After 45 years of Spider-Man and, I dunno, maybe 25 years since Batman became a certifiable nut-job, it is understandable that the question “who is the biggest neurotic in comics?” surfaces from time to time.

First, a caveat. I’m only referring to fictional characters. If we add in the real folks, well, there’s a limit to bandwidth – even here at ComicMix.com.

To me, there’s one clear winner. But this character is in good company, as some of the closest runners up were published by the same outfit. I’ll start there, in the hallowed halls of Harvey Comics.

These guys specialized in loons. Kiddie loons at that. Man, the whole bunch of them must have had really bizarre childhoods.

Third runner up: Richie Rich. If not for our winner, he would be poster boy for OCD. Okay, the kid’s wealthier than Joe Kennedy after a mob shipment, so he’s going to have some strange habits. But he, like his father, has dollar signs on everything. Everything. His house, his cars, his clothes – even his dog. The dog named “Dollar.” Good grief.

Second runner up: Hot Stuff. Okay, he’s a little devil. Get it? Fine. But, damn, he’s also a little prick. I mean it: the kid lives for the thrills of obnoxiousness. He even pissed off the sun. You know, that big yellow thing in the sky that gives Superman his powers? Here’s the proof, in one of my all-time favorite comic book covers:

First runner up and Mr. Congeniality: Baby Huey’s father. Now, clearly, Baby Huey has the worst case of microcephaly ever and as such deserves our sympathy. So does his mother, who laid the egg and hatched a baby that quickly became perhaps 20 times her size and about a thousand times her weight. And we can cut Huey’s dad some slack as his son was, like, nine feet tall (rather large for a duck), incredibly stupid, and wore diapers. That’s got to be a bit embarrassing at the Kiwanis Club. But this man was not cut out to raise any children. Always flustered, always angry and often threatening physical abuse, he simply could not cope. It is likely Huey should have been handled off to a Misericordia Home, but daddy should have been arrested.

But all of these characters pale in comparison to our winner.

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