The Flying Samurai
May. 6th, 2009 10:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shankieThis would be Flash volume 1, #180 & #181.
Otherwise known as possibly the most politically incorrect Flash comic ever published. I guess in 1968 this was considered funny as hell or something, but I can only read it and cringe a little. It seems to read about as tasteful as a Michael from The Office making his Chris Rock jokes in an actual board meeting. If you know what I mean.
The story? Barry and Iris go to Japan, then Barry fights robot Samurai, while the editors of the book think the Japanese are hilarious.
Seriously, wtf editor's notes?
They're everywhere in these issues, a few the more standard stuff like, there's one explaining heat seeking missiles are "*Infra-red sensitive missiles that "home-in" on any heat producing object." (And seriously, thanks for that, editor, right.) But most of them are crap like this:
What? Am I missing some in-joke about UCLA here? Editor's notes are not for the editor's own running commentary on a story, not unless they're actually funny instead of... well, this. Fail.
Let me type out that one speech bubble just so nobody misses it.
"Ho! Ho! This one almost envies such "tender tentacles" as you enjoy, friend, Barry-san! A shame to deray "preasure" with business!"
Um.
Yeah.
I really don't know what to say to that.
Anyway... Samurai Robots!
Whee!
So, they go to the "crime rab" despite Iris wanting this to be a vacation and getting rather irritated that Barry's all hot to go do crime stuff, and the "captious conundrum"... wait, wait wait. 'Captious' is defined thusly: (of a person) tending to find fault or raise petty objections. Um. Editors? Buy a fucking dictionary.
Also, congratulations on the most tastelessly placed ad I've seen somewhere other than the Internet in a long time.
I find the look on Barry's face a bit scary. I'd venture to say it's downright maniacal. Again here, I feel like I'm missing some reference...
Uhhh.. kay.
Moving on! This continues for another issue, which is more of the same, so I'll spare you all, except to point out two things:
This torture makes no sense.
Yes, hanging from your wrists like that will hurt, but he's not being held down by his ankles; more water in the buckets means he'll just have a bigger counterweight that pulls him up higher in the air over time. Not... stretch him out like a rack. His wrists are in bigger danger of nerve damage than anything else.
These really poorly-placed WWII model ads are seriously killing me here. This same company advertises in a lot of Flash comics, but like... cars and stuff. The WWII stuff was specifically placed in this one, because apparently these issues were marketed at those 10-year-olds that were big on racial stereotypes and lingering bitterness from a war their grandparents fought in.
Or something.
Otherwise known as possibly the most politically incorrect Flash comic ever published. I guess in 1968 this was considered funny as hell or something, but I can only read it and cringe a little. It seems to read about as tasteful as a Michael from The Office making his Chris Rock jokes in an actual board meeting. If you know what I mean.
The story? Barry and Iris go to Japan, then Barry fights robot Samurai, while the editors of the book think the Japanese are hilarious.
Seriously, wtf editor's notes?
They're everywhere in these issues, a few the more standard stuff like, there's one explaining heat seeking missiles are "*Infra-red sensitive missiles that "home-in" on any heat producing object." (And seriously, thanks for that, editor, right.) But most of them are crap like this:
What? Am I missing some in-joke about UCLA here? Editor's notes are not for the editor's own running commentary on a story, not unless they're actually funny instead of... well, this. Fail.
Let me type out that one speech bubble just so nobody misses it.
"Ho! Ho! This one almost envies such "tender tentacles" as you enjoy, friend, Barry-san! A shame to deray "preasure" with business!"
Um.
Yeah.
I really don't know what to say to that.
Anyway... Samurai Robots!
Whee!
So, they go to the "crime rab" despite Iris wanting this to be a vacation and getting rather irritated that Barry's all hot to go do crime stuff, and the "captious conundrum"... wait, wait wait. 'Captious' is defined thusly: (of a person) tending to find fault or raise petty objections. Um. Editors? Buy a fucking dictionary.
Also, congratulations on the most tastelessly placed ad I've seen somewhere other than the Internet in a long time.
I find the look on Barry's face a bit scary. I'd venture to say it's downright maniacal. Again here, I feel like I'm missing some reference...
Uhhh.. kay.
Moving on! This continues for another issue, which is more of the same, so I'll spare you all, except to point out two things:
This torture makes no sense.
Yes, hanging from your wrists like that will hurt, but he's not being held down by his ankles; more water in the buckets means he'll just have a bigger counterweight that pulls him up higher in the air over time. Not... stretch him out like a rack. His wrists are in bigger danger of nerve damage than anything else.
These really poorly-placed WWII model ads are seriously killing me here. This same company advertises in a lot of Flash comics, but like... cars and stuff. The WWII stuff was specifically placed in this one, because apparently these issues were marketed at those 10-year-olds that were big on racial stereotypes and lingering bitterness from a war their grandparents fought in.
Or something.
no subject
on 2009-05-06 03:17 pm (UTC)Hey, he pronounced his "L" that time! I should have been "ERECTR..." ohhh, wait.
I guess in a comic of crude racial stereotypes, robot samurai, model kits, and bizarre winking footnotes, a dick pun would have just been too juvenile!
no subject
on 2009-05-07 02:57 pm (UTC)It would have been going just too far! There's the Comics Code Authority to consider!
Or something.
no subject
on 2009-05-06 04:29 pm (UTC)That torture.. wouldn't the buckets get float as the tide rises? Even if they're full.. eh, I can't believe I'm analysing this for logic, lol.
Fuck me sideways if that "accent" isn't a jab in the eye every time it comes up. And where the hell does that buck-tooth look stem from? Always see that in those old caricatures. The kid in the Big Mamie ad has more of an overbite anyway. Maybe he's a Jap! Check him for stilts!
no subject
on 2009-05-07 02:59 pm (UTC)I'm pretty sure the whole buck-tooth thing, as well as the stupid accents, are straight out of those old anti-Japanese WWII propaganda films and such. Which only makes it worse, especially since this wasn't published in the 40's or the 50's.... but decades after the war was over.
no subject
on 2009-05-07 01:30 am (UTC)...wow, this is really bad for 1968. Shame.
no subject
on 2009-05-07 03:01 pm (UTC)I'm really surprised at the publication date, yeah. If this was Golden Age or something, I'd have just thought it was period racism that was hard to avoid... but seriously, not the case, wtf.
Oh Geez
on 2009-05-07 03:24 am (UTC)Re: Oh Geez
on 2009-05-07 03:05 pm (UTC)