Tom versus the Flash number 268 or started with a bear ends out a convention.

Welcome back to the Flash number 268, the December 1978 issue featured cover

penciled by Al Milgram, inked by Dick Geradano, with the issue being edited by Julie Schwartz.

Our story in this issue is Riddle of the Runaway Comic, written by Carrie Bates, penciled Irv Nović, inks by Frank McLaughlin, lettered by Mike Stevens, colored by Gene DeAngelo. No backup story in this one. I know I said last time we'd have a kid flash backup. I lied. DC lied to us back in 1978 when they didn't give us that kid flash story. That happened back in the day. It wasn't the same. The direct market wasn't around. You know, you wouldn't know three months ahead of time what was coming up. So there'd be major shifts like that. They would just drop backup stories. Because they'd do the thing where they'd raise the price but had a backup story and then they'd take away the backup story. It was always sort of in flux depending on what was going going on, and DC was going through. It's the DC implosion at the time, so things were a little up in the air. But enough of that, enough of the business. Let's get down to the story, which is excellent. We start, Barney Sands House. No, Barney Sands is Barry Allen's next door neighbor. Barney, little kid wants to be a comic book artist, huge comic book fan. He's running around his room going crazy. He's lost something, something very important. He can't ask his mom for help, but she'll just lecture him on stuff. He's tearing the drawers out of the dresser. He's ripping out underneath his bed. He can't find what he's looking for. Different part of this city.

We see the Flash run out.

Also, furiously looking for something. What he's looking for is a little different. He's running crisscrossing all around the city through construction sites. He's looking for a 600-pound female who can elude two SWAT teams and a flash. What is he looking for? An obese villain? No. as he's running through the construction site he comes across some tracks

footprints big enough in size What is he looking for? An obese villain? No. As he's running through the construction site,

he comes across some tracks, footprints, big enough in size to be what he's looking for. And at just

that second, the next panel, we see a giant Paul swing through, about to hit the flash in the back

of the head. Flash ducks, just getting graced. And we see what the Flash has been looking for,

a 600-pound bear, a crazed bear by the name of

Griselda who escaped from the zoo and who the Flash was asked to look for. That's what the Flash

does. When you're a superhero of a city, you've got to take responsibility for everything,

including finding bears, bringing them back to the zoo, especially if they're crazed. Well,

Grisilda picks up the Flash. Flash manages to escape, though, by kicking up a windstorm, lifting him up, so you can drop to the ground, starts running at super speed around. Grisilda, spinning her around, digging a pit, so Grisillo drops in. It's all fine. The Grisilda episode is over. Will we ever see Grisilda again? Perhaps she'll team up with to gro to get vengeance against the Flash. What was Grisilda's plan? We'll never know. Some fan fiction opportunities for you. So the Flash is going to run past the zoo on his way home to let them know that he's got Grisilda. Now he's just going to enjoy the rest of his Saturday morning. We cut back to Barry Allen's neighborhood, Bernieney Sands is walking out of the house. It's pissed off as he still can't find anything. One of his Flash comics is missing. That's what he's looking for. He's run out of places to look for it. While Barney's walking over to the Allen household, the Flash runs by at Super Speed so fast that Barney never sees him. Flash runs into the house, just as Barney hits

the doorbell. Barry is throwing the costume back inside the ring, yells that he's in his den.

Barney comes in saying, here's your portable microscope, thanks to you. I got A-plus in my

biology project. It leads me to question what Barney Sands father is up to. Why is he depending

on Barry Allen for all this

type of stuff for this biology class type thing? That's something that the parents should be doing.

So Barney's carrying in the microscope and Barry notices that Barney seems a little bit down.

Obviously can't be because of the biology thing because he got any plus. And Barney explains

...