Maine has a long and storied relationship with World War II plots for conquer (both fact and fiction), but this one has some interesting twists...
COMIC BOOK URBAN LEGENDS REVEALED #167
by Brian Cronin
Thursday, August 7th, 2008 at 11:27 PM EST
This is the one-hundred and sixty-seventh in a series of examinations of comic book urban legends and whether they are true or false. Click here for an archive of the previous one-hundred and sixty-six. Click here for a similar archive, only arranged by subject.
Let’s begin!
COMIC URBAN LEGEND: An Uncle Sam comic book featuring Pearl Harbor being bombed was released…in November of 1941!!
STATUS: True
Reader John Trumbull suggested this one a couple of weeks ago.
Astonishingly, in National Comics #18, which was a Quality Comic starring Uncle Sam, the main story involved the bombing of Pearl Harbor!
And the release date of the comic was November of 1941!!!!
The story was written by Gil Fox, with artwork by Lou Fine.
The big difference between this comic and actual events is that in this comic, it was GERMANY who attacks Pearl Harbor.
The bombing attack was actually a ruse to lure the United States Navy away from the Eastern Seabord, where Germany attacks - with Maine being their first target.
Ultimately, Uncle Sam and his sidekick, Buddy, help the residents of Maine drive off the German invaders, with an able assist from none other than the ghost of John Paul Jones (not the one from Led Zeppelin)!!!
As amazing as it sounds at first, the idea of Pearl Harbor being attacked was not exactly the most original idea - it was the home of the United States’ Pacific Fleet, so it was a natural location for an attack.
But still, for it to be released just a MONTH before it was actually attacked?
That really IS amazing.
Thanks so much to John Trumbull for making me hip to the info!
See the original post for illustrations from the comic and more: [Source]
Maine has a long and storied relationship with World War II plots for conquer (both fact and fiction), but this one has some interesting twists...
2 comments:
Huh! I'd actually read that comic, but I didn't know it came out before the attack on Pearl Harbor actually happened. I always was a tiny bit skeptical of the idea that the Germans would hit Maine first though... ;)
Here's a scan of the panel in which Portland gets attacked.
Belated THANKS ecdysiasm! That's a great image to see, not having read the comic myself. Many thanks for sharing!
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