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In general, the unpublished comics I write about it here comics which were intended to be published and purchased and consumed by readers. But there is a smaller subcategory of comics which remained unpublished because they were never supposed to be published in the first place.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.

Fighting the War on Drugs: DC Comics vs. the Real World Part 5

Superman wasn’t the only DC superhero dispensing public-service-style justice in the 1980s. In fact, he wasn’t even the most popular one. The 1980s were kind of a weird time in comics. A pretty incredible time, but also weird. The X-Men took the comic book world by storm thanks to writer Chris Claremont’s revolutionary approach of sometimes killing off major characters and having a team of heroes with thick and vaguely offensive accents. In response, Marv Wolfman returned to DC and relaunched the Teen Titans as the New Teen Titans. The book boasted some new members and a Claremont-influenced approach, and soon enough it had spawned a dizzying array of spinoff titles, just like the X-Men. Readers couldn’t get enough of it!

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.

Never Say Yes to a Cigarette! DC Comics vs. the Real World Part 4

After a terrifying glimpse at a world in which Superman is committed to putting children in jail and doesn’t care if parents beat up their children, DC’s PSAs regained their footing in the 1980s. First up was a UK-only anti-smoking campaign. This wasn’t the first time a DC character had done a Britain-only PSA. Batman made a traffic-safety video across the pond in 1967, and most episodes of the Batman TV series were broadcast in the UK with an intro bumper–lost to the mists of time, but well-remembered by British viewers of the era–warning kids not to try and replicate the stunts of the Dynamic Duo.

For Halloween, a Spooooooky Collection of Unpublished DC Horror

It’s Halloween, or Hallowe’en if you’re a weirdo. It’s also a Sunday. In the benighted part of rural Kansas in which I live, that means that a good 30% of houses will refuse to serve trick-or-treaters because–as we all know–the ancient and thoroughly Christian holiday of All Hallow’s Eve is in fact a Satanic rite, and must not be allowed to pollute the Lord’s day with its evil and filth.

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.