Commentary by former publisher, Bruce Hamilton.

"An Oddball Odyssey" (reprinting US #40, January 1963) is a unique, oddball story reflecting oddball editorial decisions by Western Publishing's editors. Not widely understood by the marketplace then and absolutely ignored by 99% of fandom today, Western's Dell and Gold Key comics sold better than anyone else's comics going all the way back to the golden era of the 1940's. A mediocre title would routinely sell 600,000 copies a month and good sellers would top one million, two million and more! But, by the early '60's, Western was slipping (as was everyone) from the competition of television and the demise of mom-and-pop stores. To hopefully boost sales by making their comics more attractive (but in actual fact, merely making them strange), for one issue the editors had Carl Barks eliminate the borders on the panels of "Odyssey" and make the balloons rectangular. Gladstone corrected the former and left the latter. --BH --Sold out! --