InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "I LOVE THE JUSTIN."

icon_uk (icon_uk) wrote in scans_daily,
@ 2009-03-14 00:38:00

Entry tags:

char: bowery billy, in-joke: bondage

Gotham's original bondage Boy Wonder... Bowery Billy!
Years ago, when still a novice at this interwebs thing I was trying random word searches as part of my contribution to mankinds insatiable quest for porn... (Hey at least I'm honest about it)

One of the things to emerge was that there's nothing new under the sun... Case in point, some of the earliest examples of "Plucky streetwise hero in peril" I could locate, these dating back to the "Dime novels" of the late 1800's and early 1900's.

So let me introduce you to... "Bowery Billy" written by, as every single cover tells us "John R Conway, PRIVATE DETECTIVE"

I include this cover, not for the bondage but because it was the only decent snapshot of a complete cover I could find, plus the cover demonstrates the fact that every story had a subtitle, and that "Trapped by Wireless" was cutting edge stuff!

Just remember that the good guys are the one brandishing the crowbar and the one throwing the chair...

Of course, it wasn't all overweight middle aged me he faced... and more than a few times, he found himself in rather... outré situations, which doubtless went on to inspire the writers of other heroes, most notably the Hardy Boys and their ilk....

The subtextual moral of this one is "Unions are evil and we must deal with any organisers harshly"

Teenage hero in Gotham in a red tunic... naaaaahhhh! :)

An inspired critique on the then prevalent policing techniques? Or did he just wander into THAT part of town... judging by the talent hanging around, I suspect the latter...

All I can say about this next one is that unless his ankles are tied to the wheel, friction in a very sensitive area is about to get, really, REALLY painful.

The cad has not only tied poor Billy to a chair with a time bomb, he's knocked his hat off!

An early appearance by Popeye as a psychotic swimming teacher... (and I have no idea what a "street trimmer" was, but it sounds... salacious!

This one... well, there are no words... The sub-title alone is enough to raise eyebrows, but the text at the bottom takes it to the next level.

Not Beb the Bosom... I mean Bob the Besom! If this was Batman she's be an insane opera singer seeking a captive audience, and as for what she's done to that poor beast she's standing on... it'll never recover from THAT.

Nothing I can say can improve the sheer WTF? of THIS one....

Wine tasting EXTREEEEEEEEEME!

And I found this one by chance... "All I can say is, if this is what they mean by Animal Husbandry, then I'm changing my major to Accountancy"

And proof that sometimes you can go overboard with your deathtrap...

(Post a new comment)

	jarodrussell 2009-03-13 08:06 pm UTC (link)
	Can I just say, that's some very detailed rope work on the cover of "Guessing at the Game". Cinches and everything. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	icon_uk 2009-03-13 08:24 pm UTC (link)
	They had to make their own entertainment back then and paid more attention to the little details... (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	dr_hermes 2009-03-13 09:31 pm UTC (link)
	So true. Before much of our brain was taken up with electronics, people were more aware of crafts, types of trees and birds, that sort of thing. It's really noticeable when you read older authors like John Buchan or Rider Haggard. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	mysteryfan 2009-03-13 08:09 pm UTC (link)
	Whoa! Nice, nice finds! I especially like the Extreme Wine Tasting:) and my god, but I'd love to read more of Bowery Billy's Midsummer Frolic. Although I think he may be doing it wrong. Awesome post! I love the text at the bottom of the last, deathtrap, scan. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	merseybeatler 2009-03-13 09:27 pm UTC (link)
	I want to see more of Midsummer Frolic too. On one hand, it looks bizarrely racist, but the 'OH NOES' factor of hopping off a board into a small barrel of water is TOO MUCH TO RESIST. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	dr_hermes 2009-03-13 09:34 pm UTC (link)
	I'd guess he's about to be plunged head down into a barrel of water with his hands tied behind him. And blindfolded as he is, the victim thinks he's just going to jump down to the floor as a hazing initiation. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	nevermore999 2009-03-13 08:21 pm UTC (link)
	These are great! Gave me a chuckle. And certainly a coincidence we have Red Wearing Boy Bondage in Gotham pre-Robin...BUT IS IT A COINCIDENCE OR A CONSPIRACY???? (Reply to this) (Thread)

