Knights of Knavery

It's funny to think that in the Golden Age, Batman's villains rarely teamed up. Especially considering how often the Joker appeared, it's amazing that he only teamed up with the Penguin once. But this is a great story with fun dialogue, and it is perfectly drawn by Jack Burnley and Jerry Robinson. According to the Grand Comics Database, the full credits are as follows:

Don Cameron (credit by O'Hearn) (Script)
Jack Burnley (verified by Jack Burnley) (Pencils)
Jerry Robinson (verified by Jack Burnley) (Inks)
? (Colors)
George Roussos (verified by Roussos) (Letters)

This story, from Batman #25 (Oct-Nov 1944) has only been reprinted, as far as I know, in Wanted: The World's Most Dangerous Villains #2 (Vol. 1 Sept-Oct 1972) and in "The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told" collection. The current volume of The Affordable Batman (Batman Chronicles #6), includes Batman #10 and #11. So, this story won't turn up until about Volume 13.

This story is responsible for making Batman my favorite superhero in the 70s...at least until I got my hands on those Ditko Spider-Man pocketbooks.

Here is "Knights of Knavery":

 

More Pig Tales by Kurtzman

Here is another Pig Tales story by Harvey Kurtzman. This one isn't quite as visually inventive as the other story I posted, but there is still a lot of fun stuff going on in the poses. And I really like the series of round panels on page four, where the scientists try more and more extreme methods to crack Homer's skull.

From All Surprise Comics #11 (Fall 1946):

The Great Mince Pie Mystery

Here is another great Bob Bolling Little Archie story that features poor picked-on Little Ambrose rather prominently. The odd little boy with the conductor's wand (and who looks a bit like TV's Monk) is Ludwig la Stanza, the musical moppet. He always kind of struck me as being a bit too similar in concept to Schroeder from Peanuts, but he's such a goofy looking little kid that he adds a lot visually to the Good Ol' Gang.

If you've been having a sense of deja vu in reading the Little Archie stories I've been posting, it's probably because I have been favoring the stories I enjoyed reading from the Archie reprint digests in the mid-1970s. So if you had some of those digests yourself, chances are you have read these stories before.

Here is a story from Little Archie #11 (Summer 1959):