Not All Your Power Can Save Them: DC Comics vs. the Real World Part 7

The full-length (or even extra-length) PSA comic really enjoyed its heyday in the 1980s. As we saw in a previous installment, the Teen Titans even did what was effectively a three-issue miniseries about the evils of drugs. And today, those issues are perhaps the most strongly remembered DC Comics PSAs. But while we might often think of “Just Say No” as the pre-eminent and all-pervading public service campaign of 1980s pop culture, that honor would probably be more correctly bestowed upon a different effort: the fight against the famine in Ethiopia.

Comics You Were Never Supposed To See

In general, the unpublished comics I write about it here comics which were intended to be published and purchased and consumed by readers. But there is a smaller subcategory of comics which remained unpublished because they were never supposed to be published in the first place. We’re going to take a look at a couple o them today.

Belt ‘Em For Safety! DC Comics vs. the Real World Part 6

The 1980s were a busy time for DC’s public service comics. More than that, the decade was really the beginning of the widespread use of full-fledged comic books as PSAs unto themselves, rather than just a one-pager here or there. As we covered last time, perhaps the best-remembered example of this is the three-issue run of anti-drug New Teen Titans specials, and next time we’ll get to Heroes Against Hunger, but for now let’s content ourselves with some more little bits and bobs from throughout the decade.

Gordon’s Interspecies Romance: Robin y El Murcielago #6 translated

My ongoing project of translating Robin y el Murcielago, the bootleg Spanish Batman comic from the 1940s, has always been troubled by the weird and pervasive anti-Asian racism running through the books. But folks, I really thought maybe with the fifth issue, Ribera and Fernández had turned a corner, that maybe the racism was being eased out of the work. And indeed, most of the goons and thugs encountered in this issue aren’t Asian at all. But there’s no way around it: this might be the most racist one yet. It might be the most racist Batman comic ever. It’s pretty bad, man.

Also, Jim Gordon and a cow might have sex off-panel.

The Lurid Insanity of the Batman: The Animated Series Toy Line

This post isn’t actually about unpublished comics, or foreign bootleg comics, or anything else this blog is supposedly meant to cover. But it is, in a sense, about comics that never were, in that it is about toys depicting things that never happened in a comic book, or in any other form of media.

The Plot Thickens: Robin y El Murcielago #5 translated

As Robin y El Murcielago, the Spanish bootleg Batman comic, continued to progress, it didn’t move away from its blatant racism so much as soften it. It’s still clearly centered around “yellow peril” fear of the entire Northeastern Hemisphere, but writer Julio Fernández López is no longer giving Asian characters an offensive accent and the narrative caption boxes no longer make constant referrals to “Orientals.” Meanwhile, artist Julio Ribera has almost entirely weaned himself off of racist caricatures.

A Robin With A Machine Gun: Robin y El Murcielago #4 translated

This is it. The first three episodes of Robin y el Murcielago, the deranged bootleg Spanish Batman comic from the 1940s, have all been mere prelude to this one. This is the one that we all fell in love with all those years ago, the one that first got me thinking that someone ought to do a translation. Yes, this is the one…

Justice For All Includes Children! DC Comics vs. the Real World Part 3

The retirement of Jack Schiff led to a fallow period for DC superhero PSAs. By the end, it had been solely his own passion for the project that kept it alive. Broader dissatisfaction with DC’s editorial direction pushed him toward retirement. He made one last attempt to establish a full educational department at the company. When he was rebuffed, he chose to leave.¹ Ironically, less than a decade later, DC did establish a strong educational program, producing the famous DC Super Dictionary and other educational materials.

Robin y El Murcielago #3 translated

The last time we checked in on the adventures of Spain’s bootleg Batman and Robin, they had concluded a racist, pro-colonialism adventure in India. They helped put down a local uprising against British rule for reasons which were never spoken aloud but which were pretty easy to infer. In the third episode, the “yellow peril” theme continues, and arguably gets worse. Now the heroes are fighting not just an Indian cleric and his gang of rebels, but an entire trans-Asian conspiracy. This issue’s enemies are primarily Japanese.

Don’t Believe Those Crackpot Lies! DC Comics vs. the Real World Part 2

In the Reddit comments on the first “DC Comics vs. the Real World” post, someone linked what I was saying to the current status quo in the Superman comics. And although it’s a fair connection to make, I actually think criticizing the Jon Kent situation misses the mark a bit.