FANCY A TRIP BACK TO 1972? THEN JUMP ABOARD THE TIME TRAVEL EXPRESS...

Images copyright relevant owner

I stepped back into the '70s today, when I received the above issue of BUSTER & JET, cover-dated 1st January 1972.  Nowadays, comics usually go on sale at least a week before the date on the cover, but back in the '60s & '70s, it was sometimes just a few days (depending on the publisher), as must've been the case here.  Otherwise it would've been on newsagents' counters on the 25th December and that's just not likely considering the day.  There was still a week between issues though, it's just that the cover date didn't always correspond with reality, which has created all sorts of problems for comics historians later trying to establish exactly when a periodical went on sale.  The cover says 'Every Monday', but it may well have been in the shops on the Saturday, so it can be really confusing at times.

But I got sidetracked, as that's not what I intended to talk about.  I bought this comic for a mere 99p (wotta bargain) and what a little gem it is.  Art by ANGEL NADAL, KEN REID, LEO BAXENDALE, REG PARLETT, TERRY BAVE, JOHN STOKES, DOUG MAXTED, SOLANO LOPEZ, and others, make this a delight for the eyes and a joy to read.  I no longer recall if I was still buying the merged comic at this stage in '72, but if I wasn't, I surely should've been!  With this issue, Ken Reid's QUEEN Of The SEAS from SMASH! was reprinted, and PEST Of The WEST from WHAM! appears to be a regular feature as well.  I really struck it lucky with this comic, which I only bid on in a PHIL'S COMICS auction on a whim!

This 36 page comic was real value for money back in the day.  Costing a mere 3 new pence, it was absolutely chock-full of fun and adventure.  VON HOFFMAN'S INVASION, FISHBOY DENIZEN Of The DEEP, SAM'S CITY JUNGLE, GALAXUS The THING From OUTER SPACE, and The WIZARD Of FOOTBALL supplied the action, while The SLUDGEMOUTH SLOGGERS and The ASTOUNDING ADVENTURES Of CHARLIE PEACE both provided fun and adventure in equal measure.  For outright humour, BUSTER'S DREAM WORLD, RENT-A-GHOST Ltd., The HAPPY FAMILY, BUSTER GIGGLES, CLEVER DICK, SMILER And DIMPS, BONEHEAD, MASTER-MIND, The KIDS Of STALAG 41, BOB-A-JOB, Queen Of The Seas, BERTIE BUMPKIN, TATTY MANE KING Of The JUNGLE, CONVICT 4321 OUTT, Pest Of The West, and FACEACHE fulfilled that function admirably.  

I've decided to show a few choice pages to give you a taste of the issue, but I'd like you to take a good look at the Rent-A-Ghost Ltd. page in particular.  In my previous post I mentioned the visual shorthand employed in comics in order to convey character information at a glance, and the Scotsman is a fine example of this.  Could he be described as a 'racial' (but not racist) or ethnic stereotype?  Well, that's one way of putting it I suppose, but I just regard him as a convenient comical caricature, designed to cut to the chase in telling the reader who and what he is; there's no malicious or demeaning intent.  True, some Scots may take exception to this cliched depiction, but most of us can laugh at ourselves, as well as other nations' perception of us.  Just thought I'd throw that out there for your consideration - and it's a complete coincidence that the strip ties in to my previous post, as I had no idea what the storylines were when I purchased the comic.

Anyway, I'm off back to the '70s - why not come along for the ride?!

   

I now own all three Annuals pictured, but in '72, all I had was the THUNDER book.  Can't
recall if I saw the other two, but the titles seemed like ancient history by then, their weekly
comics having expired two or three years earlier - which seems far longer when yet a youth

AN OFFENSIVE POST? YOU DECIDE...

Image copyright D.C. THOMSON & Co., Ltd

Further to my recent post about the exclusion of a black character called 'PEANUT' from a facsimile of the first BEANO, I thought I'd expand on the topic a little.  Someone sent me a 'cut and paste' of a newspaper article (DAILY TELEGRAPH I think) about a facsimile of the first DANDY Annual which was printed back around 2006.  The facsimile (which I have) has a strip called SMARTY GRANDPA (who looks for all the world like GRANDPA BROON and is drawn by DUDLEY D. WATKINS), wherein he helps a group of singers that he refers to as 'NIGGER MINSTRELS'.

Now before anyone has an apoplectic fit over my use of what is nowadays referred to as 'the N-word', I am merely reporting the facts of the case and, in regard to the aforementioned Dandy Annual, not using the word with the intention to insult or offend anyone.  D.C. THOMSON caught a little flak for not editing the word from the speech balloons, but this is what their spokesman said in response back in 2006:

"Obviously, sensitivity at the time did not consider this to be inflammatory at all.  It is a true facsimile copy and we don't feel it is something we should edit.

The position that we have adopted is that this annual is of its time.  We would not have published this word in the Dandy of today.

We should celebrate the fact that we live in a time where such ideas around race are no longer seen as appropriate and our society does not condone this kind of language.

