Considering that Big Wig said that he steals all his wigs, it makes one wonder where he got an exploding wig, and how he found out it was an exploding wig.

“Playing cards are really not much of a weapon.” ……Gambit enters the chat

Another way Doc Octopus parallels Spidey is that he has eight “limbs” as both an Octopus and a spider have. 🤔😀

I'm thinking Gardner, short on ideas that day, saw his copy of the Guinness Book laying around and decided to run with it.

7:22 "And we also meet Big Wig, whose power is he owns wigs." That's pretty much the lamest super villain I've ever heard of, and your delivery of the line was perfect for revealing it 🤣

I laughed a lot during this video! I was having a rough day and this was so fun and humorous! It really turned my day around. Thanks, Chris!

Holy crap, thank you for making an episode based on my recommendation! This was a cool surprise to wake up to. Fantastic episode as always!

Silver Age Comics' covers always look great as thumbnails, they're very algorithm friendly. On another topic, yeah, Atom had some of the wackiest villains and stories. I think they found it easy creating the character and concept, but then using it was or confusing or difficult.

The dread pirate Cheese-wig was truly comics most deadly foe. How far we have come.

Well this is an awesome thing to wake up too. The atom is severely underrated and it's great to see an episode about him.

Oh that shirt is amazing. EDIT: When the Big Gang roll call was happening I was convinced you were making some of those up. Big Cheese being literally a Cheese-centered villain is amazing and I want to see him make a Kite-Man like return

"Big Wig gets ready to throw his wig at The Atom..." "Oh no! Big Cheese is coming back with a new stinky cheese!..." The Silver Age was fun.

no wonder Gil Kane thought comic book is art-driven media, without his cool looking action this story is really dumb.

Lamp-Fu is often the most underestimated of the martial arts. Another excellent video my dude.

New comics take themselves too seriously, we need more stuff like characters unironically fighting Cheese these days 😂

I'm still chuckling that Chris had to film the attacking wig gag twice. 🙃

When I saw the title of this video, I thought there were going to be some old-timey crooks with the _nicknames_ "Cheese" and "Wigs." I did not expect the title to refer to the Atom actually doing battle with people throwing _blocks of cheese_ and _exploding wigs_ at him, lmao. This is amazing! Between you and Casually Comics, I'm really learning a ton about just how insane this era of comics really was! XD

While I’m well aware of Gil Kane’s work, it was great to hear more about Gardener Fox. His contribution’s created much of the DC Multiverse that we know even now, but the man himself is often overlooked. Thanks Chris!

Gil Kane is definitely one of the greatest comic artists ever, he managed to make this story about villians whose whole thing was puns with the word big on them look fun and dynamic XD

I can't imagine a story like this one being issued today! The art definitely carries the story. I lived for those JSA/JLA crossovers every summer!

Gil Kane deserves more respect and recognition!! He did so much great work and so very many attention grabbing (and by extension comic book selling) covers.

To be fair Lee and Kirby created "HIM" Kain and Thomas changed him into Adam Warlock. I'm glad they did. He's my favorite especially Jim Starlin 's stories.

Disappointed that Blue Beetle nemesis BIG DIX did not show up to defeat the Atom

17:10 The stone "coins" of Yap (which are quite real) also show up in a number of Scrooge McDuck stories and at least one animated short, mostly as background details. They vary in size a lot, but one matching the size shown here would be thousands of pounds, not a few hundred. 18:12 Hey now, that is Big Shot's knob gun, he says so clearly in the earlier panel. So it's his knob (which is no doubt quite hard and heavy) knocking out Big Brain, not one of his balls.

Sword of the Atom is my favorite Gil Kane, I wasn't really into his style before that, but here it just all comes together. Maybe living in an area with mostly black/white reprints might have affected that impression.

That "lets go!" in the middle was so perfectly delivered for a forced second recording lmao. Thanks for your diligence.

Seeing you continue to make well researched, entertaining stuff week after week helps me keep my chin up - thanks for another great episode!

I’ve watched this three times and literally laughed out loud EVERY TIME. This is easily my favorite episode of Comic Tropes and that’s saying a lot because almost every episode is a gem. Your voice work for the comic characters was GREAT! AND, I swear there were a few moments where you did a sort of inadvertent imitation of Norm MacDonald and I lost it 😂🤣. For example the one bad guy character that shot rotating blades and you suggested that he try shooting a gun. You also pointed out that there was lots of research showing the effectiveness of guns L🤣L!!! 😂🤣😂🤣 I’m in tears typing this. 😂MG this should win an award. So freaking good man. So good.

