The Flash #138 had a cover date of August 1963, and it was the last time Ralph appeared as a guest star in that comic book for a very long time. He was next seen in
Detective Comics #327, with a cover date of May 1964.
You can purchase
a digital version of this comic on Comixology, or you can pick up
Detective Comics #445, which reprinted Ralph's story. In addition, both are available to read via DC Universe.
This is an important issue for the Batman content as well. It was with this issue that Julius Schwartz took over the comic, having John Broome write and Carmine Infantino draw the Batman story, which tried to make Batman more serious, Infantino putting a yellow circle around the bat insignia on the Caped Crusader's chest. This new take on Batman was so successful that this is considered to be the beginning of the official "Earth One" Batman continuity before being rewritten by
Crisis on Infinite Earths in the 1980s.
I did some searching on Google and it seems the reason why Ralph became a backup feature in
Detective Comics is because of Infantino. It seems he enjoyed drawing Ralph and giving him a new book to handle was quite a task, so to keep him happy, he got to have some fun with the backup feature. Ralph became a popular enough addition that fans wrote in to suggest that
Detective should alternate between him and Batman as the lead story.
The Elongated Man backup feature ran through
Detective Comics #383, when the book would become "the Batman Family" book. Ralph would have occasional backup stories and reprints, particularly when the book went to 100 pages and other special issues.
"Ten Miles To Nowhere" was written by Gardner Fox with art by Carmine Infantino. Infantino also inked the story, and we see far more line detail than when we saw Joe Giella ink his work in
The Flash.
The splash page has a great concept for having a character cross over from a guest star in one book to taking a solo feature in another. We have Ralph stepping off of a cover of
The Flash (this is, of course, not an actual issue) and directly onto a page of
Detective Comics. Infantino goes to great lengths to make that cover
look like an actual issue of
The Flash with pages, the DC logo, the Comics Code seal, and a 12 cent price. Missing is an issue number and date. But the style even looks like Joe Giella inked it. Perhaps he got Giellla to ink that part in his style to maintain visual continuity. Ralph is now completely in Infantino's own style with thin, rougher looking lines.
You will notice that Ralph is now, for the first time, not wearing a mask.
The following page compares Ralph with Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, showing an interesting illustration for that famous story, then two similar panels depicting Ralph stretch his arm across a room to get some gingold while just relaxing on a sofa. The text tells us that Ralph gets his powers from the elixir he created.
This was the earliest story featuring Ralph that I'd read for a long time, and this was all the explanation of Ralph's powers and origin that I had. I had no idea what he'd done in
The Flash. And well, it tells us Ralph is quite the self-made made man.
The next panel recreates the famous scene from "The Space-Boomerang Trap!" before the final panel finally starts the story with Ralph and Sue returning to the United States from a visit to eastern Canada. The officer mentions that there's been a robbery in Montreal with two million dollars worth of diamonds stolen.
As we kick in with the third page, Ralph is surprised that the officer doesn't recognize his name. Sue, still rocking her short curly hair and looking glamorous, suggests he tell him that he's the Elongated Man. Ralph decides not to. However, he tries to play the "humble celebrity" bit again when they check into their motel for the night. The clerk doesn't recognize him either.
The page specifically says that this is Starbright Motel on Lake Champlain, which is a real lake between Vermont, New York and Quebec, Canada. If the motel was real, it's not going by that name now, though there does seem to be quite a few lodging options there.
The way Sue talks to Ralph in panel #4 is so good. "Cheer up, honey! We'll meet
somebody—somewhere—who will have heard of the oh-so-famous
Elongated Man! Have you ever considered a press agent?" This tells you right off, she's not in this marriage to be married to someone famous. She genuinely likes Ralph. Which is basically the first bit of characterization we got for her, even though this is her fourth appearance. (And Ralph's ninth.)
Preparing for a 300 mile journey in the day, Ralph checks the odometer in the car and sees that it's gained ten miles since they parked it the night before.
Might I point out the Dibny's car? Because it has changed since we saw it in
The Flash. It's a different model, the one in #124 was orange, the one in #130 was blue, and this one in
Detective Comics is red. Is this a continuity error? Not really. Perhaps they do rental cars instead of owning one since they don't seem to have a home at the moment.
