The Curious Case of the Barn Door Bandit!

 Detective Comics #328 made it clear that Ralph was going to be a regular feature. However, the issue is notable for its Batman story once again as this issue featured a scene in which Alfred helps Batman and Robin take on a threat and blocks a falling boulder by having it hit him instead, leading to his death. The issue then introduced Dick Grayson's Aunt Harriet, John Broome stating that he wanted to bring a female into the Wayne household. Alfred would later be resurrected due to the debut of the Batman TV show.

And that's why getting an original printing of this story might be pricey. Darn it, Batman. You can purchase a digital copy of this issue via Comixology or read it on DC Universe.

"The Curious Case of the Barn Door Bandit!" was written by Gardner Fox with art by Carmine Infantino. The splash page illustrates a scene from the conclusion of the story while having the teaser text cut off with a profile of Ralph elongating his nose. To be honest, I don't like the splash page. While it's an action-packed scene, it's just not as pleasing or exciting as the previous Infantino-pencilled splash pages in The Flash and Detective Comics.

Heading to Florida Beach (or a beach in Florida?), Ralph and Sue spot a man on the side of the road with a flat tire. Pulling over (but showing off by elongating his neck instead of getting out of the car), Ralph asks the man if they can be of any help. When he hears the man say his barn door has been stolen, Ralph begins wiggling his nose.

This has gone down in Elongated Man lore as Ralph "smelling" a mystery. Ralph claims it's a superpower, but note that it took until his tenth appearance for it to pop up. There will be some stories in the future when it randomly happens as if it's an actual superpower, but as the controversial Identity Crisis #1 revealed, it's exactly what you'd think it is as Firehawk claims Green Arrow told her that Ralph just made it up for the press. (Instead of confirming or denying, Ralph claims that Green Arrow's hat is to cover a bald spot.)

Anyway, this is, I believe, the last element of main Elongated Man lore to be introduced. All we got to look forward to now are costume changes.

The man tells Ralph that he saw a man stealing his barn door in his truck, which he recognized from town. He pursued the truck until he got a flat tire. Ralph promises to recover the barn door.

It seems Infantino inking his own work didn't go over well with readers, but I like it in its own way. It's unusual seeing art look this much like a sketch, but the lines suggest a type of life to the image different from when we've seen it with other inks.

Ralph swings by the farm and inspects the property carefully. Afterward, he surprises Sue by heading to the cheapest hotel in a rougher part of town, driving right past the Hotel Blue. And when they go to dinner, it results in one of my favorite Infantino panels for Ralph and Sue.

Sue is wanting to go to the best hotels, get to the best restaurants and shop at nice stores, but Ralph insists on going to the cheaper places which finally causes her to ask what's going on. Ralph tells her he's tracking the barn door thief. When Sue protests that Ralph doesn't know what the thief looks like, he gives a description of the man's build, his shoes and sweater, all based on clues he found at the crime scene. Sherlock Holmes would be proud.

Sue spots a man matching Ralph's description right away, so kudos for making her part of the story to some degree. Later stories put her in the detective/investigative spot more, but early on, it's as if Sue is annoyed with having a detective for a husband.

Ralph tracks the thief to a boathouse and discovers that the thief turned the door over to another crook, Barney Baxter. It turns out Baxter robbed a bank and hid the loot in the barn door. He hired the bandit to recover it for him by just stealing the door.

These pages show a good sense of scale and angle masterfully handled by Infantino. In addition, there's the shadows. Infantino gives the whole story's art a real sense of depth. This is just a pleasure to look at.

Since I need to fill some space, here's some trivia, Sue's closely cropped pixie cut that debuted in Detective Comics was modeled after Shirley MacLaine.

After the Barn Door Bandit leaves, Ralph apprehends Baxter in a pair of excellent panel with a fair visual feast in them. The shading gives an excellent idea of how dim the room is, and check the falling stacks of bills in the second panel. Also, the way Ralph enters the boathouse is very effective and intimidating. He's going to mess something up.

The next page shows Ralph make use of his nose again. He stretches it out to grab Baxter's gun and throws it out the window, then uses his body to dodge a punch by Baxter before knocking him out. Not as action-packed as the previous story's fight, but we got more coming.

The bandit, now identified as Joe Peters, has been watching and as Ralph scrambles to pick up the money, he goes in and knocks him out.

This reminds us that Ralph isn't supposed to be invulnerable. He can stretch, but originally, he couldn't be made to stretch by external force. This will generally depend on who's writing him or which continuity. (The Flash TV show, for example, has demonstrated that Ralph can be made to stretch in their continuity.)

When Ralph comes to, he sees Joe getting away in a boat with the money. He follows with a dive into the water. By elongating his feet into paddles, he's able to swim quickly and catch up with Joe, dodge a blow with a paddle and knock him out. The scene looks better, in my opinion, here than in the splash panel.

Turning over the crooks to the authorities, Ralph instructs the police to give the reward for the stolen loot to the farmer they met in the beginning who sent Ralph off on the case.

It appears Ralph and Sue move lodging to the fancy Fountain Blue Hotel and enjoy the amenities, in particular, the pool where we get a return of "Malibu Ralph" relaxing in his swim trunks and Sue in her bathing suit.

The Dibnys are joined by the farmer and his wife who are enjoying a brief stay at the hotel.

Overall, not a bad story. Not altogether very remarkable either, except for the first appearance of Ralph "smelling a mystery." To be honest, I'd forgotten about it until it came time to tackle it for this blog. But at least the story's fairly decent and the art remains great.

Next time, another case where Ralph gets wet.