You Can't Say That In Comics! ONT

Comics have been around as a mass produced art form for more than 80 years. During that time, the language has changed, attitudes have changed, hell, the whole cultural zeitgeist today would seem as foreign to a visitor from the 1930s as Afghanistan culture seems to us (read about the dancing boys sometime. Or don't, for your sanity and the sake of keeping your lunch down). Naturally, that means that some things that went unremarked to period eyes seem very, very strange to us today.

Of course, changing vernacular has it's own place in this pantheon. You could do an entire ONT on Batman's boners, back in the 1940s the word had an entirely different connotation, and was beloved of the folks writing the Batman books. This is just a small sample.

I dunno. The art style isn't quite as I remember, but the dialogue sure is. I can tell you that never once during my yonderling days did I ever hear anyone follow “Hey, let's get high/drunk/have sex/whatever” with “and deny Christ”. Must have been a more evil crowd than the one I hung out with.

Of course, the comics code might have been a lot more effective if it had just outlawed any comic book characters named Dick.

Sometimes the zeitgeist just seems weird to modern ears.

Although I suppose that last one is just the 50s version of “Nuke it from orbit, it's the only way to be sure”.

Often the text is fine, but the art is....questionable

Not to mention all those things that seem gay to us today.

And here are a few miscellaneous frames to wrap things up

Tonight's ONT has been brought to you by the only thing to do:

posted by WeirdDave at 09:45 PM

| Access Comments