The Sad Saga of Willy the Weeper by Denny O'Neil, Irv Novick & JL Garcia Lopez.

The story starts with the discovery that the Joker has escaped again. The guards (Benny & Marvin) get yelled at. It turns out a criminal named Willy helped the Joker escape so Joker can help him. Willy has a problem. He is not successful at crime because he starts crying at what he is doing & messes up the crime. The Joker agrees to help him but Willy's henchmen Harold pulls a gun on the Joker to turn him in for the reward money. Joker shocks him with a joy buzzer then throws him down an incinerator chute.

While helping Willy pull a petty crime Benny & Marvin see the Joker & try to stop them. When Joker squirts onion juice in their eyes they start crying & Willy starts laughing! Mr J & Willy escape. Willy then shows Joker his plan on how to steal platinum from a vault in a millionaire's mansion. Meanwhile Benny & Marvin get jobs as guards to watch the platinum. The platinum is stolen by the Joker while Willy gets a tank full of water. This double cross by the Joker seems to "cure" Willy's crying. However the Joker is captured by Gordon who was notified by the guards Benny & Marvin about the Joker. As the Joker is led away by the police Willy laughs from his spot where he is hiding.

Thanks for the info on The Weeper. I wondered if Willie was based on a pre-existing villain, and I remember hearing that he was a Fawcett villain, but I couldn't find out that much information about it.

Joker #2 is not one of the issues I had as a kid. After I got #7, #8 and #9 off the spinner racks, I tracked down #3, #4 , #5 and #6 at the used-book stores within a year or so. I bought #2 in the 1990s at a Los Angeles comic-book store. I think it only cost $1, maybe $2. And I bought the first issue off eBay five or six years ago. $15 or $20, I think.

The Last Ha Ha by Denny O'Neil, Ernie Chan & JL Garcia Lopez.

Benny & Marvin (the guards from #2) are guarding a jeweled mask which the Joker steals. Jack Ryder (the Creeper) interviews the museum for WHAM-TV & the curator names the Creeper as the thief despite Benny & Marvin's protests. Jack transforms into the Creeper & goes after the Joker. He catches the Joker stealing an ancient Latin Joke book. They fight & the Joker manages to knock the Creeper unconscious. While the Joker waits for the Creeper to wake up he reads the comic strips "Cashews" by Sandy Saturn (parody of Chas Schulz' Peanuts). When the Creeper comes to he has amnesia. The Joker convinces him to go kidnap Saturn which the Creeper does.

The Joker holds Saturn for $1,000,000 ransom. He also commands Saturn to draw "Cashews" with the Joker kicking the Charlie Brown look alike in one & drowning him in another. The Joker sends the Creeper to city hall with a satchel that the Joker claims has proof of the Creeper's innocence in the stealing of the jeweled mask. While there the Joker presses his coat pocket into which the activator that transforms Jack into the Creeper fell during their fight. In city hall the Creeper transforms back into Jack & his memory returns. He throws the bomb into an empty office.

The Joker arrives back at his hideout & finds Ryder at Saturn's drawing easel. When they fight the activator falls out of the Joker's pocket & Jack pushes it transforming into the Creeper. He then knocks out the Joker & takes him away to jail.

A side note about the Creeper. He was created by Steve Ditko in 1968 for DC after he left Marvel & Charlton. He is Jack Ryder who works in TV. He rescues a Dr Yatz from mobsters at a costume party. He is stabbed & Yatz injects him with a serum to give him enhanced healing, strength & agility. An activator "turns on" the serum & allows Ryder to transform into the Creeper which is the costume he wore to the party. However the longer he remains the Creeper & the serum stays activated in his system the serum starts to affect him mentally making him more irrational. When he switches back to Ryder the serum becomes inactive & his thinking becomes rational again. First appearance:

1/3 of the way thru this series.
The first issue was entertaining but just average. 3/5.
The second issue was below average. 2/5.
The third issue was above average. 4/5.

The first appearance of The Creeper is reprinted in one of those 100-Page Super-Spectacular issues of Detective. So that's where I first saw it a few year ago.

And the Joker #3 is the first place I ever saw the Creeper. I don't even remember what I thought. I probably thought, "Just another weird DC product" like Man-Bat or Mister Miracle or O.M.A.C., characters I knew a little about from The Brave and the Bold or from reading the crazy DC comics some of my friends picked up.

I consider the Creeper one of the most unique and the way he created him is nothing short of a genius and I like the his concept of changing from Jack Ryder to the Creeper one of the most unique and I feel it's time for him to make a comeback of sort.

This character that Ditko created is one of his best ideas that he ever did.