Hypho-Man 5, July 1963, page 10.

©Prescience Comics

In Hypho-Man 5, our diminutive hero again faces off against arch-foe Professor Malheur. In order to defuse Professor Malheur's Boron Bomb, Hypho-Man enlists the aid of Doc L, the tall guy on the left. Chemists may recognize Doc L as William N. Lipscomb* in his characteristic western tie and plaid shirt. Hypho-Man is flying off with Lipscomb's Nobel Prize citation;  on the shelf we see a model of the conjuncto-borane B₁₀H₁₆.  What better team could be assembled to overcome the Boron Bomb than Hypho-Man, named after boron hydrides with the general formula B_nH_n+8, and the winner of the 1976 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for work on the structure and bonding of boron hydrides?  At the risk of spoiling the story for future readers of this magnum opus, we will only reveal that our heroes make short work of the Boron Bomb by exploiting the great difference in neutron absorption cross-section between the isotopes ¹⁰B and ¹¹B. 

We are indebted to Tony Gleeson, Hypho-Man's #1 fan, for unearthing this Silver Age rarity. Tony is known for numerous illustrations in science-fiction pulp magazines from 1973 through the 1980s; covers for the Doubleday/ Science Fiction Book Club; illustrations for William Wood's Logical Lexicon of Useless English; a wide range of illustration in newspapers, magazines, children's and educational publications; design, storyboarding and concept art for film, television and advertising; and an eight-year stint with Neal Adams/ Continuity Studios.  An gallery of his artwork can be found at http://members.xoom.com/tonygleeson/.

*Biographical sketch:

William Nunn Lipscomb, Jr.
Abbott and James Lawrence Professor of Chemistry
Harvard University

1919   Born in Cleveland, Ohio

1937  Graduated from Picadome High School, Lexington, KY

1941  B. S. in Chemistry, University of Kentucky

1941  Sullivan Medallion, University of Kentucky

1946   Ph.D., California Institute of Technology, with Nobel Prize winner Linus C. Pauling

1946   Joined faculty of University of Minnesota

1959   Moved to Harvard University

1960   Initiated ground-breaking research on the relationship between the three-dimensional structure and the function of enzymes

1963   Honorary D.Sc., University of Kentucky

1965   Distinguished Alumni Centennial Award, University of Kentucky

1968   Award for Distinguished Service in the Advancement of Inorganic Chemistry, American Chemical Society

1971   Abbott and James Lawrence Professorship and George Ledlie Prize, Harvard University

1973   Peter Debye Award in Physical Chemistry, American Chemical Society

1976   Nobel Prize in Chemistry for work on the structure and bonding of boranes

1976   Doctor Honoris Causa, University of Munich

Professor Lipscomb is also an avid tennis player and an accomplished classical clarinetist.