For a few weeks, I'm
running a series of guest posts from my friends over at That Comic
Smell podcast. The pieces are any length, style, whatever. The only
brief I gave was to write something about comics. This time around,
it's Mike Sedakat.
Imagine the setting,
the end of the Cold War, the height of Thatcherism and outrageous
styles and fashions! It was 1988, I was 10 years old and spotted a
graphic novel based on one of my favourite tv shows – Spitting
Image on top of a table in a supermarket. I begged my mum to get me
it and she did, thinking that because it was a big comic book
alongside stuff like My Little Pony and Care Bear books that it was
safe for kids! My parents always let me watch Spitting Image as this
really helped my grasp of politics in the 1980s (the show’s absence
from today’s satire scene is all too obvious), however, when we got
home my mum was outraged to see the extreme nudity, swearing and
complete filth which I so easily adored (I was a mischievous
schoolboy). She confiscated it and within a few hours I found it on
the top shelf of her cupboard. I pinched it back and it remained
hidden under my bed for decades (even when I’d moved out of home!).
This book is the
work of several comedy geniuses and is a much more honest look of the
world back in the late 80s than many a textbook now. Ronald Reagan
dressed as a gun-wielding cowboy about to shoot the big pimple off a
pensioner’s nose, Jeffrey Archer being shrunk and being plopped out
of Thatcher’s bottom and an SAS soldier assassinating characters
throughout the book. That said, there is no real overall story to the
book, it’s a bit like a Viz comic or an adult version of The Dandy
or The Beano. There are many nods to sci-fi here from Restaurant
Reviewer John Hurt having a polite alien burst out of his chest to a
time traveller who aims to visit Victorian Times, disgusted by the
horrendous poverty and corruption only to discover he’s only zoomed
a week into the future when he sees Anneka Rice on the telly! Fans of
the show would love to see the Robo-cop PC Dimbleby.
The world of comics
is represented in the piss-take of popular culture. Tum Tum is a
crude adult Tin Tin drawn in the same way. Tum Tum is a complete
drunken bastard who would stoop as low as he can to get a scoop.
Seeing him pissing on the wall after being chucked out of his flat by
his landlord is absolutely hilarious! Judge Deaf is of course a
parody of 2000 AD’s favourite lawman, but more scary (imagine Dredd
wearing a judge’s wig while riding a bicycle). Deaf’s biggest
problem is not being able to hear anything so when someone calls for
his help, the Judge shoots him for shouting in a public place! This
story is filled with gems such as: “MORNING JUDGE DEAF!” “How
dare you call me a moron. Ten years hard labour.” And “Loitering
in a public place. I sentence you to death.” “He’s already
dead, Judge Deaf. You had him hung a week ago for not knowing the
cricket score.”
Johnny Onejoke is
based on a combination of Dennis the Menace and I think a real
comedian who I haven’t been able to figure out yet! The
Transformers are taken the mickey out of by the Merchandisors TM. No
story, just a bunch of robots that want to fight each other for
absolutely no reason at all! Sound familiar? The appearance of each
robot is signified with the price of the toy version. Dare I say that
Superman is er,,,, parodied by the show’s version of God. This has
to be the bravest (or most reckless depending on your point of view)
story in the whole book! The Adventures of GOD The Ultimate
Super-Hero shows disasters about to happen such as a train crash, a
plane crash, the Chernobyl eruption and mass famine with people
crying out for God to help them before they perish. The show’s
version of God appears in the last caption (dressed like a
super-hero) stating that having given mankind free will, it would be
wrong to interfere. I’m not sure if given the current social
climate if a book like this would be released again. I could be
wrong.
All in all, Spitting
Image: The Giant Komic Book is certainly a good laugh over most of
its pages plus it is a no-holds-barred piss-take on everyone in the
spotlight at the time. There are some extremely controversial
stories, but mostly it’s a well-informed look at politics and
popular culture in the 1980s and I wish the show would return to our
television sets soon.
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