Batman in the 1960s Issue 26: March/April 1964

 

The Caped Crusader in the 1960s
by Jack Seabrook
& Peter Enfantino

Moldoff

Detective Comics #325

"The Strange Lives of the Cat-Man"

Story by Bill Finger

Art by Sheldon Moldoff & Charles Paris

Despite evidence to the contrary, the Cat-Man is alive and well and prowling the alleys of Gotham. Batman and Robin are flabbergasted. Remember, they witnessed the villain's final visit to the litter box when his boat exploded only a few months before. What could explain his immortality?

After yet another battle with the Dynamic Duo (while stealing a rare "black lion" from millionaire John Talbot's estate), the Cat-Man falls off a high cliff to the rocks below but magically misses the rocks and glides effortlessly into the water. All parties are astonished.

Back at his Cat-Lair, Cat-Man recalls a trip to a curio shop, where he stumbled upon a bolt of cloth created by natives of a "small Pacific island" and listened in awe as the shop owner recited a legend concerning said material: the cloth will protect the wearer. Suddenly, Cat-Man knows he has at least six more lives to use before his luck runs out. Where best to use up such golden fleece than at the local refinery plant, where he intends to make off with the workers' payroll? Why, there must be at least two grand in that haul, right?

As is his wont, the Feline Felon leaves a clue to the Caped Crusaders as to what he'll be up to, and the World's Greatest Detective takes at least sixty seconds to work out the lame tease. The boys trap Cat-Man atop a high tower, but the villain simply jumps onto a batch of electrical lines and hightails it to freedom. One more life gone, five to go.

Back at police headquarters, Batman and Robin bump into Kathy Kane, who is "anxious" for an update. Something in what Bats tells her sparks an idea and she heads back to her cave, where she examines the costume Cat-Man made her when he considered her an ally (issue #318). When she unfurls the cape, it reveals a message that somehow no one (including Cat-Man himself!) ever saw: The cloth that protects the idol shall nine lives on the wearer bestow. Batwoman suddenly understands that, once she dons the cape and cowl, she is also virtually invincible!

Meanwhile, the Dynamic Dopes attempt to apprehend the Cat-Man, only to be knocked unconscious and tied up. Cackling, the Cat-Man lights a ring of oil around the pair and then exits stage left, ostensibly to read their obituaries later in the Gotham Gazette. To the surprise of Batman and Robin, Batwoman arrives and waltzes through the burning ring of fire to rescue them. She then leaves to track her prey, who is about to plunder the India jewels section of the World Trades Fair.

When Batwoman arrives to quash Cat-Man's plans, the menace explains that he'll simply jump from the building and escape, since he has four more lives left. "Not so fast," the sexy heroine warns, "the bolt of cloth used for our costumes allows for nine lives altogether ("Now keep up with me, all you eight-year-olds," she says and winks at the audience) and I used up two more on the way over here in order to exhaust your inventory." Batman and Robin arrive just in time to deliver the knockout punch and haul the Cat-Man's tail to prison. The heroes enjoy a laugh at the caged cat's expense.

"The Strange Lives of the Cat-Man" is a fun read and it has some intricate details that go beyond the usual Batman script. There's the origin of the material made for Cat-Man's uni, which also provides a "satisfactory" explanation for all those near-death escapes. There's the spotlight on Batwoman as main hero, the girl who gets the job done this time without much help from our stars. And, oddly enough, Cat-Man uses no henchmen to help him. 

I love when Catwoman displays the powers of her Cat-costume by walking through a raging fire to aid her allies and then Batman tells her that, as soon as they're safe, he's going to have a talk with her, like he's her dad. She tells him the talk will have to wait, since she's a busy girl. The stuffed elephant in the India room was, without doubt, an inspiration for the classic "chest-burster" scene in the finale of the first two-parter of the '66 show, starring Frank Gorshin as the Riddler. Off topic, but there was never a better two-parter in that series. 

