Sure, today we use them every minute of every day to track every single thing we say and do, and everywhere we go, and that's just how we like it. Computers are never going to be a problem for anyone. But there was a time when computing gadgets were a tough sell to the average citizen, and that's where consumer electronics retailers had to think outside the box in terms of marketing, to come up with new and thrilling methods of selling them there boxes of chips and wires what go "bleepity bloop." What I'm really trying to say is, look out, it's another adventure of the Radio Shack Tandy Computer Whiz Kids.


It's the "Answer To A Riddle", and it looks like the riddle was "Can we use computers to make planes crash?"


"Lazy Eye" Alec and Shanna, The 40% Ponytail Head Girl, are on the case as a pair of chunky, disheveled aviators express their concerns with regards to refueling speed. How will these two elements collide? And will it be in mid-air?


Meanwhile school is back in session and that means surprises. But first, as required by law, they must enact the ritual intonation of What We Did On Our Summer Vacation, as performed by Little Miss Smarty Pants Teacher's Pet Thinks She's So Smart.


Shanna: well, let me start by explaining the context behind...
Ms. Wilson: BUT WHAT ABOUT LAST SUMMER? GET TO THE SUMMER ALREADY!!

A big HURRAH is in order for people who visit museums. HURRAH to... everyone everywhere, I guess. And now you'd better get to those surprises, Ms. Wilson, those kids are looking kind of deranged about it. Tell them NOW.


Meanwhile our two mystery flyers are sittin' around the diner drinkin' coffee and shooting the breeze, complaining about how hard their life is of sitting around drinking coffee and shooting the breeze. Yup, sure got it tough there, fellas.


The script says these kids are excited about the library surprise, but the artwork says "suspicion, indifference."


Oh really, computer whiz kids? You think you can guess what's making a lump shaped like a TRS Radio Shack Color Computer underneath this sheet?


Rule one of being a Computer Whiz Kid is to pretend to be impressed by the Direct Connect Modem Program Pak.


"Okay, but what about databases?" is a real sentence somebody somewhere said once, I'm pretty sure.


Teaching children is easy! Just make sure there's a Computer Whiz Kid in every class, and let THEM do all the work!


"Wow, tell us more about the electronic encyclopedia, specifically how to look up information about foreheads and how large they're supposed to be normally. Just curious, is all."


Sitting around a coffee shop complaining about the weather? I know this guy mentioned potential retirement earlier, but it looks to me like he's gotten a head start!


"Now the first thing you want to look up is the 2024 film THE SUBSTANCE, because I think that's what's happening to my face."


Ms. Young looks really excited about choosing categories of information and then selecting from a list of subjects - because she's a LIBRARIAN, dammit!


Lichtenstein, Roy
THANK YOU, SHANNA
1964
Acrylic, oil, graphite pencil on canvas
49 x 46 in. (124.5 x 116.8 cm)
Museum of Modern Art
New York City, New York


Sometimes I think when they design these promotional giveaway comics, maybe sometimes they goof up and assign too many pages to the story, and as a result there are a lot of panels where nothing happens at all. Sometimes.


Carrying a load of destruction for kids and adults alike? It all makes sense now, these two guys are smuggling a load of... Tandy Radio Shack Color Computer 3's! Seriously did you ever try to use the joystick they packaged with those things? It's torture!


And now the second surprise for these kids, a slightly older kid here to tell them about drugs! And NOT the slightly older kid that tells them about drugs in the vacant lot behind the 7-11, a DIFFERENT slightly older kid.


So to illustrate the very real threat of drugs, she's going to tell you a vague, obviously fake story about a completely imaginary kid next door.


Oh no! This fictional child is headed for big made-up trouble! There may be no way back for him once he's become a real imaginary space cadet! This would, potentially, in certain cirumstances involving real people, be tragic.


Think for a minute about all those illegal drug czars living the high life in those posh suburban neighborhoods! Two car garages, lawnmowers, above-ground swimming pools, maybe even some of those little garden gnomes around the bushes - all paid for by human suffering, ruined lives, helpful real estate agents, and convenient financing.


Wow! Getting to look at a computer, and then an anti-drug lecture from a middle school student, and now ANOTHER surprise? Little Tammy there might not be able to handle all the excitement!


This comic may not be Dick Ayers' best work, but I admire his committment to putting a character into a mesh baseball cap and drawing the hell out of that mesh on that baseball cap whenever possible, to the extent that it distracts from everything else.


Is this really a surprise to anyone, that these two show-offy science nerds are going to be volunteered to help with some science thing? Now bring your raincoats kids, we're stopping by the adult theater on the way.


Grady is maybe regretting that custom Buddy Holly, Jim Croce, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Otis Redding, Jim Reeves, Randy Rhoads, Patsy Cline, Ricky Nelson, John Denver mix tape he put together for this flight. On the other hand, these guys aren't musicians, so they ought to be OK.


Mesh-cap fan Grady has made his decision to turn himself in at the county airport. Now all he's got to worry about is wind shear! Actually that's a thing everybody who flies should worry about. Look it up!


Grady would later write a book titled "Dumbass Was My Co-Pilot." Why was this guy on the flight at all, if he wasn't a pilot? Just there to enjoy the scenery? Drop some light threats?


That's right kids, it's real close to the runway. You should wander over there and see if any planes are about to land. You know, just get right out there on the runway, get a real close look. Please.


And lo, as it was so foretold on both the cover and the splash page, the Cessna did truly augur it in there, yea verily, he did screweth that pooch and purchaseth the entire farm.


It's Computer Whiz Kids to the rescue, utilizing every bit of that upper body strength they gained from lugging around all those heavy Color Computers!


And the Lord said: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the Computer Whiz Kids rescue dope dealers from a crashed plane.


Why it's Detective Shaw and Ms. Baker, the intrepid reporter/cop team that helped the Computer Whiz Kids stop drug smugglers and reveal the surprise Color Computer beneath the sheet in a very similar story we covered three hundred and seventy something Stupid Comics ago! When are these two going to stop kidding around and hook up already? Like in my fanfic?


Okay, sure, they were going to find drug smuggling pretty hard to do after breaking every bone in their body in that plane crash. But we appreciate the "just say no" sentiment.


Hey, our former drug smugglers are joining what probably were some of their former clients, the Mamas And The Papas. I wonder how they'll handle those complex vocal harmonies? Meanwhile it's all cheers for the Computer Whiz Kids, who have once again proven that the Tandy Radio Shack Color Computer System can be adjacent to, or somehow tangentially involved in, all kinds of heroic and life-saving things. Hip hip hurray, yaah.

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