Superboy #42

There's a delightful absurdity at the heart of this 1955 DC issue, as the cover by Curt Swan and Stan Kaye drops Superboy right into an arena spectacle — he's mounted on a rearing horse alongside a gaucho, but the bolas have somehow wrapped around Superboy himself rather than the charging bull facing them, much to the crowd's amusement. The cover bills the featured story as "The Gaucho of Smallville," promising a tale where the Boy of Steel meets some unexpected competition, with interior art by John Sikela. At a dime a copy, this is a wonderfully charming slice of mid-1950s DC storytelling where even Superboy can have an off day with a lasso.