Mr. Van Roy

Few characters embody the cozy, small-town charm of Golden Age DC humor comics quite like Mr. Van Roy, who stepped onto the page in Leave It to Binky #10 back in 1949, brought to life by the talented duo of Hal Seeger and Bob Oksner. A fixture of the lighthearted Leave It to Binky series through the early 1950s, he shares his world with a wonderfully eccentric cast — Binky Biggs, Grandpa Van Roy, Sherwood Van Roy, Uncle Snootly, and Bertram Biggs — the kind of ensemble that made these slice-of-life comedy books such a delight. With one of his rare appearances counting as a key issue for collectors, Mr. Van Roy is a genuine artifact of an era when DC proved it could make readers laugh just as readily as it could make them gasp.