Number 399


The Time Travelers


A reader recently sent an e-mail:

. . . I've been reading Pappy's for about a year and have noticed at times you use the words "screwy" or "screwball" to describe a story. I think ALL comic books, especially the Golden Age . . . are screwy. The plots are inane, the artwork sometimes amateurish. But we read comic books because we like that sort of thing, apparently . . . I think "screwy" and "screwball" can't just be applied to some stories when all comics seem to fit the screwy category.

Maybe I should rename my blog Pappy's Screwball Golden Age Comics! Seriously, the reader has a point. Comic book readers really do like the oddball and offbeat. Even the most mainstream comics, like the super-heroes, are basically screwy when you get right down to it. However, those are the sorts of things that comic book readers read and don't think are screwy, because they buy into the screwball world their heroes exist in.

I just accept that as being part of the appeal of comics. So while I agree that all comic books are in their own way screwy, when I say screwy, I mean my definition of screwy, which is screwier than the screwy mainstream comics. And here's a screwy screwball story to prove it! From Operation Peril #11, 1952: