Monday, February 7, 2011

Manic Monday--The Final Fate Of The Tandy Whiz Kids!!

It's no secret that I love the Tandy Whiz Kids, especially when they use Radio Shack computers to kick Superman's ass.

But that was 1980. It's now 1985, and Archie is the publisher these infomercial comics instead of DC. Which brings us to:

And yes, the title of the story actually is...

"The Computers That Said No To Drugs"? Well, that would explain...

OK, OK, sorry, cheap shot.

Anyway, back in 1980, the Whiz Kids got to use the awesome TRS-80, with it's 4K of memory (yes, 4K). Five years later, it's a whole different story:

But wait...there's more!!

And don't forget the porn!! Oh, wait, that'll come later.

And now, Radio Shack's inarguably correct view over what the future of education will be like once classrooms are chock full of (hopefully Tandy) computers:

Yeah, that so happened.

Anyway, this is a story about stopping drug smugglers, which, if you ask me, is a huge step down from Major Disaster...which is a pretty sad statement, if you think about it.

It's a tedious affair, so let's just look at what happens when industrious investigative reporter Judy Baker has infiltrated the bad guys' hideout, and has to--as quickly as possible--get that information to her paper:




Ah, all the joy of rotary dialing!!

Suffice it to say, Baker's 95 step set-up, when she could have just picked up the phone and called the police herself, gets her caught. Not to worry, though--the Whiz Kids have advanced information technology at their disposal!!

Long story short, drug smuggler Ali Gurka (yes, his real name) is thwarted in his scheme to use daisy wheel printer cartons stuffed with drugs, hidden with the rest of the boxes for the Traveling Science And Technology Exhibit, to move his product from city to city. Let's give him his Scooby Doo moment, shall we?

Well, the title of this post sort of promised to reveal the final fate of the Whiz Kids. Well, just look at their home city, as revealed on this banner at the big end-of-issue celebration:

All right, all right, it says Coastal City, not Coast City.

Yes, yes, this series no longer takes place in the DC Universe (...or does it? Prove it isn't so!!)

So what? It's my punchline. And if I want to imagine Alec and Shanna tapping futilely at their Tandy computers, trying to stop Mongul before he atomizes their city, well, I'm kinda of sick that way.

3 comments:

Martin Gray said...

Oh, I do like Chic Stone's art.

I never knew those pesky kids reappeared. It's time to bring them back. Maybe Boadsword Comcis could pick up the baton for a story set in the world of tarot: Witch of the Black Rose?

Lazarus Lupin said...

Maybe by then they found out about the porn so they were not obliterated in vain.

Lazarus Lupin
http://strangespanner.blogspot.com/
art and review

snell said...

Actually, Mart, after a second DC issue (starring Supergirl), the Whiz Kids had a whole slew of issues published by Archie, essentially one per year, 6 in all.