Martinex1: I can suspend disbelief just as much as the next guy, but despite being able to absorb the concept of flying characters, shape shifting aliens, and living planets... sometimes the simplest absurdities take me out of the story and leave me chuckling.
You may have seen some of the examples below before, but I never stop enjoying these panels. Were the gaffes and situations intentional? Were they just a result of Silver and Bronze Age prolific productivity? Or a product of simpler times and good intentions for a younger audience? Was it an archaic turn of phrase? Or just a humorous juxtaposition? Was it the result of long nights and looming deadlines?
In some cases, like the Thanos-copter in Spidey Super-Stories, I know it was due to the target audience, but it still brings a smile.
What was the silliest panel you ever came across? What made you stop and say, "Did I read that right?" What made orange soda come out of your nose?
Have a great weekend and have a great laugh! Cheers! (And if you suggest any other knee-slappers, I will try to swing back and post them later).
Martinex1: UPDATE: And here is the scene that HB describes in his comments. From Marvel Team-Up #28, Hercules pulls Manhattan back into place. I have also included the final panels of the issue in which the Mayor berates the heroes; note the final commentary from the editorial team as they distance themselves from the story, question its veracity, and already set the tone that this has to be imaginary - although I doubt it started out as anything other than a standard team-up. They must have realized it stretched even Marvel's concept of physics and realism.
14 comments:
I can't deal with the plethora of perfect-fitting rubber masks that pop up in lots of bronze age tales. Yes, I can suspend my disbelief and accept characters lifting mountains and rising from the dead, but Hank McCoy's mask that hides his beastly features is a bridge to far.
Marti - this is classic! Surely someone, somewhere, asked the writers if they intended these silly moments?
I hate to say it but I giggle at Lee's and Kirby's non-stop references to the "fairer sex" throughout the 60s while at the same time I get a history lesson and reminded of what led to the social movements that came later.
Feel free to comment on the sad news that Batman's Adam West passed away. Through the show and appearances he gave me countless hours of humor, laughter, and optimism.
RIP Adam. Dozer's series revamped most of the comic industry and it's level of sophistication with it's tertiary effects. Often mocked, but it's influence should never, ever be understated.
As I mentioned on my FB page, he often referred to the series as 'the Theatre of the Absurd', but look how great it entertained us all. A '60s kid could not have found a finer hero..
As oft regarded, the 60s had the three B's: Bond, Batman, and the Beatles..
All my Love to long ago.
Rather overshadowed by the passing of Adam West but could I offer any and all silver age panels featuring Snapper Carr? I mean...what were they thinking?!?
Thanks Marti for the nod to a personal favorite, Little Dot. Polka-dots solve every problem, clearly.
Unlike other actors, I don't feel like Adam West ever really faded away... he may have wanted and tried to distance himself from the Batman image but it seems like he eventually realized it was his "bread and butter" and kind of embraced it...
Ultimately... He did voices for Bat-animation in the 70s-80s, the (laughable) Challenge of the Superheroes and "Roast" all the way up to the recent DC animated movies...
I agree with David_b, that the 60s Batman tv show changed comics history forever ...
Godspeed, Adam West, thanks for the memories!
A lot of fun images there, Marti. But the one I'm still trying to wrap my head around is Little Dot. A Polka dot bag of Uranium dust?!? Oh, the innocence (naivete?). Now we know what did in Casper...
The Thor panel brings to mind the story reprinted in "Origins of Marvel Comics". Wherein Thor is introduced to the vast temptations of a milkshake.
Saddened to learn about Adam West. A bright spot in a wild decade. A source of many fun memories. Rest well Adam!
Sometime in the 80's or 90's Marvel published a one-shot "No-Prize Book" issue that was quite hilarious, and contained a couple of the examples shown above.
