Single Issue Review: Rip Hunter #20

As I have discussed in the past, time travel was a frequent topic in the Silver Age. Almost all of DC's superheroes had some method or another of going backward or forward in time, whether it was the Flash with his cosmic treadmill or the Atom with his time pool. But Rip Hunter was solely a time traveler; that was his entire schtick.

It should have been enough; time travel is an inherently fascinating concept, and the ability to travel to famed historical events would seem to offer endless possibilities for stories. But DC was in the middle of its gorillas and monsters and dinosaurs phase and thus the actual historical content of most issues was somewhat lacking.

Fortunately this was one of the issues that concerned itself with real-life monsters, in the form of Adolf Hitler and his Third Reich. Rip and his pals, Jeff, Bonnie and Corky are filming action on the Eastern front of World War II when they are shot down (Rip's time machine was able to fly as well). The machine is recognized by the Nazis, and Rip explains:



Now of course that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Rip appears to be late-20s, early 30s at most, and so unless he was inventing his time machine in grade school it seems unlikely that 20 years earlier (the comic was published in 1964) he was being featured in news magazines during WWII.

At any rate, Rip is brought to meet Hitler:



Rip is assigned the task of bringing Napoleon back from the 1800s so the Nazis can learn his secret escape route from Russia. To ensure he returns, Hitler orders Jeff held as a hostage.

Comments: Excellent premise for a story, putting incredible pressure on Rip. If he succeeds, Hitler manages to get his crack troops out of Russia, meaning they will be available to repel the D-Day invasion later that year. And if he fails, Jeff gets the firing squad.

Part II brings us back to July 14, 1815. Unfortunately, the history starts to go a little off the rails in this section. This was after Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo. The story emphasizes that the Prussians (i.e., Germans) are in command, which is reasonably true, but only as part of a coalition force that included the English. Indeed, there's this comical scene:



Lafayette wasn't a particularly good friend of Napoleon's, and while Napoleon did surrender aboard the Bellerephon the next day, it wasn't as if he was "escaping". What's going on here?

I suspect that the writer and editor decided that explaining to the readers that the Germans and English had been allies against the French back then was too complicated, so they make it appear as if Napoleon was a good guy. After all, his old buddy is Lafayette, a hero of the American Revolution.

The Prussians are closing in, but Rip manages to decoy them while Corky makes last-minute repairs to the time machine. Rip asks one favor of Napoleon before escorting him to the Bellerephon, and thus the historic meeting takes place:



Rip then takes Napoleon to the Eastern Front, where the Germans are desperate to escape. Napoleon shows the secret exit, through a mountain pass, and the Germans take it. But:



The German general sends a radio message to Hitler advising him of Rip's betrayal. Can he get back in time to prevent the Nazi from killing Jeff?



Comments: A very entertaining story overall. I enjoyed the artwork more as I read on, but Bill Ely (credited at GCD) did not do a very good job on the faces. Everybody has that mannequin look as you can see in the panel where Hitler meets Napoleon.

One very oddball feature about the comic is that each chapter ends with a house ad for the very next issue of Rip Hunter. Here they are:




It's an interesting teaser.

An aside: Don Markstein notes that the Rip Hunter "team" was comprised of four people: Smart guy, strong guy, woman, kid, which was the template for another fantastic foursome that debuted two years after Rip Hunter's first appearance.

Meanwhile....

I try to highlight the work of other comics bloggers at least once every other week, because there's plenty of good blogging going on elsewhere.

Ol' Groove has a tribute to legendary artist Neal Adams.

Why is Neal Adams such a catalyst in the origin of the Groovy Age? 'Cause when Adams came on the scene at DC drawing mags like Strange Adventures (Deadman) and Brave and the Bold, comicdom had never seen anything like him.

Amen. Adams' work was transcendent, and enormously influential. Although he's best known for his Batman and Green Lantern/Green Arrow stories, he was also a prolific cover artist for DC especially in the 1967-68 era, when virtually every title featured several of his covers.

