Manic Monday Bonus--This Is Why You Don't Crowdsource Horse Names!!

Back in 1949, Lev Gleason Publications decided to get in on the Western hero act, changing Desperado Comics to Black Diamond Comics with issue #9:

Not too much beyond the standard here--Bob Vale lost his family to outlaws (twice!!), and adopted a masked identity to hunt down bad guys. Sometimes he left a playing card with a black diamond (specially made?!?) as his calling card. And yes, somehow a masked man actually became a U.S. Marshall. Go figure.

Anyway, since he was a hero, his horse needed a name. And rather than come up with one themselves, they decided to outsource the job:

Yup, a "name the horse" contest, with a $1000 top prize.

You also had to solve a couple of puzzles (presumably to get around various state laws requiring giveaways to be based on skill, rather than luck?!?):

And yet a fourth page for the entry form and details:

Yes, they dedicated 4 entire flippin' pages to this contest!!

And they were serious, as they kept running full-page reminders for a couple of months:

Finally, in issue #15, we had a winner!

And the winner? The best name for Black Diamond's horse?!?

Reliapon?!? Are you kidding me?

Nope.

There were more $2 winners listed on another page, in case you're counting...

Sure enough, in that very issue, the horse was named Reliapon:

Sigh.

Today, Reliapon is a "police products" company offering "the finest in non-lethal products and training." No, really. 

Meanwhile, no matter how stupid I think the name may be, there was a race horse named Reliapon back in the 90s, so what do I know? As near as I can tell, though, it finished 10th in its only recorded race. Which is why you don't name a horse Reliapon.