11/15/2006

Watchin' the Tube...



Spent the weekend hanging with the kids, No these human larvas aren't mine! They belong to my sister, although on several occassions I have offered her 3 magic beans for these precious darlings. But, she's a tough sell...

Looks like I'll have to trade in my imaginary friends for imaginary children, *sigh*! Okay enough of my sad life, let me go slip into something nice and we'll go dicuss some more comic book stuff.

The Spawn of Fu Manchu

Last week we talked about this colorful genttleman Doc Fu Manchu

http://www.mst3kinfo.com/daddyo/di_323.html

Lets recap for thoes who missed out or can't scroll down to the last entry! Dr. Fu Manchu was made popular by the stories of Sax Rohmer. His signature charater was inspired by the monsturous depiction of Asians during the Yellow Peril movement. Doc Manchu became so popular that his presence was made real by the magic of the movies. Thus making him immortal and haunting Asians and Asian Americans for generations to come...

Wait! what do you mean he's immortal!

Some clever a'hole once said that "Imitation is the best form of flattery." What they forgot to mention is that it pays to copy something popular. We've seen it all before folks: Folex Watches, Neentendo PsP's, Bulls 3-peat t-shirts, ect. If we like something we can't get enough of it and there is this constant desire to have more. So ladies and gents get a load of this DC comic original:


In March of 1937, one of America's largest comic book companies, DC, published this issue of Dective Comics #1. The majoirty of villians in this issue are Asians and share Fu Manchu's physical apperance: yellow skin, slanted eyes, and long wisker mustaches. DC wasn't making a lot of money at the time and this issue really help them raise some funds. Detective comics did become popular and later it would transition into the birth of Bat Man...

http://www.dereksantos.com/comicpage/gold.html
However, the character of Fu Manchu wasn't only a money maker. The character gave life to other popular villians:



Who can forget Iron Man's arch nemesis The Mandarin, fully equiped with 10 rings of power and arance scientific genius. I think the robe and beard are a dead give away for this Manchu clone.

And let me ask you this... what kind of name is The Mandarin? I mean why not call him Super Evil Chinamen or Slant-Eyed the Terrible!?

*Side Note: Super Evil over here wasn't Iron Man's first Asian villian, in the weeks to come we'll get and indepth look at Iron Man's origins

Another Manchu Clone was the Flash Gordon villian Ming the Merciless. As you can see in the picture to the right, Ming here was sporting the Manchu facial hair and eyes, but with new and improved Satan Eyebrows.




And lets not forget these atrocious foes:




Johnny Quest's Dr. Zin




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Julius_No


James Bond's Dr. Julius No



http://www.marveldirectory.com/individuals/y/yellowclaw.htm



Marvel's Yellow Claw

*Side Note: Next week we'll be talking about this guy in more detail!




Bottom line here folks is that the notorious Doc Manchu cannot be defeated so easily... or can he? Next week we'll be discussing something you've all been waiting for...

Asian Heroes!





Don't agree with what I say... FINE go ahead and write me a comment! BENHUR SMASH!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Ha..Bulls Three-peat.