P is for Penny Parker

Penny Parker is a child of wealth and privilege whom readers are introduced to when she rebels against her parents insistence that she honor the traditions of her social class by taking part in a debutante ball. The sixteen year-old girl gives in, but decides to show everyone up by bringing her rough-edged boxing instructor to the ball as her escort. In the process, she ends up stopping a jewel heist. Fueled by her success as a detective, and rebellious teenage impulses, Penny sets herself up in her own detective agency and starts solving crime among the upper classes.

Penny Parker and her First World Problems.

"Penny Parker" was a series aimed squarely at girl comics readers, and it is an example of strips that were more common than people assume. I find Penny particularly interesting, because she reminds me of another of my long-time favorite forgotten girl detectives--Violet Strange. Like Penny, Violet was a young woman who rebelled against her social status by solving crimes... but, unlike Penny, Violet hid her activities from her parents by operating secretly through a detective agency.

Penny appeared in issues 13 - 15 of MLJ's Blue Ribbon Comics, all published in 1941, solving mysteries and catching killers and stopping crimes at genteel parties and country clubs. Her creators remain lost to history, although some sources credit Irv Novick with the art on the series. I don't see his hand, though, and I think the attribution is based on an incorrect assumption about the signature "Irving" on the episodes.

Penny Parker will co-star with Kismet (the first Muslim superhero) in the next issue of NUELOW Games' Complete Golden Age Oddballs.

In the meantime, here's Penny ala ROLF!:

PENNY PARKER (Female)
Brawn 17, Body 15, Brains 8
   Traits: Nimble
   Combat Maneuvers: Basic attack, Castrate, Debate Philosophy, Dodge, Knock Out, Murderous Mitts, Strike Pose, Walk and Chew Gum
   Important Stuff Worn/Wielded: Fashionable Dress (Clothes) OR Boxing Togs (Clothes, barely covers nakedness).

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.

N is for Numa

While that may be Tarzan-ese for "Lion," the Numa being referred to here is perhaps the most obscure and short-lived Golden Age of Comics character that will be touched upon in this series of posts.

Numa to the rescue. Art by A.C. Hollingsworth

Numa was a busty, scantily clad jungle girl who used her vine-swinging talents and Judo mastery to right wrongs in the Congo. In her single two-page adventure, she rescued another white jungle-dwelling girl from being sacrificed to dark gods while exposing a pair of blasphemous thieves. Her story was published under the heading "Jungle Fables" in Rulah Jungle Goddess #18 from Fox Features Syndicate. Like Numa, that was the only time a Jungle Fable appeared in any Fox title, and I don't think the editors at Fox knew the meaning of the word "fable."

We are currently planning on including Numa's adventure in the soon-to-be-released Judy of the Jungle: Warriors of the Laughing Hyena. Numa's adventure was illustrated by A.C. Hollingsworth, one of the earliest African American artists to work for mainstream comic book packagers and publishers. Hollingsworth later went onto become a civil rights activist. (NUELOW Games as previously featured his work on the Purple Tigress, another strip from Fox Features Syndicate that we included in the first issue of Complete Golden Age Oddballs. (And if we end up not including her in the Judy of the Jungle book, Numa will show up with other Oddballs in a future issue of that series.)

Just for fun, here's Numa in the ROLF! game system.

NUMA (Female)

Brawn 18, Body 18, Brains 5

Traits: Busty, Martial Artist, Nimble

Combat Maneuvers: Backflip, Murderous Mitts, Signature Move, Strike Pose

Important Stuff Worn/Wielded: Fur Bikini (Clothes, barely covers nakedness). Large Knife (Melee Weapon OR One-shot Ranged Weapon. Deals 2 points of damage.)

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.

L is for Little Giant

In 1940, Professor Rednow injected Rusty, a scrawny orphaned waif, with a serum that gave him superhuman strength and endurance. Since the boy didn't die from being an unwitting human test subject to a bit of mad science, Rednow adopted the kid, further outfitted him with a high-tech outfit that let him ignore gravity to leap long distances in a single bound. He took to punching criminals and rescuing girls in distress for two issues of "O.K. Comics" before fading into oblivion. (My guess as to his final fate? Rednow decided to subject Rusty to another mad science experiment... one that didn't end quite so successfully. I think in the annals of coldblooded scientists, Rednow has got to be one of the coldest.)

Rusty becomes the Little Giant,
through the wonders of child endangerment

By the way, does Little Giant's origin sound familiar to you--a weakling who gains superhuman strength and endurance after being injected with a vial full of weird science? To me, it sounds just like Captain America's origin story. I wonder what the Fanboy Brigade would make of the fact that the first issue of O.K. Comics was on newsstands some nine months before Captain America made his debut?

(It actually sounds like any number of superhero origins from that period, to be honest. Super-serums or lightning bolts seem to be the most common sources of superhuman powers in the early 1940s.)

