Batman in the 1960s Issue 40: July/August 1966

 

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

Infantino/Giella

Detective Comics #353

"The Weather Wizard's Triple-Treasure Thefts!"

Story by Gardner Fox

Art by Carmine Infantino & Joe Giella

Tired of being foiled by the Flash in Central City, the Weather Wizard travels to Gotham to stage a brilliant heist. Actually, three brilliant heists! "The Weather Wizard's Triple-Treasure Thefts!" begins when WW causes it to rain on Gotham's empty reservoirs (there's been a drought going on for four years but no one stopped all the action to let us know). Elated Gothamites look towards the sky and see a message from WW, claiming he's paying the good folks for allowing him to steal three "great treasures." Further, he adds that the thefts have already occurred. That's news to slumbering Commissioner Gordon and his crew, who claim no reports have come in.

Millionaire Felix Bayard fears his Golden Cup (not the one he wore when he played linebacker for the Gotham Gladiators, but the solid gold drinking cup he keeps in a vault) may have been stolen and replaced with a cheap fraud. Not being an expert in priceless antiquities, he calls art expert Haverford Mimms and asks him to evaluate the goblet for him. Mimms show up, quickly declares it's the real deal, and then takes off his Mimms mask to reveal... the Weather Wizard!

Crafty devil that he is, WW wrote that note in the sky to get itchy billionaires to check their hidden storage facilities and expose the treasures to the criminal element. He exits stage left, golden goblet in hand, and wishes Mr. Bayard a good day. Gordon spends no time handing off the robbery to Batman, who's at home consoling Dick Grayson, who can't patrol for a few nights due to a basketball injury. Bats considers his alter ego, Bruce Wayne, to be a candidate for the next target since he owns the "fabulous" Rajah Ruby (the world's most perfect ruby!), bought by his father in India decades before. That night, sure enough, a trench-coated figure (gosh, who could it be?) snatches the ruby out of Wayne's wall safe and runs into the night. Next morning, Bruce and Dick discover the theft and report it to Gordon.

Monitoring the police airwaves, Weather Wizard hears of the theft and grows angry that someone else made off with such an incredible treasure. Using some of his magical weather tricks, the fiend traces the thief's footprints to a local cave and finds the ruby unprotected. Well, almost. Batman leaps out of the shadows and attempts to corral WW, but the villain is too quick and entraps the Caped Crusader in a large ice cube, explaining that the box will melt in two hours unless Batman attempts an escape. Then his oxygen will quickly be depleted. WW excuses himself, explaining he still has one more treasure to nab.

Being the hero that he is, Bats decides waiting two hours is for wimps and uses his boot heel to whip up some heat. The cube quickly melts and Batman is a free man! Luckily, our hero had the foresight to have Robin follow WW by car to his next stop, "The Mayan Room of the local museum," and there the Duo put an end to the Weather Wizard's attempted triple crown heist.

"WW's TTT!" is an entertaining enough little adventure, but it's got some silliness going on as well. I'm not sure if WW is about to make another appearance over in the Flash's mag and DC thought it a good idea to hype, but the line "Only the Flash can stop me!" is used at least a half-dozen times. Yeah, we get it. Then there's the weird panel where both Bruce and Dick act as though someone has broken in and stolen the ruby when at least one of them knows better. If Bruce hasn't told Dick that it was actually he himself who staged the robbery, why not? And if both are in on the act, who are they foolin'?  They're the only ones in the room! And there's even more expository word balloons than usual, telling us all stuff we had guessed pages before. Anyway, the Carmine/Joe graphics always make me smile even if there are some gaps in logic.-Peter

Jack-From the cover, I thought the Flash would be a guest-star in this issue, but it was not to be. I always thought the Weather Wizard was a cool villain, who seems to have unlimited powers but who is always defeated in the end. I especially like the panel where he's just sitting in a cloud, up in the sky. Why not? He can control the weather! The art is terrific, as usual.

Various

Batman #182

"The Villain of 100 Elements"

(Reprinted from Detective Comics #294, August 1961)

"Batman, Junior and Robin, Senior!"

Story by Bill Finger

Art by Sheldon Moldoff & Stan Kaye

(Reprinted from Detective Comics #218, April 1955)

"Batman, Robot"

(Reprinted from Detective Comics #281, July 1960)

"The Experiment of Professor Zero"

Story by Bill Finger

Art by Dick Sprang & Charles Paris

(Reprinted from Detective Comics #148, June 1949)

"The Rainbow Batman"

Story by Edmond Hamilton

Art by Sheldon Moldoff & Stan Kaye

(Reprinted from Detective Comics #241, March 1957)

"The Joker Batman!"

Story by David Vern

Art by Sheldon Moldoff & Charles Paris

(Reprinted from Batman #85, August 1954)

(Original title -"Batman--Clown of Crime")

Peter-These 1950s Batman reprints prove that, at one time at least, Sheldon Moldoff was a capable penciler. Should we blame the inkers who came after Stan Kaye? Of the four new to us, the silliest is "The Rainbow Batman," a story that would fit in well with the 1960s installments. Goofy script with a truly inane reveal. Who knew Bats kept multi-colored costumes for just such an occasion?

Jack-It has to be Stan Kaye's inks that make Moldoff's pencils look so good. My favorite story this issue is the one drawn by Dick Sprang in 1949, "The Experiment of Professor Zero." I love that the Prof's henchman is named "Beefy"! "Batman, Junior and Robin, Senior!" is also lots of fun, especially when the bad guy is wandering around Gotham City with two heavy gas canisters under his arms! They saved a goodie for last--"The Joker Batman!" is a hoot, when the Clown Prince of Crime and Batman switch personalities due to an accident. The sight of Batman laughing madly like the Joker and acting like a prankster is worth a look.

Infantino/Giella

Detective Comics #354

"No Exit for Batman!"

Story by John Broome

Art by Sheldon Moldoff & Joe Giella

Evil Dr. Tzin-Tzin has obviously become bored of spreading pandemonium throughout Asia and has moved his business to Gotham. His number one goal is to kill the Batman! When the corpse of Strip Bander, one of Tzin's henchmen, turns up at the morgue, Commissioner Gordon puts down his pitching wedge and calls the Dynamic Duo to the building to have a pow-wow. The coroner's verdict: death by fright!

At that point, Gordon proves to Batman that he's not just another pretty face and gives the scoop on Dr. Tzin-Tzin's swath of terror, which led to him eventually becoming Interpol's Most Wanted Man! Back at Gordon's office, the Commish shows Batman a strange object: a red ball. Experts are stymied. Since the orb was found at the site of a bank robbery, it has to be something more dangerous than a dog's ball. Gordon tasks Batman and Robin with discovering just what the device is capable of and how it can lead them to the mysterious Tzin-Tzin. 

