Plastic Man #9

Plastic Man #9 from 1968 delivers a wonderfully absurd cover courtesy of Jack Sparling, showing the rubber-bodied hero stretched into a giant slingshot between two birch trees, with a villain clutching a TNT bomb caught squarely in the elastic cradle. In the background, a wide-eyed woman reacts with alarm to the improbable spectacle unfolding in the park. The cover tagline promises that "our human rubber band goes knots when he meets Joe, the Killer Pro!" — and with Arnold Drake writing and Sparling handling both pencils and inks inside, this 12-cent issue looks like a delightfully offbeat adventure.