Adventures of Jerry Lewis #112

Adventures of Jerry Lewis #112 (On Sale: March 6, 1969) has a cover by Bob Oksner. Until I bought the old Neal Adams' issues last year, this was the only issue of Adventures of Jerry Lewis I had ever bought or read and the only one I bought from the newsstand.

We start with "The Flash Meets Jerry Lewis," which is the reason I bought this book. Reader Martin O'Hearn tells us that E. Nelson Bridwell talked about writing this story, so let's call it by E. Nelson Bridwell and Bob Oksner. Jerry and nephew Renfrew are taking Jerry's sweater to be cleaned when they see the tailor being taken "for a ride" by two goons. Jerry says that he and Renfrew will watch the store for him while he enjoys his ride. Inside they notice the large amount of costumes in for cleaning and Renfrew notes that they are all super-villain uniforms, not super-hero uniforms.

Their first customer is in a prison outfit and asks for the Captain Cold outfit. When Renfrew starts asking too many question, Captain Cold puts him on ice, literally. Meanwhile Barry Allen notices that several of his foes who staged a mass jailbreak were caught with a tailor's business card in their pockets. As the Flash he heads on over just as Jerry is putting out a sign advertising for a delivery boy. He hires the Flash to do the job (he looks speedy!) and hands him the costumes to a bunch of super-villains.

Meanwhile the tailor is brought to the hideout of Abra Kadabra who wants to know what happened to the wand he left in his cape? The tailor has no idea, but at the same moment and just thawed Renfrew fins a magic wand on the floor and notes that he can use it to send sewing needle into Uncle Jerry's butt! The Flash meanwhile has rounded up a number of villains and heads back to the store as Barry Allen to see if he can find out what is going on. However, he is splashed by a car in front of the tailor shop and Jerry insists on cleaning his trousers. As Jerry shakes them for cleaning the Flash's ring falls out of the pocket. Jerry returns Barry's horribly shrunk, and burned pants to him and Barry storms out in a huff, but Renfrew finds a ring on the floor.

While Abra Kadabra tortures the tailor Jerry snatches the ring from Renfrew and accidentally opens the secret compartment holding the Flash's uniform. Renfrew eggs Jerry into trying the outfit on and then uses his magic wand to empower the Flash's boots to run like crazy! Unable to get any information out of the tailor, Kadabra heads back to his shop just as Barry notices that he is missing his ring. He rushes home and picks up his spare costume and heads back to the tailor shop just as Kadabra and his men show up and see Jerry running around in the Flash's costume.

Kadabra's men tackle Jerry and Renfrew says that it was his wand that made him run so fast. Kadabra tries to take the wand from Renfrew who throws it away just as the Flash enters the shop and is knocked unconscious by the errant wand. Kadabra is unable to determine who is the real Flash and Renfrew says it has to be his Uncle Jerry. Just then the Flash wakes up, sews Kadabra's men together and knocks Kadabra out. Kadabra lands on a steam press and Renfrew flattens him. The Flash takes the bad guys off to jail and Jerry is just happy things are back to normal, only Renfrew still has the magic wand and Jerry is actually floating off the ground.

An aside here. Years later I worked at a company and at one time my boss was a guy named Jerry Renfrew. Every time I saw him I thought of this comic book.

Next is "Wheeler Dealer Meets Jalopy Jerk." Jerry is walking past a used car lot when the dealer grabs him and shoves him into an old jalopy and forces him to take a test drive. Jerry gets stopped by a cop who threatens to give him a ticket for driving such and old junker. Jerry takes it back to the lot but the brakes fail and Jerry crashes it, and then tells the salesman he would never buy a car in that bad of shape.

We end with "Jerry-Flavored Ice Cream." Steve Rowe tells us that all the art inside is by Bob Oksner. I agree with that up to a point. I would say that all of the pencils are by Bob Oksner, but the first and last story are inked by someone other than Oksner; the inks on the second story are much nicer and look to me to be pure Oksner.

Edited by Murray Boltinoff.