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“flopped” and re-drawn version

a diagram

inside-front-cover feature

the cooperative bear daydreams of how his life will soon be on the bucolic Red Planet

a fight erupts

a drawing style

visually participates

Here’s an issue of TREASURE CHEST OF FUN AND FACT with one of those ODDBALL “Infinity Covers” -- or, at least it would be if the cover artist hadn’t been so darn lazy! But this issue of the long-running Catholic-based anthology series holds a far greater cosmic mystery! They say that “God works in mysterious ways”, but can He even explain how the little girl and priest on this TREASURE CHEST cover discover themselves in the comic itself? ODDBALL COMICS goes “meta” with this mind-melting issue -- one that you’ll just have to read to understand!

This issue’s 7-page cover-story is “Traveling First Class”, an installment of “The Sacramentals”, drawn by P. Karch. It begins with a splash panel that is a “flopped” and re-drawn version of this issue’s cover illustration, as a comic book-reading young girl named Nancy collides with a young priest, who drops his armload of catechism booklets in the process:

CATHOLIC PRIEST:
If at first you don’t succeed…

NANCY:
OOOOPS!

CATHOLIC PRIEST:
…Try, try again. I should have equipped myself with radar before trying to deliver these catechisms.

NANCY:
Oh, I -- I’m sorry, Father! I had my nose buried in TREASURE CHEST, and wasn’t watching where…I was just beginning to read a story about the Sacramentals. It’s called “Traveling First-Class.”

CATHOLIC PRIEST:
Hmmm! A rather vague title -- but thought-provoking. You see, if we can travel over life’s highway successfully if we use the Sacraments properly. But if we want to travel first-class, we should also make god use of the Sacramentals.

Nancy refers to her copy of TREASURE CHEST OF FUN AND FACT:

NANCY:
The article says that the church is offering us a special help to lead a good life, and we should use it.

CATHOLIC PRIEST:
That’s right. Although we aren’t obligated to do so, it would be foolish not to. You see, by our catechism definition…Sacramentals are holy things or actions of which the church makes use to obtain for us from God, through her intercession, spiritual and temporal favors. So, you see, not taking full advantage of the Sacramentals the church offers you is something like refusing a ride to school in a new convertible because you know you can get there by walking.

Then the young priest starts to ask questions of Nancy:

CATHOLIC PRIEST:
And do you know the three chief kinds of Sacramentals?

NANCY:
Well, n-no. I was just beginning to read the TREASURE CHEST story when we, er…met.

CATHOLIC PRIEST:
Well, later in the TREASURE CHEST story you’ll probably see that the first kind is blessings given by priests and bishops. The second kind is exorcisms against evil spirits. In the blessing of baptismal water, for example…Blessed objects of devotion are the third chief kind of Sacramental.

Suddenly, a teenage boy named Sam -- who looks to be about Nancy’s age -- interrupts them:

SAM:
High-ho, Nancio! Sacramentals are the apple-polishing subject of the day, I see. The sure way to sanctifying grace.

NANCY:
I am not polishing the apple. In fact, you might say I bruised the “apple” only a few minutes ago.

CATHOLIC PRIEST:
Let’s not be silly about such serious things. Nancy is learning something -- something you obviously don’t know much about. You see, the Sacramentals are not the sure way to sanctifying grace. But if we use them properly, they do prepare us to received sanctifying grace by giving us pious dispositions…a crucifix, for example, is a Sacramental that reminds us of Christ’s passion and death. With God’s supernatural help, it fills us with love for our Saviour. It makes us thank our Lord for his goodness, enables us to have a more sincere sorrow for our sins, and strengthens our will to go good and avoid evil…The supernatural help is actual grace -- one of the chief benefits of all
Sacramentals.

Next, the unnamed priest discusses “health of body and material blessings:, “holy water” and the Sacramentals that bring about “the forgiveness of venial sins”. When Sam takes a look at the latest issue of TREASURE CHEST OF FUN AND FACT -- without even noticing that both of the people he’s with are drawn on its cover! -- he quotes something that he reads there:

SAM:
Hmmm! It says here that we shouldn’t consider Sacramentals as good-luck charms.