The boys head back to the Batcave, where the orb suddenly lights up and shows them the deadly visage of Dr. Tzin-Tzin! The fiend has a message for the Caped Crusader: "stay out of my way!" The orb then explodes. Bats puts Robin in charge of examining the fragments of the red ball and heads out of the cave on patrol. A burglar alarm leads him into a dark alley, where a gang of thugs jump him and gives our hero their best. Unknown to Bats, the whole episode is being filmed for Tzin's enjoyment. 

After a terrifying and lengthy fight (one of Tzin's henchmen labels it "a gory fist battle"), Bats emerges victorious, watching as the thugs run away in defeat, tails between legs. Pooped, Bats heads back to the cave, where he has a quick meal and some well-deserved rest before declaring that the red orb must be rebuilt if they are to track Tzin. Working strictly from memory, Batman uses duct tape and super glue to piece the ball back together. Miraculously, it works and is able to help the boys locate Tzin's secret hideout: the top floor of a Gotham skyscraper!

After battling their way in, the Dynamic Duo finally get a face-to-face with their brand new arch-nemesis, who attempts to hypnotize Batman. Using his quick wits and a Batarang, the Dark Knight puts Tzin's hypnotic eye out of service and the Asian villain behind bars. But is this the last Batman and Robin will see of Dr. Tzin-Tzin? 

Well, it's the last we'll see of him in the 1960s, but with a little digging you can read about his next appearance here. An obvious knock-off of Fu Manchu (or maybe even the more timely Mandarin over at Marvel), Tzin-Tzin sure doesn't seem like an international menace. He's got an evil eye that hypnotizes (and is used effectively in this story exactly once), but he's also got big, strong henchmen who could have killed Strip Bander just as easily. There's not a lot going on in this one. The character is definitely better utilized in the 1970s by Wein and Wolfman, when Tzin becomes a member of the League of Assassins. I do like how Batman was able to rebuild Tzin's red orb and make it work just the way it did before the explosion. World's Greatest Handyman! For some reason, the Moldoff/Giella art annoyed me less this time out; the characters' faces are still amateurish at best but at least there's a bit of detail surrounding the doodles.-Peter

Jack-Moldoff continues providing us with more dynamic page layouts and Giella's inks help make the art palatable. Dr. Tzin-Tzin didn't put up much of a fight, did he? One question comes to mind: was Carmine Infantino the best cover artist who ever drew for the comics? I'm hard-pressed to think of anyone who could make me want to buy and read a comic book more than he.

Infantino/Giella

Batman #183

"A Touch of Poison Ivy!"

Story by Robert Kanigher 

Art by Sheldon Moldoff & Joe Giella

"Batman's Baffling Turnabout!"

Story by Gardner Fox

Art by Sheldon Moldoff & Joe Giella

No matter which luscious beauty Bruce Wayne dines or dances with, he can't get Poison Ivy out of his mind. The only thing that seems to distract him is fighting crime. Meanwhile, from her prison cell, Poison Ivy sends Batman a gift of a pocket mirror that she made in the machine shop. He gazes into the mirror and keeps thinking of her promise that he will set her free. The Caped Crusader has to smash the mirror to break the spell.

Poison Ivy hears about the mirror and fakes sickness, dying of a broken heart, in order to be moved to the prison hospital, but when Batman pays a visit she reveals that her hairs contain explosives! Batman carries her out to freedom in order to prevent her from blowing up the hospital. She and her goons take Batman for a ride, blowing up the police cars that are in pursuit and putting the Dark Knight to sleep with a jab of "bye-bye syrup." Back at her hideout, Ivy keeps Batman on a leash and he fights back with a hunger strike. After days of this, she brings an IV tube to force feed him but he fights back, aided by Robin, who appears out of nowhere. The Dynamic Duo quickly defeat Poison Ivy and she returns to jail.

The publishing schedule must have been getting close to catching up to the hit TV show, since the TV screen on the cover shows the TV Batman logo, while in "A Touch of Poison Ivy," Batman watches TV in the last panel but only sees Poison Ivy in her cell. I enjoyed the campy story, though it represents unusual behavior for Batman, something we've been seeing more and more of recently. Bruce Wayne certainly gets around, doesn't he? In the space of one page, he goes on dates with Trina ("as delicious as angel cake"), Vickie (they "make beautiful music together"), and Gilda (whose kiss "will break any thermometer").

In the middle of knocking around some goons in a waterfront warehouse, Batman falls through a trap door and finds himself stuck on a gooey net suspended above the river. A voice taunts him; a crook he sent to jail five years before will leave Batman to drown as the tide comes in. Above, in the warehouse, a substitute Batman joins the Boy Wonder and complains of a twisted ankle. Robin recognizes the fake right away and drives him to the auxiliary Batcave, where Batman relaxes in front of the TV. Robin heads off in the Batmobile and watches on closed-circuit TV as the fake Batman sets a bomb to blow up the hideout. Robin discovers another bomb under the hood and dismantles it before trailing the faux-Dark Knight back to the waterfront warehouse. Fake Batman is surprised to encounter the real Batman, who is alive and kicking. Their fistfight ends as expected and Batman explains to Robin how he escaped a watery grave.

"Batman's Baffling Turnabout!" scrapes the bottom of the barrel. There's yet another reference to watching TV, and Robin uses the "Bat-Noculars" to watch the duplicate Caped Crusader, something that sounds suspiciously like an influence from the TV show, which always featured "Bat-This" and "Bat-That." I must admit that I did not notice that the fake Batman's chest emblem was old style, missing the yellow oval around the bat, which is how Robin knew right away that he was a phony. In the last panel, Batman refers to his "New Look," a touch that is a bit meta. The best thing about this issue is the cover. Again.-Jack

Peter-The script for "A Touch of Poison Ivy!" is so awful it's hard to believe it was written by Big Bob Kanigher. The faux hip lingo almost made my eyes bleed; particularly egregious was Robin's "Big Daddy" nickname for Batman. At no time, in no place, should a teenage boy call a grown man "Big Daddy!" Where's Wertham when he's really needed? The entire affair has a camp sheen to it that I'm positive isn't accidental. So many panels in this one made me cringe. "Baffling Turnabout!" is just as dopey but at least it's entertaining. Odd that we never find out who the faux-Bats is. Is this the first appearance of Bat-Cave II? Never knew there was a second hideout until now. Property taxes must be a nightmare for Wayne.

Next Week...
More Ditko Sci-Fi!

