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Post by foxley on Feb 24, 2020 19:28:40 GMT -5
If most members of CCF are anything like me (a terrifying thought, I know) then there are probably many things you have encountered in comics even though they originated elsewhere.
One category is literary quotations. I was thinking about this the other day as I recalled a quotation I first read in Green Lantern/Green Arrow #6 (reprinting Green Arrow #87):
That book came out in 1984, so I must have been 14 or 15 when I read it, and it is a quote that has stayed with me throughout my life. It often comes unbidden to my mind when I think of friends and family who have been taken before their time. While I am not always a fan of Hemmingway, this does show him at his poetic best.
I would later learn there is an additional line to this quote, which was not included because it was not relevant to scene, but the older I get, the more relevant it feels to myself:
What other pearls of literary wisdom have people discovered through the pages of the funny books? |
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Post by beccabear67 on Feb 24, 2020 20:27:44 GMT -5
I remember the Percy Bysshe Shelley poem Ozymandias appearing at the end of an Avengers comic with the scene of a kid kicking Ultron's head around in a junk pile. I guess that would be a Roy Thomas story? That one tops my list! I hadn't seen the Monty Python skit yet with the ant-centric version read by Terry Gilliam I don't think.Also The Beast in the old X-men comics would often quote things like Shakespeare's Lay On MacDuff... or did he say it as Lead On?  |
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Post by Farrar on Feb 24, 2020 22:02:22 GMT -5
^^^ Those two immediately came to my mind when I saw foxley's topic too. I don't think anyone who's seen the Ozymandias page in Avengers #57 has ever forgotten it. It was the last page of the Vision's debut issue. In particular the line "Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" really got to me. A few years later I actually came across the poem in a book (at school) and though at the time I'd not a read a comic for a few years, I was like--hey it's that poem from the comic! As for the other line, I remember first seeing it in X-Men #58, again a few years before I actually read Macbeth, I figured there was a connection (the "Mac" gave it away). I'm sure it's popped up elsewhere in comics, but I remember first being struck by it when I saw it in #58 (misquoted).  Then there was Donne's "Death Be Not Proud," the title of the story in Avengers #56. Couldn't get over how beautiful and terrible that phrase was. |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 24, 2020 22:39:31 GMT -5
I predict a lot of references to Roy Thomas stories coming up. I can't recall any quotes just now, but in a letters page somewhere, Roy taught me that "whence" means "from where", so "from whence" is redundant, and this has been a pet peeve ever since.
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Post by codystarbuck on Feb 25, 2020 0:33:28 GMT -5
Wolverine's "I'm the best there is at what I do..." is from Jane Austen, right?
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Post by beccabear67 on Feb 25, 2020 13:52:36 GMT -5
Popeye quoted from the 1,001 Nights in the old cartoon where he opens the cave door with "Open sez me!" Krazy Kat probably had some slightly warped phrases from literature, but all I can think of is "us accidentals and them ornamentals, never the trains shall meet." Musta been different gauges back then huh? |
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Post by Prince Hal on Feb 25, 2020 14:08:47 GMT -5
I remember the Percy Bysshe Shelley poem Ozymandias appearing at the end of an Avengers comic with the scene of a kid kicking Ultron's head around in a junk pile. I guess that would be a Roy Thomas story? That one tops my list! I hadn't seen the Monty Python skit yet with the ant-centric version read by Terry Gilliam I don't think.Also The Beast in the old X-men comics would often quote things like Shakespeare's Lay On MacDuff... or did he say it as Lead On? Yes, that! First thing that popped into my mind. And then a few issues later, in Avengers 61, it was this title quoting Robert Frost, illustrated on two splash pages. Pretty impressive.  |
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Post by Prince Hal on Feb 25, 2020 14:12:01 GMT -5
Never saw this, but some romance writer knew his/ her stuff:  |
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Feb 25, 2020 16:04:21 GMT -5
When I started reading Shakespeare as a grown-up, I was amazed by how many lines were used in comic-books I had read previously. Especially in titles.