CATHOLIC PRIEST:
That’s right, Sam. We should consider them as holy things that can produce effects only under the conditions we’ve talked about. For example, having a blessed St. Christopher medal along with us as a time like this wont do us very much good.

Finally, Sam comes to a semi-startling realization:

SAM:
Say, I just noticed something. The people in this TC story are us!

NANCY:
Why, this picture shows exactly what’s happening to us at this very minute! And here on the last page of the story…is a diagram showing what I was just going to ask about -- the main differences between Sacraments and Sacramentals!

Meanwhile, Sam seems rather star-struck:

SAM:
Why, we’re starring in TREASURE CHEST! Wait until the gang sees this!

CATHOLIC PRIEST:
And you’re performing a “good work” by doing so. Just think how many boys and girls will learn about the Sacramentals because of what you’re doing right now.

NANCY:
That “good work” is almost the same as a Sacramental, isn’t it, Father?

CATHOLIC PRIEST:
Not quite. “Good works” are not Sacramentals unless the church designates them as such. We must remember that Sacramentals are appointed specifically by the church. But don’t get the idea that the church doesn’t encourage all kinds of good works. It’s just a Sacramental is something extra special, whether is it a particular action or a particular object.

NANCY:
I know, it’s something designed very specially to help us travel first-class!

Surprisingly, Nancy and Sam aren’t depicted as being fast asleep by this time. Considering that this is a cover-story for TREASURE CHEST OF FUN AND FACT, I think that reading “Traveling First Class” could lay just about anyone out cold! Wotta snoozer! (Although -- to this non-believer, at least -- it strikes me that the mind-blowing mystery of how Nancy, Sam and the priest wound up in a comic book with a meta-cover that predicted their catechism-scattering collision would, by comparison, reduce the explanation of the Sacramentals to a mere footnote!) Finally, we’re treated to a final bit of shilling TREASURE CHEST OF FUN AND FACT:

TEASER CAPTION:
Future stories in this year’s TREASURE CHEST will tell you more about Sacramentals. The first of these strips will explain indulgences.

Also included in this issue of TREASURE CHEST OF FUN AND FACT are the following stories, features and advertisements:

• “Flying Saucer Race!”, an unsigned, black-and-white, inside-front-cover feature.

• “No Peace For Bears”, written and drawn by Eric St. Clair. -- In this humorous story, with the advent of hunting season, human hunters are gunning down bears, deer, cows -- and each other! But the predators find themselves preyed upon by a sort of Robin Hood, who robs from the hunters and uses the money to help bears! His eventual goal is the send bears where there are no hunters at all -- to the planet Mars! The somewhat manipulative bear-nefactor even convinces one burly bruin to help him, pitching in to run on a treadmill that creates the electricity to power the tools used to build a space ship. (While doing this, the cooperative bear daydreams of how his life will soon be on the bucolic Red Planet.) When the day of the Mars-shot finally arrives, it takes a lot of “argument, coaxing, persuasion, entreaty” to talk the bear into manning the rocket. But at the last second, with the launch-fuse already burning, the volunteer bear suddenly changes his mind! (Unfortunately, this story is a serialized one, continued in the next issue of TREASURE CHEST OF FUN AND FACT.)

• “Myrtle Calls The Pitch”, an illustrated three-page text-story -- about a girl baseball fan who gets a job selling hotdogs at the baseball park so she can watch the games while she works -- written by Henry G. Felsen.

