Justin Bieber in 1970

I've talked before about enjoying newspaper comic strips of yesteryear. I currently subscribe to two daily newspaper strip 'services'. DailyInk and GoComics. DailyInk is a crappy, mismanaged, terrible website with many faults. But their offerings of vintage strips far exceeds their closest competitor. GoComics is an excellent, smooth running website, but their vintage content isn't all that great. They're catching up, though.

I use GoComics to read today's newspaper strip offerings, of course. But it's more important to me for their vintage content. They currently re-run Little Orphan Annie from the early 2000's, which actually was a high point for the strip's action content. They re-run Tarzan strips and are currently up to 1964. They've even begun running classic Dilbert strips, which are much less polished than contemporary Dilbert but sometimes end up being more off-the-wall funny.

GoComics is where I go to get a daily dose of Bloom County, Calvin and Hobbs, and Foxtrot as if they were being published today.

GoComics recently added another vintage strip to their offerings that I snapped up and added to my daily feed. The strip is called Emmy Lou by Marty Links and has started out with strips from 1970. The strip is a one panel, one liner strip mostly about the idiosyncrasies of teenage girls. I've quickly grown to love the strip for it's fashion and it's references. It's a perfect example of getting to know a culture through the entertainment medium of the day.

Which is why I was so jarred to find this as the daily offering on February 14th:


This is... interesting.

The strip is obviously from 1970. The girl's fashions are obviously dated. The phrase 'go steady' is even used. So... Justin Bieber? Huh? Wha??

The message boards that GoComics offers attached to this particular comic exploded in controversy. Perhaps 'exploded' is a major exaggeration, but let's say my fellow enthusiasts for the newspaper strips of yesteryear NOTICED THE CHANGE. Some were quite upset. Some took it as a personal challenge to figure out what the original teenage object of obsession was. David Cassady was my own guess, and that was offered up by several message board posters. As were Davy Jones, Bobby Sherman, Mick Jagger, and even one Jim Morrison.

An individual billing himself as "Marty's Son-in-law" popped on the boards to answer the controversy with a good nature and good humor. He explained that the original celebrity mentioned in the strip has passed away. So rather than let things get awkward, they edited the strip. Last minute decision. He offered a clue as to the original's identity; "He liked racing and eggs".

Paul Newman! 50 eggs. Cool Hand Luke. 50 eggs. I hate eggs.

Marty's Son-in-law happily acknowledged that the edit was probably a mistake and it won't happen again. Which is good. And I'm certainly not writing this to condemn him. I'm just happy to have the strip offered daily! It's quickly become one of my favorites.

But the edit has risen in me the need to point out the struggle publishers have with offerings things up from past decades. I'm always whining and moaning about 'lost art' and the entertainment offerings from our past. But anyone looking to publish the original Mandrake the Magician strips from the 1930's, as wonderful, action-packed, and gorgeously illustrated as they are, would swiftly run into trouble with a strong undercurrent of racism.

Think about that for a minute. It was common and no big deal back then. We learned our lesson and are struggling into the future. But where is our responsibility to the past?

What if I spark an interest in my son's for the comic strips of the 1930's using Alex Raymond's groundbreaking work on Flash Gordon? And loving it so much, my son starts picking up other strips from that same time period. Without the maturity and education needed in order to enjoy this material while acknowledging the time period it was created in, my son could swiftly pick up words he shouldn't or even become de-sensitized to certain situations. And racism is just the tip of the iceberg. You should see how the women are treated!

So... where is our responsibility? The VERY LAST thing I want to see is classic Flash Gordon and Mandrake the Magician fade into obscurity. But the material carries a lot of baggage with it.

The thought makes the Paul Newman versus Justin Bieber situation seem quaint.

Thanks,
DCD