X-Men #128 : "The action of the Tiger"
Micronauts #29 : "To sleep...perchance to dream" (and its variation, "to sleep, perchance to die" seen in many other comics)
Daredevil #182 : "For in that sleep of death, what dreams may come"
Doom 2099 #3 : "Unto the breach"
Hulk #150 : "Cry Hulk! Cry Havok!"
Avengers #98 : "Let slip the dogs of war!"
The bard is everywhere!!!
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Post by beccabear67 on Feb 25, 2020 16:47:25 GMT -5
I remember one of the origin of Iceman back-ups in '60s X-men as being titled "The Iceman Cometh". I definitely saw that before I finally saw the tv version of the Eugene O'Neill play with Lee Marvin.
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Post by badwolf on Feb 25, 2020 17:02:10 GMT -5
I remember the Percy Bysshe Shelley poem Ozymandias appearing at the end of an Avengers comic with the scene of a kid kicking Ultron's head around in a junk pile. I guess that would be a Roy Thomas story? That one tops my list! I hadn't seen the Monty Python skit yet with the ant-centric version read by Terry Gilliam I don't think.Also The Beast in the old X-men comics would often quote things like Shakespeare's Lay On MacDuff... or did he say it as Lead On? Yes, that! First thing that popped into my mind. And then a few issues later, in Avengers 61, it was this title quoting Robert Frost, illustrated on two splash pages. Pretty impressive. The Marvel Team-Up with Equinox had a similar title. |
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Post by badwolf on Feb 25, 2020 17:04:50 GMT -5
When I started reading Shakespeare as a grown-up, I was amazed by how many lines were used in comic-books I had read previously. Especially in titles. X-Men #128 : "The action of the Tiger" I was going to mention this one! It always confounded me as there are no tigers in the story. It wasn't until recently I thought to look it up. |
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Post by foxley on Feb 25, 2020 17:19:20 GMT -5
It is not really a quote as such (as it is the entire work), but I first encountered the poem "The Face upon the Barroom Floor" by originally John Henry Titus, and later adapted by Hugh Antoine d'Arcy (Mad uses the d'Arcy adaptation) in a reprint of Mad #10 that came as an attached insert in a Mad Magazine some time in the mid 70s (there titled "The Face on the Floor" and illustrated by Jack Davis (with a final panel by Basil Wolverton that made an impact on as a kid that I cannot begin to convey)).
At the time (not even 10), I had no idea this poem had not been specifically written for Mad, and it was only years later that I learned that many stories in the 1950s Mad were essentially existing literary works, rendered hilarious by the illustration.
However, I recall being fascinated by the rhythm and structure of this piece, and I suspect it strongly contributed to my love of ballad poems which would lead me to poets like Banjo Patterson and Robert Service.
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Post by beccabear67 on Feb 25, 2020 20:36:49 GMT -5
I remember that Mad, and also either a Mad or a Panic I think that did Poe's The Raven (along with Robinson Crusoe). I definitely didn't know the source Face On The Floor when I also had the Mad Super-Special with the attached old style color comic inside. I think I had some of those specials twice, replacements being needed later for when I had tried to remove said bound-in regular comic! Crazy did it once too with the early '70s comic-sized Crazy #1.
I guess The Saint by Leslie Charteris might not count as literature, but he appeared in comics in the 1940s and I suppose could've been the into to the character for some.
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Post by codystarbuck on Feb 25, 2020 21:21:59 GMT -5
I remember that Mad, and also either a Mad or a Panic I think that did Poe's The Raven (along with Robinson Crusoe). I definitely didn't know the source Face On The Floor when I also had the Mad Super-Special with the attached old style color comic inside. I think I had some of those specials twice, replacements being needed later for when I had tried to remove said bound-in regular comic! Crazy did it once too with the early '70s comic-sized Crazy #1. I guess The Saint by Leslie Charteris might not count as literature, but he appeared in comics in the 1940s and I suppose could've been the into to the character for some. It was Mad. The Saint appeared as a comic strip, but that was the late 1940s, well after the books and movies. I kind of suspect the comics were not most kids intro to the character, compared to Sherlock Holmes or Shakespeare. I'd count the Saint as literature, as it played in literary conventions and spawned similar characters. Plus, they were good! |
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