The Two-Hundred-Twenty-Fourth Greatest Panel in the History of Comics

That's a rarity - narration that escapes the box to float above characters' heads!

The Two-Hundred-Twenty-Third Greatest Panel in the History of Comics

(click to bigify)

I'm normally not in favour of clown sidekicks, but it seems that Captain Triumph is in desperate need of some help, since he seems to have aged sixty years and contracted a wasting disease since his last appearance.

The Two-Hundred-Twenty-Second Greatest Panel in the History of Comics

Hubris, thy name is any given supervillain.

The Two-Hundred-Twenty-First Greatest Panel in the History of Comics

Was there a fur shortage during the war? Did the army use furs for something? If you tell me that food or guns or rubber or steel will bring you a fortune during wartime, I'll sign off on that statement right away.

But furs? Really?

Am I horribly misinformed about the workings of stateside wartime grey-market commodities?

The Two-Hundred-Twentieth Greatest Panel in the History of Comics

(click to bigify)

Dear lord, is that thing horrible. Is it any wonder so many children are terrified of the Easter Bunny?

Christmas with Robin!

It's Christmastime here at the castle, which makes it the perfect time to talk about the first appearance of Robin, the Boy Wonder, for reasons which are so obvious that I needn't bother mentioning them. Or making them up, in point of fact.

That's a bold way to advertise a new character on the cover of a comic. The most important find of the entire year? Isn't his also the year that Flash Comics were first published? And maybe it's a little pedantic, but how do you classify something you created as a 'find'? I suppose the idea was 'found' in the sense that someone pitched him to an editor and the editor said yes, but that's something of a stretch.

The Two-Hundred-Nineteenth Greatest Panel in the History of Comics

(click to bigify)

"Look out - that cloud's got a gun!"

If you're wondering why the Golden Age was wonderful, the answer is that statement right there. Which could happen at no other time in human history.

The Two-Hundred-Eighteenth Greatest Panel in the History of Comics

(click to bigify)

There's nothing that's not horrible about this. Bravo, racists of the past.

The Two-Hundred-Seventeenth Greatest Panel in the History of Comics

Hitler with fangs. Perfect distillation of propaganda art, or terrifying alternate history?

The Two-Hundred-Sixteenth Greatest Panel in the History of Comics

(click to bigify)

"Holy See Breezes". Ah, the lengths they'll go to avoid swearing. I resolve to use that at least once per year!

More if I happen upon a Nazi U-Boat.

The Two-Hundred-Fifteenth Greatest Panel in the History of Comics

(click to bigify)

I feel like there's never been a Manhunter story that was as good as its title page. That's not even meant as an insult to Manhunter stories - the title pages are just that good.

The Two-Hundred-Fourteenth Greatest Panel in the History of Comics

(click to bigify)

The Spirit has a flying car? When did this happen?

The Two-Hundred-Thirteenth Greatest Panel in the History of Comics

This is a weird trend I've noticed reading a lot of WW2 comics - I've seen a bunch of examples of heroes fighting Nazis in Europe who, at a certain point, get transferred over to battling the Japs in the Pacific, since that's more marketable.

I understand why this happened, but the implied racial politics make me deeply uncomfortable.

The Two-Hundred-Twelfth Greatest Panel in the History of Comics

(bigify)

I understand nothing about this. Why are FDR and Churchill plotting at the Arctic Circle?

More importantly, what's going on with the story? Burp hears people talking about bombing and assumes it's 'filth' columnists, then in panel six, he's shocked to find out that they're anti-Hitler, and not saboteurs. But way back in panel two, they're talking about stopping Nazis. So why didn't that tip him off?

The Two-Hundred-Eleventh Greatest Panel in the History of Comics

(click to bigify)

Dear lord, is there anything better than metaphorical title pages? We know that a beat cop isn't going to go to a lost valley and fight a dragon, he's going to punch smugglers, one of them presumably going by the codename 'the green dragon'.

But just for one page, it's wonderful to pretend, isn't it?