man, but the two characters debuted the same month, so any similarity there is probably just coincidental.

Vapo-Man is one of the characters we hope to include in a future issue of Complete Golden Age Oddballs.

U is for the Unholy 3

The Unholy 3 are such an obscure set of characters that no one has even bothered given them a write-up at Public Domain Superheroes... or anywhere else really. Except in NUELOW Games publications.

Meet the Unholy 3. Art by Bill Madden

The Unholy 3 are a trio of con artists who have turned their skills from fleecing the innocent to grifting grifters, and making sure they end up behind bars. Flash provided the brawn (and a sexy distraction for the lady targets), Pearl provided the brains (and a sexy distraction for the male target), and Dale provided the sarcastic barbs (and to dress up like a baby when the need arose). They were featured in two stories that were originally published in Punch Comics #1 and #2 and later reprinted in Major Victory #1 and #2. The series was a product of Harry "A" Chesler's comic book production studios, which supplied content not only for his own titles (such as Punch Comics) but for virtually every other comics publisher operating between 1938 and 1942.

The writer on "The Unholy 3" will probably forever remain unknown, but the artist was NUELOW Games' favorite Bill Madden. He appears to only have drawn a handful of stories, most of them for Chesler during 1941 and 1942. It's possible that he continued as a cartoonist, or penciler elsewhere and we just haven't come across his work yet. We hope to re-present all of his published work in our titles, eventually, as we think it's a shame he does not get more recognition than he does. (We've already published the Unholy 3 stories in The Unholy 3 and OGL Trickery, all three Mother Hubbard stories in the title of that same name, all his Dynamic Boy and Yankee Boy stories in Madden's Boys,and stories that he only penciled in Al Plastino Early Work: 1940 - 1941 and The Werewolf Hunter #1. There are a few more stray items--like the story we featured in Carnival--that we are still looking for ways to present, but by we will get there eventually.

Meanwhile, I'm going to renew my request that if anyone knows something about artist Bill Madden (aka William J. Madden), please get in touch. I would love to be able to write something a little more detailed about him and his career.

T is for T.N.T.

When the United States government was recruiting scientists to work on the Manhattan Project, they overlooked one of the most brilliant nuclear scientists to ever live. Not only did Treve N. Thorndyke manage to split the atom in his personal workshop (while avoiding killing himself in the process), he also managed to invent an "atom gun" that was far more surgical in its killing capacity than any other atomic weapon devised by humanity. Thankfully, Thornedyke chose to use his invention for good rather than evil, putting on a mask and cape and joining the superhero set as T.N.T.

T.N.T. made his one-and-lonly appearance in the pages of Amazing Man Comics #21. Published by Centaur with a cover date of March 1941, this series was the most successful of all the titles featuring creations from the studios run by Harry "A" Chesler, and it was a treasure trove of exciting and bizarre comic book heroes--the strangest of which being Mighty Man, who is best described as a cross between Paul Bunyan, Hercules, and Plastic Man. (I'm going to be putting a book or two together of Mighty Man's weirdest adventures at some point.)

T.N.T. is one of artist Dan Gormley's first published professional works; Chesler and his editors had a great eye for talented artists and they gave many industry giants their first paying comics gigs... including Joe Kubert, who swept up around the studio as a young boy while getting pointers from the artists as they labored over their drawingboards. By mid-1941, Gormley was a staff artist at Dell/Western, and he would eventually become one of the premiere illustrators of children's comics.

As for T.N.T., although his one appearance ends with a great set-up for future adventures--he's wanted by both the law AND the underworld--he was never heard from again. We will rectify that ever-so-slightly, as he is slated to join the Science Sleuths line-up of characters. Look for him in Issue #6 in a couple of months, where he'll be featured in an all-new roleplaying game adventure!

O is for the Owl

The Owl is second creation of cartoonish Martin Filchock to be featured on this trip through the alphabet by way of obscure Golden Age comic book characters, with the previous one being Electric Ray.

The world gets its first look at the Owl! From Funny Pages #1 (vol. 4)

The Owl is a young librarian named Jack who uses the hi-tech  flying suit to take revenge against the crimnals who crippled his father. The suit gives him the ability to fly "faster than an airship" and to communicate with his father via radio.

Like all of Flichock's creations, there is a quirky feel of off-centeredness--while reading, one is never quite sure if the story is to be taken seriously or is a clever bit of comedy.His most successful and longest-lived Golden Age superhero strip was Cenatur's Mighty Man (lasting from issues 5 - 25 of Amazing Man) which most was an obvious comedic take on superheroes Filchock was a celebrated cartoonist and yhumorist, who continued working and publishing right up until his death in 2012, so maybe he couldn't stop kidding around even when drawing and writing superheroes.

The Owl's solitary flight will be presented in a future issue of Complete Golden Age Oddballs.

M is for Major Victory

Major Victory was one of several patriotic superheroes to emerge from the studio and comic book packaging operation of Harry "A" Chesler, during a time when Phil Sturm was the lead editor. We here at NUELOW Games think of the Chesler output from 1940 through late 1941/early 1942 as the Golden Age for his Golden Age of Comics activity, and Major Victory is among the last of the characters from that period that we will be bringing to modern readers in one of our titles.

Drawn by Charles Sultan, and written by an unknown writer, Major Victory was featured in the first three issues of Dynamic Comics, along with other great Chesler superheroes, such as the original Dynamic Boy and Dynamic Man, and Lady Satan in her spy-killing incarnation. He was one of several patriotic superheroes created by the studio, a soldier who was returned to life by Father Patriot as the embodiment of the American fighting spirit after dying in an attempt to stop a terrorist attack on an American military base.

The splash page from the second Major Victory story.
Art by Charles Sultan

Like the best of Chesler's output, the Major Victory stories featured solid artwork, fast-paced stories that were more than a little macabre, and a whole lot of fun. Sadly, like all of Chesler's greatest creations, the Major's career was also very short. There were the three stories published in Dynamic Comics 1-3 during 1941, which were then reprinted in Major Victory Comics 1-3 in 1942. Curiously, the Major's shirt and pants were colored yellow in the reprints, breaking the red-white-and-blue motif of his costume. Why this bizarre decision was made one can't even being to guess at.

Exactly where Major Victory will appear in the line-up of NUELOW Games publications remains to be decided, but he is certainly a candidate for an issue of Complete Golden Age Oddballs.

E is for Electric Ray

Electric Ray had his one and only appearance in 1942, in the 26th and final issue of Centaur Publishing's Amazing Man series. Ray is working in a plant manufacturing things vital to the U.S. war effort when it becomes a target of saboteurs. While he is conducting his own investigation into the matter, he is set upon by enemy agents who throw him from the factory's roof onto a dynamo, which overloads with a spectacularly. The blast of electricity leaves Ray's body permanently charged with a lethal amount of electricity, which he can release through touching his bare skin to conductive material or other human beings.

Electric Ray is one of those characters that mostly likely couldn't exist today in the innocent form he does here. Instead of being a cheerful adventure story (with a fairly high body count, as no bad guy walks away from their encounter with Ray), I think it would swiftly turn into a Twilight Zone-esque horror story and Ray would soon be on the path to being a villain or a monster. For example, what will happen between Ray and his wife the first time they get intimate after Ray has gained the ability to light up the room in more than just metaphorical ways? And while this panel was probably intended as humorous back in the day, it seems like the sort of sentiment that would always have gotten Ray put on any number of watch lists:

Electric Ray's single appearance will be included in a future issue of Complete Golden Age Oddballs, along with some original writing that incorporates him into the NUELOW Games Heroes & Villains line-up. (And, while not much thought has been put into it yet, I suspect Ray will end up as one of the darker characters.)

'The Werewolf Hunter #2' arrives in time to scare away 2013!

The second issue of NUELOW Games' horror anthology, The Werewolf Hunter, is now available for download. Like the first issue, it's got great horror comics rarities from the Golden Age (two adventures starring Prof. Armand Broussard, the Werewolf Hunter himself; one starring the mysterious Lade Satan; and one re-introducing "girl photographer" Gail Porter to the world), fiction (an all-new story from Angela Beegle, author of the Werewolves of Washington series; and a Robert E. Howard story with revisions by yours truly), and more systemless RPG content to bring variety to standard monsters in campaigns.

Click here to see previews and to get your own copy of The Werewolf Hunter #2.

Nothing can stop "Madden's Boys" (or the OGL Modern superhero rules)!

Our latest comics/rpg hybrid book is near and dear to the heart of NUELOW Games editor and designer L.L. Hundal She has a great affection for the art of Bill Madden... and this book features five stories penciled and inked by him.

Madden's Boys continues NUELOW Games's effort to shine a little light on cool forgotten characters and comic book creators and this is perhaps our most significant effort in that regard yet. Madden and his small body of work is so disregarded that even respected Golden Age historians respond with a "who?" when approached with questions. Like our previous Madden-centric books Mother Hubbard and The Unholy 3 & OGL Trickery, we present the entirety of a series he drew (in this case "Dynamic Boy") but the book also contains his contributions to the "Yankee Boy" series--the three inaugural stories of one the more successful creations to emerge from Harry 'A' Chesler's studio.

In addition to showcasing Bill Madden's dynamic artwork, Madden's Boys contains the most varied selection of roleplaying game material we've included in our comics/rpg hybrid books so far. Not only does it contain an all-new set of rules for making superheroes in d20 OGL Modern superhero games, but it also features game statistics for Dynamic Boy and Yankee Boy in the ROLF! and Hideout & Hoodlums game systems/ And it's all behind an original cover by Darrel Miller.

On New Comics Day this week, why don't you add a copy of Madden's Boys to your DriveThruComics shopping cart? You won't regret it!

Madden's Boys Meet the HeartbreakerA NUELOW Heroes & Villains Battle Scenario

MADDEN'S BOYS MEET THE HEARTBREAKER

A ROLF! Battle Scenario by L.L. Hundal

Artwork by Bill Madden

Copyright 2013 NUELOW Games & Steve Miller. All Rights Reserved/

(Permission granted to copy for personal use.)

1/0: INTRODUCTION
As the NUELOW Games staff (all two of us) work on the next collection of Bill Madden comics--tentatively titled Madden's Boys--Steve Miller has been up to his usual tricks of poking fun at the stuff we're planning to publish. This panel caught his eye in one of the Yankee Boy stories, and he just HAD to put it on Facebook as part of his irregular series of Out of Context Theater posts.

 Well, this triggered an idea--a classic ROLF! battle scenario along the lines of our mid-1990s offerings that caused Frank Mentzer to quip: "The download is guaranteed virus free, but I can't be sure about the characters."

2.0: THE PRE-GENERATED CHARACTERS
Here are the characters featured in the Battle Scenario. They were created using rules from the core ROLF! game, as well as ROLF!: Something About Superheroes and ROLF!: Christmas Special II. (If this was an actual release, we'd repeat all the Combat Maneuvers and Traits not included in the core game here.)

Dynamic Boy (AKA Kent Banning, Male)

Brawn 16, Body 14, Brains 6

   Traits: Improv Master, Superpower (Super Strenth [Personal], Flight [Personal], Bonus: +2 Brawn ATT [Permanent]

   Combat Maneuvers: Basic Attack, Pimp Slap

Important Stuff Worn/Wielded: Superhero Outfit (Armor, absorbs up to 2 points of damage).
    Origin Story: Dynamic Boy almost died while saving the life of Dr. Brown's daughter. The good doctor then proceeded to save him by feeding him an unknown substance he had secured from cultists high atop the Himalyan mountains. 

Heartbreaker (AKA Katie Felmann, Female)

Brawn 14, Body 16, Brains 6

   Traits: Coldhearted, Nimble, Stone Cold Killer

   Combat Maneuvers: Basic Attack, Bitch Slap, Castrate, Double Strike, Seduce, Strike Pose

   Important Stuff Worn/Wielded: Leather Vest (Armor, absorbs 2 points of damage), Thigh-high Boots, (Armor AND Leggings, absorbs 1 point of damage). Dagger (Small Melee Weapon, deals 1 point of damage). Pistol (Small Ranged Weapon, deals 2 points of damage that ignore armor).
   Origin Story: Heartbreaker was a CIA operative who relied on "womanly wiles" to achieve siccess in her intelligence gathering missions. When her identity was exposed by a publicity-seeking U.S. senator, she barely escaped from her last assignment with her life. In revenge, she assassinated the senator, and she has been working as a high-priced, freelance hit woman ever since.

Yankee Boy (AKA Phil Martin, Male)

Brawn 14, Body 13, Brains 6

   Traits: Irrepressible Optimist, Nimble

   Combat Maneuvers: Basic Attack, Bitch Slap, Deflect, Dodge, Murderous Mitts, Strike Pose

   Important Stuff Worn/Wielded: Superhero Outfit (Armor, absorbs up to 2 points of damage).
   Origin Story: Phil Martin woke up one day, frustrated with the growing anti-American attitude he detected in the people around him. So, he made himself a superhero outfit and started kicking ass in the name of life, liberty, and the American Way.

