ADVENTURE COMICS 498

Adventure Comics 498

A "Lost Story" Recovered!

In THE LEGION COMPANION, a couple of lost Challenger covers surfaced courtesy of Miki Annamanthadoo, ever-dedicated collector of Legion covers. The lost covers show how the Challs got bumped out by Legion reprints.

Alongside is the cover that was published. Note how the Challs got overdrawn.

But this "lost story" was resurrected. DC Comics Presents 84 features a team-up between Superman and the Challengers of the Unknown. It's written by Bob Rozakis and drawn by Jack Kirby.

Yet seven pages are a flashback where the Challs drag a terrified man off a ledge. The seven pages are by Bob Rozakis and Alex Toth, who did the Adventure stories. Slap on the missing cover - a guy on a ledge - and we've found the "lost" story!

Bob Rozakis was kind enough to explain, "Your question sent me to my boxes of old scripts to find something I had long forgotten I'd even written... but here's what I found:

"The seven pages by Toth were cut and pasted from the original nine -- keep in mind that the story was originally intended for a digest, so we were able to moves some of the panels around -- and what appeared in DCCP was the entire chapter." Great: nothing is missing!

With no official title, we'll call this story:

"Jumpy Mr. Jenkins"

In St. Louis, a bank exec has climbed out on a 12th floor ledge "ready to make a leap into eternity."

Rocky says, "This looks like a corker, guys, but I've got an idea. We approach from all sides!"

Ace mutters, "We've been together too long. We're starting to think alike." Red will scale the building. Ace will bring in a copter. Muscle Man Rocky will lean out a window and grab. Prof feels like a fifth wheel.

Red finds the climb "a piece of cake", but he likes to give the audience their money's worth.

Rocky tries to reason with Mr. Jenkins, but the man is mad with terror. "No way! I'm not setting foot in that office again! I can't!" Yet there seems nothing scary in the office.

Ace wings in a helicopter. Prof hangs in a harness. "I'm supposed to be the brains of the outfit! I didn't sign up to be an acrobat!" Ace yells, "Just swing towards the guy and shut up!"

Prof swings close. Reason doesn't work. Jenkins tries to kick him away. Red, Prof, and Rocky dive. Rocky snags him. "Sorry, Mr. Jenkins, but after all the effort we've gone to, this story has to have a rescue!"

Rocky pulls Jenkins inside. A doctor waits with a sedative. So does a cop with a mysterious card found on Jenkins' desk. He asks what the card means.

Screaming, Jenkins dives headlong out the window!

Red is knocked off the ledge - and barely latches onto Prof's dangling legs! "Sure glad you were hanging around!" Prof asks, "Don't you ever stop making jokes?"

As for Jenkins, "Guess we blew this one, hunh?" But what frightened him? The mysterious card, which Rocky liberated from a cop. The Challs take a look ...

And there the story ends. According to Bob, "The only change was what was on the card -- originally just a symbol." The new Kryptonian symbol segues into DC Comics Presents 84.

As to where the Jenkins story leads, Bob Rozakis fills us in below.

ADVENTURE COMICS 499

Adventure Comics 499

"Dream a Little Dream..."

A wicked cool bug-eyed monster gives Rocky a wakeup call! Another original cover from the collection of Miki Annamanthadoo. Alongside is the final cover without the Challs. And here's Bob's plot outline:

"In the second chapter... "Dream a Little Dream..." Rocky gets a similar card in the mail. He falls asleep and is approached by a woman who then turns into the monster shown on the cover.  The other Challs tackle him before he can do himself in.

"Shortly thereafter, a fake policeman arrives on the scene. The Challs fight with him, but he jumps out the window, seemingly to his death.

"The last panel would have shown no body on the sidewalk down below, leading to the next chapter.

"[This installment was never drawn -- all that exists is my original plot outline for Alex Toth and the art for the cover.]"

Adventure Comics 500 and 501

"Money-Mad Magicians, Inc."

Bob tells us, "The third (and probably 4th -- I doubt I would have wrapped up the  story in one more part) chapters were never even plotted, so they had certainly no titles... [So we'll call it, "Money-Mad Magicians, Inc."]

"From the scribbled notes I have attached to that plot, it was going to turn out that Jenkins and Rocky were both members of the board of a large corporation.

"A group of magicians wanted to take over the company and were using their powers to drive the board members to their deaths so that they could take over... The magicians would have been new characters, not any established ones...

"Eventually, the Challs would have figured it out and broken up the plan."

And those are the answers from DC's Answer Man!