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SIX KEYS TO A LITERARY GENETIC CODE

In essays on the subject of centricity, I've most often used the image of a geometrical circle, which, as I explained here,  owes someth...

Thursday, February 29, 2024

RAPT IN PLASTIC PT. 9




You know sales must have been getting bad when Carmine Infantino's cover depicts the hero fighting a gorilla, and there's not so much as a chimpanzee inside.



Three thieves dressed like playing cards are routed by a plastic guy and his sidekick-- but it's not Plas and Gordy. Rather, Plas's father, the original hero from the forties, has strayed off the old people's reservation. This revelation results in a partial retelling of the Jack Cole origin and the "true origin" of the New Plas.



Plas and Gordon seek out Big Daddy at his place of business: a popular old folks' retreat. Plas soon finds out the real reason for its popularity: Woozy Winks spikes the local sulphur spring. In addition, Big Daddy was trying to get the goods on the leader of the playing-card gang because the crime-lord threatens Big Daddy's ownership of the spa. 



Plas plots to trap the crooks in a burglary attempt, but that goes south. Ironically, Woozy's alcoholic spring works out for the good guys. The gang gets drunk on the "waters" and they voluntarily confess a bunch of earlier crimes, so that their plan to take over the resort is doomed. This tale, the last contribution of Win Mortimer, doesn't boast a great plot, but I enjoyed Drake's version of Woozy Winks, even if Drake makes the character less of a doofus and more of a conman.

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