3.0: THE BATTLE SCENARIO
This scenario is for two or three players, depending on how you want it to unfold. Each player controls one of the characters from above.

3.1: What Has Come Before
Heartbreaker has been hired by the Great Question to destroy Dynamic Boy and Yakeeboy. Deciding to use the youthful superheroes to take each other out, she has been posing online as a teen girl and has been flirting with them via their "social media" accounts and :"sexting"-type activities. Earlier today, she set up a meeting in a secluded spot, telling each of the boys that she wanted to take their relationship to the "physical level." Just before they are to arrive, she sends each of them a text message, apparently in a panic. "Yankee Boy is jealous of our love--he has vowed to kill me!" to Dynamic Boy, and "Dynamic Boy is jealous of our love--he has vowed to kill me!" to Yankee Boy. She now lurks nearby, waiting to see which of the boy heroes wins the fight, and then.intends to leap out and finish off the one still standing..

3.2: The Battle, Part One
The fight starts at Ranged Distance. Dynamic Boy and Yankee Boy both agrily demand that the  other leave Katie alone. They then attack each other. The fight
   Special Game Note: If Yankee Boy successfully uses his Strike Pose Combat Maneuver to halt Dynamic Boy's attack, the player of Yankee Boy can choose to either continue the fight, or he can say that Yankee Boy tries to talk to Dynamic Boy and figure out why he's suddenly turned into a psycho-stalker targeting his girl. Dynamic Boy's player rolls 2d6, and if the result is equal to or less than 6, the two teens stop fighting.

3.3: The Battle, Part Two
Once either Dynamic Boy or Yankee Boy are defeated, Heartbreaker breaker attacks the remaining hero, controlled by the player of the defeated character. If the fight between the heroes ends as described under the Special Game Note above, the player who controlled Dynamic Boy now controls Hearbreaker, while the other player controls the two heroes. (If there players are playing, each of them controls one of the characters.)
   The fight continues until Heartbreaker or her targets are defeated.

4.0: DESIGNER'S AFTERWORD
Dynamic Boy and Yankee Boy were characters that appeared in issues of Dynamic Comics and Yankee Comics respectively, published in 1941 and produced by Harry "A" Chesler's art studio. Heartbreaker is an original creation.
   Dynamic Boy and Yankee Boy were teenage characters modeled after the superheroes from which the anthology titles drew their names (Dynamic Man and Yankee Doodle Jones) but otherwise had no connection to the adult superhero in question. Curiously (although typical for a Chesler-produced strip), Dynamic Man did end up with a sidekick by the name of Dynamic Boy, but it was a completely different character than the one this battle scenario was inspired by. Yankee Doodle Jones also had a kid sidekick, cleverly named Dandy.
    Bill Madden drew both published Dynamic Boy stories, the first three Yankee Boy tales, and he may have penciled the fourth with someone else finishing the art. I think Madden's art deserves more attention than it's gotten over the years, and that's why I'm happy to be part of NUELOW Game's forthcoming Madden's Boys book--which will feature the entire run of the Dynamic Boy series, as well as the first three Yankee Boy episodes. We also may or may not include the Rocket Boy series; we're working on determining whether Madden had a hand in that one or not. I hope you'll join us for them.
   Meanwhile, check out Madden's artwork in The Unholy 3 and OGL Trickery or Mother Hubbard.

NOTE: IF YOU WANT TO GIVE US FEEDBACK ON OUR COMICS ANTHOLOGIES OR GAME PRODUCTS, PLEASE DO! WE VALUE YOU INPUT! WOULD-BE REVIEWERS SHOULD GET IN TOUCH AS WELL... MAYBE WE CAN GIVE YOU A FREE BOOK OR TWO.
 

Coming of the Werewolf Hunter....

In celebration of Halloween, NUELOW is launching its latest series of comics retrieved from the dark, forgotten corners of the Golden Age of the 1940s to be joined with new fiction and RPG material for our own systems and those covered by the OGL.

The first issue of The Werewolf Hunter is now available from RPGNow, DriveThruRPG, DriveThruComics, and DriveThruFiction--downloadable from whichever one of the sites you prefer to shop at. This first issue features the Werewolf Hunter, Professor Broussard himself, squaring off against two nefarious werebeasts; the mysterious Lady Satan's transformation from spy to mystic as she takes on a werewolf who preys on children; and a bone-chilling werewolf tale illustrated by Lee Elias, the lead artist on Black Cat.