This was the last appearance of Cat-Man until the early '90s, when he was rebooted by Alan Grant for Shadow of the Bat #7. At that time, Cat-Man became a member of the super-villain group, the Misfits. I'll miss this clown, as he was much more entertaining than aliens, mobsters, or hokey one-shot villains.-Peter

Jack-I like Cat-Man, too, and noticed with delight that he, like Batman, wears his Cat-Man mask under other masks when he impersonates people. Also, like Batman, his little cat ears don't push the mask out of shape. I'm always happy to see Batwoman; in fact, she's probably my favorite thing about the series right now.

Moldoff

Batman #162

"The Batman Creature!"

Story by Dave Wood

Art by Sheldon Moldoff & Charles Paris

"Robin's New Secret Identity!"

Story by Dave Wood

Art by Sheldon Moldoff & Charles Paris

Two madmen with fantastic strength rob the Gotham City Bank! Batman and Robin arrive at the scene and notice that the men seem like hybrids of men and animals--in this case, a lion and a gorilla. The man-beasts escape and make their way to a camouflaged locale on the edge of Gotham, where Eric Barroc, "maker of the trained beast-humans," has figured out how to shine a ray on animals and turn them into human form, yet still with their animal urges and strength.

Eric transforms a bull and a jaguar into human form and they rob the dignitaries at an exclusive reception. Batman and Robin again appear, and this time, Batman follows the jaguar man back to the remote box canyon where Barroc has animals in cages, waiting to be transformed. In order to escape capture, Barroc trains his ray on Batman, who transforms into "The Batman Creature!" Gorilla-Batman heads downtown, where Robin (driving the Batmobile by himself!) and Batwoman try to figure out what to do, while Bat-Kong starts climbing the Gotham State Building.

Robin and Batwoman manage to get through to the altered Batman, who climbs down, calms down, and helps them overpower a couple of beast-humans who have robbed Trans-Ocean Lines. Batman, Robin, and Batwoman head back to the box canyon, where they overpower some rampaging beasts, knock out Barroc, and shine the ray on Batman, turning him back into his old self.

King Kong is my favorite movie, so how could I resist a story where Batman turns into a sort of gorilla and climbs a tall building? I'm most impressed with Robin behind the wheel of the Batmobile. Is he old enough to drive?

When he's Robin, everything is rosy, but when Dick Grayson is just Dick, he's not satisfied. Afraid of revealing his secret identity by being too successful at a school basketball game, the Boy Wonder goes home, suits up, and helps Batman try to catch some crooks who are escaping by helium balloon after a robbery. Robin saves the day and, back at Wayne Manor, decides to put on a disguise (basically, a red wig) before heading to the rec center to join a pickup game of B-Ball.

"Danny" excels but falls and sustains a knock to the head that causes amnesia. That evening, there's no sign of Dick at Wayne Manor and, when Batman rescues a woman from a building fire, "Danny" races to help and brings a child out of the inferno to safety. Back at the Batcave, Batman puts two and two together and realizes that "Danny" is Dick. Meanwhile, Dick notices that he's wearing a wig, assumes he was in trouble before losing his memory, and decides to turn himself in at police HQ. On his way, he encounters a robbery just as Batman makes the scene. Batman calls Danny "Robin," his memory returns, and all is well.

It's astonishing that Dick Grayson would seriously think that if he did too well playing basketball at school then someone might suspect him of being Robin, the Boy Wonder, as if only a heroic teen could score more than one basket per game. The other thing I've noticed in these stories is that there are an awful lot of holdups in Gotham City. You'd think that, with the Dynamic Duo constantly on patrol, crooks would relocate, but that doesn't seem to be the case.-Jack