It's been awhile since I linked Fred Hembeck, but that's not because I don't love reading his blog. The main problem Fred has is that he has no permalinks to individual blog entries, so if somebody reads this a month from now and clicks on the link, they're not going to find the entry I pointed to. His January 23rd post is on the Marvel Super-Heroes cartoon show from the 1960s.

I watched faithfully on my primitive black and white TV set--and yes, the Captain America episodes were clearly my favorites, possessing as well the one theme song I could, even many after years last seeing the show, still hum (conversely, I recently checked out some Sub-Mariner episodes--more on THAT later--but y'know, I STILL can't recall that tune!...)-- and then, one day they were gone, and I didn't anymore. Watch, that is.

I can't remember the individual theme songs, but I do remember, "You belong! You belong! To the Merry Marvel Marching Society!"

The Fortress Keeper has a serious post on the Final Crisis series that is nearing conclusion, and the apparent death of Batman (as Bruce Wayne) in that series.

Although this blogger once defended Geoff Johns’ use of gore in Infinite Crisis as an effective way to advance the story, the ever-mounting pile of corpses at both DC and Marvel taught us that modern comics were less about redefining super-heroics in a post-Sept. 11 world (as Messers Quesada and Didio often insist) than getting a rise out of an increasingly small and jaded fanbase.

Once pristine characters like Supergirl and Mary Marvel were shamelessly sexualized, C-list heroes like Tigra were beaten down and humiliated to prop up superstar writers’ pet projects and old-school paragons like Captain America were ridiculed for being “out of touch” with the Facebook nation.

Read it all, and also this post which the Fortress Keeper references. If you want to know why I focus on the Silver Age Comics, it's because that's the last era where superheroes were legitimately heroic, where the stories were uplifting, and where the gore and humiliation were kept to a minimum. As for the "death" of Batman, I'll let Bruce have the last word on that:



On a lighter note, Mark Engblom has an entertaining series on the Superpowers that Time (or Superman's writers) Forgot. In one of the Superman TV episodes from the 1950s, the writers gave Superman the ability to vibrate through solid objects (much like the Flash in the Silver Age).

Put A Lid On It

One of the more interesting aspects of the Silver Age of Comics was the increasing use of fashionable headgear, oddly enough just as the men's hat business was collapsing. I don't know if some haberdashers, driven to despair by their shrinking market, went into designing chapeaus for supervillains or what, but it is undeniable that especially in Marvel Comics, toppers became very elegant during the 1960s.

In Spiderman comics, Mysterio went in for the opaque fishbowl look:



The Green Goblin preferred a stocking cap:



The Whirlwind (fka the Human Top) went in for the knight's helmet:



Magneto's was more football-looking:



Daredevil baddie the Gladiator went for a stylish, yet simple look:



While his occasional partner in crime the Masked Marauder had a weird combination of miner's helmet, goggles and a veil:



One of the wildest hats resulted in a famous nickname: Ol' Hockey-Stick Head:



At least Galactus confined himself to one style; Odin was the Imelda Marcos of hood ornaments:









Update: Commenter Ralph C noted one particular face covering that never came off: Baron Zemo from the early Avengers:

Single Issue Review: Sad Sack #154

Sad Sack was a long-running comic character. Originally a cartoon strip put together during World War II by George Baker for an army weekly, the series was popular enough to get its own comic book starting in 1949. It lasted through to the 1990s.

The Sack (as he was referred to) was an unlikely candidate for stardom. He was a lowly private in the army who had zero success at anything he did. Almost every story ended with Sad Sack getting the short end of the stick.

And yet kids of all ages loved the comic. During the 1950s and 1960s the series kept expanding, adding titles like Sad Sack and the Sarge (155 issues), Sad Sack's Funny Friends (75 issues), Sad Sack Laugh Special (93 issues), Sad Sack Army Life Parade (61 issues). There was even a Little Sad Sack (19 issues). Indeed, it is obvious that Sad Sack was Harvey's biggest hit before Richie Rich.

Why the appeal? Well, for starters, army life was a rich source of comic material, as other cartoonists like Bill Mauldin and Mort Walker had already discovered. Sad Sack had a rich supporting cast, including the Sarge, General Rockjaw, Sadie Sack and Muttsy. And third, reading Sad Sack didn't require much reading.

