“HAIRCUT – AND A CLOSE SHAVE!” A struggling writer decides to become a criminal as research for his next book, even if it attracts the attention of Superman!
Cover: Superman is playing a game of checkers underwater.
Superman:
Author Dan Judd is getting a haircut and telling the barber the story of how his last novel was written. Judd claims that he can write only if he experiences the events in his books directly, so when he gets an idea for a novel based on a new way of committing crime, he needs to find himself some thugs who will work for him.
As luck would have it, when he looks out from his balcony, he sees Superman chasing three crooks. He throws himself from the balcony, forcing Superman to let the crooks go so he can save him. He gets the names of the crooks from Superman, then seeks out the crooks. When he finds them, he explains that he leapt from the balcony to save them, and introduces himself as Mister Twister.
His novel idea for crimes is to turn the tables on his victims by forcing them to give him money in a reversal of what they normally do for a living. His first victim is a jeweller who is forced to by a fake ring for an exorbitant price. He then "lends" a pawnbroker $1 in return for all the merchandise in his pawnshop. Then he visits a fortune teller and "predicts" that unless he hands over all his cash, he will meet an early death.
At this point Superman shows up, but Judd drops a vial of gas forcing Superman to save the fortune teller and allowing Judd to escape.
The Planet then publishes a competition offering $10 to anyone who can submit a good story. Judd's neighbour phones Clark and tells him that he saw Judd throw himself off his balcony deliberately, so the next day Judd's picture is in the paper. His hired henchmen now know who Judd really is, and discover he is writing a book based on their crimes. They realize they have to keep him quiet to protect themselves, so they tear up his script and steal his cash from the safe. They then leave to commit the next crime on Twister's list, only this time without Judd.
When Superman finds the torn pieces of Judd's script, he puts them back together at super-speed and discovers what Judd is doing. He rescues Judd, then goes off to the scene of the crime and rounds up the thugs.
Contents
- Haircut - and a Close Shave (Superman)
- Adventure in Hollywood (Congo Bill)
- Dancer's Midgets (Vigilante)
- Scuffy the Tramp
- Killer's Refuge (two-page text story by Stan Carter)
- The Sabotaged Dinner (Hayfoot Henry)
- Wonders of Words (Zatara)
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