The Hitchcock Project-The Motive by Rose Simon Kohn [3.17]

by Jack Seabrook

"The Motive," which aired on CBS on Sunday, January 26, 1958, is the first of two episodes credited to writer Rose Simon Kohn (1901-1985). Unlike the second, "The Morning After," which is based on a short story by Henry Slesar, this teleplay is original.

Kohn began her writing career as a playwright and the earliest play I have found attributed to her dates to 1936. She wrote several more in the years that followed, including one that was produced on Broadway in 1943, and two films were based on her work. From 1954 to 1959, a handful of TV episodes were either based on her stories, written by her, or co-written by her; the two episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents represent her last credits. She also had a pair of short stories published in digests in the late 1950s.

"The Motive" is an outstanding half-hour show, well acted, well directed, and with an ending so unexpected that the viewer is compelled to go back over the story to confirm how a trap could have been so carefully laid. The show opens with two young businessman and a young woman, who may be a secretary, relaxing after work in the living room of one of the men, Tommy Greer. All are drunk and continue to drink as Richard, the other man, prods Tommy to explain his theory to Sandra, the woman.

Greer displays a large chart he has made that tracks the number of murders in 1957 and so far in January 1958, along with the number that have been solved and those where a motive is known. Richard remarks sarcastically that Tommy's chart will prove that "'a motiveless killing is a hundred to one shot.'" Sandra leaves and the men continue to discuss Tommy's theory, with Greer claiming that Richard got him started on his hobby. Tommy's research has led him to the conclusion that "'perfect murder is a cinch if you have no reason for committing it,'" but Richard continues to goad his friend, who reminds Richard that he was the one who told Tommy to get a hobby to get Marion, the ex-wife who left him, off of his mind.

Skip Homeier as Tommy

Richard accuses Tommy of going overboard again, pointing out that the young man still has a closet full of Marion's dresses, as well as her record album and a book of photographs. Richard also remarks offhandedly that, before Marion left Tommy, she had chosen Tommy over Richard. Asking his friend how he knows that the murders on the chart were motiveless, Richard points out that all that Tommy knows for sure is that the police were unable to uncover a motive for each crime. Richard drunkenly challenges Tommy to prove his own theory by committing a motiveless murder.

The pair take a crowded elevator down to the building's lobby, continuing their discussion in the lobby bar. In the lobby, Richard sees a bank of telephone books near a phone booth; he chooses the Chicago phone book, opens to a page at random, closes his eyes, and points to the name and address of Jerome Stanton, whom he calls a "'sacrificial lamb picked by the finger of fate to be your victim.'" Tommy tears out the page and Richard suggests killing Stanton with a blow to his cervical vertebra.

Although Richard and Tommy spend the first half of the episode drunk, when the second half opens, it is the next day and they are sober. Richard joins Tommy at a busy restaurant for lunch and, when Tommy brings up the idea of murdering Stanton, Richard says that he was "'stoned last night'" and recalls little of what was discussed. Richard remarks that he has to leave to go to a convention for a couple of days and Tommy writes the word "Chicago" on a menu in big letters.

William Redfield as Richard

There is a dissolve to Tommy in a Chicago hotel room; a bellboy brings him a city map and he quickly locates Ridgely Road, where Stanton resides. There is another dissolve to Tommy walking down that very road, past suburban homes. When he sees Stanton's house, #1661, he hurries off. Later, back in his hotel room, Tommy telephones Stanton's house and speaks to a maid who tells him that his target is not at home. Tommy pretends to be conducting a poll and asks about Stanton's favorite TV program.

That evening, Tommy visits Stanton's home, where the man is alone and welcomes him inside. Greer and Stanton go into Stanton's study, where Stanton confirms that they will have twenty uninterrupted minutes together since his wife is at the movies. Tommy, wearing glasses and looking studious, explains that he is engaged in a research project to determine if emotional traits can be assigned to a specific gender. He sets out buttons, a needle and thread, and a hammer, and Stanton obligingly begins to sew a button on a handkerchief while answering a series of questions.

When the questions end, Tommy asks Stanton to take a tape measure, get down on all fours on the floor, and open the tape measure near Tommy's foot. Tommy calmly picks up the hammer and hits Stanton in the back of the head, offscreen, killing him instantly. Quickly gathering everything up, Tommy rushes out and catches a bus; back at his apartment, he adds to the lines on his chart tracing the number of murders and those without a motive.

The next morning, a bellboy brings Tommy the morning newspaper and he pores over it as Richard enters from the apartment across the hall. Tommy reads an article out loud about Stanton's murder and discovers that the police have a suspect: it seems that Mrs. Marion Stanton told the police that her former husband, Tommy Greer, must have discovered that she left him for Stanton and killed the man. Tommy realizes what he has done and Richard coolly admits that he knew that Marion had married Stanton and that he planned the whole thing as revenge against both men for stealing his girl. Tommy gets angry and attacks Richard, who pulls away and opens the door to admit the police, who enter and take Tommy away. The show ends with Richard, alone in Tommy's apartment, gloating over his success and throwing Tommy's chart on the floor before the screen fades to black.

Carl Betz as Stanton

The ending of "The Motive" is such a surprise that it is worth re-watching the episode to see how Richard pulled it off and whether everything holds up when one knows the truth. Assuming Richard was pretending to be drunk in the first half of the show, one sees that it was he who brought up Marion in conversation, admitting that she chose Tommy over him. At the time it seems like an offhand remark, but in the end it turns out to be the reason for everything that follows.

In the lobby, it is Richard who chooses the Chicago phone book, seemingly at random. We don't see him open it to a particular page, but he closes his eyes and appears to point to a name by chance; he clearly had this all planned in advance. When Tommy gets to Chicago, he walks by Stanton's home and we see that it is in a suburban neighborhood. Having a maid answer Tommy's call seems to suggest a level of wealth inconsistent with the home's exterior, but a maid has to answer for the story to work: Stanton is at work in the middle of the day and, if his wife answered the phone, Tommy would recognize his ex-wife's voice and the plan would fail. 

One puzzling aspect of "The Motive" is where Tommy and Richard live. It looks like Tommy has an apartment on an upper floor of an apartment building in a city that might be New York, yet when he and Richard take the elevator, it is very crowded, as is the building's lobby, which has a bar. Both the elevator and the lobby seem like they are in a hotel and the fact that a bellboy brings Tommy the newspaper in the morning seems more like what would happen in a hotel than an apartment building. For the pieces of the story to fall into place, there needs to be a reason to have telephone books from other cities in the lobby.

Another question that springs to mind is how Tommy could not know where Marion is and to whom she is married if he is so obsessed with her that he keeps her dresses in his closet even after enough time has passed for them to be divorced and her to have remarried. Perhaps time has stood still for Tommy and he does not want to know how Marion has moved on, hoping instead that she will walk back into his life as if she never left.

