Dear Editor: Lamest Excuse Ever

As standards evolved (eroded?) during the 1960's, not everyone was thrilled. Take Kristy Lindgren of Goose Bay, Labrador (Canada) for example. In a letter printed in Flash #189 (1969), Kristy reacts to the cover of Flash #185 published just a few months earlier...more specifically a sign held by one of the rampaging hippies.

First, the cover in question:

 

Next, Ms. Lindgren's objection:

Following her reasonable request for an explanation...she got one from editor Julius Schwartz. An incredibly lame explanation...but an explanation nonetheless.

It's true, Mayor John Lindsay did endorse the controversial "Give a damn" anti-poverty campaign of the late 1960's...but really, points for originality Julie....but I don't think I'm buying it.

Comments

[Rick]

Julie got it wrong this time. Who cares if the Mayor of New York liked the phrase. I agree with Kristy.

[Ivan Wolfe]

That's funny, given the editor clearly did engage in some censorship - see the "Make Peace, Not War" sign. That is not what the hippies were saying back then. There was clearly some attempt to block a phrase not supposedly fit for juvenile eyes.

[David Morefield]

Funny, I remember being scandalized when Flash once said, "Good Lord!" I figured it was borderline sacrilegious for a funny-book character to invoke the Almighty in any context. As memory serves, I was also put out by the very existence of Thor, who Marvel insisted was a "god."

I was a pretty uptight kid. :-)

[Pat Curley]

Unless this is to point out how far we've come from the days when "Give A Damn!" was controversial, I don't get the point, Mark. Slippery slope is an argument I can agree with, but you've got to make it explicit.

I mean, I just read Final Crisis #1-6, and in #5 one of the main villains offers to let Luthor be "first in line with Supergirl". Compared to that, "Give a Damn!" is small beer. As part of the continuum that led to the comics of today, it's a good argument but if it's just "I can't believe they said 'damn' on the cover of a comic book" I'm not shocked.

[Mark Engblom]

Geez....tough crowd. I guess there's no "point" to the post, other than to highlight Julie's rather lame excuse (hence the title of the post). I'll be sure to serve up "large beer" the next time around.

(sheesh)

[Pat Curley]

Sorry, that was just me being in a mood over the Final Crisis series, which is as disgusting a set of comics as I have ever read, so when I juxtaposed that with this post I expressed my frustration with the former, not the latter. My bad.

[Whalehead King]

I'm with Kristy and really I wouldn't touch most DC comics with a stick right now based on what I've seen in the racks based on their Vertigo line. I'm no Marvel fan either but there seems to be less shock value there. I may middle aged and capable of digesting adult fare, but I don't usually and certainly not in a comic book. I want my one story per issue full of noble themes. I appreciate that stories may make more sense nowadays but I don't respect them as much. I'm reading the Showcase Presents Legion of Superheroes right now and the stories pull all sorts of ridiculous plot devices out of the air, but I can respect the characters. It's hard to take the high road when you travel in muck.

Thank you for pointing this out time and again as well as exposing some of the absurd that went on in the Silver Age. There must be a way to have the best of all worlds.

[Comic Coverage]

Pat-

Don't sweat it. I feel your pain.

Whalehead King-

There's a place for every kind of story, but I sure think there could be more balance toward the higher-minded stuff.

[Kelson]

@Whalehead King: Why judge DC's superhero books based on their Vertigo line? That's kind of like judging Disney films based on Miramax's output.

Not that I'd compare DC's main line to Disney films these days, but DC and Vertigo are different brands intended for different types of comics.

[Whalehead King]

It may not be the Vertigo line itself. I admit there is room for adult themes, but one day on the same shelf with the Vertigo books in a shop, I thumbed through a comic published by DC where Superman was getting fellated and the disasterous "super" results were detailed. This was a book under the DC imprint alongside Vertigo books so I associate the whole morass as part of a whole. I think DC and others are cheapening their properties for ironic shock value and smug appeal to the lowest common denomintator. I have no problems with my heroes having sex or dealing with any adult themes. What I do mind is prurient muck for no other reason but to snigger or as shorthand for real character. A hero has flaws but those are flaws he or she overcomes. The reader identifies with the transcendence. The hero shouldn't descend. I don't agree with that message.

Your Disney analogy is apt and all I can say is that the more bathroom humor I see in a Disney film, the more easily I can ignore that film. I think the company is bent more on making money more than promoting Walt's vision. Mr. Disney was all about making money, but he had standards. I can complain about his classics but I won't do it the same way I carp about recent offerings. The Black Hole was Disney's first PG film but it stayed true to Mr. Disney's tenor. I can't say the same about Bolt, though I admit I can't be bothered to pay money to watch it. Walt would never have green-lighted that.

It is a trickle-down vs. a trickle-up effect. I would prefer to see the best coming down than the worst rising to the top. This is what I see DC doing: promoting its worst instincts to appeal to all rather than sticking with its best insticts and elevating the storytelling.

[David E Martin]

I'm amused at Kristy Lindgren's long-ago hypocrisy. She considers the use of "damn" in a comic book "one of the worst things you could possibly do"????
Um, what about physically attacking someone? One guy is about to hatchet the Flash with his sign, another is about to deliver a laryngx-crushing karate chop, a third is kicking the Flash in a way that should crack a rib or two, and a Hippie Chick is BITING the Flash!

I guess Kristy was okay with kids committing potentially lethal mayhem on each other so long as they did not swear.