The Flash #254

The cover of this October 1977 issue — penciled by Dick Dillin and inked by Joe Rubinstein — sets up one of the more delightfully unsettling premises in Flash history: a full "Convention of Flash Villains," where a crowd of the Scarlet Speedster's green-clad rogues surrounds a wary Flash, mockingly congratulating him as their "favorite hero" while a white-haired villain crouches below brandishing a purple pistol. The whole scene crackles with menace dressed up as ceremony, and that ominous final speech bubble — "And wait'll you see what we give you NEXT!" — makes it clear the award is anything but an honor. Inside, writer Cary Bates and artist Irv Novick deliver the story "To Believe or Not to Believe!," promising a chapter worthy of this genuinely unnerving setup.