Here's the opening gag:



Although it says "The End" in the final panel, the story actually continues. Sad Sack has trouble controlling his jet pack when he gets out to fix the flying saucer and flies straight into the hands of alien robots, who clone him many times over. Meanwhile, thinking that the Sack is dead, the Captain wishes:



Well, before you know it, the base is overrun with Sad Sacks working for the aliens. And unlike the original, some of them are quite intelligent and start rising through the ranks. And not just in the army:



Meanwhile, the Sarge has discovered the alien robots and is trying to figure out which is the real Sad Sack:



Clever little gag there. When the Sarge and Sack get back to Earth, they discover that the fake Sacks can't take a punch to the stomach, so the men go around punching every Sad Sack they see, much to the annoyance and pain of the real one.

The story continues with one of the alien robots coming to Earth and having Sad Sack show him around. The story turns into a series of gags on how crowded and polluted everything is, including this scene at a nightclub:



And in the end, the aliens decide not to invade Earth because it's so undesirable.

In the final story, after digging a ditch, Sad Sack is sent to the dry cleaners to pick up Colonel Bagby's suit. There's a tiny tear in the coat, so the tailor has Sad Sack wear it while he sews. But an air raid alert causes him to run outside, where everybody's asking him for orders. Sack says, "Aw, shoot!" and the soldiers treat this as an order. The colonel becomes a hero for brilliantly anticipating the surprise attack, and of course, the Sack goes back to digging ditches.

Comments: The Sad Sack stories are light and pleasant reading. The artwork is simplistic, but consistent.

Spring Cleaning at JLA HQ

This bit of domestic bliss comes to us from Justice League of America #66 (November 1968).

Single Issue Review: Showcase #34

This issue featured the debut of the Silver Age Atom. Although the Golden Age Atom had no real super powers and was merely a strong but short man, Julius Schwartz and writer Gardner Fox had greater aspirations for the Silver Age version.

We start out by meeting Ray Palmer, grad student and researcher in nuclear physics at Ivy University. He is engaged in experiments to make things smaller, but every time he tries he finds that the miniatures eventually explode, making the process impractical.

In a flashback we learn that Ray had discovered a meteor of white dwarf star material, which he had polished into a crystal that could shrink objects. But can he fix the process so the objects don't explode?

We meet his girlfriend, Jean Loring, a defense attorney who's determined to make a success of herself before settling down. While on a hike in a local cavern, he, Jean and a bunch of kids are trapped by a cave-in. Ray uses the crystal to shrink himself, then expands a small hole using his normal strength, which has not gone away with his size. He returns to normal size without exploding, which he later deduces is due to some special property in his own body.

In the second story, a bank teller is surprised when a tiny man (the guy in green shown on the cover) appears and steals the money from her desk.



So now we see the rationale from a story-telling standpoint behind having Ray's girlfriend be a defense attorney; it guarantees that Ray will hear about a fair number of innocent people wrongly accused of crime. And of course the Atom has plenty of incentive to clear those folks, since that will help make Jean a success and result in her accepting Ray's proposal of marriage. It's a very smart bit of characterization.

We learn that Ray has fashioned a suit for himself which is invisible at full size but is his familiar red and blue outfit when he shrinks. He discovers the green mite trying to rob his laboratory of Europium. When the Atom defeats him, the little man explains telepathically that he's from another planet and requires the Europium to teleport back to his home. A criminal has gained control of him and is forcing him to commit the robberies.

The controller, named Carl Ballard, calls the tiny man (Kulan Dar) back to him, but the Atom has gained a mental image of the crook and is able to use the police mug book to identify him. We see the Atom use one of his very cool and unique powers of using a telephone to transport himself to Ballard's residence:



The Atom mops up Ballard and helps the tiny man get his Europium. In return, Kulan Dar agrees to testify for the defense, and helps Jean win her very first case.

