Today in Comics History, February 1: Well, time to start up the Select Committee to Investigate the February 1 Attack on the Government

Today, it's February First and Fiery Forces the Fuman Forch...I mean, the Human Torch (original flavor) and his atomic fireball pal Toro have discovered some dastardly plan (but don't they always)!


from "No One Can Stop the Hypnotist*" in Young Men (1953 series) #27 (Marvel/Atlas, April 1954), script by Joe Gill, pencils and inks by Carl Burgos
(*Yeah, and they said nobody beats the Wiz, but they've been out of business for years.)

Torch 'n Toro rush to their favorite pal cop Chief Wilson (seriously, Jim Hammond, stop doin' that: ACWAB.) and find out something sinister is about to happen on February 1, thanks to a mysterious figure known only as (dun dun dun) "The Hypnotist!" Oh no, he's gonna make us all think we're chickens!


The Hypnotist is extending his tendrils everywhere? (Wait, shouldn't he be called "The Jellyfish" if that's true?) He's even enlisting the help of evil Mexican luchadores in India! The Torches uncover the secret plot (by, uh, hearing it yelled around the world) to topple all the world's governments on February 1, even the really heavy ones like Britain's House of Lords and the All-Lead Palace of King Pb of Pbistan!


Luckily, the Flambé Foursome Duo halt the Hypnotist, who's a vampire or an alien sludge monster or somethin', we don't know, gotta wrap the story up in the next three panels. The Torch sums it up by asserting that they've stopped "the greatest evil the world has ever known." ?!?? Jim, you killed Hitler.


THUS PERISH ALL TYRANTS!