	icon_uk 2009-03-13 08:25 pm UTC (link)
	Neither, it's a long and noble TRADITION! Gotham of course was an old name for New York, but I like the coincidence! :) (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	nevermore999 2009-03-13 08:34 pm UTC (link)
	Yeah, I knew that (the first place I found it out was the Gotham Central trade introduction, but never mind that) Bowery Billy should team up with the Robins. He's public domain at this point, isn't he? (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	icon_uk 2009-03-14 04:43 am UTC (link)
	Probably... He should also team up with the Hardy Boys IMHO (Reply to this) (Parent)

	"DIAMOND DICK BOYS BEST WEEKLY" ????? peur_evol 2009-03-13 08:47 pm UTC (link)
	and I'm the first one to point that out ?!? c'mon, you guys are slippin'......... (Reply to this) (Thread)

	Re: "DIAMOND DICK BOYS BEST WEEKLY" ????? icon_uk 2009-03-14 04:34 am UTC (link)
	Yeah, it took longer than I expected for SOMEONE to make that comment. :) Let's be generous and assume it's because it was Friday, and people were tired. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	dr_hermes 2009-03-13 09:38 pm UTC (link)
	Great stuff, thanks for posting. These dime novels, like the penny dreadfuls before them, feature almost all the cliches we still see today in comics and movies. They're given tweaks and updates but the storytelling is still the same. (Reply to this)

	kijikun 2009-03-14 01:14 am UTC (link)
	Oh man, this stuff is great. Thanks for sharing. (Reply to this)

rab62
2009-03-14 02:28 am UTC (link)

Re the "Tompkins Street Trimmer":

It turns out "trimmer" was the term in that era for men who worked at a garbage incinerator: a conveyor belt would carry the collected trash toward the incinerator, and the "trimmers" would pull out things that shouldn't go into the flames -- things like mattress springs and other bits of metal that could be sold to scrap metal merchants, for example. Those merchants would pay the city for the chance to haul off this junk they could resell.

And in New York City, such an incinerator plant was located just off Tompkins Street! So we may assume "Thistle, the Tompkins Street trimmer" was one of those fellows, working at that location very near the Bowery.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

	icon_uk 2009-03-14 04:37 am UTC (link)
	Thanks for the info, who says scans_daily isn't educational! :) And it seems like he's sort of how the Discworld's Harry King got started! (Reply to this) (Parent)

	endis_ni 2009-03-14 12:37 pm UTC (link)
	Huh. I've been staring at LOLcats too long. I took one look at "Holding Up The Pig-Tails" and heard an important part of my brain go CEILING BILLY IS WATCHING YOU MASTURBATE. (Reply to this)

	darklorelei 2009-03-14 04:30 pm UTC (link)
	I love this art style. (Reply to this)

	psychop_rex 2009-03-15 02:20 am UTC (link)
	Interesting stuff - is there any further information available as to just who this 'Bowery Billy' actually is? I mean, does he have a backstory, or is he just a guy who goes around randomly solving crimes? Also - where the hell did this board get to? It just disappeared, then reappeared here! What happened? (Reply to this)

	jlroberson 2009-03-15 02:49 pm UTC (link)
	Effin' cool. Do you have more covers like this from that period? I'd love to see 'em. And that's something that DEFINITELY won't infringe any copyrights. Seen that book WORLD ON SUNDAY? It's full of stuff like this. Maybe it's because I work as an illustrator sometimes, but I look at stuff like this, go sigh, and think I was born too late... (Reply to this)

	bwmedia.wordpress.com 2009-03-15 09:10 pm UTC (link)
	I'm not so much concerned that you were looking for porn as I am the fact that this is what you found. :) (Reply to this)

	noahbrand 2009-03-19 01:18 pm UTC (link)
	"Frank Merriwell As A Ferret". Yeah. Look. STOP INVENTING FURRY FANFIC, TIP TOP WEEKLY. (Reply to this)