Comments: An excellent start for the series, scripted by Gardner Fox with pencils by Gil Kane and inks by Murphy Anderson. The appearance of another midget is a bit too convenient, but otherwise the two stories are fine with the Atom being developed on the fly nicely.

Around the Comics 'Sphere

Here's an interesting website dedicated to Dick Tracy Memorabilia. I was not much of a fan of Tracy in the comics pages in the 1960s, but I remember reading a bunch of the strips from the 1930s in a book at one point and being absolutely captivated with Flattop. Entertaining blog!

The Fortress Keeper posts a complete tentacle story from Airboy. Airboy is one of my favorite Golden Age characters. He started as a teenage flier fighting the Japs and Nazis, and survived the end of the war by going to more science-fiction like plots. FK also links to another blogger who has posted the two famous rat stories from Airboy. These stories were highlighted by Steranko in one of the volumes of the History of the Comic Books, and I'd wanted to read them for years. Thanks FK and Mr Door Tree!

Bill Jourdain has a more serious post on the topic of censorship of racially insensitive characterizations in reprints of comics from the 1940s. I'm a big believer in reprinting the material exactly as it originally appeared; if it's perceived to be racist, include a disclaimer. I wrote about the Comics Code censorship of a Two-Face reprint in the 1960s.

Robby Reed, author of Dial B for Blog, in my opinion the finest comics blog ever imagined, publishes his final post, including (at the end) a photo of Robby (real name Kirk Kimball). Kirk did it all, from witty and talented photoshops to terrific reporting. If you haven't checked out Dial B, there are 500 issues sitting in his archive.

There's A Man Who Leads a Life of Danger

One of the great theme songs of all time. With the death of Patrick McGoohan it seems like a perfect time to cover Secret Agent #1, which arrived in the comics stores in 1966, at the absolute height of the spy boom of the 1960s.

The story starts out with an Air Force bomber in trouble in the tropics. The pilot jettisons "the package", aka a hydrogen bomb before crash-landing the plane. John Drake is assigned to cover the pilot, who was severely injured and find out where the bomb was dropped. As was common, the gadgets are featured:



But the pilot dies without revealing his secrets and so Drake must join a safari which is going near where the plane must have jettisoned the bomb. He meets a beautiful woman and a Russian named Gahanna who is clearly the heavy. Here's one of those classic "Who's gonna do it?" panels:



Scheer quickly gets himself killed, and Gahanna was with Drake when it happens, so it is obvious that there is another villain on the safari. Mr Igor is the next to bite the dust, and we learn that Filmore is a former atomic scientist who's opposed to nuclear weapons. So when Professor Fathershun is killed, that leaves us with two options: Either Jan Lovelace is the villain or Filmore is not so "former".

When they find the bomb, Filmore reveals that he's really just a no-nukes kook:



But Drake manages to disarm him and foil the plan. It turns out that Scheer was a former Nazi and Igor (apparently) a former concentration camp victim, so Igor killed Scheer and then Gahanna killed the others. Drake holds the bomb until the authorities can come and move it to safety.

Comments: Although I was not a big fan of the Gold Key line, I have to confess that this is a pretty well-executed story. The art is acceptable if never soaring, but the plot is intricate and realistic; indeed so realistic that I can't help but wonder if it was based on an actual episode of the TV show. One thing is conspicuously missing, and that is the resolution of the hinted attraction between Drake and Jan Lovelace; they didn't leave those parts out of the James Bond movies of the time.

Other bloggers covering McGoohan:

Gorilla Daze has some Kirby Prisoner. The Prisoner was, of course, McGoohan's other famed series in the US; although it lasted only about 13 episodes it is indeed a classic of paranoia.

The Fortress Keeper has more, including the video of the intro to the Prisoner.

Update: Booksteve points out a possible reason for the unconsummated relationship between Drake and Lovelace.

New York born but veddy British nonetheless, he was reportedly in the running to have been the original James Bond but his refusal to kiss women onscreen--virtually unheard of--would have kept that from happening.

