The celebrated Mr. K finds that sometimes the real hits are on the B side… — UPDATED 11/5/26: Diggin’ in the vault time — when we go deep into the recesses of the shadowy subterranean 13th Dimension headquarters for great columns that deserve another look. Just for kicks! This one first ran in May 2021. Right on! — Dan — Columnist Paul Kupperberg takes up a big challenge with this one — and I’m sure you have your faves too. (Mine is Batman #250’s “The Batman Nobody Knows!” by Frank Robbins and Dick Giordano. So dig Paul’s list, then feel free to add your own favorites in the comments. Oh! And check out Paul’s latest project too: Son of the Unpublished Comic Book Scripts of Paul Kupperberg. (Click here to order!) — Dan — By PAUL KUPPERBERG Back-up stories in mainstream comics used to be a lot more common than they are today. There were entire titles that were nothing but back-up stories, mostly genre books like House of Mystery, Strange Adventures, and just about everything Charlton Comics published. Back-ups were called that because they backed up the title slot in short stories that generally ran five to eight, sometimes 10 pages. I always loved a good done-in-one back-up story. As a reader, they are the icing on the comic book cake, a sweet little bit of something extra topping an already delicious treat. As a writer, they’re an opportunity to do fun or interesting little one-off stories that focus on a single character or situation, capturing a moment or an event without any strings attached. They can also be a challenge to write; a six-pager runs about three dozen or so panels (assuming six panels per page), which doesn’t allow for wasted space or poorly paced storytelling. On the other hand, when creators get it right, that’s when the magic happens. These are a few of the stories that stuck in my memory from my decades of comic book reading. There are dozens, likely hundreds, more if I did a really deep dive into different anthology comics, but for this week’s selections I’m sticking with superhero and action/adventure stories featuring ongoing characters. The only exception to the back-up feature rule I’ve allowed is the Will Eisner Spirit story because even though it headlined the publication in which it...