But if anything, it is promoting racial harmony.  Smarty Grandpa earns money for his pals for a slap-up feed because they couldn't do it.  I don't think he says anything that can be considered racially prejudiced."

And the spokesman is absolutely right.  Back in 1939 in Britain, the word 'nigger' didn't have the same inflammatory, derogatory connotations that it had in some parts of the United States.  The word has a long and convoluted history, and basically derives from the word 'negro', which itself was derived from the word 'niger' and innocently referred to people of a dark-skinned complexion.  People of the Southern United States pronounced the word 'nigra', and it was their dialect that that made the word sound like 'nigger'.  The word hasn't always been seen as pejorative either, sometimes being used in an endearing way, depending on exactly which part of the world one lived.  Even negroes at one time used the word without perceiving it as demeaning, and many negroes still use it today - though they usually pronounce it as 'nigga' or 'niggah'.  "In many African-American neighbourhoods," says ARTHUR K. SPEARS (in Diverse Issues In Higher Education, 2006), "nigga is simply the most common term used to refer to any male, of any race or ethnicity."  "The point" he later says, is that the word (nigga) is "evaluatively neutral in terms of its inherent meaning; it may express positive, neutral or negative attitudes."

But should we use it - even when examining its history in posts like this - if it causes offence to some people?  I certainly wouldn't refer to a black person by the name, especially not face-to-face, though simply out of politeness and regard for their feelings, not out of fear.  But offence is a strange animal, to be sure.  I know two Muslim shopkeepers, who sometimes called me (and other customers) 'honky'.  Were they being offensive and did their use of the word reflect a negative attitude to white people?  To be honest, I didn't care.  I took it in good humour, and if I wasn't offended then no harm done, regardless of the intention of the speaker.  Perhaps someone else would have been offended, but that illustrates the problem.

For example, the word 'Jock' is often used by English people to describe Scottish people.  I don't view it as an insult, but I know of some Scots who do.  (In fact, I heard tell of one English cartoonist who referred to two visiting Scots as "two f*cking Jocks" when announcing to someone (I forget whether it was at an event or elsewhere) that two Scottish gentlemen had dropped in to see him.  He was unaware that the duo had assumed they were meant to follow him (thinking they were still standing where he'd left them, out of earshot), and obviously used the description in a pejorative manner.  So how do you define a word which can be intended to be offensive (depending on context and tone) or used with no malicious intent at all?

Should a word be 'censored' just because you take offence at it, even when no offence was intended?  And if someone else doesn't perceive any offence in the word - even when it's being used in reference to them - just how do we decide?  Should we allow those who are seemingly determined to take offence at the drop of a hat (and yes, such people exist) to define and dictate to the rest of society how it should speak or think?  (And I'm not talking here about swear words where there's usually a consensus of opinion on them.)

However, don't misunderstand me.  I'm not suggesting for a second that use of the N-word is acceptable in today's society in contemporary times - I'll leave that discussion to others.  But when literature or movies from a different era, where certain words that are 'of their time' and which weren't viewed as (or intended to be) offensive are re-presented in their original form, then in the interests of historical accuracy, their contextual integrity should be preserved.

In comics, there's a certain visual shorthand which is often called into play.  In English comics, visiting Scotsmen are usually portrayed as wearing kilts, sporting Tam O'Shanters, having knobbly knees, and clutching gnarled walking sticks.  There are some Scots who find such 'shortbread tin' depictions offensive, believe it or not.  (The same Scots, ironically, who wear kilts at weddings.)  I'm not one of them.  (And, incidentally, in Scottish comics, visiting Englishmen are usually depicted as being snooty, nose-in-the-air, well-dressed snobs, so at least there's balance.)  Back in 1938 in Britain, 'Peanut', while arguably a racial stereotype, wasn't intended to be a racist stereotype, and I believe there's a difference.  I'm sure that most black people who are aware of this wouldn't be offended by the character in his historical context, and we shouldn't patronise them by assuming that they automatically would be.

Historical items should be viewed in their original context, and pandering to well-meaning but deluded, politically-correct numpties who wish to sweep anything that might cause offence under the carpet is what's truly offensive in situations like this.  Apparently, in the case of Smarty Grandpa, the newspaper article reported only three people being offended by the facsimile Dandy Annual, one of them from The Glasgow Anti-Racist Alliance, who probably only became aware of the book when they were approached for comment and whose response was only to be expected.  (The other two were a Jamaican and his white wife.)  These people really should get a life - there are far worse things in the world to take offence at than a reprint of an old comic strip.

Another thing that occurs to me is that, like myself, some collectors who purchased BEANO - 80 YEARS Of FUN, will have done so because a 'facsimile' of the first issue was advertised as being included.  However, as the comic was missing four of its original 28 pages and was digitally manipulated to delete Peanut from the masthead, it's not a true facsimile and therefore constitutes false advertising.  It would be a different matter if it had been listed as an 'abridged, altered, near-facsimile' (or some such description), but to call it a facsimile when it's really not amounts to nothing more than deceit, regardless of the reasons for the makeover.

So who's with me?  Say "Aye!"  (Though feel free to comment even if your response is a resounding "Nay!")