What Mr. Hands from The Mr. Bill Show gets up to on his camping trips.
But wait, hold on just a second…earlier in the issue, Smokey the Bear tells us of his tragic beginnings, as a young cub caught in a carelessly-started forest fire:
And look there…the very same white-sleeved hand that we saw battling the squirrels for cigarette supremacy! No, it’s not different people wearing similar shirts…there are no coincidences like that in comics! It’s a deliberate artistic choice, where the creators of this comic were intentionally setting up a faceless fire-setting arch-nemesis for our favorite ursine smoke-eater…the Octopus to Smokey’s Spirit.
I mean, that’s the only logical conclusion.
THE FLOATING HANDS OF FIRE
Does this comic show the secret of Smokey’s pants? I like to think he got them from the still breathing-but-comatose body of a firebug camper he mauled.
Certainly the “Floating Hands of Fire” was a spell oft-invoked by Doctor Strange. Of course, when Zatanna used it, it was, “Erif fo Sdnah Gnitaolf!” Or did she say “Gnitaolf Sdnah fo Erif!” I never could figure out her logic!
I kept waiting for a Cranius reference.
Damn you, Cigarette Hands! Damn you to Heck!
My bet is that the “Floating Hands of Fire” are actually Smokey himself, suffering a psychotic break (a la Norman Osborn) and wearing a shirt and rubber human hand gloves.
After all, he clearly hates being a bear, as shown by his ridiculous ‘aping’ of humans by wearing trousers and a hat. Also, the fact that his Dad was the Green Goblin doesn’t help.