Li'l Genius #42

This Charlton charmer from 1963 captures a perfectly relatable suburban disaster in the making: little redheaded Ollie has proudly scratched his name into Dad's freshly waxed green car, calling out "Dad, look… I can write my name!" while his father — armed with a can of car wax, a cloth, and a dawning sense of dread — reacts with wide-eyed dismay. Jon D'Agostino's cover art delivers the gag with warm, expressive cartooning that made Li'l Genius such an endearing slice of early-'60s family humor, and with Joe Gill's story "A Cow Around the House" waiting inside, the fun is clearly just getting started.