Following Superbaby to see Sherlock Holmes

 In addition to May 4th being Reichenbach Day, Star Wars Day, Cinco De Mayo Eve, and whatever else this year, it was Free Comic Book Day at many a local comic store. I stopped in for a look and wound up picking up a few well-worn issues of Superboy on the cheap just because they had Superbaby on the cover and he makes me laugh.

Just look at that kid! Since nobody knew who Superman was yet, nobody was going, "Hey, that baby is dressed just like Superman!" so Ma and Pa Kent could kinda keep his Kryptonian origins secret. But one particular issue from April 1964 had a little surprise inside that wasn't a baby flying out of a serving platter as the cover showed.

The letters page of that issue had a certain name that popped the minute my eyes scanned the page.

"But in one sequence Lana Lang was able to summon Sherlock Holmes from the past. How was this possible? As everyone knows, the great sleuth Sherlock Holmes was a fictional character," wrote Richard Walls of West Des Moines, Iowa.

WHAT? There was an issue of Superboy that had Sherlock Holmes in it? To the internet!

Yep, "The Surrender of Superboy" from issue 110 in January of that year. And copies were to be had a reasonable prices on eBay, if one wasn't too concerned about condition (and I was not). They weren't slabbed and graded in plastic, either, as is the current trend on collectable comics, so I could get in and have a look at Sherlock's appearance.

And not only was it a Sherlock Holmes appearance, it was a Sherlock Holmes team-up with Edgar Allen Poe! Oddly enough, even though summoned from the past, Sherlock Holmes seems to know all about Superboy and how Lana shouldn't mess with him. 

It's only one page, as Lana sends Holmes back to the past after he barely does anything, but still -- a really neat treat for the Sherlockian comic collection. All thanks to that wacky Superbaby!