Single Issue Review: Teen Titans #19

This was the beginning of the "hip" new Teen Titans, and in some ways it worked, but in others you can only shake your head in amazement. The story begins with a rather nervous-looking young man approaching the "School of Criminology" with a proposal:



Pretty efficient way of setting the stage, but it also fails to impress us with the major villain for the issue.

Speedy shows up at the Teen Titans' headquarters. There are two cases requiring the attention of the youngsters, and Speedy does the math in his head quickly:



That's pretty cool; Speedy comes off well. Together, he and Wonder Girl head for a school in New England, where prejudice has reared its ugly head, with fights between Jews and (presumably) Christians. They help to break things up:



But are captured by Sepastopol, who taunts them with his snazzy new uniform:



Note to villains: Do not incorporate the color pink into your costume. And for God's sake, don't wear a dunce cap!

In the second part, Robin, Kid Flash and Aqualad arrive just in time to prevent a bunch of farmers from attacking some kids who've created a discotheque in a barn. But once again, it's just a pretext to capture them.

With all the Titans now captured, Punch decides to call the principal of the School of Criminology. Even Speedy senses this is rather foolish:



With the Titans quickly freed, all that remains is for the mop-up:



Damn, that Gil Kane could draw a punch!

Comments: Obviously an exceedingly silly story, this issue nonetheless has plenty of charm. The hip new Speedy goes over well and the storyline flows right from the opening panel. Thanks to writer Mike Friedrich, the teen characters talk like teens of the late 1960s (and not like teens of the 1950s), with the exception of one "Daddio" which did make me cringe. I don't think Sylvester Sepastopol ever returned in the DC universe.

Friday Trivia Quiz #19 Answers

1. What was the name of Jimmy Olsen's helicopter?

His distinctive red helicopter was called the Flying Newsroom.

2. What was the secret identity of the Batman of the Future?

There are two acceptable answers: Brane Taylor and Bron Wayn E7705. Brane Taylor appeared in two separate Batman stories of the 1950s, while Bron Wayn popped up in a World's Finest issue in the 1960s.

3. What substance was the weakness of the Superman of 2965?

Seawater.

4. What Superman villain was based on the Golden Age Captain Marvel?

Zha-Vam was clearly inspired by Captain Marvel.

5. Who was Wonder-Man (DC 1960s version)?

Wonder-Man was one of Superman's robots, originally named Ajax.

Dan and Michael Rebain got them all right, although Dan only gets half credit for #3, which is indeed seawater (i.e., brine), not just plain H2O. cmn gets the first credit for that question, as saltwater is close enough. Michael P gets first credit for #1, while Chris Johnson was the first to come up with #2.

Single Issue Review: Flash #156

These panels set the stage:



I love that little gag in the opening panel. Of course, the representatives are unconvinced until the alien demonstrates his powers, by turning everything in the room to gold. Somehow the representatives manage to restrain themselves from grabbing up everything in sight long enough to put out a call for the Flash. But he refuses to turn himself in.

The alien reveals that Barry Allen is the Flash in an effort to assist the authorities in their effort to capture him. Well, of course we pretty much assume that somehow now everybody will forget that Barry Allen is the Flash, so it creates an interesting puzzle for the reader: How do they get him out of this one?

At this point I'm thinking that the alien must not be who he appears to be; the most obvious candidates are Professor Zoom and Abra Cadabra. Since they are from the future they would know the Flash's secret identity. The turning the room into gold looks like a magic trick, which says it must be the latter.

Well, it made sense, but in fact the story is quickly revealed to be quite different. The alien is part of a group of tyrant aristocrats who have been defeated in a battle by their former serfs. They realize where they went wrong in the crucial moment, and plan to go back in time using the Flash and rectify that mistake.

They initially tried to take over Flash's mind, and came close. But he realized that their mind control only worked on him when he was traveling at very high speeds. So he had to slow down enough to prevent the mind control from working, while still going fast enough to accomplish his goal of creating a machine to defeat the mind control mechanism.

But now the alien's time limit is running out:



Wow. That is characterization done right! Kid Flash comes through:



So that Barry can use his full super-speed to foil the plot of the tyrants. But there remains the problem of everybody on Earth knowing Flash's secret identity.