In addition to the comics, this issue also includes a classic werewolf short story from Robert E. Howrd, the creator of Conan, and an original piece of fiction by Steve Miller (yep... me) revealing a secret that has been buried since the end of World War II.

Finally, there is a universal RPG supplement designed to bring variety to werewolves in any RPG system.

Click here to check out previews of The Werewolf Hunter #1.

Plus, be sure to check out the Lady Satan book for the first stories about NUELOW Games' latest superstar.

http://www.rpgnow.com/product/116140/Lady-Satan

Presenting the works of Bill Madden....

How do we select the comics we decide to publish in our anthologies o Golden Age reprints?

I've been asked that question a couple times now. The answer is the same that it was for the Robert E. Howard collections we produced last year... we find stories we think deserve more attention than they're gotten and we use our little vanity press here to put them before a new audience. Other things we consider is whether the material would hold any appeal to a modern reader whatsoever (who doesn't happen to be a total nerd).

Given those factors, it shouldn't be surprising we led with things like Jack Kirby's Stuntman, George Tuska's Lady Satan, and, of course, the lovely Black Cat.

For that same reason, it was a foregone conclusion that we'd want to put the work of forgotten 1940s comic book artist Bill Madden in front of modern readers. When L.L. Hundal first came upon his work, he was another creator about whom she said, "It's as if he drew these just so we could adapt them for RPGs!"

Upon surveying the dozen or so stories that she has identified as being by Madden, I agree that he was an interesting and unique talent. I can nitpick individual panels and some of his layout choices, but overall he had a dynamic style that stands out from the pack, and it seems to me that he deserved more recognition than he got.

Who was Bill Madden?

According to Jerry Bails' "Who's Who of American Comics 1929 - 1999", Bill Madden (who also signed his work as William J. Madden and W.J.M) produced comics for the Chesler Studio during WW2 and moved to the Schoffman Studio during the post-war years; these studios produced content comics magazines from dozens of different publishers. There are indications that he started his comic book career working with industry pioneer Harry "A" Chesler as early as 1937, with work for Chesler's Centaur Comics imprint, but we've been unable to verify that with any certainty.

In general, very little information is readily available about Bill Madden. He's not a Bill Draut, Lee Elias, or George Tuska who kept working in the comics field after the 1950s and into the era where fans were hungry for details about creators. By the dawn of the Silver Age, Madden was long gone from the comics field, or at least no longer working in any sort of audience-facing capacity.

All we've been able to learn about Bill Madden through our usual half-assed, Google-driven research methods is in the preceding paragraph, and that the majority of his published, identifiable work was done through Chesler on their short-lived B-series--things like "Carnival," "Dynamic Boy," "Mother Hubbard," and "The Unholy 3." His presence at Chesler's studio is itself noteworthy as it was an important shop in its day, where celebrated artists like Joe Kubert and Carmine Infantino got their earliest professional gigs in the comics biz. Kubert was 11 or 12 when he apprenticed at Chesler's, and since Madden did not appear to serve in WW2, he may have been too young, too old, or maybe suffered some health issues. We don't know, and at this late date, we may never know. (But if someone out there wants to share details about William J. Madden/Bill Madden--where he came from and where he went after 1954--please get in touch!)

While Madden the man is obscured in the shadows of history, his work is here for us to enjoy. As mentioned, we've identified about a dozen stories that we'll be  reprinting in our comics/rpg anthologies over the next several months. In fact, we've already released half of them. Each of our books featuring his work collect the entirety of his recognizable contribution to a given series.

Our most recently-released Madden project features nothing but his work, cover to cover. "Mother Hubbard" was a series that ran for the first three issues of Scoop Comics in 1941. The third Hubbard tale (untitled in its original presentation and titled "Eye Trouble" for its NUELOW Games release) served as a source for the notorious Frederic Wertham's Seduction of the Innocent. (Perhaps this is why Madden left the comics field; Lee Elias walked away from the industry for almost ten years after Wertham claimed his art on the "Black Cat" series for Harvey was "perverse.")

The cover of Mother Hubbard from NUELOW Games

Earlier this month, we released The Unholy 3 and OGL Trickery. Madden drew two stories about a trio of con artists and masters of disguise who have turned their talents to taking down criminal practiciners of their "craft." Inspired by the screwball comedies of the 1930s--the headlined by the Marx Brothers, Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn, William Powell, and Myrna Loy--these stories should be particularly appealing to both lowers of comics and old movies. The book also contains a non-Madden adventure featuring superhero Black Cobra spending a chaotic night at the ballet, and these three stories are great examples of the freewheeling nature of comic book storytelling during the Golden Age of Comics.