Carmen Phillips as Sandra

The attitude toward women shared by the men in "The Motive" is troubling when seen today, but it may not have been so unusual in 1958. In the first scene, Sandra is little more than window dressing, seeming to be a secretary having drinks with two of her male colleagues after work; she looks at her watch and sees that it is almost seven p.m. right before she leaves. A woman near the phone booth asks to use the Chicago phone book and is portrayed as a nuisance, while Marion, around whom the entire episode rotates, is never seen, but is presumably so desirable that she is worth committing murder over. Finally, when Tommy and Stanton are chatting and Tommy is pretending to conduct a survey, they share a laugh about the idea that women could be "'logical.'" "The Motive" portrays a man's world, with its two lead characters seeming like they would fit well in the milieu of the TV series Mad Men. Is it any surprise that this episode was written by a woman, whose male characters seem to display so many unlikeable traits?

Of course, the murder is impossibly clean and simple, the type of uncomplicated, instant killing that was familiar to viewers of the time and that Hitchcock would later discredit in the famous murder scene in the kitchen in Torn Curtain. "The Motive" is an excellent episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, moving swiftly from start to finish, entertaining, and with a truly surprising conclusion. This was one of the 49 episodes of the Hitchcock series that Robert Stevens (1920-1989) directed; he won an Emmy for "The Glass Eye."

Starring as Tommy is Skip Homeier (1930-2017), who was born George Vincent Homeier and who began his acting career as a child on radio and successfully navigated his way through growing up on camera into a long career as an adult. He appeared in films from 1944 to 1982 and on TV from 1950 to 1982; he was on The Outer Limits, two episodes of Star Trek, and one other episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, "Momentum."

William Redfield (1927-1976) plays the devious Richard. On Broadway from 1936 and on screen from 1939, Redfield appeared in Fantastic Voyage (1966) and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), and he was seen on Alfred Hitchcock Presents three times, including "The Greatest Monster of Them All." He also played Felix Unger's brother Floyd in a memorable episode of The Odd Couple.

The affable but doomed Jerome Stanton is played with good humor by Carl Betz (1921-1978), who would soon become famous as Donna Reed's husband on The Donna Reed Show (1958-1966). Betz was on screen from 1952 to 1977, mostly on TV, and also appeared on Night Gallery. He was in one other episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, "On the Nose."

Finally, Carmen Phillips (1937-2022) plays Sandra, who appears in the first scene. On screen from 1958 to 1969, she had a bit part in Marnie (1964); her role in "The Motive" was her first credit. She was in four episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, including "Consider Her Ways."

Watch "The Motive" online here or order the DVD here.

Sources:

The FICTIONMAGS Index, www.philsp.com/homeville/fmi/0start.htm.

Grams, Martin, and Patrik Wikstrom. The Alfred Hitchcock Presents Companion. OTR Pub., 2001.

IBDB, www.ibdb.com.

IMDb, www.imdb.com.

"The Motive." Alfred Hitchcock Presents, season 3, episode 17, CBS, 26 January 1958.

Wikipedia, www.wikipedia.org.

Listen to Al Sjoerdsma discuss "Martha Mason, Movie Star" here!

In two weeks: "Total Loss," starring Nancy Olson and Ralph Meeker!

Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 129: Atlas/Marvel Science Fiction & Horror Comics!

 

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 114

August 1956 Part I

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Astonishing #52

Cover by Carl Burgos

"The Man in the Sky!" (a: Bernard Baily) ★

"Those Who Vanish!" (a: Gray Morrow) ★1/2

"Needle in a Haystack" (a: Lou Morales) ★

"The Edge of the Cliff" (a: Bill Walton) ★

"No Such Animal" (a: Harry Lazarus) ★★

"The Peace-Monger" (a: Paul Reinman) ★★1/2

Jess Staunton has a great gig; he can walk on air and defies gravity thousands of feet above ground before stunned crowds. What the near-sighted dopes below don't realize is that Jess has a friend, Al, in a helicopter miles above (hidden behind a "man-made cloud"), dangling Jess from a wire. That old saying is especially true when assessing Atlas crowds: "There's one born every minute."

Anyway, Jess is set to make a big payday with his next air walk when tragedy strikes: a man standing atop a high building to watch the show loses his balance and takes a fall. Luckily, time seems to slow down in the Atlas Universe at times like this and Jess is able to contact Al to take off (!) and dangle him in the right place to catch the falling stranger. The rescue complete, Jess lands safely, only to hear Al in his earphone telling him that he never had a chance to hook up the wire! How did Jess pull off the rescue of the ages? 

I don't know. Divine intervention, if I had to guess. This is one of the oldest tropes in horror comics and, alas, years after "The Man in the Sky!" it was still being used. It's amazing that no one in the entire city could see that helicopter or the wire.

"Those Who Vanish!" is the supremely silly story of Joe Tully, who labors away in the labs of the Dudley Chemical Company, gaining nothing monetarily but still pumping out "wonderful chemical compounds" that make Mr. Dudley rich. Joe accidentally creates a formula that, when sprayed, makes things vanish. In anger, he sprays his boss in the face and the man's head disappears. He then becomes a wanted criminal, running through the streets spraying anyone who attempts to stop him. 

But the joke's on Tully in the end since it's he who is vanishing bit by bit. In the final panel, he's reduced to his shoes. Again, don't ask me why. Writer Carl Wessler evidently looked at the clock, threw up his hands, and declared "the little kids won't understand any of it anyway!" Why bother with logic? The art belongs to a very young Gray Morrow, whose supreme talent would not become obvious for another decade or so. The graphics are still much better than most everything we're seeing month-to-month, but Gray wasn't given much to work with. Lots of talking faces and spray cans.

Scraping the bottom of the science fiction barrel, I present "Needle in a Haystack," a near-unreadable space opera about alien pirates and half a billion bucks in gold bullion aboard the spaceship Sparrow. The climax features another old cliche, the switcheroo, and the entirety is rendered amateurishly by Lou Morales. Hoo boy, Lou Morales is Frazetta compared to Bill Walton if his work on "The Edge of the Cliff" is any indication. 

Pedro is a poorly-drawn Mexican kid who accepts a dare for money from an American tourist to take a dive off a high cliff. Halfway down, he sees peril and wishes he could have the whole morning over again to sidestep his own greed. Presto, Pedro is granted that replay, but circumstances force him to take the dive again. The new, happy ending-friendly Atlas era assures Pedro will survive that dive, but I'm not sure the deep etches carved into my pupils by Walton's inept scribbles will mend in time for the next debauchery. Jack and I don't hand out "zeros," but if we did, there'd be a great big one right next to "The Edge of the Cliff."

