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| Smash Comics #52 (APR 1944) |
The opening splash page leaves me with the impression this will be one of those rare (but sometimes well-executed) stories that attempts to teach a little "real history" in the midst of an entertaining superhero story. Let's see how well Gustavson pulled it off.
The opening panels rehash the "Dave-Clark-just-wants-a-relaxing-evening-at-home-but-his-permanent-houseguests-won't-shut-up" trope. Dave's grousing is interrupted by Wackey boisterously announcing his latest invention: time pills.
Sniffer reliably questions whether Doc's invention will work; and Doc--just as reliably--seizes the bait and tells everyone to take a pill while he thinks of a time in history they'll all visit. (Dave, incomprehensibly takes the pill--so much for a quiet evening reading the paper--but decides to put on his domino mask "just in case.")
Doc explains that the pills take a bit to work, and Sniffer complains of his "fiddling while Rome burns"...so you know where this is going. That's right, they wind up in ancient Rome. (Now, as Wackey explained the pills originally, you'd think that everyone who'd taken a pill would travel to a different point in time based on what they were individually-thinking about...but it was the Golden Age, so I guess nobody cared about gaping plot holes.)
Now a believer, Sniffer asks how the crew will ever get back home, to which the seemingly apoplectic Wackey announces they'll just take another pill and think of home. Before they can do so, however, some Romans passing by in a chariot, terrified at the sight of a talking monkey, flee afoot and leave their conveyance behind. Gabby suggests he and his pals take advantage of this and "see the Tiber for a dime." To which his confederates--again without much discussion or explanation--suddenly agree.
As the reader sees Gabby and his ride-share companions passing through an arch into Rome, it seems Gustavson realized he needed to shoe-horn an in-story explanation for upcoming dialogue.
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| "Sure. That sounds very plausible." -- no one ever |
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