Random synapse-firings about and from the author of Howard the Duck, Omega the Unknown, Thundarr the Barbarian, and untold suffering for friends and family alike.
…except to thank Dave Kraft for passing this along.
IMAGE DELETED
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19 Responses to “I’m Not Going to Say a Word…”
Very true observation on the importance of cultural context. That piece of art was created in a time where people were not automatically assumed suspect. Certainly there are atrocities that are prevented or caught before going on for years, these crimes still occur and our hypervigilance, though it has merit, has come at the cost of a more expressively free world.
Stepping down off of my soapbox, that is a damn funny pic. There is a site out there that has the goofiest, most suspect, etc Superman covers collected for ridicule and amusing comments, but I don’t have it handy to link at the moment.
It was also created at least half a decade before the McMartin Preschool hysteria, the event that made pedophilia an acceptable topic for the mainstream media. Pre-McMartin, it would’ve taken a dedicated NAMBLA member to find anything untoward in this drawing.
The title, “ACTION Comics”, makes it even funnier! This would make an interesting episode of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit”.
Fred: You must be thinking of http://www.superdickery.com, a bottomless pit of laffs. Thanks to Steve for pointing that site out to the gang over at the Howard the Duck group.
🙂 I know it was done in all innocence way back then. My faux-shock just didn’t come through in type.
I probably bought this comic when it came out (particularly since it had Green Arrow in it). I can’t remember if, by this time, I’d read about Wertham; before hearing of Seduction of the Innocent, I never gave sexual subtext in comics any thought.
Of course, after hearing about Werthan, I still didn’t give it much thought, since he was pretty much a crackpot.
This pic must really be making the rounds — I’ve seen two other references/links to it today.
By the way — the Grand Comics Database claims that this cover is pencilled by Bob Oksner. It looks like his inking, but it looks like Curt Swan’s pencils to me.
Fred makes a good point that goes right to our current climate of fear. Is it better to prevent kids from being assaulted or should we keep every adult under an umbrella of suspicion for coming into contact with a kid? Is it better to live with the very low chance of getting killed by a terrorist or should we give away our freedoms, our tax dollars, and fight in this stupid war?
When you look at what our entire society has given up in the name of ‘security’, it makes you wonder.
I think it is very funny, but then, I’m a gay Brit, so what do I know of moral standards?
Boy seems to be depicted weeping from emotions rather than fear or pain, thus it seems oddly romantic – about heroism rather than terrorism. Wonderfully corruptive image for the neo-puritans, however! Artshock!
According to my mother, who, as a female comics professional, was often called upon to debate him in the media, he was not a crackpot, but a calculating bastard (bastard is her word).
Wertham employed flawed reasoning to explain juvenile delinquency and to go after a particular form of entertainment. He read any number of things into comics pages that weren’t there (despite however many times Wonder Woman may have been tied up).
That’s good enough for me to label him a “crackpot”; it doesn’t exclude that he was also a calulating bastard.
He certainly wasn’t the first or last of his kind.
August 22nd, 2006 at 5:56 AM
…brutal
August 22nd, 2006 at 7:47 AM
What the heck were they thinking? or NOT thinking?
August 22nd, 2006 at 7:53 AM
To be fair… that’s a slight cheat, since the cover copy’s been removed.
When the copy’s restored, the cover makes more sense, though still disturbing in oh so many ways.
August 22nd, 2006 at 8:43 AM
Lee: Thanks for calling the missing copy to our attention.
Charles: Definitely “not thinking”, but that’s because this cover appeared in a very different cultural context.
August 22nd, 2006 at 10:27 AM
My instant reaction was to burst out laughing. I find that a little more disturbing than the cover, now that I think about it.
August 22nd, 2006 at 11:54 AM
Very true observation on the importance of cultural context. That piece of art was created in a time where people were not automatically assumed suspect. Certainly there are atrocities that are prevented or caught before going on for years, these crimes still occur and our hypervigilance, though it has merit, has come at the cost of a more expressively free world.
Stepping down off of my soapbox, that is a damn funny pic. There is a site out there that has the goofiest, most suspect, etc Superman covers collected for ridicule and amusing comments, but I don’t have it handy to link at the moment.
August 22nd, 2006 at 12:11 PM
It was also created at least half a decade before the McMartin Preschool hysteria, the event that made pedophilia an acceptable topic for the mainstream media. Pre-McMartin, it would’ve taken a dedicated NAMBLA member to find anything untoward in this drawing.
August 22nd, 2006 at 1:09 PM
The title, “ACTION Comics”, makes it even funnier! This would make an interesting episode of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit”.
Fred: You must be thinking of http://www.superdickery.com, a bottomless pit of laffs. Thanks to Steve for pointing that site out to the gang over at the Howard the Duck group.
August 22nd, 2006 at 1:14 PM
Let’s try that again without the comma:
http://www.superdickery.com
August 22nd, 2006 at 4:02 PM
🙂 I know it was done in all innocence way back then. My faux-shock just didn’t come through in type.
I probably bought this comic when it came out (particularly since it had Green Arrow in it). I can’t remember if, by this time, I’d read about Wertham; before hearing of Seduction of the Innocent, I never gave sexual subtext in comics any thought.
Of course, after hearing about Werthan, I still didn’t give it much thought, since he was pretty much a crackpot.
This pic must really be making the rounds — I’ve seen two other references/links to it today.
August 22nd, 2006 at 4:05 PM
By the way — the Grand Comics Database claims that this cover is pencilled by Bob Oksner. It looks like his inking, but it looks like Curt Swan’s pencils to me.
August 22nd, 2006 at 10:30 PM
That one’s pretty bad, I’ll tell you. I’ve seen it before, and it’s still shocking.
But the worst (and funniest) one of all has to be this one right here…
http://www.foldedspace.org/comix/images/justiceleague.jpg
August 23rd, 2006 at 5:58 AM
“Robin, what have I done to you!” HA!!
Fred makes a good point that goes right to our current climate of fear. Is it better to prevent kids from being assaulted or should we keep every adult under an umbrella of suspicion for coming into contact with a kid? Is it better to live with the very low chance of getting killed by a terrorist or should we give away our freedoms, our tax dollars, and fight in this stupid war?
When you look at what our entire society has given up in the name of ‘security’, it makes you wonder.
August 23rd, 2006 at 12:25 PM
Oh, and since the last blog entry by Steve was about Bill Maher:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-maher/why-not-impeachment_b_27803.html
August 24th, 2006 at 3:30 AM
I think it is very funny, but then, I’m a gay Brit, so what do I know of moral standards?
Boy seems to be depicted weeping from emotions rather than fear or pain, thus it seems oddly romantic – about heroism rather than terrorism. Wonderfully corruptive image for the neo-puritans, however! Artshock!
August 24th, 2006 at 9:16 AM
According to my mother, who, as a female comics professional, was often called upon to debate him in the media, he was not a crackpot, but a calculating bastard (bastard is her word).
August 24th, 2006 at 9:17 AM
Damn, can’t edit. I was talking about Wertham in my previous post.
August 25th, 2006 at 7:29 AM
Wertham employed flawed reasoning to explain juvenile delinquency and to go after a particular form of entertainment. He read any number of things into comics pages that weren’t there (despite however many times Wonder Woman may have been tied up).
That’s good enough for me to label him a “crackpot”; it doesn’t exclude that he was also a calulating bastard.
He certainly wasn’t the first or last of his kind.
August 27th, 2006 at 11:08 AM
Cultural context says a ton about that cover. Especially that even we comic lovers can and DID think THAT about our Superman.