The cover of The Unholy 3 and OGL Trickery from NUELOW

The first of our books to feature Bill Madden, and the one that inspired L.L. Hundal to go digging for more work by him, was Carnival. It's a collection of three circus-themed mysteries, and although it only features one story by Madden, it's a great introduction to his work. It's also an excellent place to start with the NUELOW Games comics line, because it's rife with the sense of freewheeling, no-holds-barred storytelling that attracts us to so many of the short comics features from the 1940s and early 1950s.

The cover of Carnival from NUELOW Games

We have at least one more title featuring unadulterated Madden in the planning stages. It's it working title is Madden's Boys, and it will be a collection of superhero adventures with Dynamic Boy and Rocket Boy. (There may be others--we're still researching this one.)

We're also in the process of identifying other Madden work. I think I've spotted him in at least two other stories, under the inks of other artists. I'm trying to confirm whether I am right or not before we publish. (My ID of Al Plastino in a couple of spots is a bit dodgy, and while I feel confident about my judgement that it is indeed Madden's work on a couple "Madam Satan" stories, I want to be as sure as I can be.)

Meanwhile, I hope you will choose to take a look at Madden's under appreciated work in Carnival, Mother Hubbard, or The Unholy 3. If you do, please share what you think, either on the site you download the book from, or here at the blog.

Given what's going on in Egypt....

... and the absolute disaster that is the Obama Administration's Mid-East policy, would it be bad form to mention that John Kerry vs. the Queen of Evil features Kerry as a 3,000 year-old priest of Iss revived in modern times to fight his undying nemesis? Yeah... probably, especially since it features ROLF! stats for Kerry, the Queen of Evil, the goddess Isis, and ancient citizens of Luxor. And then there's the back-up feature starring Black Cat where she takes on "Cleopatra of the Casbah." Yes. Almost certainly bad form, not to mention possibly disrespectful of the rioters burning Christian churches and attacking government buildings. So, I better not mention that book at all, even though it can be downloaded right now for the special "pay what you want" price.

It would be even tackier of me to bring up ROLF!: Super Muslim Bros., which pokes fun at the architects of the bloody mess that is Egypt today, as Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton go on a secret mission to help Mohamed Morsi out of a bind. Yeah... that would be even worse, since that one features ROLF! stats for Morsi, Obama, Clinton, Muslim Brotherhood Thugs, mummies, and other bloodthirsty Egyptian "protesters." And I should certainly not mention that you can find it for sale at RPGNow.

Yeah... that would be horribly insensitive to the "death to America" crowd, which is pretty much everyone in Egypt these days....

I think I'll just focus on promoting our new comics/gaming project -- the happy four-color wonder that is Carnival! After all, it's got game material geared for OGL Modern, a far more popular game that ROLF!, so it just makes sense. (It even features a Black Cat story that is non-Egypt related... and plenty of clowns that have nothing to do with formulating U.S. foreign policy.)

'You're rightly named, Lady Satan!"

The latest release from NUELOW Games brings you tales of two masked women who are likely to put you in a bodybag if you're less than a perfect gentleman on the first date.

Lady Satan features six tales of action from the Golden Age of Comics, in which Lady Satan takes out Nazis in occupied France during World War 2, and the Veiled Avenger whips criminals into shape back in the U.S.A. The book also contains brief text pieces discussing the featured comics, and ROLF! statistics and a battle scenario so you can have Lady Satan and the Veiled Avenger fight each other or take on the nefarious Viscount Todschenkt. Like previous NUELOW Games comics collections, Lady Satan is presented in presented in black-and-white--as is only fitting for tales of femme fatales of the 1940s.

History buffs may be interested in knowing that Lady Satan was an early creation of George Tuska, who would go on to help establish Luke Cage, the first black superhero to carry his own title, as well as celebrated runs on Iron Man for Marvel Comics and World's Finest Comics Starring Superman and Batman for DC Comics. Additionally, the four Veiled Avenger tales in the book are the entirety of her published adventures. (There are other Lady Satan stories, but they were not done by Tuska and are quite different in nature than the two featured in this book. Click here to see previews of Lady Satan and download your own copy.

And, as a preview of things to come, here's a sample of what future Lady Satan adventures will entail, as we  bring them to you in the horror anthology Werewolf Hunter:

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