Story plot: Stan Lee
Script: Jerry Siegel
Art: Dick Ayers
Lettering: S. Rosen
The second of Jerry Siegel's scripting contributions to Strange Tales takes the form of the completely barmy Plantman story, whereby a gardener, armed with a pair of techno-shears, believes that, contrary to all scientific evidence, plants have intelligence and his shears can increase their IQ. Lightning strikes his shears, and suddenly he can command any plant matter to do anything he bids, no matter how impossible or lethal to those plants. Naturally, he decides to become a criminal, and terrorises the town's parks.
10 pages into the 13 page story and Siegel manages to include one of the tropes of the series, having become rather distracted with plants. Here, in a fairly underwhelming heroic moment, Johnny races towards the door, dropping his catchphrase like it's an afterthought.
Check out our coverage of Strange Tales #113 on our eighteenth episode: Pharoahs And Plants, Spiders And Soldiers
[audio FF_Episode_18.mp3]