InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "All you of Earth are IDIOTS!"

Doop (xdoop) wrote in scans_daily,
@ 2009-04-25 14:09:00

Entry tags:

publisher: marvel comics, title: strange tales

"Behind the Mask!"

This is from Strange Tales #43. It's illustrated by Bob Brown.

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fungo_squiggly
2009-04-25 01:30 pm UTC (link)

You've gotta love this Joe guy.

"Oh no, this baby I randomly found and decided to keep is actually a disguised alien! Maybe blackmail is the answer. If Ogu wants to continue spying on the human race, he'll have to continue pretending to be my baby, as opposed to the adult alien invader that he actually is! Wait, what's this? Oh thank god! He's been brainwashed! That'll make it so much easier to ignore the fact that I am essentially powdering a grown man's ass and changing his diaper every day. Yep, totally non-creepy."

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	ashtoreth 2009-04-25 02:46 pm UTC (link)
	Gah. That first image gave me John Wayne Gacy flashbacks. The happy ending was a real surprise though. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	dr_hermes 2009-04-25 06:30 pm UTC (link)
	I have never in my life met anyone who likes clowns, and I have had lots of people say clowns give them the creeps. How are they still around? (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

merseybeatler
2009-04-25 07:01 pm UTC (link)

Cirque Du Soleil clowns are great - they're primarily acrobats, and jesters second, but they combine the two (with glimmering costumes!) into something really quite entertaining and talented. Also, they hit on you.

Shriner clowns, though....not so much. They're very rude and bored with their work and don't seem at all enamored of performance. That's my experience, anyway.

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	dr_hermes 2009-04-25 08:46 pm UTC (link)
	That's true. Acrobats are breath-taking when seen live, and that goes a long way to making clowns palatable. I was thinking of the run-of-the-mill American clowns you still see at carnivals and fairs and children's parties. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

merseybeatler
2009-04-25 08:56 pm UTC (link)

Yeah, the classic grease-paint and doggy balloon clowns are annoying and creepy as hell. One of my earliest memories is of being followed around by one at a fairground, barking 'DON'T DRINK YER BATHWATER!' and scaring the crap out of me...that was the first time I ever flipped anyone off to their face. I was six.

Cirque Du Soleil clowns, and classy ones, are cool though. I love them.

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psychop_rex
2009-04-27 12:37 am UTC (link)

I have no problem with clowns, as long as they're in the proper context. In the circus, they're great - there's a general air of unreality in a circus that doesn't make a clown seem out of place, and hey, slapstick is funny, right? I can laugh very hard at a talented clown. Outside of the circus is a different story - those white faces and exaggerated features look WEIRD in a regular setting - let alone if you're *shudder* alone with them...
Let me put it this way - a clown under bright lights? Fine. A clown in the dark? NOT FINE.

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	? peur_evol 2009-04-25 03:39 pm UTC (link)
	Alien baby found in a field... that sounds familiar... (Reply to this)

	kamino_neko 2009-04-25 03:58 pm UTC (link)
	I'd really like to know what was in Ogu's reports... I mean...his request suggests he isn't giving them information that's going to make them come and wipe us out, or enslave us, but... What was he doing there? (Reply to this) (Thread)

	gargoylekitty 2009-04-25 04:04 pm UTC (link)
	Ikr. How much could an alien possibly learn to put into a report based on time as a baby with a carnival family. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	icon_uk 2009-04-25 07:12 pm UTC (link)
	You don't judge a society by how the well-off and privileged are treated, you judge it by how the poor and the disadvantaged are treated. And the travelling carnival allows them to see a large area in a relatively short time. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	gargoylekitty 2009-04-25 07:16 pm UTC (link)
	Quite true, though I'd still think at least toddler aged would allow them to learn more in still being young enough that people would talk freely around them yet old enough that they could wonder around. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	bwmedia.wordpress.com 2009-04-26 03:59 pm UTC (link)
	I'm guessing that if we were scumbags, we would have been wiped out for the good of the universe or something. Instead, Ogu met the good ones, and judged us by those methods. Nice change of pace. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	dustbunny105 2009-04-25 04:37 pm UTC (link)
	D'awwwww! In spite of some of the weirdness, this is really cute. Earth was saved by the power of parents' love for their baby ♥w♥ (Reply to this) (Thread)

	dr_hermes 2009-04-25 06:29 pm UTC (link)
	These stories are like TWILIGHT ZONE episodes. They don't stand up to any critical analysis, they go for a dramatic emotional impact. It's a cute story. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	merseybeatler 2009-04-25 07:02 pm UTC (link)
	Oh joy - a happy ending! For that reason alone I like this story. Although even foundlings must be legally adopted...oh well. (Reply to this)

	(Anonymous) 2009-04-25 09:35 pm UTC (link)
	I actually took a few classes during a time when I had too much spare time with a group of amateur clowns. They were mostly retirees who volunteered at charitable events and they were the nicest bunch of folks you could know. Frankly, I think our culture is teaching people an unfair prejudice towards clowns (The Joker, the It clown, etc.). Give clowns a chance! (Reply to this) (Thread)

merseybeatler
2009-04-26 12:36 am UTC (link)

Oh, I'm sure there are plenty of nice clowns working at festivals and such. It's just that without genuine talent - at comedy, acting, juggling, dance, whatever - they're just tired men in too much makeup. Clowning is like any type of performance art; if you're bad at it then it's really pretty awful to watch. There's much more to it than funny clothing and a big smile. I mean, it's fine if you want someone to come to your child's birthday and make balloon animals, but that's like comparing the ballet lessons you took in kindergarten to the dancing of a professional French ballerina.

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	jlroberson 2009-04-26 06:01 am UTC (link)
	Having safely allayed suspicion of the foolish earthling who had not thought the baby had noticed him standing only about six feet away, Ogu vomited hydrochloric acid upon his face. The woman screamed and screamed till the barbed tentacles shredded her. It slithered off into the night to find another host couple, and the invasion came in spring. Stupid clown. (Reply to this)

psychop_rex
2009-04-27 12:57 am UTC (link)

Awww - that's a nice ending. It's not very often that you get a happy ending in a story like this. Congratulations, Joe!
I do have two questions, though - first, why is this called 'Behind the Mask'? Joe's not wearing a mask - it's greasepaint. I know, I know, psychologically he's wearing a mask - two different identities, all that - but I can't help but think that it's an awful waste of a good title when it could have been used in a creepier context.
Also, I'm wondering just how this thing with Ogu is going to work. If Ogu is in his adult form already, then does that mean he's going to stay a baby forever? That could get a little awkward after a few years. Or is he a real baby, and his species simply gains adult-level intelligence much earlier? Is he a shapeshifter, perhaps, who, believing that he's a real baby, will subconsciously adjust his form accordingly as he grows older? (Hey, a Skrull! This is published by Marvel, right?)
And I find it interesting that, when Ogu finds out that humans are "gentle, full of kindness", he says that there is "no need" to invade Earth. The implication, therefore, is that these are NICE aliens who would only invade us if it was for our own good - kind of the ultimate expression of 'tough love'. (Which makes for an interesting picture of the other civilizations out there who are aware of these guys and wish to avoid being invaded - presumably, at the first hint of a spy they start raising small, cute animals in immense numbers and give away truckloads of free candy to children on streetcorners until the aliens go 'well, nothing for us to do here', and leave. Then they go back to warmongering and stuff.)

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