From Police Comics #17, published in 1943.
Plastic Man and Woozy are chasing a murderer in a cooky mansion. The killer traps Plastic Man's head in a vaccuum cleaner and puts it in reverse. Plastic Man's inherent stretching power allows him to inflate to a massive size by the time Woozy catches up with him. (The next page has Woozy and Plastic Man rescued by a stranger in the dark. No further inflation scenes are shown.)
As a reader of the Plastic Man comics that proceeded this one, I think I can say this is the first time Plastic Man was inflated.
I never new that ever happened! :)
I've always assumed that the first time an inflation occurred with the mouth-stuck-in-vacumn-cleaner-in-reverse situation occurred in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
Didn't realise that that scenario had already happened 45 years earlier! :P
Ironically, the Roger Rabbit story is set on the 40's too. 1947, even if the movie was made in 1988
Excellent historical find!
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