This dude is great

By: Unknown on 05:41

One of the mags available this Free Comic Day was a sampler of EC Comic reprints. EC had a great range of comics like Weird Science and Tales from the Crypt. The Comic Code that was supposed protect America's youth was basically designed to put EC out of business. Gemstone Publishing has been releasing archive editions of this stuff, with six issues to a volume. I didn't know this until I got this freebie comic. I'm definitely putting some Weird Science on the ol' Amazon wishlist. That stuff is awesome.

Take, for example, this tale from the reprint. A blob from Venus is loose on the Earth, devouring everything in its path. The President calls on his Top Men for a solution to this problem. Enter a guy who looks a bit like Leslie Groves without his mustache:


What I love about this guy is his casual attitude towards unleashing nuclear hellfire on American soil. There he is sitting with his knees crossed, smirking behind his corncob pipe. All of a sudden he has this hum-dinger of an idea. "Gosh gee-whiz, boss! We've got all these gol-durned A-bombs sitting around gathering dust. Maybe we could fire one off and see what happens?"

I know his cavalier attitude towards launching atomics can be partially blamed on this comic's origin in the fifties. In any later era he'd be standing up, hunched over the sitting President, his clenched fists slamming the desk. "With all due respect, Sir, nuclear weapons are our only option." Instead, this guy's almost jolly about it.