The most vivid one for me has since become a (deservedly) notorious issue: Marvel Team-Up #28, written by a surely-should-have-known-better Gerry Conway. The infamous issue where a couple of robots cut Manhattan Island "free" and tow it out to see to hold it for ransom. Spidey and Hercules defeat the scheme, and Herc helpfully tows the island back into place purely as a feat of enormous strength--- accidentally putting it in backwards, though. Ha-- what a goof! The End. I bought this issue off that rack that month, and upon finishing it shouted out loud to the colorful walls of my bedroom, "This is the STUPIDEST thing I have ever read!!!" Even in the several-cataclysms-a-month universe of comic books, this was beyond inane. Much more along the lines of something an engaging, clever 6-year-old would come up with. And a complete abandonment of the most rudimentary aspects of geology, topology (ever looked at a map of New York, Gerry?), engineering, and physics.
And it didn't take long to see that a large swath of fans agreed with me, as the entire issue has since been officially chalked up as pretty much an Imaginary Story concocted by Hercules himself, as a typical example of one of his prodigious labors, or something. A tall-tale, as it were. (And something that Marvel had, of course, vowed to never resort to--)
HB
P.S.
Good ol' Adam West, he'll be missed, yep.
I will confess that the Batman television show was never as beloved to me as it is to most of the team 'round here. I liked it a LOT as a very little kid, but it did not hold up well for me with age. It becomes awfully tedious awfully quickly. One of the saving graces is indeed that Adam West artfully underplays the role whilst so much shtick is flailing about everywhere else, and it gives him a sense of gravity and sincerity that is surprisingly engaging.
I'm glad you left out that one about the Joker's boner, but I suppose that'd be too easy.
Sucks about Adam west.
Oh! So the single panel associated w/ my above (typo-littered) post would be a the large panel near the end, where Herc has wrapped himself in the end links of two IMPOSSIBLY enormous chains (each link app 5 or 6 feet in length?) that stretch a mile or two from shore across the water to Manhattan Island in the distance. So. . .so . . . SO many things wrong there, that even an adolescent kid can't ignore. WHY would there ever be a chain that large? Who would make it, and to what purpose? And Hercules is plenty strong, sure, but he's not HEAVY enough by several thousands of tons to stand on a promontory and have the full weight of that chain be suspended from him (let alone balance the weight of . . . Manhattan). And what on earth is that other end anchored to? And it's not a matter of STRENGTH, regardless of everything else, because Herc isn't braced against anything in his efforts-- and he's clearly exerting mightily. He's pulling against the friction between his feet and the ground.
The funniest thing of all, though, is that it's a well-drawn, memorable panel. It's visually pretty darned good-- which makes it stick in the memory all the more.
HB (an afternoon on the couch-- after 2 months of 16 to 17 hour days!)
Don't forget that Adam West was also the voice of Mayor West on Family Guy :)
I have added the scene and details of HB's suggested Hercules' Team-Up scene. It is now part of the post. We may have to have a post where Silver Age madness (like that scene) creeped into the Bronze Age. It is definitely something that (in my mind) seemed more prevalent in DC in the early 60s.
Also, tomorrow we have added to tomorrow's standard Sunday fare, an opportunity to discuss Adam West further.
Thanks for all of the comments all! I too was amazed by the Little Dot panel; I believe there is a whole story about the uranium, but that particular panel with her expressed "love" cracks me up.
But my favorite is the Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch panel. Don't bother me with anything important (like saving the world), I'm enjoying the circus right now. And her response - oh, it's always the circus. Ha. Definitely seeing a different side of Pietro here. I think I am going to use his line the next time anybody asks me about a neglected task - "Not now, I'm really enjoying these circus acrobats. I don't have time to "!
I actually don't know what issue that is from, but I'd really like to see a writer pick up on Pietro's fascination.
Oh, HUGE thumbs-up, MX1-! It's been years since I've laid eyes on that image--- I did NOT recall it being a 2-page spread! Hmm-- wonder if that might be an indication of a writer who'd fallen behind deadline? "Just fill these two pages with a big picture--!" Chain links weren't as big as I'd remembered, but my overall doubt of them remains, yep.
And- ha- the text: "Literally drags Manhattan Island back to its spot in New York Bay. . . by hand!" Well, except of course that he's not doing it by hand at all-- not an adept bit of phrasology there at all, nope. . .
HB
Coconuts to you too Plantman!
- Mike 'gimme a piece of chicken and I'll explain everything too!' from Trinidad & Tobago.
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