Wednesday, April 22, 2020

Adventures in Comic-Boxing: Watching Too Much TV Can Be Hazardous to Your Health!


Here's a little gem hidden away behind the main Batman story of THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD # 88 (DC Comics, Cover Date February-March, 1970 - cover below)...


...Aptly titled "Death Turns the Dial!"


Written by the issue's editor Murray Boltinoff, and drawn by George Tuska.  We'll break it down by panels.


Henry gets lost in TV, as some of us tend to do in these trying days.


But, it gets to be "too much" for Henry - just as the relentless onslaught of cable news is getting to be for me.


Henry pays the price... and I don't mean his cable bill!


But, at least he was watching a western - and not a daily parade of federal officials being forced to act "optimistically" and to minimize the scope of this tragedy while people (that could include you and me) are dying in horrific numbers every day!  If given a choice between the two, I'd prefer to die to the western any day!


The last line is TRULY magnificent!


You might "hear" that line being spoken by Rod Serling... And, if so, you wouldn't be off one bit!


But I hear it as being better delivered by Alfred Hitchcock, as he might have done on ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS!


I read it aloud in my best impression of Hitchcock (which some of you have actually heard), and it's perfect!  Not my impression (which is still pretty good), but the combination of the line and the (imagined) voice of Hitchcock!


Finally, in the true spirit of ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS, we present the following closing bit - as it might have been read by Hitchcock... 

Perhaps Henry would still be alive...


...If he had chosen to watch THE FLINTSTONES instead!  


Good... Eee..ven..ing!  

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