After a month of spotlighting the strange (if endearingly strange) history of comic books (and especially the Silver Age), I think it is worthwhile to show the comic books of the Silver Age that are simply great stories period. Here is an archive of all the Silver Age comics features so far!

Today we look at the debut of the Elongated Man's back-up feature in Detective Comics. So here, from 1964's Detective Comics #327, is "Ten Miles to Nowhere," by Gardner Fox and Carmine Infantino!

Enjoy!

Elongated Man stories were the perfect option for Gardner Fox's gimmick-driven style of storytelling, as Fox would get a chance to come up with clever mysteries for Ralph to solve. Meanwhile, Fox was also good at forming charming characters, which Ralph and his wife Sue most certainly were.

Here, from Detective #327, we see the first Elongated Man back-up story for Detective Comics...

Good stuff, right?

You have to love the offbeat nature of "there is an ear in the fireplace!" Plus, Infantino's art (inking his own pencils) is stellar. The character work is excellent.

Honestly, I think the story in #328 "The Case of the Barn Door Bandit" is even MORE charming (and Infantino's art is even better). Here is a sampling of that story...

I picked "Ten Miles to Nowhere" to spotlight, though, since it IS the first one.