Oh, Atom. Judging by the letters page, Atom was seen as pretty grounded and realistic by Silver Age DC standards, with readers praising how his powers were tech-based and clearly defined. My favorite Atom villain is probably Jason Woodrue, aka Plant-Master. His original power was that he had a bunch of fairies commit plant-based crimes for him. He'd later turn himself into a plant-human hybrid and start calling himself the Floronic Man. Oh man, can you imagine Big Cheese versus Green Lantern? There are a lot of yellow cheeses...

You are so right about how different these stories would be if the internet and smartphones were around back then.

That was a great Big video. Thanks for that! As for the fumes issue, if Atom had shrunk smaller than the molecules of the fumes he could have avoided the stink entirely but apparently he only managed Action Figure size. How he breathes at all when he goes smaller than oxygen molecules on the other hand…? While the physics and biological processes of the Atom are dubious, smaller animals breathe faster than larger ones but larger ones breathe in more air in each respiration so what Ray said might have worked.

Everything in this video sounds and looks like a fever dream, including the explanations.

Here's a big pat on the back for re-recording the middle section because of that file getting corrupted. As a content creator, I know how draining it is dealing with the nitty-gritty mishaps like that.

A Gil Kane trope: he often drew from the perspective of looking up people's noses.

Your views on wacky silver age comics are often my favorite videos of yours

I love it when Chris does the villains' voices!

For anyone unfamiliar with it, the "Little Man, You've Had a Busy Day" blurb on the cover and the title page's play on it are references to the 1934 song of the same name, which has had mildly successful cover versions made about once every ten-fifteen years ever since, including ones by Bing Crosby and Eric Clapton of all people. It was a phenomenally popular when first released, and the title phrase was almost immediately being used in ad copy, parodies and propaganda, and eventually in its current form as an ironic response to someone bitching about having a tough day. Gardner Fox would have been in his mid 20s when the song was being played everywhere, and most likely it stuck in his head all his life the same way any really effective earworm does.

I seem to be the only one who thinks this way, but I always felt that Sid Greene was the best inker for Gil Kane. I've always loved those incredibly detailed hatch marks combined with Kane's dynamic forms. For the same reason, I always loved the Buscema/Alcala team-ups.

It makes me smile knowing you had to do the wig attack bit twice 😂 Thanks for the high commitment always!

Big Cheese was the greatest comic character to come out of Wisconsin until the appearance of The Badger. Behold the power of cheese. Great show, Chris! Love the throw back to a simpler time episodes. Always fun.

"I don't know how to put this, but I'm kind of a big deal."

The Atom was one of my favorite comic books of the Silver Age. Certainly the criminal gang in this story was a pretty goofy concept, but fun. I remember a common trope that I would see many times in Atom stories and it is in this one. That’s where the Atom gets knocked out, but drops out of site of the bad guy until our hero recovers. If he didn’t get knocked out, the story would end at the first encounter, but if his unconscious form was in site of the bad guy, The Atom would get killed.

13:46... *Gambit has entered the chat*

"... you're not a hero like 'the Atom'??!" Hush,child😳😉; @ least you helped out re-uniting a lost couple & hung out with a (now-fallen) hero like Phoenix J.

"Playing cards are not much of a weapon" Gambit would like to deal you some of his cards. Or any Yugioh character that throws a card. Also did you forget what happens to the loved ones who know the hero's identity? They tend to be used as bait for a trap.

It's kind of mind-blowing to learn just how much of DC as we know it was made by Gardner Fox!

You really channeled Norm McDonald for that Gun joke :)

Alan made me laugh more than it should.

"Playing cards aren't really much of a weapon..." "Quelle dommage, mon ami" - Remy Lebeaux

Gil was amazing. I especially love his Warlord of Mars and Superman Blood of My Ancestors.

So, your super power is changing your T-Shirt while you talk... your name will be "Big T-Shirt"

Love how you do these simple videos and the deep dives. Keep it coming.

13:30 "playing cards aren't much of a weapon" I thought that's Gambit's entire thing, he throws cards

Great 👍 video,Chris! I could see the Atom in little floating chair at JLA HQ telling the other members about this wacky tale! Only in the Silver Age! I love ❤️Gardner Fox& Gil Kane + Sid Green never gets a lot of attention! I came into comics in the late 60’s and enjoyed the bizarre variety of stories! It has its time and place! Gil Kane was the first creator of comics I met in Buffalo/1973! Nice guy! Thanks for a good laugh!

What an excellent episode! Love these ones!!! Great work Chris!!

Gil Kane tropes: Speed lines, people standing/crouching with their legs really far apart, and the best up-nostril shots in the biz.

Without all of the intense action poses, the entire scene between Atom slamming big ben with a lamp and big wig inexplicably throwing an explosive wig at Atom and being like "D-did we get it?" is hilarious. I want to see the 15 or so seconds of security camera footage of the altercation. If I lived in a super hero universe my favorite hero would be Atom, because any recording of him clearing a room of villains would be absolutely hilarious every single time

Love it Chris!! intro and all!! And yea I actually only recently started going back and reading the Atom and i think he's been done a lot more justice recently... I liked him in Hawkman's recent run

My favourite videos of yours are these ones where you detail the ridiculousness of some of these old comics! Hilarious!