Onto page four. Ralph leaves the motel as if nothing happened so if whoever stole their car happens to be watching, they won't catch that he's suspicious. Sue comments on it, prompting his explanation. A mile away, he drives off the road and Sue asks what she's going to do while he solves the case of "Ten Miles to Nowhere," naming the case. Ralph tells her there's an antique store in the next town, instructing her to do some shopping, which she happily agrees to do while Ralph changes into his costume.
Now, this struck me as wrong back when I read it as a kid. Sue shouldn't be relegated to sitting out Ralph's cases and just going shopping. She should be out there
with Ralph investigating. I'm not saying Sue isn't allowed to enjoy going shopping and doing stereotypical female things, but when that becomes
all that she's doing, that's a problem.
Ralph heads back to the motel by foot, but by foot on elongated legs that allow him to walk a mile in 18 steps. He spots the tread of his tires and begins to trace where it went.
Page five opens with a trademark of what many fans love about Ralph: he's a detective and uses his powers to enhance his investigations. On this well-drawn page, you see Ralph tracking the tread to a house which must be about five miles away from the motel. He sneaks onto the roof and elongates his ear down the chimney to hear the gang that's still there.
The idea of using his own body to remotely eavesdrop is so well-executed with the art. It's probably a usual layout no-no, but they do use arrows to ensure you read them in order so they can have that long panel showing the chimney action.
Page six mainly has the crooks explain their plan, with the leader going into the typical "more detail than a real person would actually give" type of speech. But hey, I've never stolen two million dollars worth of diamonds, so maybe I don't know how much you want to gloat after thinking you've pulled it off flawlessly.
Basically, the crooks stole the gems in Canada and overhearing the Dibnys talk about their travel plans in a restaurant, they had the gems put in a metal box spot-welded to the underside of the car by the mechanic servicing it, making Ralph and Sue unwittingly smuggled them out of Canada. Unspoken is how the crooks drove the car without the key. Likely they had a dupe of the key made (presumably servicing the car would require turning over the key just in case, and since the crooks were working with the mechanic, it'd work) as hot-wiring the car would leave clear evidence of tampering with the car.
The crooks have stuck around so they can clear up any clues left behind. Which didn't account for tire treads or the odometer. The leader flicks some hot ash from a cigarette into the fireplace, which hits Ralph's ear. The sting makes him exclaim "Ow!" which, the next page reveals, has the crooks notice "An
ear—in the fireplace!"
"He must be up on the roof!" the crooks decide as they look up the roof, but Ralph has retracted his ear as soon as he noticed that he was spotted. The crooks run outside to catch Ralph on the roof, but he jumps down the chimney and is able to spring out and surprise them when they return, beginning a fight scene that continues over the next two pages.
This is probably what Carmine Infantino was placated with, drawing these eye-popping fight scenes where Ralph uses his stretchable body to avoid getting hit or to make the crooks hit each other.
And
that is going to leave a mark... Ralph has managed to knock out the entire trio of crooks. He manages to contact the local chief of police (there might be a telephone in the cabin) to pick them up. The crooks puzzle over how Ralph tracked them down.
Two things on page 9: the crooks call Ralph an "India Rubber Man," which was a name Jack Cole had considered for Plastic Man. The other is that the police officer asks Ralph if he's with a circus. He replies, "I was once..." You might wonder "When?" but recall
Ralph's second story in which he "retires from public life" because he made a lot of money from media appearances, including the circus act he does in the opening. So, it's not out of the question that he worked with a circus during this, or perhaps while he was tracking down the secret of contortionists he worked with one.
Now that the crooks have been caught and the loot likely turned over to the authorities, Ralph wants to get on the publicity kick. He meets Sue just outside the antique store he mentioned to her and she overhears people talking about him. He reveals he pinned a flyer to his back announcing his identity.
Revisiting this story has been a delight. Not only for the nostalgia of reading this one so often when it was one of the few Elongated Man stories I had at my disposal, but also that it's good! The story's sound, any unanswered questions have easy answers you can think of. The art is good, although readers weren't a fan of the sketchy style of the inking Infantino did for himself.
So, Ralph was now on his own in 10-page adventures in
Detective Comics and "Ten Miles to Nowhere!" offered a solid start. The template for solo Elongated Man stories was now in place. Next time, a big part of Elongated Man lore comes to the table at last.
