"Oh, wise Mimir, speak!" "Close de box!"

[dochermes]

This is from DC's THE INFERIOR FIVE# 4, back in October 1967 (admittedly a few years ago. E Nelson Bridwell turned in some literate and clever scripts, packed with comic book lore and historical in-jokes, but I think he was not well served by Mike Sekowsky's rushed and clunky artwork.

Comments

[harvey_rrit]

Okay, I'm old, okay

[dochermes]

Green Arrow got his new costume (from Neal Adams) and his new Radical Chic personality (from Denny O`Neil) in late 1969, way after THE INFERIOR FIVE. So White Feather couldn`t have been a commentary on Green Arrow`s new political zeal. At the time of THE INFERIOR FIVE, Oliver Queen was still a carefree playboy millionaire insulated from reality by vast wealth.

I don`t remember the Queen fortune coming from war profiteering (as Tony Stark`s fortune did). Actually, come to think of it, I don`t recall ever hearing anything specific about the Queen fortune... it was just there, he was a multi~millionaire in a penthouse and free to buy personal jets and run around the world fighting crime. Maybe that has changed in the years since I stopped reading new comics?

Awkwardman struck me as hilarious because he was concerned with being clumsy, yet he walked around with flippers as part of his costume. That was not going to help.

[harvey_rrit]

Ah. Been too long and been too sick. I mistook the dates and totally forgot the flippers.

(Are we sure they weren't his feet? Could have been the son of the Aquaman knockoff.)

Oliver Queen was a weapon designer. He came up with all the weird arrows after a business rival stranded him on an island.

spelling edited

[harvey_rrit]

I don't normally read stuff aloud.

Aquaman.

Awkwardman.

Okay.

[rab62]

I'm a big Sekowsky fan but it's true he didn't do his best work on the Inferior 5 and I'm not sure why -- his enthusiasm just didn't seem to be there. It's too bad. Joe Orlando was obviously much more in tune with it in his issues, and together those two really brought life and enthusiasm to the act. Nelson went in for a lot of that "sure, we know this is a corny joke, that's the joke" type of humor, but you can just pull that off if you really love what you're doing and can communicate that affection to the reader. Then sometimes it falls flat...

[full_metal_ox]

What that sort of gag strip really needs is the cram-packed cast-of-thousands approach, with a plethora of subgags playing out in the background, exemplified by Mort Drucker's work in MAD and Marie Severin's in NOT BRAND ECCH (and deftly transposed to the screen by the Zucker Brothers.)

[rab62]

I know just what you mean, but I'm not so sure in this case -- I feel like Inferior 5 shouldn't be approached as a gag strip at all, but more of a satire. At its best moments, it was the kind of comedy where the events were serious to the characters and they didn't realize they were in a comedy at all. (You can still be pretty broad with that approach: think A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum for example.) In other words the exact opposite of NOT BRAND ECCH -- and that's not to value one over the other, merely what works best for a particular strip. INFERIOR FIVE veered between both approaches, emphasizing one or the other but never quite fixing its identity on either one, and maybe that's why it remained such a minor cult item.

[full_metal_ox]

At its best moments, it was the kind of comedy where the events were serious to the characters and they didn't realize they were in a comedy at all.

That neatly summarizes a favorite approach of Monty Python's: begin with a ridiculous premise--the cheese shop where no cheese is to be had; the dead parrot; the Ministry of Silly Walks--and then carry it out with deadly seriousness, high dudgeon, and all the arrant pedantry you can muster.

[harvey_rrit]

Speaking of nothing whatever to do with this in any way, I just recalled a scene in an issue of Godzilla, King of the Monsters that I happened to pick up.

Henry Pym has shrunk Godzilla down to about eighteen inches so S.H.I.E.L.D. can nab him. Dum Dum Dugan laughs at the harmless little tyke, reaches down, and says, "Come to Papa! --YAAAAGGGHH, HE BIT ME!"

It still cracks me up.

Two thoughts have occurred to me since:

He'll never have to pay for another drink as long as he lives.

And at least it's sterile.

[full_metal_ox]

Perhaps S.H.I.E.L.D. could sell Mini-Godzilla to Spinal Tap; he'd be perfectly in scale with their Stonehenge set.

[pronker]

Playing around with the tags today and found this, reminiscing because I used to have Bridwell's Superman books - oh, Inferior 5! Such fun it was, and even better when I read the series again as an adult and got more of the references. But Senor Wences, yeah, he was fun. Did anyone here ever try ventriloquism because of him and Danny o'whatshisname, I wonder.

I don't know if anyone here reads fanfic, but I recc'd a funny I5 G-rated story on crack_van some years ago where the 5 seek the "help" of Doctor Fate; it's about 1800 words and I'll try to avoid the spam thing by doing this:

AITCH TEE TEE PEA ESS COLON SLASH SLASH DOUBLEYOU DOUBLEYOU DOUBLEYOU DOT fanfiction DAHT NETT/s/2157116/1/

The title is 'inferiors' by markmark261. Alsoalso, the E. Nelson Bridwell tag made me think, nah, that's E! Nelson Bridwell, then I remembered that was Elliot S! Maggin. *blushes*