When the great editor Julius Schwartz was in charge of certain Silver Age DC Comics titles, he used to say (...and I'm paraphrasing as best I can) that the story should, in some way, highlight - or otherwise showcase - the particular hero's individual powers.
The Flash's powers are "showcased" in... SHOWCASE!
Meaning that a FLASH story should be geared toward velocity, a GREEN LANTERN story should feature "power ring" stunts, and an ATOM story should involve its star becoming very small!
Otherwise, you just have a generic story that could be told for any old generic hero.
I'm reminded of that when I read the Inside Back Cover Gag from ADVENTURES OF MIGHTY MOUSE #151 (Dell Comics, Cover Date: July-September, 1961) titled "The Free Book", with art by Dan Gormley...
More than simply not catering to Mighty Mouse's powers - or his very existence as a super powered mouse - this gag doesn't even need to star a superhero!
We'll enlarge it below for your reading pleasure...
In fact, this gag would seem to be best suited to DONALD DUCK, what with his impatient nature and trademark slow burn, and would have made a dandy one-page gag for a Dell or Gold Key comic, or an Al Taliaferro Donald Sunday newspaper strip.
This cover, which I'd like much more if Carl Barks or Tony Strobl had drawn it, will give you an idea of what I mean!
You could even pare it down to four panels and make it a weekday strip.
But instead it is MIGHTY MOUSE who usurps Donald's gag. And, hey... It's not like, in return, Donald could... you know, like become a superhero and "Save the Day"...
...Aw, skip it!
10 comments:
I have nothing much to say here except that I totally agree with you that this gag would be way more suitable for Donald! Though nowadays the book would probably be titled "How to Have a Clutter-free Home." Something with "clutter" in it, anyway!
Completely agreed on the book title, Elaine!
But wasn't there a proliferation of "How-To" books, on any and every subject, making the rounds during the Eisenhower era? Self-improvement or do-it-yourself books were a general staple of 1950s - and as far as into the early '70s - American culture?
My personal recollections, as well as much media of the period, seem to give me that impression, and that's what I believe they were tapping into.
Anyway, if I were writing that gag, I probably *would* have come up with something using "clutter", "clutter-free" or the like - or, if I felt really loopy that day, maybe even "A Neat Home is a Happy Home"? ...Naah, maybe too much!
If anything, the "Art of" and "How to" series of Goofy cartoons indicates that the concept was already popular enough to warrant a parody back in 1940s.
Now that you mention it, T., it probably was a post-war American thing!
I guess if it were a Duck Avenger gag, it would involve his a.i. buddy Uno finding an ad for a "Free Book" to download and Donald saying, "Let me have it!" so Uno downloads the book in question and it's that same book, but it was loaded with malware.
That is a delightfully subversive-yet-perfect-for-our-modern-times updating of this gag, ‘Rehab!
Glad to see you back ‘round here!
Thanks! Uno/One/Globus - the rapport between Donald and that a.i. character is the closest Donald has to a "best friend" anyplace and became my favorite part of those "Duck Avenger" stories.
You mean a closer friend than Scrooge, Gladstone, and Neighbor Jones? :-)
Oh, with "friends" like those guys, who needs a.i. buddies? :-D
With friends like THAT, you might need a.i. buddies more than ever! :-)
Their intelligence may be "artificial", but *any* intelligence is better than none!
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