Wood carver Hans Himmler claims there's a huge beast hiding in the forests of Germany, but scientists scoff at the man's assertion. To prove Hans is stuffed full of blueberry muffins (and to calm the panicked public), scientists head into the forest but find no such beast--only a strange cave which, when the camera pulls back, is revealed to be the hibernating monster with its mouth open. Artist Harry Lazarus still claims a place in my heart for his loopy, eccentric doodling; there's a sleaziness there if you look close enough that brightens up any third-rate script he worked on.

In the distant future, Kierzek, a/k/a "The Peace-Monger," orders the destruction of every weapon on Earth in hopes that peace will bring all men together. Then the warships of Pluto land and his grand plan is criticized as short-sighted. But Big K has an ace up his sleeve and the Plutonian warriors turn tail and head back into space. Not a bad little SF tale, with a clever twist in its final panel. A nice way to wrap up a pretty mediocre issue.-Peter

Journey Into Mystery #37

Cover by Bill Everett

"The Deep Freeze" (a: Don Heck) ★★

"Volcano!" (a: Jim Infantino) ★★★

"Inside the Whirlpool" (a: Ed Winiarski) ★

"The Voice in the Night" (a: Robert Q. Sale) ★

"The Sea Serpent!" (a: John Forte) ★1/2

"The First Man" (a: George Roussos & John Giunta) ★★1/2

Rick and his two comrades steal 150 grand, but the cops are onto them. Luckily, Rick had the foresight to stash a suspended animation machine in his cellar. The trio enter a deep sleep and awaken two hundred years later, ostensibly free men. They dig their way out of the basement (!) and exit the soil into a city of shiny buildings and strangely-garbed pedestrians. The future!

Though the monetary system has evolved, merchants are only too happy to accept 1956 currency for their wares. Soon, Rick and his two dopey buddies are living like kings. That is, until they're arrested for fraud. Rick had no idea he was stealing counterfeit cash! "The Deep Freeze," dumb as the dirt the boys dig through (and that's a scene to place in the Howdidtheydothat Hall of Fame) to claim freedom, is a brainless hoot from start to finish. Rick had the foresight to move a dry ice machine into his basement just in case the thieves had to enter a century-long coma? That's planning! Rick enters his sleep with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth and doesn't burn to death? That's luck! I don't care what Harlan Ellison said about Don Heck (in fact, I don't care what HE said about anything!), he was an able draftsman who stood tall over several of his fellow pencilers. 

Engineer Paul Wayne finds himself lost when his helicopter crashes into the center of a Mexican "Volcano!" Finding a tunnel, Paul exits into a beautiful, small village on the side of the volcano and quickly becomes friends with the inhabitants. To show his gratitude for their acceptance, Paul shows them the magic of modern engineering, helping them build canals, supermarkets, telephone companies, and tattoo parlors. The great God of the volcano becomes angry and Popocatepetl erupts, hurling its molten fireballs at the village. 

Paul is asked to leave but, returning to the "modern world," he vows to return and set things right. A deep and thoughtful essay on simple life vs. rural evolution, "Volcano!" is one of the best Atlas stories I've read in a while. Paul Wayne is the rarity, an Atlas character stranded in a strange land, not driven by greed but by a strong desire to introduce an easier life to these primitive villagers. The art is scratchy (Jim in not as good an artist as big brother Carmine) but certainly acceptable.

Morgan Armstrong steals eleven grand off of his boss's desk and hides it at the bottom of a nearby lake (the home of the titular whirlpool). When he emerges, he discovers he's in an alternate reality where everyone (including his wife) is a rotten scoundrel just like him. Oh, if only he could have a second chance, he'd make it all right and accept any punishment that comes down the pike. Holy cow, he gets his second chance!  "Inside the Whirlpool" is hilariously inane (Morgan keeps a bathysphere-like vehicle at the lake so that he can travel to the bottom of the whirlpool!) and badly illustrated to boot.

Monte Clark conks a man on the head and steals the poor box the man was keeping, but there's a witness to the crime. "The Voice in the Night" belongs to a talkative alarm clock that promises to deliver Monte to the law sooner or later. Sooner would have been ideal for the readers of this tripe. This had to be one of Robert Sale's easiest checks to cash; his panels are nearly naked, featuring only a character or two and little else. "The Sea Serpent!" is a three-pager about... a sea serpent. Not much more to report, sadly. The John Forte graphics add a bit of life to the silly script.

Finally, Roussos and Giunta contribute some snazzy sci-fi visuals to "The First Man." From birth, Tagger Bronk's number one goal is to be the first man on the moon. To that end, he spends his time and money building space stations and rocket ships and, finally, he achieves his goal. As he's walking on the surface of the moon, he is approached by a green-skinned alien who informs him that they are actually standing on Xanou, a satellite launched from the end of the galaxy eons before. Tagger sighs and begins prep for a visit to Mars.-Peter

Journey Into Unknown Worlds #48

Cover by Bill Everett

"Which World is This?" (a: Paul Reinman) ★★

"The Handy Man" (a: Gray Morrow) ★★1/2

"Don't Leave Me Alone!" (a: Reed Crandall) ★★★

"Fair Exchange!" (a: Howard O'Donnell) ★

"The Man Who Framed the Future!" (a: Frank Bolle) ★1/2

"Unwanted" (a: Sid Check) ★★

While out chasing butterflies, Newton Oswald falls into the open hatch of a spaceship that takes off, much to his chagrin. He thrusts his net over the head of the pilot, presses an exit button, and is ejected into the atmosphere, falling and landing on a haystack. Newton walks back to his town, but no one recognizes him, and when he gets home, he discovers that his double is already there. His wife and his double chase Newton into a closet and, when he emerges, all is back to normal.

"Which World Is This?" is a typical Carl Wessler script, where a somewhat intriguing premise wraps up in a disappointing way. Why are there two Newtons? Who knows? And where did the other one go? At least artist Paul Reinman is on again; his art in these Atlas titles varies wildly from decent, as it is here, to awful, as we've seen recently.

Billy is "The Handy Man" who walks out of the desert and into the lives of Mr. Danner and his pretty daughter Janie. Billy can fix everything and Janie falls for him right away. Danner wonders why the mysterious young man is so good at fixing things. One night, the spirits of sorcerers appear and demand that Billy return to his role as their apprentice, but he resists and threatens them. They back down and wipe the memories of Billy and the Danners. After that, Billy can't fix anything, but that doesn't diminish his value to Danner as a new son in law.

Twenty-two year old Gray Morrow is a welcome addition to the Atlas artist stable and this story shows a heavy Al Williamson influence. I enjoyed the tale, short as it is (at four pages) and look forward to more from Morrow!

