Hap Hazard Comics #9

When Hap, Zip, and Slug head to the Tierney County Fair in 1946, they're ready for a day of fun—but Zip's prize hog and Slug's homegrown corn have plans of their own, while Hap's jalopy ends up in the middle of unexpected chaos. Between mishaps and surprises at the fair grounds, the three friends find themselves caught up in more excitement than any of them bargained for. By day's end, it turns out the County Fair has a few wild twists in store for everyone involved.

Zippermouth borrows a friend's car for a trip to the library, but a run-in with a traffic cop over a red light sets off a chain of misadventures—parking violations, mechanical troubles, and mounting tickets that land him in court. When diplomacy and tact prove spectacularly unhelpful, it takes an unexpected turn of events to get him out of hot water.

Hap Hazard gets smitten when a new student named Mary Stone joins his history class, and he eagerly arranges to walk her home—only to discover she lives just across the street from school. When he calls for a date that evening, things go hilariously wrong: he spots Mary out with another fellow and confronts her in a jealous fury, but then gets slapped by a mysterious woman and accused of standing up the girl he just met. The next day at school, the truth emerges in a comedic tangle of mistaken identity that explains everything—though perhaps a bit too late for poor Hap's dignity.

Hap Hazard's romantic prospects take a nosedive when his pal Zippermouth loans him Uncle Ethelbert's latest invention—a revolutionary non-sag hammock guaranteed to impress the girl of his dreams. What should be the perfect garden-party setup spirals into chaos when the contraption malfunctions during a sudden rainstorm, and Hap's string of disasters only gives his rival Reggie more chances to swoop in and win over Judy. When Uncle Ethelbert offers up a second "solution"—an all-weather umbrella—Hap discovers that some inventions create more trouble than they solve.

When Hap realizes he's broke just days before Judy's birthday party, he takes his mom's advice and starts mowing lawns around the neighborhood to earn gift money—but complications pile up when Judy spots him with Reggie and assumes he's ditching her for another date. After working overtime to scrape together cash for the perfect present, Hap and his pals take his jalopy on a gift-hunting mission that ends in a spectacular collision, leaving him scrambling to salvage both the present and his reputation before the big party that night.

When Hap Hazard finds himself ineligible for the baseball team, a well-meaning girl decides to tutor him back into shape—with surprisingly cerebral results. A bump on the head transforms the teen into a walking encyclopedia spouting scientific jargon, setting off a chain of mishaps before the big game on Friday. With eligibility on the line and the bases loaded in the final inning, Hap gets his shot to prove what he's really made of.