• “Chuck White And His Friends”, written and drawn by Max Pine. -- “School has started and a new crop of players is trying out for the St. John’s football squad…” Sitting on the sidelines, Father Carroll tells reporter Chuck White that he’s impressed by the new recruits, such as Wilbur “Torchy” Torchino, who he feels will “make a great running back some day!” But while practicing on the field, a player named Bill accidentally steps on one of Torchy’s hands. At Coach Downey’s request, the team doctor examines Torchy’s hand and determines that he’s got some broken bones in it. When Chuck gives injured Torchy a ride home; during the ride, Torchy reveals that his mother’s “pretty sick” and may have to be hospitalized soon. Arriving at Torchy’s family’s apartment, it’s apparent that the Torchinos live in a tough urban neighborhood. Two of the local thugs, Spud Kane and his pal Nails, give Torchy a hard time even before he reaches the door to his apartment. Inside, his father, “Battlin’ Sam” Torchino, informs his son that Mrs. Torchino is “awfully sick” and needs an expensive operation that they can’t afford. Torchy’s worried sick; with his injured hand, he can’t get a job, but he feels that he’s got to help his father raise the money to pay for his mother’s operation. Strolling through the neighborhood while he ponders this situation, Torchy sees a group of young kids who are openly robbing “Green’s Men’s Apparel” shop, loading merchandise out of its stock room and onto a covered wooden cart. Stopping the boys, Torchy learns that they steal stuff to give to Spud and Nails, who later pay them a portion of their pure profits from selling the stolen swag. Unfortunately, Spud and Nails see Torchy talking to their stooges and soon, a fight erupts between them. As it escalates, Spud hurls a brick through the window of “Green’s Men’s Apparel”; when he and Nails make a getaway, battered Torchy is the only one left behind. Mistakenly assumed by Mr. Green to be a member of Spud and Nails’ gang, Torchy Torchino is loaded into the back of a police van and taken away. (Needless to say, this story is “to be continued”.)

• “Patsy Manners” in “Personality Workshop”, drawn by Ozella Welch. -- In a drawing style that’s Oddly reminiscent of contemporary illustrator/comic book artist Mitch O’Connell, this story begins in the Manners’ recreation room as Bud and George argue about the appeal of television’s fictitious “Mr. Personality”, Rod Tweet. But the girls, Patsy, Marge and a third, unnamed character disagree, and ask their Aunt Eileen to back them up. When she learns that the kids variously construe “personality” to be the same as “popularity”, “good marks” and “social know-how”, she explains that “personality is all things you are, spiritual and physical.” Aunt Eileen examines “the physical you”, “the social you”, “the brainy you”, “the ability to enjoy beautiful things”, “your will” and “last and most important is religion”. As the kids decide to work on developing their personalities, we’re given this teaser: “And that’s how Aunt Eileen’s Personality Workshop began. Next time, we’ll tell you how Aunt Eileen helped Patsy and her friends understand the physical side of their personalities.”

• “Earth Apples”, written by Norah Smaridge and drawn by Ed. Thursland. -- This two-page educational strip relates how, in 18th Century France, the common potato was introduced to the country and became known as ”pommes de terre”, or “apples of the earth”.

• “Those Were The Days”, featuring “Cornering Cobb”, drawn by Ed. Hunter. -- While he warms his feet near a pot-bellied stove, a grizzled old general store owner -- who visually participates in nearly every panel of this story -- tells the story of the Detroit Tigers’ Ty Cobb, “one of the greatest players who ever swung a bat”. But instead of providing a home-spun biography of the controversial baseball player, the old geezer tells how Paul Krichell, a rookie catcher for the New York Yankees, stopped the bases-stealing Cobb by throwing “the ball two bases ahead of him”.

• “Pierre”, an unsigned, black-and-white, inside-back-cover pantomime gag-strip.

• “Now In Four Colors”, a back-cover advertisement for “The Grade-1 Edition Of Our Little Messenger And The Confraternity Edition Of Our Little Messenger”, available via mail-order from “Geo. A. Pflaum, Publisher, Inc.”

ODDBALL FACTOID – Although their work doesn’t appear in this issue of TREASURE CHEST OF FUN AND FACT, some of the comic’s regular contributors included Reed (BLACKHAWK) Crandall and Joe (FANTASTIC FOUR) Sinnott!

New Next Week: ODDBALL COMIC #1,193 -- MONDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2007 – We all know about such comic book captains as Captain America, Captain Marvel and even Captain Carrot! Now, read THE ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN TOOTSIE AND THE SECRET LEGION! “Captain Tootsie”? Like in Dustin Hoffman’s 1982 classic film TOOTSIE? Nooo! Wouldja believe as in “Tootsie Roll” candy? But even weirder, this isn’t a “giveaway” comic, but “straight” science fiction with nary a gum drop on hand! So chew on that ODDBALL COMIC for a while!

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