Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Just Plain Crazy Comics: The Upside-Down Town

This story (from Clue Comics #2) could just as easily be titled "Nightmare and Sleepy Fail Physics Forever." It's easy to see why I'd say this:

This ugly scientist's conclusion that the laws of physics had changed in a single town don't say much for his degree.

You'd think nobody would take him seriously, and at first they don't. Then...
Uh...

What? How does that follow? Why would changed gravity cause people to walk on their hands?

Never mind. Dwelling on it won't help.

Check out Nightmare's weird face in this panel:

Don't worry too much about that duck, it's only barely relevant.

Then, more crazy nonsense ensues:

They're prone to picking on wealthy, well-fed women in this comic (you might recall that when I talked about the first Nightmare and Sleepy story, I mentioned that I omitted a scene involving "the Vanderplop Mansion" in it-that's what I'm talking about).

Anyway, it turns out that Nightmare and Sleepy were chasing the hotel cook, and when they find their way to the kitchen, they confront him.

He throws stuff at them, they throw stuff at him, and they all fall down.

And now, for your amusement, reordered panels free of their original context:

If you omit the first dialogue bubble from this panel...
...and the first panel here, you get something that could make sense (more sense, in fact, than the story itself). Heck, leave those in, and it still makes as much sense as the story does.

Anyway, they find the scientist, who has "collapsed" from the "loss" of gravity, but Nightmare finds a rope tied to his pants. (No, really.)

This is mighty peculiar behavior, and he leads them on a merry chase which he thinks ends with his escape and Nightmare and Sleepy unconscious from knockout gas.

Because, of course, being ugly means you're actually evil in old comics.

What a surprise-it's all been faked.

Specifically, it's a real estate scam.

Why would they want their property in a place where gravity "changed?" Whether it makes any sense, people don't like places that have had natural disasters happen to them, because they worry they'll happen again.

Fortunately (I think), Nightmare and Sleepy are here to save us from this stupid plot. (I was wrong, incidentally-they do have their "darkness-enhanced" costumes a few more times-but I'm pretty sure they had stopped using them long before Nightmare's "Batman ripoff" period started.)

I'd end it here, but there was another panel that got my attention as just too stupid funny to pass up:

That's such a stupid attempt at humor, it spins right back around to being funny, then around to being stupid, and back to funny again.

-Signing off.

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