Archie! Be Careful with That Gun!

I've got to tell you, this is just a busy time of year for Yours Truly.  When danger is your business, you better believe that around the holidays, business is good.  But we're never too busy to take a look at Pep Comics #38!

Since this is the last post before our End-of-the-Year Craptacular, let's start yet another CMNS meme.  I call this one, Stuff You'll Never Believe I Didn't Photoshop (tm!) !

It works like this:

Yes, that is the panel, as-is.  Why was Archie Andrews waiving a gun around the house as if he were training for the French Foreign Legion?  I have no idea.  It was never explained.  And I wouldn't blame you if you thought I'd Photoshopped it, but I didn't.  Archie just behaved differently in his earlier appearances.  Perhaps I'll find a story where Archie gets prescribed Ritalin and he'll suddenly start behaving like the Archie Andrews we all know and love today.

Although now I think I know what happened to Archie's long-missing dog Oscar.

Meanwhile, let's check out a . . . *ahem* . . . borrowed idea:

Disclaimer: Although it's really the only thing that makes sense, the Joker does not appear in this story.

This was in 1943, before the Joker was as iconic as he is today.  Still the Joker had been bumping people off and leaving that grin on the corpses for a year or two prior, so it's hard to call coinkydink on that one.

But it lends itself to an interesting question... can you trademark a character's gimmick?  Sure, we've all heard of the Superman vs. Captain Marvel lawsuit wherein it was ruled that Cap had infringed on Superman because they had similar powers, so would the same thing apply here?  Marvel and DC both have villains called the Scarecrow who use fear as a weapon, but no one says a word.  Discuss!

Meanwhile, here's a rather nifty video found by MarvelX42 celebrating Superman's 75th:

I'm not a huge Superman fan, but that was pretty awesome.

See you tomorrow!