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Issue #10

I remember picking up the tenth issue of the Dick Van Dyke Show comic book at the Pico-Robertson newsstand and staring at its bizarre cover blurb.  It said, "Laura comes to her senses and leaves this man..." — and then there was a stern-faced picture of Dick Van Dyke as Rob Petrie — "...for a guy who art directs comic book covers."  Any reader expecting to see a story inside about a comic book art director was sadly disappointed.  Matter of fact, the only romantic situation in this entire issue involved Buddy Sorrell in a story that was entitled, "Everybody Loves Some Buddy."  In it, an actress named Peaches gets a bit part on The Alan Brady Show and develops a huge crush on Buddy.  Peaches just loves men who tell jokes.

This is a problem for two reasons, one being that Buddy is married and is faithful to Pickles, not Peaches.  The second problem is that Peaches is the girl friend of a big, brawny weightlifter who comes to the office and threatens to break Buddy's legs if he so much as looks at Peaches.  Buddy tries to lighten a tense situation by making some jokes and it turns out that the boy friend, Bruno, is a terrific audience.  He thinks everything Buddy says is hysterical and practically falls down laughing.  But before he leaves, he makes it clear that he means what he says.

With the help of Rob and Sally, Buddy spends the next few days avoiding Peaches and is successful.  Unfortunately, when she comes around searching for the man who makes her laugh, she winds up getting her bracelet snagged on Rob's jacket.  Bruno walks in as they're trying to get untangled, thinks Peaches is now carrying on with Rob, and takes off after him.  Rob is chased out of the building and down the streets of New York.  Sally grabs Buddy (who's coming back from lunch) and they hop in a cab and chase after them.  They get there as Rob is cornered and Bruno is about to sock him all the way back to Danville, Illinois.  Buddy begins telling jokes, Bruno starts laughing and Rob is able to get away.

The story ends with Bruno confessing that he's jealous of a guy who can tell jokes because Peaches loves them and he doesn't know any.  So Buddy teaches some jokes to Bruno and he gets to be so good at it that not only does Peaches love him but he begins thinking of a career as a comedian.  His motto, Rob muses, will probably be, "Laugh or I'll beat you up!"

The back-up story actually involves Laura but there is no comic book art director in "Double Bubble Trouble."  One day, an odd little man comes to the door and offers Laura a free sample of his new detergent, Sudzo.  She takes it and puts  it in her washing machine and the next thing she knows, the soap suds are out of control, filling the laundry room, spilling into the kitchen and living room.  It's like a flood, with items of furniture floating away in bubbles.  Then suddenly, she and Millie are floating away in bubbles.  They float up to the sky where the odd little man is the master of a kingdom in the clouds that enslaves gullible housewives.  Rob gets a batch of helium balloons and floats to the rescue and, as you've probably guessed by now, it all turns out to be a dream.  After Rob saves her and they're plunging back to Earth, Laura is awakened from her afternoon nap by the doorbell.  It turns out to be the odd little man offering free detergent samples...and he can't understand why he gets the door slammed in his face so immediately.  "Gee," he mutters as he walks away, "most people like free samples."

It's not one of the best stories but at the time, I was distracted by that odd cover blurb.  Elliot Zwart says that this was when they first began pressing his father to seek professional help...

No one noticed it until it was published, I guess.  My father had just separated from my mother and he was watching The Dick Van Dyke Show obsessively.  I visited him once in his office at Western Publishing and he had these pictures of Mary Tyler Moore all over the walls, but to him it wasn't Mary Tyler Moore.  If someone mentioned her name, he yelled, "Her name isn't Mary!  It's Laura!"  He began talking about her as "his girl" and writing "Laura Zwart" all over the walls.  In his apartment at home, he'd practice tripping over a footstool and dancing to "You Wonderful You," the number Rob and Laura danced to when they first met.  We thought it had gotten as bad as it could get but then came the incident in Hollywood.

I probably need to explain that Western Publishing had two offices — the one in New York and one in Southern California.  The insides of the Dick Van Dyke Show comic book were edited in the Southern California office but the covers were designed in the New York office, where Walter Zwart worked.  Despite his odd behavior, and before the proof sheets on this issue came in from the printing division, Walter managed to convince his bosses to send him to Hollywood for a business meeting.  He took this opportunity to visit the set of The Dick Van Dyke Show and...well, we'll get to that sad story when we cover the next issue.

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