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mygif

Could it be on a par with Flex Mentallo’s love/hate relationship with comics – ‘Frederick Wertham was right!’

More a critique of the shoddiness of the ‘pulps’, than a complete denunciation.

Props for the Jimmy Stewart bit.

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mygif

I kept focusing on how big the comic paper was back then.

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OutriderC@gmail.com said on December 29th, 2009 at 12:45 pm

I thought this would be about comic books, not some old people thing.

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mygif

I thought this would be about comic books, not some old people thing.

I choose to take “old people thing” as a compliment. You’re welcome.

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mygif

Fascinating. It always seems like the Wertham-stoked 50s hysteria about comics took place in a weird bubble…granted, you had HUAC and McCarthy and whatnot overshadowing it, but it still seems like something only the comic geeks remember, and even at the time no one seemed to care much outside of the actual industry. That was what was so tragic about it–there didn’t seem to be anyone willing to stand up and say “Hey, I don’t read comics, but isn’t this a lot of hysteria over nothing?”

So it’s weird to hear about something like this that responds to it, even if only negatively. And even if it does feature Jerry Lewis. (Who had his own comic book a little later, come to think of it. I guess he might not have been that committed to the movie’s premise either.)

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mygif

I have got to watch this film.

According to Jerry’s memoir, DEAN AND ME: A LOVE STORY, Dino was a closeted superhero comic fanboy. He reportedly actually sent Jerry on comic book runs to pick up new issues of BATMAN. In fact, Jerry said there’s only been two celebrities that have ever flustered Dean when they met: Frank Sinatra and Bob Kane.

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Mary Warner said on December 29th, 2009 at 11:57 pm

How is it that I never heard of this movie until now?

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sgt pepper said on December 30th, 2009 at 8:20 pm

The Shirley McClaine of that era is ridiculously cute.

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