Why does English Lord Gaxton insist, "Don't Leave Me Alone"? It stems from his childhood, when he was often left by himself in a tiny, dark bedroom. He stole and cheated his way through life until he was able to buy a title and now he wants people around him at all times. He's impressed by a spirited young man who refuses to bow to his wishes and, when his fortunes turn and all desert his side, Lord Gaxton uses a Gypsy spell to put his spirit inside the young man's body. The man is in a shipwreck and ends up on a desert island. Gaxton thinks he'll soon be rescued, but he doesn't know the future of Robinson Crusoe!

I admit I'm grading on a curve by giving this story three stars, but I'm a fan of Reed Crandall's work and the last panel's revelation of the young man's name made me chuckle audibly. Crandall's genius peeks through in some of the panels, though he's not given much to work with.

An above-average issue of Journey Into Unknown Worlds comes to a screeching halt with "Fair Exchange," in which the people on Saturn and the people on Jupiter envy each other's planet, invade at the same time, take over, grow homesick, and go back to where they started. Howard O'Donnell's art is as dull as the premise of the story.

Brad Norris is thrown 200 years into the future when he's zapped by a crossed electrical wire. On returning to the present, he does what anyone else would and heads to the home of Marie Andrews to propose marriage. She declines, saying she loves another man. Brad heads back to the future, just a year this time, and sees the man whom Marie has wed. Hearing about a big robbery on the radio, Brad frames Marie's hubby and watches as the cops confront him. "The Man Who Framed the Future!" returns to the present, only to sustain facial injuries in a lab explosion. Marie agrees to marry him and Brad realizes that the man he framed a year in the future was himself.

How did Carl Wessler manage to tell such convoluted stories in only four pages? This one takes such awkward twists and turns that I would have known it was his work even if the GCD didn't identify him as the writer. I kind of like Frank Bolle's artwork here, but he can only do so much with what he's handed.

In 2019, the first Earthmen travel by spaceship to Mars, expecting a big welcome, but when they arrive, they find themselves "Unwanted." The Martians claim never to have heard of Earth and insist that the Earthmen go to a nearby planet for a year to establish residency before returning. The Earthmen leave in a huff and head home; the Martians admit that they were pretending in order to tamp down the Earthmen's arrogance.

The art carries the story this time out, with Sid Check drawing some nice spaceships and Martians with pink skin and big heads. The "twist" ending falls flat, but Check channels EC sci-fi comics here.-Jack

Marvel Tales #149

Cover by Bill Everett

"Among the Missing!" (a: Hy Fleishman) ★★

"The Last Warning!" (a: Vic Carrabotta) ★

"Charlie's Choice!" (a: Frank Bolle) ★★

"The Broken Man!" (a: Tony Mortellaro) ★

"Stop Us If You've Read This Before" (a: Jim Infantino) 1/2

"The Thief!" (a: Joe Orlando) ★★

Kurt Channing is wandering through the African jungles when he happens on old Gus Barlow, a prospector whom he had staked on a trip a year before. Gus insists that he's discovered a city of gold and wants to share his find with Kurt, but Kurt doesn't believe him, in spite of a bag of pearls that Gus gives Kurt. On the way back to the trading post, Kurt loses the pearls in a river. Two weeks later, the district commissioner tells Kurt that Gus's possessions were found; among them is a photo that proves the existence of the city of gold. Kurt spends the rest of his life searching for Gus, who is forever "Among the Missing!"

Adequate art, adequate story, nothing special.

Russ is an airline pilot whose wife Marge has a bad dream in which a series of events end with his plane crashing. He discounts her dream but each thing happens just as she predicted. When the wing catches fire, that's "The Last Warning!" Russ looks down, expecting to see water, as in Marge's dream; he sees desert, snaps out of it, and is able to land safely. He rents a car to drive home instead of flying and sees a mirage of a body of water along the way, concluding that Marge must have seen the same mirage in her dream.

How does Wessler do it? In story after story, he builds a rickety plot on a thin premise and then wraps it up with a twist that doesn't quite make sense. Unfortunately, the mess is compounded here by Carrabotta's art, which looks like he was holding a pencil between his toes.

Charlie Dunn arrives at work fifteen minutes late and sees that the glass on the time clock is broken. He's tempted to set the clock back and punch in, since his boss told him he'd be fired if he were late again. Good thing he didn't do it! Had "Charlie's Choice!" been to cheat, he would have experienced a series of events in which he was invisible while time was out of joint. Charlie does the right thing, avoids any problems, and hears his boss say that he can't prove he was late due to the broken clock.

Once again, I like Frank Bolle's art on this strip, especially the panels where Charlie is being tossed around through time. Like so many celebrities and politicians of 2025, he blames his wife for making him late: "She could've had breakfast ready on time!" Hey, creep, try making your own breakfast!

Frank Edwards is one of a group of sailors marooned on a Pacific island. He overhears the others talking about Ben, who seems to be losing his mind; they seem to want to get rid of him in order to protect themselves. Frank helps Ben and they make a run for it, but when they're cornered the men grab Frank and it turns out the other men were worried about him, not Ben.

Was there ever any doubt that Frank was "The Broken Man"? Not for me. Mortellaro's art looks like what happens when a kid takes a pen to his comic book and adds beards to the characters' faces.

A performer visits a theatrical agent but gets the brush-off. The performer turns out to be a dog in a fedora and trench coat. But wait! The story takes place on a planet "inhabited only by dog-beings."

"Stop Us If You've Read This Before" may be the first time I've awarded a half star to an Atlas tale. I think we did read this same story before, only last time the performer was revealed to be a monkey.

John Paulson is rich, blond, and seen as an aspiring dictator (remind you of anyone?). He tells a scientist named Cort that he can name his price for his new immortality potion, but Cort refuses, determined to use it for the benefit of mankind. Paulson gets his spaceship ready and steals the potion, which is in a valise, along with the scientist's notes. The police chase Cort into outer space and he loses them, finally landing on a deserted asteroid. He realizes that immortality is no good and smashes the bottle. After drinking from a bottle of poison he finds in the valise, Paulson reads Cort's final note and discovers that the immortality serum was hidden in the bottle of poison to prevent Paulson from finding it!

Joe Orlando to the rescue! "The Thief!" is not a great story, but it's better than most of the others in this stinker of an issue. How did Marvel Tales get so bad? Wasn't it the flagship title?-Jack

Next Week...
Another Huge Package of Reprints
Begs the Question...
Were the 50s Better Than the 60s?

Batman in the 1960s Issue 39: May/June 1966

 

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

Kane/Anderson

Batman #180

"Death Knocks Three Times!"

