Tom Terrific: analysis of a metaphor

Crabby Appleton

Drawn in a simple style, it featured a gee-whiz boy hero, Tom Terrific, who lived in a treehouse and could transform himself into anything he wanted thanks to his magic, funnel-shaped "thinking cap," which also enhanced his intelligence. He had a comic lazybones of a sidekick, Mighty Manfred the Wonder Dog, and an arch-foe named Crabby Appleton (pointing up to Tom Terrific), whose motto was "Rotten to the core!" Other foes included Mr. Instant, the Instant Thing King; Captain Kidney Bean; Sweet Tooth Sam, the Candy Bandit; and Isotope Feaney.

If the function of the funnel (a unidirectional device) is understood, Tom Terrific would be the reverse of what he was portrayed in his animated features and we'd end up with these two guys:

Denizens of Deadwood:

Isotope is a word that got tossed around on TV and movies in the fifties along with:
Geiger counter, uranium and radio active. Now we've got Rush Limbaugh to be radio-
active for us...now that's progress!

So now I am left wondering if a Geiger counter is as good as a bean counter and what the heck
is an isotope? I do know this much, all of this atomic bullshit is going to be fertile ground for Godzilla!

Post-atomic King Kong with subtitles that eats early Toyota trucks

Hans Geiger, the dude who invented
the Geiger counter and...

a painting by another guy named Geiger who
created this image of vintage corn-holing in 1840
that brings new meaning to the word "cubicle."