Number 2122: Putting the comic in comic book

This Midnight story, from Smash Comics #84 (1949), is a superb example of Jack Cole’s gift for comic exaggeration and slapstick. Virtually every panel, including the cover, has some funny, frenetic action going on.

Besides all the funny business, in the story Doc Wackey invents a photocopy machine. Xerox Corporation introduced its first office copier in 1949. It is a gag meant for just one plot point, but with its application by Doc (making copies of invitations to the Diamond Cutters Ball), hints at how important the technology would become in the future.

Posted in: Pappy Comics