Story by Robert Kanigher

Art by Sheldon Moldoff & Joe Giella

Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson are at a showing of fine jewelry when the event is interrupted by a man dressed as a skeleton. He and his henchman make off with the jewels after threatening the crowd with guns. Batman and Robin give chase, fight with the gang, and capture the leader, whom Batman christens Death-Man, 

but the villain boasts that he can escape with ease.

Death-Man is tried in court and sentenced to death, but he avoids the gallows by keeling over dead in the courtroom. Batman and Robin visit his grave to make sure he's buried, but that night Bruce Wayne is haunted by nightmares of the villain's mocking laughter. In need of a break, Bruce and Dick take a vacation in Jamaica but quickly rush back to Gotham after hearing news of another crime perpetrated by Death-Man.

Batman and Robin hop in the Bat-Copter and catch up with the gang as they drive away from their latest crime. They end up in a junkyard and, once again, Death-Man is captured and suddenly falls over, dead. Another visit to the graveyard and another burial can't prevent more nightmares for Bruce Wayne, who spends the following day at a party where he witnesses a yogi demonstrate how to slow his breathing and heartbeat in order to mimic death. Deductive genius that he is, Batman heads for the graveyard and finds an empty grave with a mocking note by Death-Man. The villain appears and fights Batman, but this time he is struck by lightning while aiming a gun at the Caped Crusader. He tumbles into an open grave, finally dead for real.

Bob Kanigher's story is terrible. Moldoff and Giella actually seem to put a bit more effort into the art than usual, with a couple of large panels that show multiple Batman and Robin figures engaging in fisticuffs with Death-Man's gang, but the initial shock of seeing the superb cover and then opening the comic to see the usual dull art style is something I was unable to recover from. There's no great reason to drag this story out for 24 pages and the endless fight scenes reminded me of the panels in Tom King's Mister Miracle that read "fight fight fight," with a bored MM standing there. It's just filler.-Jack

Peter- Yep, I agree the story is pretty lame but I like the villain design and, coming off reading a turd like  (Spoiler Alert!) 'tec #352's "Batman's Crime Hunt a Go-Go" (which I actually read before this issue), this one is actually fun and inventive. Death-Man is a pretty cool character even given the lame exposition clarifying his mysterious power over death. We never even find out his real identity or what the master plan was, do we? And then there's that cover. Outside of "Robin Dies at Dawn" (Batman #156), I can't think of a more iconic early-to-mid 1960s DC cover. It prepares you for the suspense and chills that, alas, are never delivered.

Infantino/Anderson

Detective Comics #351

"The Cluemaster's Topsy-Turvy Crimes!"

Story by Gardner Fox

Art by Carmine Infantino & Sid Greene

While dusting around Wayne Manor, Aunt Harriet accidentally opens up the elevator shaft that leads to the Bat-Cave. Riding it down to the ground, she runs across the Dynamic Duo's capes hanging on a wall. "Hmmmm....," thinks the not-so-old biddy, "A game is afoot." Like a super-villain, she begins making plans to catch Bruce and Dick red-handed.

Speaking of villains, there's a new one in Gotham. His name, the Cluemaster, might be original but his schtick sure isn't. He leaves clues for the Caped Crusaders to guess what his next heist will be but his real purpose is to discover the boys' secret identities. In that way, the Cluemaster would become the most powerful man in Gotham.

He proceeds to leave the heroes a couple of clues that leave them completely baffled. It's only when they turn the cards upside down that they see the real clue. But, while studying the paint on the clues, Bruce discovers that the fluid is radioactive... and traceable! The Cluemaster could find the Bat-Cave by tracking the cards. Without thinking twice, Batman and Robin grab the cards and hop in the Batmobile. They drive to a nearby cave and wait. Sure enough, a suspicious character pops up, hidden in the shadows, camera in hand. Disguised as ruffians, Bruce and Dick walk out of the cave and are photographed.

When the man leaves, the boys follow, now dressed in their work clothes. The man leads them right to the hideout of the Cluemaster. After a small scuffle, the Cluemaster and his henchmen are rounded up and brought to Gotham Jail, where they will be charged and serve their maximum six-month sentence. Meanwhile, back at Wayne Manor, a little trickery has Aunt Harriet thinking twice about what Bruce and Dick do in their leisure hours.

"The Cluemaster's Topsy-Turvy Crimes!" is not a bad adventure; the Cluemaster himself is a tenth-tier rogue, one whose gimmick has been used several times before. He sure talks a lot. More intriguing (at least until the cop-out ending) was the Aunt Harriet, Detective, sub-plot. If I'd been the boys, I think I would have jimmied the elevator and taken Harriet on a ride straight up through the roof. These guys have a lot of patience, especially once we discover Harriet has gone so far as to spread tar on the Bat-Cave exit road! I love how it took the "World's Greatest Detective" half a story to realize the drawings were upside down! Hats off to the art crew this issue. If the graphics looked this good every issue, it would make reading the sub-par scripts that much more bearable.-Peter

Jack-The Cluemaster is similar to the Riddler and doesn't make much of an adversary for Batman, despite his self-confidence. What makes this story stand out is the artwork, which is outstanding, and the subplot with Aunt Harriet, whose discovery, actions, and final disappointment parallel those of the Cluemaster. It's interesting to compare Infantino's work on this story, where Sid Greene is the inker, with the cover, inked by Murphy Anderson, and the Elongated Man story, which Infantino inked. Anderson was a great inker and the cover is gorgeous, but Greene does a very nice job on the interior. Infantino inking his own pencils is much scratchier and reminded me of his work years later on Star Wars.

Infantino & Anderson

Batman #181

"Beware of--Poison Ivy!"

Story by Robert Kanigher

Art by Sheldon Moldoff & Joe Giella

"The Perfect Crime--Slightly Imperfect!"

Story by Gardner Fox

Art by Chic Stone (?) & Sid Greene

A Pop Art show at the Gotham Museum is interrupted by the sudden appearance of Poison Ivy, who insists that she should be considered World Public Enemy No. 1. Reporters who try to take her photograph find their flashbulbs exploding; she makes her escape and Bruce Wayne changes into his Batman costume while everyone is blinded. Unfortunately, Batman is blinded, too, and falls down an elevator shaft, barely surviving at the last moment.

He knocks out some goons outside the building and Ivy observes that he's a real he-man. Back at her office, Ivy writes fake letters to three gorgeous female villains, named Dragon Fly, Silken Spider, and Tiger Moth, leading each of them to believe that one of the others wants to meet them to battle for the title of Public Enemy No. 1. She also invites Bruce Wayne and Batman to meet and duke it out for the love of Ivy. The Dynamic Duo take the Bat-Copter to Ivy's house, where they find the three female villains and a ton of generic hoodlums. While Batman and Robin get their daily punches in, Ivy hands an electrified crown to the three women, who are all shocked when they try to tug it away from each other.