Peter-Two perfect examples of why, when Julius Schwartz took over editorial duties on the Batman titles in May 1964, a "new look" was essential to save the Batman character from slipping into obscurity. Sure, the character had been around for twenty-five years, but sales were beginning to slip and the scripts were, for the most part, inane and incomprehensible. How can you work up any suspense in a strip where aliens can swoop down and make everything alright? In "Bat Creature," the Dark Knight becomes some kind of dog-thing and climbs to the top of what appears to be the Empire State Building, where he's quickly fired upon by the Air Force. His size varies from panel to panel. He changes from evil to good in the wink of an eye. It probably wouldn't be so bad if we didn't get this kind of plot every other issue. "Robin's New Secret Identity!" is even worse. The whiny kid ain't getting enough attention, so he fabricates a "Danny." If he's pissed about no one fawning over him on the basketball court, how does he handle the non-attention when he's the World's Greatest Detective's Second Banana? But is Batman really the sleuth we think he is if he can't sniff out his little buddy when he's standing right next to him in bad make-up? Oh, and about those 1960s basketball uniforms... Nothing like shooting a jump shot in your Sunday best.

Moldoff

Detective Comics #326

"Captives of the Alien Zoo!"

Story by Dave Wood

Art by Sheldon Moldoff & Charles Paris

Flying high over Africa, Batman and Robin become distressed when the Bat-Plane is struck by lightning and they lose control. Crash landing, they find themselves in the midst of a pride of lions. They manage to wrangle the beasts but are surprised when they are caught in a solar energy fencing beam, which encircles them in a helpless position. Emerging from the jungle are Khor and Ramz, two aliens from an outer space/extra-dimensional world, here on Earth to capture animals for their other-worldly circus. Batman dumbfoundingly exclaims "Look Robin! They're aliens! And they look just like the ones we fought a couple months ago!"

The Dynamic Duo are hurried onto a spaceship and carted off to another planet, where they become "Captives of the Alien Zoo!" The duo are trained to perform simple circus tricks but, while observing their fellow prisoners, Batman deduces that a few of the aliens are training the simple-minded creatures to perform acts resembling a Gotham candy store heist. 

"These aliens are thieves, Robin! We have to put a stop to this chicanery!" proclaims the World's Greatest Detective. Batman finally uses the acid he must have forgotten was in his utility belt to dissolve the cage bars and the boys escape into the night.

While trying to figure out where you escape to when you're trapped on another planet, Batman and Robin stumble onto a harrowing sight: one of the locals being chased by a giant bull-like creature. Sensing that interplanetary steer are all alike, Bats uses his cape to blind the rampaging monster and save the rotund alien's life. Out of gratitude, the BEM grants Batman and Robin their freedom. Before the Caped Crusaders board their transportation home, Bats tells his savior all about the heist ring back at the zoo, and the three enjoy a good laugh. Our heroes head back to Africa to clean up the wreckage of another Bat-vehicle.

Or do they head straight back to Gotham and leave the twisted metal to rot in the African jungle? That's the story I want to read: how the boys commandeer a scrap-cleaning expedition. It would have to be better than the bottom-of-the-barrel crap we just endured. Quite a celebration for the 300th appearance of the Dark Knight in 'tec (no notice of such anywhere to be found). Dave Wood's script and Shelly's pencils are both excesses of laziness. So much is never explained: why don't the boys require oxygen on this far-off planet? They simply step off the ship and breathe the clean, deep-space air. Why does Bats persevere through days and nights of malnutrition and exposure to the elements before deciding to use his Bat-Acid? What's the plan when they escape? 

I'm not privy to the DC correspondence from 1964, but I have to believe the company was receiving LOCs from fans who were tired of the same old alien plot and crappy doodles. That's why the shake-up occurred. Can John Broome and Gardner Fox resurrect that sense of mystery and darkness the character once oozed? Can Carmine Infantino change the look of a strip that had become content with aliens who were nothing more than circles with beaks? Time will tell if Julie can turn the ship around just before it hits the iceberg or if we're swapping one form of Bat-Guano for another. It was the 1960s, after all.-Peter

Jack-The alien zoo story was pretty weak, but even this is better than most of what we're reading in the Atlas comics of 1956. DC comics always had a bottom line level of quality, even when they were at their most infantile. I'm looking forward to the New Look Batman, even though I see that Moldoff continues as one of the artists, at least at the start.

