WOW. thank y'all so much for the awesomesauce words! i've been laughing out loud and grinning like a fool back-and-forth-and-in work this week, and there are questions to be answered and replies to be made and cocktails to be drunk (always, cocktails to be drunk) but in honor of comic con, and my escape from the law, i thought i'd quickly share a wee gem i found in ruggy's storage loot the other day...
while in LA, i was fond of saying fuck you, i'm batman. spied it on a shirt made by the peeps behind this superior tom selleck art, and thought it a perfect slogan for going into auditions. unfortunately it was pretty slow out there, and i ended up directing said slogan at the machine, the cat, the rugster. still, a delicious grouping of words.
but did you know, back in the day, batman was not so much the dark knight? no, our wholesome hero was quite worried about the state of your brotherhood quotient. GET A LOAD OF THAT LIST. long hair music! jews! cabbage!
complete with emoticons. DC, even then, you were ahead of your time.
of course, batman had a li'l prodding from several government agencies. SERIOUSLY. it is all so very right and so very wrong at the same time. were they leading the witness with that list? or is it just that we don't use certain terms today? were baptists as a group a hot button? were they the hipsters of the past?
the mind boggles.
Great Scott Batman
ReplyDeleterighteous reprint robin!
DeleteI've always liked the super villains over the heroes, but I'll settle for Batman.
ReplyDeletehe's cool, cause he's BOTH. at least, frank miller's batman is both.
DeleteThese are really cool pictures from Batman. I had no idea they tried to help readers be responsible citizens, on their own or not.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I love your LA catchphrase. I might need to borrow it.
i tell ya, it's a confidence booster. try shouting it when you're on a difficult seam.
DeleteHA!!! You are oh so close to being responsible for a spit take all over my 'puter! An it's a Bulleit Manhattan (yes, I'm a fan), so I don't want to waste it. Your LA phrase beats the hell out of anything I can come up with. It will be used!
DeleteFuck you I'm Batman!! Well it actually must WORK y'know, because, well, Nurse Oona!!
ReplyDeleteRanking people as more or less preferable to cabbage and alligators?!?! Its kooky but... it's great, the succinct, straightforward, cutting-through-all-bullshit righteousness of: "All of us have things we don't like. When they're vegetable or insects- no one cares. But when they're people-- you hurt them and cheat yourself". I like it, do you know what date this one was published?
well this is interesting... it's a pizza hut special edition from 1977, reprinted from the april 1959 issue of batman. so the test is from '59!
DeleteDetective stories? Spiders? Cabbage?
ReplyDeleteCabbage reminds me of a story by G.K. Chesterton whose hero used a cabbage as a hat for about a week... It had a reason, but the great thing about that story were those reactions - or lack of reactions - he got.
ah, that sounds so sweet!
DeleteI'm seriously perplexed by this list...yes - definitely leading the witness! Cabbage and Detective Stories?!? What does that have to do with brotherhood? Why are Indians separate from Foreigners (or were they talking about AMERICAN Indians??) No wonder that generation has so many issues!! Just kidding... sort of....
ReplyDeleteRIGHT?! though emily kate's question of year makes some things clear, it was a 1959 reprint. so they might have thought they were being PC...
DeleteWOW. I really wasn't sure where this was going when I saw the checklist at first! Holy Diversity and Tolerance, Batman!
ReplyDeletei know, right? i got very worried for batman...
DeleteAlligators and cabbage as a group? How in the hell could they have been a hot button of this time. Regardless, what you have here is a rare gem of the past. Keep it!
ReplyDeleteoh yeah, this one's getting wrapped in plastic.
Delete