Far off in the outer space of comic books, existed the whacky, cube-shaped planet known as Bizarro World. Inhabiting this cockeyed world were hordes of grotesque, imperfect imitations of Superman and Lois Lane created by a defective duplicator ray. These flawed replicas had limited intelligence and appeared to be formed out of white stone. Their behavior was governed by their Bizarro Code: “Us do opposite of all earthly things! Us HATE beauty! Us love UGLINESS! Is BIG CRIME to make anything perfect on Bizarro World!”

Bizarro No. 1 was the original dim-witted duplicate and the leader of Bizarro World, where women went to the ugliness parlor and their children were punished for good grades. Bizzaro was definitely no hero, but he wasn’t really a criminal either—just an annoyance, primarily to Superman.

He and his crazy cohorts were a big part of comics of the time, even starring in their own feature in 15 issues of Adventure Comics in the early 1960s. It’s hard to imagine what inspired this peculiar concept or why it was such a big hit with readers. But looking back at the Bizzaros, they embodied the goofy spirit of the times (contrary to their silly code) perfectly.

Check out the rest of the cards in the series.

Illustrating one playing card a day using characters found between 1957-1967 in DC Comics. Tomorrow: Bat-Mite!