Tops #2

When a struggling creative type drowns their sorrows over a lack of inspiration, their pal Benny-the-Judge offers an unexpected solution: a night out at a swanky nightclub where the art of tipping has become an outrageous spectacle. As they navigate the evening's peculiar customs and characters, our protagonist discovers there's more to find at the bar than just a good drink.

Melvyn Douglas, world-famous actor and director, walks you through a thought experiment that cuts right to the heart of Cold War anxiety: what if nations surrendered the right to wage war under a unified world government? Using the ordinary Sunday of the Jones family—a sweet-sixteen party, a quiet evening at home—as his lens, Douglas explores how peace through international law might reshape everyday American life, contrasting it against the shadow of atomic annihilation hanging over the present day. It's advocacy wrapped in storytelling, presenting one vision of the alternatives facing every citizen in 1949.

When a self-conscious man named Mr. Mumpley sets his sights on impressing a woman named Sophie at the beach, he launches into a series of increasingly desperate schemes to build himself up—from calisthenics to correspondence courses to, well, let's just say his methods get creative. This lighthearted tale by Bob Perry follows one man's comedic struggle to transform himself, with results that are rarely what he expects.

A dramatic tale unfolds as thousands face peril each year, with one story examining the tragic reality of accidental drowning in America and the urgent search for solutions to prevent these devastating losses.

A cub reporter's encounter with Anthony Comstock, the self-proclaimed moral crusader of 19th-century New York, reveals how one man's fervent mission to purge society of vice—from saloon beer sales to "obscene" literature—masks a far more troubling obsession. Following Comstock from his days as a self-righteous enlisted man through his rise as a relentless reformer, this biography illustrates how fanaticism and the hunger for control can distort judgment and devastate innocent lives. By Lee Ames, based on the work of Heywood Broun and Margaret Leech, this six-page illustrated story examines the man behind the crusade and asks whether the cure for moral decay might be worse than the disease itself.

Helping the World Go Round follows a man caught in a frustrating cycle of repeated divorces as he searches for an impossible ideal of love—each marriage crumbling under the weight of unmet expectations and emotional turbulence. When he finally reaches out for counsel, he confronts some hard truths about what makes relationships work, and must decide whether he's willing to stop chasing fantasy and face reality instead. It's a sharp, thoughtful look at romantic delusion wrapped up in just three pages.