Saturday, April 18, 2009

Strange Feelings, with Barry Allen

If you're new to Barry Allen, you may not know that he was famous for finding himself in strange situations... strange even for a DC superhero in the Silver Age.

But even in the strangest of situations, Barry seldom lost his composure, and faced his role as a lightning rod for Silver Age lunacy with remarkable acceptance and equanimity. A perfect example is one of his most famous quotes:

"I've got the strangest feeling I'm being turned into a puppet."
Yes, Barry; that is certainly one of the strangest feelings. But there are others...


"I've got the strangest feeling...I'm being characterized as an enormous geek."

He works in a lab. He talks to himself. About comics books. While drinking milk. With a straw. All this you know before you even see him. What more could they do, put him in a bow-tie?


"I've got the strangest feeling...
I'm under attack from surrealism in comics."

The second you let down your guard, BANG! You're the center of a paranoid delusion about inanimate objects, specifically, the traveling staircases from many a surrealist joke book ("A traveling staircase goes into a bar, and when the watch melted, the chicken died.")


"I've got the strangest feeling...Zahi Hawass is going to kick my ass."

I sure hope Barry has Josh Bernstein's number; now, that's a Brave & the Bold issue I want to see!


"I've got the strangest feeling...
I'm in a Katsushika Hokusai painting."

Now, that is one classy swipe.


"I've got the strangest feeling...
I should be wearing a red handkerchief in my back pocket."

Who knew that Barry had given the FFA (um... that's...Flash Fans of America, for you kiddies) its slogan, "If you can't fit a keyhole, make it fit you"?



6 comments:

  1. Hey, if someone who dated Iris West didn't know what being turned into a puppet felt like, who would???

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  2. And here I thought *I* was the comic blogger most likely to make a Hokusai refrence...

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  3. That...that WAS a classy swipe.

    Oh Barry. You did indeed have some rather peculiar adventures. I always liked how they used to make your head gigantic. They couldn't do that with Hal Jordan. He ALWAYS had a swelled head!

    Haw!

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  4. Yeah, but in revenge, Hal caused BARRY to have a swelled head -- literally! :-)

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  5. But is that his right or left back pocket...?

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