Double wow. As you can probably guess, Iris gives her consent and the Flash eliminates the memory of his identity being revealed to everybody on the planet. As I covered in the past, Barry doesn't quite live up to his promise, but in another way he does.

Comments: A terrific story, absolutely a classic. Wonderful characterization in this story for Barry, Wally, and Iris. The usual superior artwork from Infantino combines perfectly with John Broome's fascinating script.

Friday Trivia Quiz #19

1. What was the name of Jimmy Olsen's helicopter?

2. What was the secret identity of the Batman of the Future?

3. What substance was the weakness of the Superman of 2965?

4. What Superman villain was based on the Golden Age Captain Marvel?

5. Who was Wonder-Man (DC 1960s version)?

Obama A Spiderman Fan, McCain Prefers Batman

Interesting article on an upcoming Spiderman issue to feature the new president-elect:

"It was a natural after we learned the new president is a Spider-Man fan," says Marvel editor in chief Joe Quesada about reports that Obama once collected Spider-Man comics. "We thought, 'Fantastic! We have a comic-book geek in the White House.' "

The White House transition team did not respond to a question about the extent of Obama's comic-book geekiness, but Obama did mention Spider-Man during the campaign, primarily at children-oriented events. And during an Entertainment Weekly pop culture survey, Obama said Batman and Spider-Man were his top superheroes because of their "inner turmoil." (John McCain picked Batman.)

The article also mentions the famed comic disaster of Action Comics #309:

John F. Kennedy appeared in Action Comics #309 in 1963, when he helped protect Clark Kent's secret identity.

"If I can't trust the president of the United States, who can I trust?" Superman tells Kennedy.

That issue appeared a week after Kennedy was assassinated. DC Comics had to explain later that it was too late to recall the book.

I covered that famous comic book here.

Other Voices, Other Blogs

Mark Engblom is looking for further information on a very cool Revell models giveaway: A complete Gemini space capsule. In the comments I speculated that it was made of that favorite substance of comic book advertisers of the 1960s: 200-lb fiberboard (aka cardboard).

Update: Looks like I was wrong:



As it happens, somebody over at Boing-Boing found the famed 200-lb fiberboard submarine which was advertised endlessly in Silver Age Comics. It actually looks pretty cool, but at $6.98 in 1967 dollars (when comic books were 12 cents) it seems a tad pricey.

Booksteve's Library points out a connection between the THUNDER Agent Dynamo, and Stan (the Man) Lee.

Bill Jourdain has an excellent post on Real Fact Comics #5, a GA comic featuring the "true" story about the creation of Batman by Bob Kane. It pains me to admit this but I used to defend Kane, but reading Dial B for Blog's tremendous post on the artwork swipes used to create Detective #27, and Kane's letter to Batmania in 1965 where he (falsely) claimed to be still drawing 90% of the Batman stories finally convinced me that he's indefensible.

Speaking of Batman, my buddy Chris at I Believe In Batmite has a good post on Batman #116's The Winged Bat-People, one of the many "other dimension" stories from the Silver Age DC.

If you have a comic-related post that you would like me to highlight here either trackback to this post or leave a message in the comments section.

Worst Covers of the Silver Age: Four Color #1100

Good lord. Annette Funicello was a pretty girl, but you'd never guess it from this photo cover. One assumes that it cannot have been done by a professional photographer; the shadows make it look like she has a pair of black eyes. And is it just me, or does there appear to be no real connection between the cat and the girl?

Single Issue Review: Uncle Scrooge #15

Before there was Richie Rich, there was Uncle Scrooge. Originally a supporting character in Donald Duck comics, Uncle Scrooge quickly became so popular that he received his own magazine. Scrooge was of course based partly on the famous Charles Dickens character, but whereas every showing of the Christmas Carol ends with him repenting his miserly ways, Donald's uncle remained a confirmed tightwad.