Next Week...
At Long Last...
The Coming of Ditko!

Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 115: Atlas/ Marvel Horror & Science Fiction Comics!

 

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 100

March 1956 Part II

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Mystery Tales #39

Cover by Bill Everett

"The House That Lived" (a: Bernie Krigstein) ★★★★

"The Unseen Ones!" (a: Vic Carrabotta) ★★1/2

"They Walk Among Us!" (a: Tony DiPreta) ★

"Man Alive!" (a: Bob Brown) ★

"Once Upon a Time" (a: Vince Colletta) ★★

"The Luck of Harry Hathaway" (a: John Tartaglione) ★★1/2

Jonathan and Elvira have owned their huge house since the kids were little but now, with the children grown up and moved out, the home has become too much to keep up with and they're forced to sell it. A real estate speculator buys the property with an eye to converting it into a hotel, but the house seems to fight off any such plan. In the end, the businessman sells the home to a young couple who promise to treat the building with the utmost care and love.

"The House That Lived" is a charming fantasy with style and a message that is easy to swallow. Nothing maudlin here. I have no inside knowledge to support my thought that when an Atlas bullpen writer found out Bernie Krigstein was illustrating his script, the creative juices began to flow, but there is evidence that Bernie worked magic with even the scarcest of a concept. Carl Wessler, author of "The House That Lived," surely must have had some clue he'd be paired with Krigstein, as those dozens of little Eisner-esque panels must have taken some mapping out. "The House That Lived" might just be the best post-code Atlas I've yet read.

A Navy ship sights an unmanned sailboat near a small island and attempts to tow it in to safety. Once in port, they discover the island is completely deserted as well. What's the story? Well, "The Unseen Ones!" certainly builds up an atmosphere of genuine suspense, but the payoff is cliched and, as with a lot of these post-code strips, delivered with no explanation whatsoever. In "They Walk Among Us," Jerry Fulton suddenly develops telepathic powers and uses them to get closer to his dream girl, only to discover aliens are out to get him. Read my mind.

Peter Pawling is a sickly, weak little man with a glamorous, gorgeous girlfriend, but his constant whining and need to run to a pharmacy have babe-a-licious Kay heading for the exit. Desperate to get his woman back, Peter buys a heating cabinet to strengthen his body and discovers it's a portal to the prehistoric past. Not all of it is bad news, however; Peter is forced to endure healthy food and a strict exercise regimen thanks to his tribe leader, Og, and becomes a strongman. Hopping back into his time travel machine, Pawling rejoins 1950s culture, shows Kay he is a he-man now, and lives happily ever after. "Man Alive," this is a dumb story! 

"Once Upon a Time" there lived a fair maiden named Princess Melissa, whose father, the king, insists she marry into wealth and power. But Melissa would rather be alone with her fairy tale books. Then an evil knight attempts a coup, demanding that Melissa be handed over or the kingdom will fall, and the brave Sir Percival steps forward and conquers the black knight. He wins the hand of Melissa and the princess finally gives up her fantasy tomes. This nicely-Illustrated three-pager is capped off with a completely unnecessary final line that informs us that Melissa's kingdom is actually on another planet. 

