In every installment of I Love Ya But You’re Strange I spotlight strange but ultimately endearing comic stories. Feel free to e-mail me at brianc@cbr.com if you have a suggestion for a future installment!

Today, we look at the time that Detective Comics spent an anniversary issue on the introduction of...Mister Polka Dot?

Right off the bat, it is fascinating how comic book companies have treated "anniversary" issues over the years. For the most part, it seems like DC looked at it as "solo titles get to celebrate them, but not nominal anthology titles" Hence, DC celebrating Batman #100 and Superman #100 but not Action Comics #100 or Detective Comics #100. That goes along with Detective Comics #300 just being a regular normal issue.

This book came out in a weird period for the Batman titles period. The early 1960s was a bad time for the books as they were only a few years removed from Julius Schwartz and Carmine Infantino being brought in to basically save the titles from cancellation. Editor Jack Schiff essentially never wavered from the approach he had been using throughout the 1950s and by the 1960s, times were changing. The success of Julius Schwartz's superhero titles (Justice League of America, Flash and Green Lantern) paired with Mort Weisinger's Superman titles being in a creatively strong period (with the return of Jerry Siegel to the series) led to Batman and Detective Comics looking rather old fashioned and stuck in the past.

The introduction of Mister Polka Dot did not help matters, but at the same time, he's Mister freakin' Polka Dot, I cannot help but love him!

Bill Finger, Sheldon Moldoff and Charles Paris were still the creative team on the book when this issue came out, but I guess I'm not absolutely certain that Finger wrote this issue. It feels like a Finger-style story, but I can't say for sure.

Anyhow, it opens with Batman and Robin trying to arrest a gang but their third member surprises them as he is...Mister Polka Dot!

I adore the fact that they tried to use science to explain Mister Polka Dot's dots, even though they still make no sense at all...

"The dots then disappear because...science."

How amazing is this panel of Mister Polka Dot's reign of terror in Gotham City?

Anyhow, Robin then gets captured by the totally scientifically possible "Dot that turns into a bunch of fists that twirl in the air and hit people" weapon...

Luckily, after Mister Polka Dot makes Robin lure Batman into a trap with a note, Robin then uses dots of his own - braille - to warn Batman!

That's a legit clever and informative bit there by Finger.

Batman then realizes he has figure out Mister Polka Dot's plan...

Do YOU know what it is, readers?

Yes, it is, indeed, connecting the dots...

Man, what a weirdly awesome villain.

If anyone else has a suggestion for a future I Love Ya But You're Strange, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!