Wednesday, August 24, 2011

The Hangman's Dark Vein of Humor

The Odious Hangman has a frequently faintin' black minstrel-talkin' sidekick named...

wait for it...
Anthracite.

My, my! Now if tha' doan beat all!

10 comments:

Accursed Interloper said...

Lordy!

Scipio said...

Oh, and this is AFTER his make-over. His original drawings were...
um...

I think "cartoonish" is the most charitable way I can put it.

Bryan L said...

I found it a little eerie. The first thing I thought of was Dolemite, from the 70s movies. "Dolomite" is, of course, also a mineral. Maybe it's just the way my mind works.

tad said...

Does it go far enough back to be a Nat King Cole joke, or is it just a "really black" joke?

Other than that, I echo the above comment: "Lordy!"

tad said...

Sorry, meant "does it go TOO FAR back..." I'm assuming it's about ten years ahead of Nat's heyday.

Hoosier X said...

Ebony, the Spirit's sidekick, makes Anthracite look like Malcolm X.

And then there's Steamboat in Captain Marvel and Whiz. A full-grown black man was valet to 10-year-old Billy Batson.

(Of course, this brings back memories of the 1970s, when I bought a few very old issues of Blackhawk and my mother could not be convinced there was anything wrong with the depiction of Chop-Chop. (She had read Blackhawk as a girl and Chop-Chop was one of her favorite characters. She seemed vert upset at the idea that she could have liked something that was racist. Therefore, Chop-Chop wasn't racist.))

Nebulous said...

Considering it's the Hangman, I was afraid you'd say "Lynchie."

SallyP said...

well that's just...painful.

Hoosier X said...

"Lynchie!"

LOL

I will be chuckling about that all day.

Harvey Jerkwater said...

The really offensive caricature was saved for his brother, Bituminous.