Number 2263: 2018 Thanksgiving Turkey Award: The Cat-Crook Caper!

If you are new to this, today is Pappy’s Golden Age Comics Blogzine’s annual Turkey Award, wherein I recognize the American holiday of gathering family for a sumptuous meal and (hopefully) conviviality. The main dish for this meal is usually turkey, and the word “turkey” is also American slang for foolish, stupid or inept. I use the word to mean the most offbeat, stupid, or unusual comic book story I have read all year. Since I read hundreds of comic book stories each year a Turkey Award is a singular award. It is also my decision, and there is no public input in the project.

In this case, I have chosen the story, “Krypto’s Cat-Crook Capers!” from Superboy #132 (1966), for being truly offbeat, stupid or unusual, although I also give it credit for being true to the spirit of many of the stories that appeared in the Superman family of comic books during the latter part of the career of editor Mort Weisinger. He would have had a conference with the writer, usually discussing plots, and told him to write said story. From a viewpoint of 52 years after the story appeared, today’s award winner looks to me to be even more oddball than usual, and that can be saying a lot when it comes to Weisinger. As soon as I saw it I knew it was going to be honored today, and has the additional honor of being scanned from my personal copy of Superboy #132, which is from a stack of sixties DC comics I got from who-knows-where, who-knows-when. I had forgotten it until some archaeology in my basement produced the comic, and immediate shouts of “Voila!” and “We have our winner!” The story earns three-and-a-half turkeys.

It is written by Otto Binder, who also wrote the goofy “Rex King” story I showed yesterday. Otto, who wrote hundreds, and maybe thousands, of comic book scripts in his long career, had a sense of humor, and I believe he probably got a kick out of writing something like this. George Papp was the artist. As an additional treat, see the circulation figures for Superboy on the last page, which shows that as wacky as comics edited by Weisinger could be, they appealed to a lot of readers.

If you wish to see past Turkey Awards winners, just click on the thumbnail from the 2017 winner, and follow the links. By following them you will eventually end up in 2006.

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