Li'l Genius #23

Frank Johnson's cover for this 1959 Charlton charmer captures the mischievous spirit of Li'l Genius perfectly — a red-haired little boy blasting away on a trumpet while a frazzled woman throws her hands up in exasperated alarm, musical notes flying between them. A disapproving girl peeks in from the upper corner, and a knocked-over pile of something fluffy suggests the chaos has already spread well beyond the music. At a dime a copy, this October issue promises the kind of warm, gleefully anarchic humor that made Charlton's kid comics so endearing in 1959.