The fighting over, Ivy embraces Batman and plants a big kiss on his lips, but her chloroform-laced lipstick fails to knock him out because he's wearing nose filters. Ivy scampers up the wall of her house but Batman knocks her off with one throw of his Batarang and she lands in jail.

DC reprinted this issue in 2019 as a facsimile edition (and I bought it!) for a $3.99 cover price, surely because Poison Ivy has become a major figure in the DC Universe. "Beware of--Poison Ivy!" is absurd. The three women whose pictures adorn the wall of the museum are said to be World Public Enemies No. 1, 2, and 3, but we've never heard of them before. It looks like their main assets are their beauty and skimpy costumes; even Dick Grayson drools over their likenesses! Ivy is a typical female comic book character of 1966, whose main interest is whether she can nab Bruce Wayne or Batman, both of whom she considers hot stuff. Infantino later said in an interview that Poison Ivy was created because Catwoman was so popular on the TV show and they wanted more female villains. At least Moldoff's layouts are getting more interesting; the large panel on page 7 includes a villain whose arms and legs extend into other panels, something Moldoff probably would not have done a few years before.

The Mystery Analysts of Gotham City must solve "The Perfect Crime--Slightly Imperfect!" Mystery writer Kaye Daye is to receive the Sherlock Award for best mystery novel of the year, but she tells her fellow Analysts that she did not write the book that bears her name! A year ago, while she was vacationing in Europe, someone submitted the manuscript to her publisher and it was published. She says she has decided not to accept the award, but a voice erupts from the pin on her dress and says that she will die at 10 p.m., just as she receives the award.

The Mystery Analysts promise to get to the bottom of the mystery and to keep her safe. Batman visits her apartment for clues and determines that she was kidnapped earlier that day, taken to the apartment next door, and replaced with a false Kaye Daye. He enters the apartment, beats up several crooks, and rescues Kaye just in the nick of time. At the awards dinner, the fake Kaye accepts the award and Batman arrives to reveal that she's actually Kaye's cousin, Fern Hunter, who wanted Faye dead so she could inherit their grandfather's estate.

I always groan inwardly when I see another Mystery Analysts story, since they're invariably dull. The GCD suggests that Chic Stone penciled this one, which appears to be heavily inked by Sid Greene. Inks can only do so much, though, and the art is, if anything, worse than what we're used to from Moldoff. Despite the dynamite cover, this issue is no landmark.-Jack

Peter-The scene that opens the Poison Ivy story is one of the most ludicrous we've been subject to. The idea that Bruce Wayne would be joking with this loony girl about being number one villainess in the world makes no sense to me at all. The image of the three top villainesses must have stuck with writer Grant Morrison since he factored the trio into his "Batman: The Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul" storyline in 2008. It's always a plus when a new "rogue" is introduced but, unless my memory is faulty, Poison Ivy didn't really become one of the top-tier villains until her appearance in the dreadful Batman and Robin in 1997. But, regardless, she'll be back very soon. "The Perfect Crime" has some decent art but its script, dependent on a cliched mystery plot, is lazy and pert near put me to sleep. Gordon's loud exclamation, that "no publisher would bring out a book under (Kaye Daye's) name if you hadn't written it..." would elicit guffaws from the ghouls who pump out novels carrying Tom Clancy's name years after the author died.

Infantino/Anderson

Detective Comics #352

"Batman's Crime Hunt A Go-Go!"

Story by John Broome

Art by Sheldon Moldoff & Joe Giella

Robin is awed by Batman's sudden powers of perception; the Dark Knight seems to be getting subliminal messages that warn him of crimes being committed across town. In both cases, the Dynamic Duo arrive just in time to capture the thieves as they are running away from their targets. Thank goodness, because as everyone knows, the safes located at the Gotham Laundromat and Gotham Commode Company are loaded with cash. Massive hauls, those.

But it's the third message from beyond which perplexes and bothers our heroes since it contains directions to a heist that never happens. As the boys sit in the deserted Bridge Plaza, they hear a different kind of message--one over the police band. First Trust Bank at Broad Street has been robbed! The boys arrive too late and learn that the robbers made off with over one million in cash! Searching the premises, Batman comes across a clue--a match from the popular Black Cat nightclub. Time to go undercover!

Bruce Wayne calls Lynda, one of the myriad of bimbos waiting in line to be Mrs. Wayne, and heads down to the Black Cat where he catches the act of "Mr. Esper," a man who claims he can read minds. Wanting to test Esper, Bruce sends a long number on a piece of paper to the channeler and gets the answer he hoped he would. Bruce is convinced this is his guy! Next day, Batman and Robin pay a visit to Mr. Esper at his hotel room and catch him red-handed counting his bank green. Turns out the number Bruce sent to the stage was the exact amount of the bank's losses. Brilliant! No wonder they call this guy the "World's Greatest Detective!"

Esper pulls a gun but he's not fast enough for Batman, who makes good use of a nearby deck of cards. Esper is rounded up and taken to jail and, later, Batman explains to Robin and the sometimes-active Commissioner Gordon how Esper managed to use the Caped Crusader and the Teenage Twister in his scheme. The fake mind reader utilized a "super-sonic amplifier" to project subconscious messages into the brain of the Dark Knight, sending him to two legitimate heists to lull him into a false sense of ESP, setting him up for the big fall. Gordon pats his patsy on the back, tells him "Well done!" and goes back to his nap.

What a difference a writer and art crew can make on this strip. Last month's adventure, though nothing close to the quality of the Steve Englehart/Marshall Rogers era, was fun and at least a bit clever. This is the dregs, with lots of clumsy exposition and wild coincidences. How does Esper know Batman and Robin will be driving by just the right rooftop for him to "whisper" his message? Why doesn't Robin hear the message? I love when the case is pretty much solved by the clue Batman finds on the rooftop of First Trust. Bats opines that the burned out match may be a souvenir from the Black Cat Club, since that venue hands out matches with a cat's head. Batman is convinced despite the fact that the head of the match is burned out! And don't worry... I'll signal when we have the real breakthrough... thieves who don't wear brown pin-striped suits with elegant headwear.-Peter

Jack-More and more, I suspect someone was helping Moldoff with his layouts, possibly Carmine Infantino. There are numerous panels and pages in this story that are more dynamic than anything we've seen from Shelly in years. My favorite thing about this issue, as is often the case, is the cover. I love those little hands Infantino uses.

Next Week...
The Return of
Reed Crandall!