InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Dance the dance of 1000 pies."

dr_hermes (dr_hermes) wrote in scans_daily,
@ 2009-04-13 19:46:00

Entry tags:

creator: frank frazetta

We can stop the enemies of youth! (Dope Week)

This public service page first appeared in BUSTER CRABBE# 1 from 1951, and was reprinted in DARDEVIL COMICS, CRIME DOES NOT PAY, BLACK DIAMOND WESTERN and MURDER TALES (now THERE's a title that doesn't beat around the bush over what the comic is about). It's typically great Frazetta art; check out the postures and body language, and the faces in the top right (which are just haggard enough). I suppose if it were done today, it might be about crack, showing a teenage girl wearing a short skirt getting in a car with some leering old men. ("She had become ADDICTED TO DOPE and had to SELL HER BODY to get some more dope for HERSELF") but here it's just a bit vaguer. (As an aside, I do get a vague nostalgic twinge whenever I see a PSA in old comics and magazines which suggest that someone with a problem "discuss it with their clergyman". That attitude seems to have been destroyed by scandal after scandal, just as horror movies seldom show a priest with strong faith that can fight the forces of darkness.)

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	besamim 2009-04-13 07:31 pm UTC (link)
	Great find! This is a relatively restrained anti-drug message, largely free of hysterical melodrama and therefore, IMHO, potentially much more effective than the usual "OMG if you smoke one joint you're doomed" PSA one encounters even today in TV commercials. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	dr_hermes 2009-04-13 09:16 pm UTC (link)
	True, I think a nudge is better than a shove sometimes. I still have that PSA that Frazetta did where the boardless hodads give up cigarettes and immediately: get in great shape, save enough money to buy custom surfboards, and pick up hot Frazetta babes. That's why I swore never to be a boardless hodad! If I can dig it up, I'll repost it. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	sistermagpie 2009-04-13 09:37 pm UTC (link)
	I love those two guys in the corner--they look like the pair from ROPE. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	darklorelei 2009-04-13 11:15 pm UTC (link)
	Love that movie! (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	sistermagpie 2009-04-13 11:24 pm UTC (link)
	Me too! It gets overlooked a lot, but I just love it. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	escherichiacola 2009-04-14 01:03 am UTC (link)
	When I saw those two guys I thought this would be a PSA about homosexuality. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	halloweenjack 2009-04-14 04:30 pm UTC (link)
	We can stop the enemies of youth with yaoi! (Reply to this) (Parent)

	mullon 2009-04-13 11:34 pm UTC (link)
	TELL YOUR CHILDREN! Man, drug addicts were so lame before the sixties. (Reply to this)

	skitty_kat 2009-04-14 01:46 am UTC (link)
	Oh, it actually uses the phrase "dope peddler"... He gives the kids free samples, Because he knows full well That today's young innocent faces Will be tomorrow's clientele. Here's a cure for all your troubles, Here's an end to all distress. It's the old dope peddler With his powdered ha-happiness. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	ashtoreth 2009-04-21 10:53 pm UTC (link)
	That caught my eye too. Only to me, peddlers are tinker-like guys roving from medieval village to village. :) Something new for my D&D group. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	lang_ea 2009-04-14 03:27 am UTC (link)
	Well. I once knew a guy who was behind writing a leaflet for this publishing company NOT REALLY on 'how (YOU'D BETTER) to say no'---but the leaflet was 'Okay, if you want to do drugs, here's how to do it right'. Well, I found it a good idea. The government didn't. But I kind of that it's more down to earth than even this more common approach. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	dr_hermes 2009-04-14 03:05 pm UTC (link)
	That sounds like the hopeless idea of preaching chastity and abstinence to teen-agers (which is like telling leaves not to bud in the spring). Safe sex methods have a better chance of doing some good. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	dr_hermes 2009-04-14 04:58 pm UTC (link)
	I have to ask or it will nag in the back of my mind. Is your icon Lalla Ward (Romana from DOCTOR WHO) as she appeared in VAMPIRE CIRCUS? (Reply to this) (Parent)