Police Comics #53

This April 1946 Quality Comics entry puts Plastic Man's elastic ingenuity on full display, with cover art by Jack Cole showing the pliable hero having stretched himself into a living parachute — his body fanning out in brilliant red — while a hapless, polka-dot-shirted figure clings to his ankles as autumn leaves swirl around them in the wind. The cover teases an encounter with the intriguingly named Dr. Erudite, and Cole's playful, kinetic linework captures exactly the kind of cheerful absurdity that made Plastic Man such a distinctive presence in Golden Age comics. A fun snapshot of 1946 superhero storytelling at its most imaginatively loose-limbed.