Strange Sports Stories (1973) 1

Giving the devil his due, today we celebrate National Devil’s Food Cake Day.

For the second year, we commemorate the dessert that shares its day of fame with the upper order of after dinner treats, Angel Food Cake. While the heavenly-named confection may satisfy our sweet tooth, it’s the baser, darker dessert what we desire.

This devilish last course is almost haughty with its moist and airy texture. Recipes call for hot or boiling water as the primary liquid, utilizing coca in the batter with chocolate. Coffee can be added for more flavor. All is topped with a creamy chocolate frosting.

The origins of the dessert’s day are as mysterious as how it earned its name. Some say it’s due to the fact a Devil’s Food Cake is the opposite of an Angel Food Cake in flavor and texture. Others cite that the more indulgent a dessert sounds, the more it’s craved.

Strange Sports Stories (1973) 1

Devil’s Food Cake is said to have originated in the southern states with the first printed recipe appearing in Sarah Tyson Rorer’s book Mrs. Rorer’s New Cook Book in 1902. The original recipe used melted chocolate and baking powder. Today the recipe calls for cocoa rather than baking soda.

Last year we called on Harvey Comics Hot Stuff as the day’s mascot. This year we rely on the opening story of issue number one of DC Comic’s Strange Sports Stories.

With spring here what could be more appropriate than America’s national pastime, baseball? To Beat the Devil is a Frank Robbins/Curt Swan creation pitting the Metropolis Meteors against Lucifer himself.

The Meteors are flying high in more ways than one as they wing their way to the World Series. During the flight they experience a bad storm that leads them to Hell.

Old Nick makes a pledge to return the team and manager Skip Wilson to their previous destination if they defeat him in regulation play.

As a one-man baseball team, Beelzebub nearly takes down the Meteors until Wilson changes strategies meaning the Devil must forfeit the game and the players souls due to a simple rule.

Strange Sports Stories ran a total of six issues between 1973 and 1974.

DC tested the genre as early as 1963 with a five-issue run in Brave and the Bold. After the ill-fated series of the Seventies, DC attempted to turn sports on its ear once more with DC Super-Stars issue 10 in 1976 featuring the Justice League facing off against the leading villains of the time.

The story was reprinted in 1981 in DC Special Blue Ribbon Digest issue 13.

As of this writing, DC has dusted off the concept one last time for the Vertigo imprint. The four-issue mini-series ran in 2015.

Enjoying a delicious slice of Devil’s Food Cake is gonna be way more satisfying then tracking down any of these retreads, so grab a fork and enjoy.