The benefit of this was that Scrooge was immensely wealthy, with a fortune that would undoubtedly dwarf those of Bill Gates and Warren Buffet combined. A running gag in the series had Uncle Scrooge swimming around in his money like it was a pool. A deep pool:



The lead story in this issue (Sept-Nov 1956) is one of the most famous Scrooge tales, The Second-Richest Duck. Uncle Scrooge starts out lecturing Donald, who plans to blow some money on a soda. Scrooge observes that he's still got the first dime he ever made, on a string in his pocket. Shortly later, while saving money perusing old newspapers in the park, Scrooge learns that a South African duck claims to have a larger fortune. He checks with his own accountant:



Uncle Scrooge sets sail for South Africa, bringing along with him one of the symbols of his hoarding nature: a large ball of string that he's been saving over the years. He finds a piece of string on the ship and starts to wind it onto his ball, only to discover that the string is connected to another duck's ball of string. Of course, it is Flintheart Glomgold himself, although Scrooge does not discover that until he confronts Glomgold in his offices:



The two ducks compare their fortunes and eventually come to the conclusion that they are tied, with only their respective balls of string left to be valued. They resolve to unwind their string as they walk across Africa.

This leads to some hair-raising adventures. Both Glomgold and Scrooge sabotage the other's ball of string during the contest. When Scrooge offers the South African a cup of coffee, the latter suggests that Scrooge secure his ball atop a mound. Of course, the coffee was drugged, and the mound turns out to be an anthill, with the ants chewing up a sizeable portion of the string.

Eventually the two tightwads turn out to have exactly the same amount of string, so it appears that the contest will be tied. But Scrooge remembers the small bit of string that his #1 dime is attached to, and this proves the winning difference in the contest.

Comments: Many Carl Barks' stories are generally acknowledged as classics, and this is clearly one of his best stories ever, with many amusing situations and a terrific plot, introducing a longtime rival to the lead character.

The filler comic is Gyro Gearloose, the genius inventor. He discovers that he can't concentrate on his latest invention due to the racket one of the neighborhood cats is making. He decides to try to understand what the cat is saying, and creates a cat-human translating machine. He learns that the cat is lovesick, but that another cat in the neighborhood is muscling in on his gal. Gyro is annoyed to learn that cats' lives are every bit as petty as human lives, and throws a shoe at the cats. But they start singing to him. The noise gives him an idea and he creates a Gyro to cat translator and sings to them, which scares them away and gives him the quiet he needs to resume inventing things.

The second Scrooge story is shorter. Uncle Scrooge has been proud to see Duckburg grow up around him, but he's dismayed when the progress results in a freeway through his property. He moves his vault to a river valley, but now Duckburg needs a reservoir which requires him to move his vault again. He moves to the top of a mountain, but it turns out that now he's blocking the launch of a rocket. So he decides to make his vault permanently mobile:



Comments: Cute little story with an interesting message that even Scrooge can't stop progress. Of course, one assumes that by greasing the right palms he could have avoided much misery, but Scrooge didn't get rich by using his money to get himself out of a jam.

There are two one-page gag strips in the book, on the inside covers. In the first, Scrooge is so cheap that he only offers a famous sculptor $1 to create a bust of him. When the sculptor throws him face down into the mud, Scrooge makes a mold from the puddle and voila, he has his bust for nothing! In the second, Donald and Scrooge want to see the orchestra, but neither is willing to part with the money required for the show. They sneak in inside some of the instruments, but Uncle Scrooge wonders if it was worth it, since he ended up inside one of the kettle drums.

Worst Covers of the Silver Age: Justice League of America #25

Wow. There's a lot not to like there, starting with the obvious. What the heck is going on? It almost looks like Mike Sekowsky forgot to draw most of the Flash. Superman's head was clearly redrawn (probably by Superman's regular artist, Curt Swan), but the effort leaves him with an undersized head and a very long neck. The Flash's cabeza looks like it was pasted on to his shoulders without the benefit of a neck.

Looking at the story inside, the Flash was disappearing and Superman and Green Lantern are at least trying to save him. But what does the Atom think he's doing running up the Scarlet Speedster's arm? And Wonder Woman, while well-drawn, isn't going to help things much with her magic lasso; assuming she does get it around the Flash's head isn't she more like to choke him to death?