Been a bit since I've done one of these. Keep a hand on your face, just in case
this happens.
Anyway, this story is from Clue Comics #3, and is (obviously) part of the incredibly absurd Nightmare and Sleepy feature.
We start with some guys who just watched a hearse drive past. One of their number happens to be an undertaker, and makes a suggestion.
What a great idea! Let's all make a bet where we collect our winnings over each other's dead bodies! That will surely reinforce our friendship!
This panel brings up a question that I'm curious about:
Is it actually legal to work a bet into your will? That seems strange, at the least.
Anyway, the bet soon has a result. Just a few days later...
The undertaker died first.
OR DID HE DUN
DUN DUN?!!
At the funeral, the others are wondering if they'll be able to collect from the dead man.
Funerals are guaranteed to bring out the best in people, apparently.
And now we randomly check on our heroes, Nightmare and Sleepy:
Wait,
what?
What? You guys are basically hobos who occasionally get paid for wrestling in local matches when you get places. How the heck do you know about this bet, exactly?
Never mind.
Anyway, they see someone climbing up the side of a house.
Naturally, this arouses their natural alertness and suspicions, so their clothes "fly to the winds" (the story's words, not mine) and go running.
They corner the mysterious individual against the wall. (Wait, did that sentence make sense? I'm not sure.)
It has no face? Why...
IT TOOK HIS FACE!
... Sorry.
Anyway, long story short, the mysterious figure hits them a few more times and runs away.
Meanwhile, the guy in that house finds a note from the undertaker at his window that the figure was trying to get in. (Yes, really. Although the story doesn't make that terribly clear, by which I mean I only figured it out while closely examining the panels in preparation for this blog post. I've read it probably
half a dozen times before.)
The note tells him where to collect, so he goes there.
And then he dies.
The story gets very repetitive and weird at this point (and it was pretty bad already), so I'll cut to the chase.
Nightmare finally has another fight with the dude, punches him in the face, and his mask shatters... because it was a mirror. (Seriously,
that's the explanation for the stolen faces schtick?)
And surprise, surprise, it turns out that it was the undertaker.
So, let me get this straight: The undertaker was of reasonably sound body (other than the obvious), and an older gentlemen, but he was also mere hours from death. And he gave Nightmare, who is, need I remind you, a guy who makes money wrestling for a living (and is darned good at it, for that matter) a really hard fight?
Was this one of those crazy diseases that gives you superhuman powers while you're dying, or what?
I'm having trouble figuring out if this was really a weirder story than the Upside-Down Town one or not.
(Previous posts that mention Nightmare and Sleepy:
Golden Age Moment of the Day #22, "
Checking the Checker," "
The Upside-Down Town."
-Signing off.
...You guys? You moved Sherlock Holmes to America? And in the 1950s? (The characters are driving around in '50s era cars all the time.)
Remember, kids, Bozo the Robot/Iron Man: Guy who hits people really hard such that they accidentally die. He's no killer./sarcasm>
...aliens with bubble pipes.
...apparently, our hero isn't too worried about wanton slaughter of helpless prisoners..
What reasoning is it?
Yeah, I don't think that robot's from Mars if its operator is named Tommy.
I mean, not really, but the resemblance is a bit uncanny...
Actually, I'm not quite sure why "unicorn men" aren't a little more common. (Sparklelord from Dr. McNinja is the only other one I can think of, and they didn't actually call him a unicorn man, just a unicorn. And of course, in his non-flashback appearances, he was a motorcycle, but that's not the point.)
Yes, it's very unlikely they'd be looking for a Nazi base... in Alaska.
He's running from and shooting at... an industrial process?
"What! A strange fleet--attacking our ships! Quick--the Visa-screen!" reminds me of these panels full of military men from that Boy King (and Giant) story I talked about one time. No question marks for us!
Apparently, wrenches let you smash people so hard they fly into the air and strike improbable poses?
I'll let you try to hash out how a "thermal spore" (for a fire fungus?) is supposed to cause a planet to spontaneously combust for yourself.
Because he and his enemies followed a truly special kind of logic.
A pontoon... of DOOM!
I present the Statue of Hitler...y.
Here we see that 
And of course, he had the bird under his arm so he could have it carry him away from the island.
So Samson, rather than be willing to let these monsters live, decided he was going to drive them into extinction.
... You know, she didn't actually ask "why did you just break down the door and smash that antique chair?" She asked what you did to her father.
Anyway, this story is from Clue Comics #3, and is (obviously) part of the incredibly absurd Nightmare and Sleepy feature.
What a great idea! Let's all make a bet where we collect our winnings over each other's dead bodies! That will surely reinforce our friendship!
Is it actually legal to work a bet into your will? That seems strange, at the least.
The undertaker died first.
Funerals are guaranteed to bring out the best in people, apparently.
Wait, what? What? You guys are basically hobos who occasionally get paid for wrestling in local matches when you get places. How the heck do you know about this bet, exactly?
Naturally, this arouses their natural alertness and suspicions, so their clothes "fly to the winds" (the story's words, not mine) and go running.
It has no face? Why...
IT TOOK HIS FACE!
And then he dies.
So, let me get this straight: The undertaker was of reasonably sound body (other than the obvious), and an older gentlemen, but he was also mere hours from death. And he gave Nightmare, who is, need I remind you, a guy who makes money wrestling for a living (and is darned good at it, for that matter) a really hard fight?
I always misread that "DIE[,] DOG!!" as "die [German for 'the (feminine form)'] dog!!" Which would not only be nonsensical, but bad (German) grammar (unless I'm misremembering, "Hunde," German for "dog," is masculine, not feminine.)