K is for Kismet

Kismet, the Man of Fate, is, as far as I can tell, the first Muslim superhero. It's too bad he didn't catch on and become an international phenomenon. If he had, maybe the public face of Islam wouldn't be frothing-in-the-beard murderers. Kismet may fight evil, but violence is a last resort and he never harms innocent people. In fact, Kismet even tries to avoid harming the guilty, instead often letting their own actions lead to their doom. While fighting the evil of the Nazis, Kismet tries to be an examplar of someone who follows the "religion of peace"

"Kismet,Man of Fate" was a feature in all four issues of Bomber Comics--a slightly unfortunate title in retrospect, given the "Lions of Islam" that have emerged in the real world in recent decade--a title that came and went with its publisher, Eliot, in 1944. Other than being able to be a force for righteousness and freedom in the name of Allah, Kismet seemed to have an ability to predict what he enemies were going to do, with an ability to dodge their attacks as they are being launched, or to engineer events so his foes take each other out. He also rocks the shirtless-with-a-cape look like no one else. And he even looks good in a fez.

Kismet is the lead feature in the next issue of  Complete Golden Age Oddballs. Look for this space for an announcement of the publication date. Meanwhile, here's an add-on to NUELOW's superpower system for OGL d20 that reprents Kismet's uncanny ability to predict where fate will strike next.

NEW MINOR POWER: FORESIGHT
You have the ability to see a fraction of a second into the future.
   Benefit: You gain a permanent +2 adjustment to all initiative rolls.


NEW POWER TALENT TREE: FORESIGHT
You are able to sense what the immediate future will bring, and act accordingly. You don't always know exactly what is about to happen, but you know you have to act.
   Prerequisite: Any one Power Feat.
  Enhanced Foresight: You gain a +2 bonus to all to all initiative rolls, as well as a +1 bonus to your Defense Rating while awake or conscious.
   Improved Foresight: You gain a +1 bonus to all initiative rolls, as well as a +2 bonus to your Defense Rating while awake or conscious. You also gain a +2 bonus to all attack rolls.
   Prerequisite: Enhanced Foresight
   In Control: Once per game session, you can re-roll any single initiative roll, attack roll, or skill check. You may choose between the original or re-rolled results.
   Pre-requisite: Enhanced Foresight
   Master of Destiny: As In Control, but you my re-roll once per encounter.
   Prerequisite: In Control

J is for Jeep and Peep

If you were around and reading comics in 1945, you may have come across Jeep Comics on the newsstands. But if you blinked, you would have missed the series... along with the publishers that released them (R.B. Leffingwell & Company and Spotlight Comics).

The stars of the three published issues of Jeep Comics were Jeep and Peep, a pair of crime-fighters and explorers of the unknown and mysterious who traveled about in a flying, jet-powered Jeep. Jeep, so nick-named because he loved Jeeps so much that he let the Army give him one instead of his discharge pay, wore a red cape everywhere he went, while teen-aged Peep dressed normally... although he probably wore powered sugar everywhere, as one story dealt with how he was getting too fat and out of shape to fight crime.

Yes... "Jeep and Peep" was a series ahead of its time. I have no doubt it would be very, VERY popular today in some circles, because it carries messages about childhood obesity and the importance of exercising, as well as of energy and natural conservation. Jeep's flying Jeep is powered by an amazing, fuel efficient jet engine he has created... it only takes two drops of lighter fluid for Jeep and Peep to fly a distance of a hundred miles or more.

I'm not sure what's going here, except that Jeep and Peep are driving on air!

Any book we release collecting the "Jeep and Peep" series will be a cherished item by anyone who wants to stop global warming, or who believed in Michelle Obama's "Let's Move" campaign. In fact, I will probably send comp copies to environmental groups around the globe; maybe I can get it made required reading!

At any rate, "Jeep and Peep" are perfect candidates for the Complete Golden Age Oddballs series... and I suspect that you'll be able to see all the flying Jeep action collected for the first time in place sooner rather than later!

And just because I'll be writing these stats eventually anyway, here are Jeep and Peep ala ROLF!

JEEP (Male)
Brawn 18, Body 15, Brains 7
  Traits: Driver, Inventor, Honorable
  Battle Maneuvers: Basic Attack, Dodge, Double-Strike, Murderous Mitts, Strike Pose
  Important Things Worn/Wielded: Super-Cape (Armor, absorbs up to 2 points of damage).

PEEP (Male)
Brawn 13, Body 9, Brains 5
  Traits: Comic Relief, Driver, Improv Master
  Battle Maneuvers: Basic Attack, Deflect, Disarm, Walking Disaster Area
  Important Things Worn/Wielded: Cheeseburger (Small One-shot Ranged Weapon, or tasty snack. Deals 1 point of damage).