If Harry Hathaway didn't have bad luck, he'd have no luck at all. Harry runs across a horseshoe in the middle of the street and believes it should bring him good luck, but nothing seems to be going the schlub's way. Unbeknownst to our dopey protagonist, he's actually weaving his way through an obstacle course of life-ending events, narrowly missing death time after time. With a shrug, Harry tosses the horseshoe in the street and another schlub comes along to pick it up. "The Luck of Harry Hathaway" is not groundbreaking, but it is entertaining in an It's a Wonderful Life kinda way.-Peter

Mystic #45

Cover by Carl Burgos

"When the Ocean Vanished" (a: John Forte) ★1/2

"A Trip to the Moon" (a: Manny Stallman) ★1/2

"The Darkness Outside!" (a: Dick Ayers) ★

"Suggestion Box!" (a: Ed Moore) ★1/2

"The Angry Pharaoh!" (a: Bill Benulis) ★★

Scorned by his colleagues, Professor Alex Torgoff invents a gravity-pulling accelerator that sucks up "the entire ocean" and sends it to the moon. No one seems to see this, but the evidence is right there on display the next morning. Torgoff snickers and vows to become "head of the academy" (which academy is not specified) and "ruler of the world," or else every last drop of water on Earth will make the same outer space trip.

While calibrating his accelerator, Torgoff gets a little thirsty and heads out to his pond (he lives in the desert), only to discover he inadvertently sent his little pond packing, necessitating a drive into town. His car breaks down and he’s forced to walk the rest of the way. Torgoff suffers heat stroke and spends the rest of his days in a wheelchair, brain dead. The world never finds out where the oceans went but, after time, little rivers and dales fill them back up. The end. 

"When the Ocean Vanished" is more safe, post-code nonsense (evidently, the CCA required that all dried up bodies of water be replaced by tale’s-end) that might bring one or two smiles to a reader’s face while not requiring one iota of brain stress. I’m not sure evil "genius" Torgoff really thought his whole plan through. I love the splash where the four gigantic fish of the ocean are pictured next to the stranded vessels.

In the nonsensical "A Trip to the Moon," poor unattractive schlub Charlie Milton only wants the chicks to dig him so he does what any homely guy would do... step into a planetarium for a seminar on the moon. But Charlie gets more than he bargained for when his "subconscious being in parallel harmony with certain cosmic attractions of the universe" transport him... bang, right to the moon. There, Charlie discovers good-looking women are a dime a dozen and there is plenty of ocean water to go sailing. Pulp hack Carl Wessler once again outdoes himself with his goofy finale expository, but I'm still a little befuddled by Charlie's trip.

Eric follows Fran and Bob onto a speeding train in hopes of reclaiming her love. Henry boards with his dominating wife, Lillian, only hoping she'll not give him a right upper cross at some point in the journey. Boss Franco, one of the world's best-dressed mobsters, runs from indictments and spineless weasels everywhere. These "lost souls" gather on a train ride to destiny, one that will change their lives and help launch dozens of sub-plots on One Life to Live. 

Ladies and germs, I present you "The Darkness Outside!" Pause and enjoy that whiff of pure inanity and mediocrity. The story is, admittedly, five pages of fluff and 1950s stereotypes (my biggest guffaw was when Lillian tells her mousy husband to "straighten up and don't order anything fried!"), but it's a side-splitter as well. The Ayers art is almost as stiff as the dialogue and the script's climax, with all the "happy ending" pieces of the puzzle fitting just right, is a hoot. 

The "Suggestion Box!" at Carlson's Modern Metals Company is being stuffed with incredible formulas and ideas for world-changing devices, but Carlson can't track the origin of the memos... until he does and discovers one of his employees is an alien who just wants to help mankind, for some reason. In the final head-scratcher of the issue, Hotenpah begs his father, "The Angry Pharaoh," to allow him to marry the sweet and pure commoner, Sira. Amen-Tok refuses and promises to banish Sira from the kingdom if his son doesn't wise up. The Pharaoh comes to own a magical scarab that allows him to wish for anything he desires. That proves to be his undoing in the befuddling climax. Truly, that final series of panels makes no sense whatsoever. but the unique skills of Bill Benulis at least make the strip worth a look. Just turn down the sound.-Peter

