Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Tales From The Quarter Bin--Cough, Cough

One problem with being the Star-Spangled Avenger is that, as the role model of millions, you get put into a lot of crappy PSA comics.

So Captain America is driving around town in his van with a couple of school children (get your minds out of the gutter). He takes them home, where they discover...


The Asthma Monster? Really??

Fortunately, as in all good PSA comics, our heroes are able to use the lessons they learned just a few pages earlier to thwart this attack:



So, what, exactly, is the Asthma Monster's deal?


Wow. That's kind of dickish. Fortunately, after (many) pages of fighting the "Allergen Gang"...



And the Asthma Monster's reason for being so evil?


Oh, man. That was kind of lame.

Bonus lameness? He reforms (thanks to the success of modern asthma control methods), and gets off with community service. For kidnapping, assault, attempted murder, etc...

And lest anyone doubt me...

THIS REALLY HAPPENED!!

In fact, this little piece of...um...history from 1989 was written by Howard Mackie and drawn by Mark Bagley. And you don't get much realer than that.
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7 comments:

  1. SiskoidApril 18, 2012 at 8:49 AM

    Oh PSAs! Don't ever change!

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  2. GaryApril 18, 2012 at 12:36 PM

    1989? Man, I thought those things went out in the 70's.

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  3. snellApril 18, 2012 at 1:53 PM

    70s?? Brother, check out this or this one from the 1990s...I'm sure someone can find us examples from this century.

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  4. Jon HendryApril 18, 2012 at 8:16 PM

    Are you sure that isn't a PSA for national healthcare?

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  5. snellApril 19, 2012 at 9:36 AM

    Jon, if you look closely at the cover, you'll see it's brought to you by a division of Glaxo, the American pharmaceutical company (I don't think they're still around...). So it's more a PSA for the asthma drug they were making at the time, although the comic was refreshingly free of any direct product placement or naming of the drug...it just pushes seeing your doctor, living a healthier lifestyle, and taking advantage of modern medicine.

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  6. HmmApril 20, 2012 at 2:12 PM

    It's not as good as Daredevil Vs Vapora which informs mothers not to wash carpets with petrol next to your infant child's playpen, whilst smoking a cigarette. (Who could have guessed that would be a bad thing?)

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  7. Jon HendryApril 20, 2012 at 11:43 PM

    I just meant that it *could* be a PSA for national healthcare, with a few tweaks.

    The question is left hanging, *why* isn't the baddie's asthma treated? Might it be... because he's uninsured?

    I wasn't complaining or being political. ;^)

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