Comics

Companies who depend on the Internet are always at the ready. Penterest came to mind this morning because they were lurking at the threshold when the tablet came alive. As they often do, this morning Penterest downloaded a sample of their wares a series of cartoon characters, panels derived from my distant past. Though I couldn’t name most of the characters I recognized their style and the hasty messages they bore.
I was pleased.
As a kid – 8, 10, or 12 – I wasn’t reading classics as so many in my age group claim they were doing. I was reading comics. My father frowned on such a pastime. So to avoid confrontations I did it while he was not around.
Was it Elmer Fudd who was forever trying to shoot Bugs Bunny? How about the farmer trying to keep the crow from eating his seed corn. Or Butch (was that his name?) who stole every pie Nancy’s aunt placed in the widow to cool.
A cartoon shown at our local theater featured a great flood that may have rivaled that of Noah’s time. I don’t recall the conclusion. I only remember a fellow had cast off from his front porch in a bathtub. When the water came gushing up through the drain he simply jammed a shower tube into the hole, directed it toward the stern and he was planing in no time.
Then there was Mr. McGoo. He couldn’t see well enough to tell the time of day. Yet, in his wanderings he never fell into someone’s well, or stepped into an open manhole, was run over by a speeding car. He always returned home safe and sound. Those in my age group knew he would, but watched with abated breath anyway.
They were often filled with conflict, even violence, but the violence was different, in that there were no dead bodies lying about.