Strange Tales #44

Cover by Carl Burgos

"The Man Who Ran Away!" (a: Bob Forgione) ★★

"One World at a Time!" (a: Joe Orlando) ★★

"The Mysterious Boarder" (a: Robert Q. Sale) ★

"Look Out Below!" (a: Bob Powell) ★1/2

"Safari in the Sky!" (a: Ed Winiarski) ★

"Take a Giant Step" (a: Paul Reinman) ★

A poor old man named Dan Pierce is brought to a charity hospital and is found to be near death. His blood type is so rare that there is none in stock. Dr. Kenard to the rescue! He locates some of the blood and the man has an astonishingly quick recovery. He even starts to look younger! After being discharged from the hospital, he notices that he keeps growing younger and stronger, so he resolves to find the person who donated the blood.

His search reveals that it was none other than Dr. Kenard, who explains that he's been alive for thousands of years but has always been unhappy. Pierce is his son and Kenard deserted Pierce when he was a boy, which led to his ending up on skid row. Now that they are reunited, Kenard promises to raise the boy properly and "impart the knowledge of the ages." By the way, at the end of the story, Pierce has reverted to being a toddler.

I like Bob Forgione's art, even without inks by Jack Abel, and there are some interesting aspects to "The Man Who Ran Away," but it suffers from the Atlas curse of brevity (four pages) and confusion. I had to read it twice to begin to understand the ending. I still don't get why Dr. Kenard had to run away every time he failed to age like those around him. Also, in the last scene, Pierce de-ages from an adult to a toddler in the course of the doctor's windy speech, though his de-aging up to that point was much slower.

Fred Cole has lived an uneventful life so, when he reads an ad in the paper looking for someone like him who longs for adventure, he responds. Professor Galton runs a series of tests and decides that Fred is qualified to accompany pretty Alice Towne, a librarian whose life has been equally dull, on a trip into another time sphere. Fred and Alice are transported to a parallel world, where they are told they will be banished to "an outer world of emptiness from which there is no return." The dull duo hotfoot it back to the transporter, return to their own world, and race off to get married, planning to enjoy "One World at a Time!"

Joe Orlando's art veers back and forth between looking like the work of John Forte and looking like something out of a Golden Age comic. It all works reasonably well, though the end, as so often happens, is a bit abrupt.

Felix Donald is "The Mysterious Boarder" at Amy Jones's establishment. By October, he begins to grow ill, and by the end of December he has a long, white beard and is bidding everyone goodbye and promising that a new boarder will arrive soon. Surprise! Felix was "1955" and Baby New Year "1956" marches in the front door. Yawn. How many times will they drag out this old chestnut? Sales's art is from hunger.

Professor Thornton leads his students down into a cave and through a tunnel that leads to an underground city whose inhabitants are green and scaly. The green folk lock the prof and his class in a cage, calling them spies, but the humans escape and return to the world above. When the dean hears about Thornton's lectures concerning the green men in the cave, he marches into the class, only to find it peopled by green exchange students!

Leave it to Carl Wessler to write a story that takes ridiculous twists and turns in the course of only four pages and ends with something both unexpected and disappointing. I usually like Bob Powell's art, but this time out it seems rushed, as if the inks were done in a hurry.

A movie crew heads into the jungle with trigger-happy guide Luther Rousch. They encounter wild animals that fly at nighttime and the crew film them using infra-red light. Back in Hollywood, when they develop the film, the crew witness aliens that were invisible to the naked eye. The aliens were lifting the animals up into the sky so it looked like they were flying. It turns out they took the animals to a zoo on Pluto and trigger-happy Luther was abducted as well. Really awful stuff! "Safari in the Sky!" may be only four pages long, but it's so badly written that I had to read it twice to get what happened. The art is terrible.

