Rayguns and other fun weapons

Wow! Really wish I had a copy of this issue. It's one of the ones I didn't read back when it came out. Would love to know how and why he has a gas mask on a horse!

Pretty Rockety looking 3-wheeled car. Probably a great vehicle for a 40s ear villain or hero.

Always enjoy looking through these weird/wacky pics but there's some really useful stuff with Nazis/Pseudo science in here that I can use for the Lore Knights and (eventually) Haunt/Steeplejack.

Thought: Lightning Bullet. What era do you want to set him in as the power level/feel of the character seems a good fit for WWII...

Hadn't really thought of a time period for Lightning Bullet.  was thinking it would be modern times.  If we can get other players, guess we would have to see what time period they would want.  Though ...

thinking about it, since he is expert in miniaturization he would be better placed in the 1950s or later.  Looking up history of transistors, I get:

The transistor was successfully demonstrated on December 23, 1947 at Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey. Bell Labs is the research arm of American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T). The three individuals credited with the invention of the transistor were William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain.
..........................
Texas Instruments of Dallas, Texas first started commercial production of junction transistors for portable radios in 1954. The Sony Company of Japan soon acquired the right to produce transistors and came to dominate the market. In the 1960's Sony began to manufacture television sets using transistors rather than vacuum tubes. Soon afterwards vacuum tube technology became obsolete.


So ... how about setting the adventures in the mid-1950s?  1954-1956, then we get Commies, atomic energy, rocketships, rock 'n' roll and aliens!  NASA wasn't formed until 1958 so all the Army, Navy and Air Force in America were all still competing in building missiles and rocketships.  Got all those old B-movie Sci-Fi Flicks and TV shows to use for inspiration.  The Eisenhower years.  Leave it to Beaver.  I Love Lucy.  Rise of Westerns on TV.  The last of movie serials was released in 1956 as TV became more popular and older serials were cut and sold as movies to TV stations.

Top-rated United States television programs of 1954–55
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This table displays the top-rated primetime television series of the 1954-55 season as measured by Nielsen Media Research.[1]

Rank Program Network Rating
1 I Love Lucy CBS 49.3
2 The Jackie Gleason Show 42.4
3 Dragnet NBC 42.1
4 You Bet Your Life 41.0
5 The Toast of the Town CBS 39.6
6 Disneyland ABC 39.1
7 The Jack Benny Show CBS 38.3
8 The George Gobel Show NBC 35.2
9 Ford Theatre 34.9
10 December Bride CBS 34.7
11 The Buick-Berle Show NBC 34.6
12 This Is Your Life 34.5
13 I've Got a Secret CBS 34.0
14 Two for the Money 33.9
15 Your Hit Parade NBC 33.6
16 The Millionaire CBS 33.0
17 General Electric Theater 32.6
18 Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts 32.5
19 Private Secretary 32.2
20 Fireside Theatre NBC 31.1
21 The Life of Riley 30.9
22 Arthur Godfrey and His Friends CBS 29.8
23 The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin ABC 29.5
24 Topper CBS 29.4
25 Pabst Blue Ribbon Bouts 29.1
26 The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show 29.0
27 The Colgate Comedy Hour NBC 28.0
28 The Loretta Young Show 27.7
29 My Little Margie 27.1
30 The Roy Rogers Show 26.9

Top-rated United States television programs of 1955–56
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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This table displays the top-rated primetime television series of the 1955-56 season as measured by Nielsen Media Research.[1]

Rank Program Network Rating
1 The $64,000 Question CBS 47.5
2 I Love Lucy 46.1
3 The Ed Sullivan Show 39.5
4 Disneyland ABC 37.4
5 The Jack Benny Show CBS 37.2
6 December Bride 37.0
7 You Bet Your Life NBC 35.4
8 Dragnet 35.0
9 The Millionaire CBS 33.8
10 I've Got a Secret 33.5
11 General Electric Theater 32.9
12 Private Secretary 32.4
Ford Theatre NBC
14 The Red Skelton Show CBS 32.3
15 The George Gobel Show NBC 31.9
16 Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts CBS 31.1
17 The Lineup 30.8
18 The Perry Como Show NBC 30.3
19 The Honeymooners CBS 30.2
20 The Adventures of Robin Hood 30.1
21 The Life of Riley NBC 29.9
22 Climax! CBS 20.6
23 Your Hit Parade NBC 29.1
24 Fireside Theatre 29.0
25 Lux Video Theatre 28.9
26 This Is Your Life 28.8
27 People Are Funny 28.4
The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show CBS
29 The Chevy Show NBC 28.2
30 The Phil Silvers Show CBS 28.1



1951-55 is the dead period where the Golden Age had already ended and the Silver Age was about to start, in 1956 with the Silver Age Flash being published, dated Oct, 1956.



So most of the Golden Age heroes are gone - dead, retired and married with kids, or something.  A few are still left and a couple of new ones have shown but the number is low in comparison.  Something to think about anyways.