Amazing as always Chris. Love your channel!

that's a wonderful comic, love Silver Age comics.

I have been reading a lot of silverage comics in the last year. Have not yet jumped into atom. 🤔 but it seems fun and silly. And with everything happening these days. We all need fun and silly. Thank you for a great video.

Great episode as always thanks!

Channeling Norm MacDonald at about 17:44 - I fully approve 👍🏻👍🏻

your openings are always funny. Thanks for bring such good content

Another wonderful video, Chris! I was a fan of Ray Palmer/Atom from near the dawn of the Silver Age and, while some of the stories were a little silly like this one, they were entertaining! The art of Gil Kane was an utter joy to behold and the covers, as this one, was awesome.

You know, I've been meaning to look more into Gardner Fox, but I always keep forgetting to do it. I mean, the guy practically co-created nearly half the DC roster, but you don't see a lot of people praising him that often. Thank you for this video and giving me a little taste. Maybe I should deep dive after this?

Another fun video. Thanks for making it!

@15:00 Dude looks absolutely ready to snap there.

Except for very specific situations, I've always found it hard to imagine reducing yourself in size as a very useful power against villains. With the Atom, it was more helpful that he could change his size and weight on the fly, unlike other small heroes like Ant-Man or Doll Man.

Brandon Routh really brought something extra to Ray Palmer.

This is oneof the funniest episodes ever, with the commentary about the small and big stuff

This is so awesome. I just fished this issue out of a dollar bin a couple of weeks ago. It’s still sitting on my “to-read” pile, but it looks like I’ll be digging into this one tonight!

So when I was in Jr. High our English book was from the 70's, maybe early 80's, and I remember that when ever we had to read paragraphs, correct them, or analyze sentences, or whatever they always dealt with Ivy Town and Ivy University. Even had a Dr. Palmer reference.

Great viddie, awesomesauce "oh hi" opening

great episode! imagine Big Gang getting a second shot on a dark reboot comic

Really love when you do these old slightly silly stories. More please :-)

There's something very nostalgic about this channel. Good Stuff.

Editing on point :”D

Thanks Chris! I'd love to see an episode about Gardner Fox's League/Society crossovers.

If the big head gang hasn’t stolen the worlds biggest ball of string, then they are just going through the motions

Fantastic episode as always but I especially love the care given to the creators on this bonkers story!

I've been watching some of your videos. This one has been the best one so far. I've been laughing and having such good time! Thanks for making my night shift much better. The big gang concept is so balls out crazy that made me remember that time me and one friend played a couple of incredibly low intelligence super villains in a superhero tabletop role playing game. A mentally handicapped elephant lycanthrope and an humanoid fish. They were always trying to steal stupid things You got a new subscriber 🍻

This was so fun! I laughed so hard at the wig thing!

"Lying...@$ a superpower?" Sheesh, everyone's already got that power!!!

Great video as always but loving the T-shirt

To be fair "Big Deal" would be a nice Name for a Gangsterboss today

13:10 Well a wig worked on Frank Drebin in the first episode of Police Squad when Kathryn Leigh Scott's throws her wig in Frank's face.

This is my favorite content from you!

The Artwork is amazing for the Story I love how these Artists didn't hold back

hey chris love your videos and just wanted to say i saw your art in Do a Power bomb #1 thats awesome. Going to have to check out your other channel .

Some impressive panels in this absurd story..! Great artist!

For the fight in the house, total missed opportunity when Big Ben was attacking with a floor lamp - he should've grabbed a desk or wall clock. For similar wordplay, Big Deal could've attached The Atom while he was near a fireplace so the hero could deflect the cards with a poker. Or would that be too corny even for the silver age?

Great episode. The wig fight was hilarious

Ironically, Yapese rai stones like that are also mostly worthless in and of themselves even as they are currency; they're traded on a purely symbolic location, since they're too heavy to move and some no longer exist or can be reached. They're invaluable as cultural artifacts, however.

That world largest drum existed in real life. It was a prop in the 1981 music video ''Out Of Touch" by the group Hall and Oats.

Great episode!

Love this! Although I grew up on Gil Kane’s Conan, I was always annoyed by the way swords looked like they were bent at the cross guard and noses. Always looking up noses. Hey, I’ll bet your gonna talk about Frank Robins. Just by that description.

18:47 a certain theme tune just played in my head like a mild case of PTSD

you video file was corrupted?! I bet it was Big Inconvenience. 😁 Well done on the video Chris. This is a really fun and silly one. "LiL'JpD."