Were Atlas artists so poorly paid at this point that they were just submitting slapdash junk and it was getting published? That's what I make of "Take a Giant Step," in which Paul Reinman's panels look like they were drawn by a not very talented 10-year-old. Bobby has a secret friend in the attic but his parents don't believe it, so his dad makes a man out of him by giving him a pony and the secret friend goes away. The story is bad enough, but the art must be seen to be believed.-Jack

Uncanny Tales #41

Cover by Bill Everett

"The Pyramid's Secret!" (a: Dick Ayers) ★1/2

"Beyond the Four Doors" (a: Syd Shores) ★★

"Shadows From the Past!" (a: Joe Sinnott) ★★

"Unlucky Thirteen" (a: Sol Brodsky) ★1/2

"The Richest Man on Earth!" (a: Bill Benulis) ★★1/2

"The First Man!" (a: John Forte) ★★

Archaeologists Don and Hal enter the Egyptian tomb of Ahmen-Hak and, inside the royal coffin, they find a book written by them and dated next year. They decide that the pyramid must be a time machine and they struggle to remove the stone suddenly covering the entrance. On exiting the tomb, they see that they are in Ancient Egypt and decide to learn all they can before returning to 1956.

Another confusing story with sub-par art, "The Pyramid's Secret!" makes little sense, so I suspect it was written by the Baron of Bewilderment, Carl Wessler. Not much makes sense here and the ending isn't interesting or surprising.

Amos Jordan is serving life in prison, bitter and unaware of his crime. The warden allows him to make amends for four dishonest acts and, voila!, he's no longer in prison. It turns out that the prison was his conscience and the warden was himself. The bar has been set so low for Atlas comic stories at this point that I'm giving "Beyond the Four Doors" a two-star rating, one for the reasonably competent art by Syd Shores and the other for the reasonably clear narrative by Senor Wessler. It may not be surprising, but at least I could follow it.

A reporter named Kirk Dunster invents a spray that allows him to see and photograph events from the past. When a farmer claims to have seen men from Mars, Kirk sprays his formula and sees a Martian! He races to the phone to call in his story, but the Martians zap his spray and his sprayer, so he has no proof.

At least Joe Sinnott does a decent job on these four pages. The best thing about "Shadows from the Past!" is the panel depicting the Martian.

Louie Masters is an auto racer and a gambler who avoids "Unlucky Thirteen" and loves the number seven. On his way to a big auto race, he is forced to take a cab and a plane that are associated with number thirteen. He arrives at the track, wins a race, and decides that thirteen is his new lucky number. Days later, he bets on a horse and thinks he loses. He rips up his ticket, swearing he'll never bet on thirteen again and failing to hear that seven was disqualified and thirteen was the winner.

Well, that wasn't much of a surprise ending, was it? The art by Sol Brodsky is nothing special.

Joe Bender is so generous to charities that he barely has enough money to take care of himself and his wife. He buys her an antique sugar bowl with a crack in it and suddenly finds that the bowl yields wads of cash, enough to pay off his debts and spread the wealth around. Joe truly is "The Richest Man on Earth!"

I was skeptical when Peter kept praising Bill Benulis's art, but I like what he does with this story and some of his panels remind me of Alex Toth. There are unnecessary twists and turns on page four, one involving Bill getting arrested for suspected counterfeiting and the other occurring when his wife disposes of the bowl, but all ends well.

"The First Man!" to arrive from Venus looks like any other businessman, circa 1956, but his passport raises eyebrows at the airport. He quickly becomes famous and appears on TV, where he claims the whole thing was a publicity stunt for a new movie. He's picked up by a plane and realizes he's the only passenger; it turns into a spaceship and he's rocketed to Venus, where a Venusian publicist asks him to promote a movie about the first man from Earth.

John Forte is reliable and this story made me smile, as silly and inconsequential as it is.

One interesting note about this issue is that the cover, which features three panels that are supposed to represent highlights from stories inside, is completely new--the scenes don't really correspond to anything in the stories. Bill Everett's art is more evocative than anything on the inside.-Jack

Next Week...
Bat-Creature!