Steve Elonka began chronicling the exploits of Marmaduke Surfaceblow-a six-foot-four marine engineer with a steel-brush mustache and a foghorn voice-in POWER in 1948, when he raised the wooden mast of the SS Asia Sun with the help of two cobras and a case of Sandpaper Gin. Marmy's simple solutions to seemingly intractable plant problems remain timeless. This story originally appeared in 1950. Two years later, one of its key characters, King Farouk, abdicated the Egyptian throne to his infant son following a military coup.