Plas.  Although the silver age Elongated Man is a kick, Jack Cole's Plas is unlike anything else out there.  I've read comments on this board that he'd fit in well with the C.C. Beck Marvel Family, but I can't believe anyone who's read the original stories would come away with that impression.  In one of Plas' early tales, drug smugglers were running a mortuary. "Aha!" our hero thinks, "They're hiding the drugs in the coffins!" But he opened the caskets to find no drugs visible.  Because the bad guys were smuggling the packets of drugs inside the corpses! Plas lived in a world so daffy, so messed-up, and so bizarre, you'd have to be able to remold yourself into anything just to stay sane. The themes were mature, the violence extreme... While the humor was prevalent throughout, Cole's Plas fits in better with the world of EC comics.

And I really liked his Bronze Age appearances in the Brave and the Bold.  A true loner super-hero.  No team affiliations, no supporting cast to speak of, a proud history as a super-hero, but what does that really get you?  The Ramona Fradon stuff with the NBI and his guest appearance in the Super Friends... Great stuff...!

I have been on vacation (sort of).  My wife and daughter spent W-Th-F working as extras in the new M. Night Shamaylan (sp.) movie starring Mark Wahlberg, and yesterday we went to Hershey Park.  Ugh!  It was like 100 degrees!

Anyway, I met an extra named Mike who was talking about M. Night and Stan Lee who got really excited when I started talking comics with him.  Turns out he is a big Chris Claremont fan and recounted a story about how he got to talk to Chris because he is married to a former classmate fo his, etc. etc.  Anyway, he is not as big a Byrne fan (bum) so I ask...

TODAY'S TOSS-UP (I have no idea what the date is):

John Byrne or Chris Claremont?