Unlike other entries in the Bad Comic Panels series, this one’s main quote is from an actual historical figure. I really love how the morally simplistic comics of the 60s (and earlier) depicted their opponents — such as Communists, in this case — as “hi, I’m evil!” card-carrying villains. 🙂 In this particular case, we have a dictator describing himself as such — which is rarer than you might think.
Other things to appreciate here:
- the Commies are depicted as not just being in competition with the US, or “the capitalistic countries” in general, but as actually living just for beating them. They actually sit around a radio set waiting for news of their counterparts’ demise. Guys, get a life, will ya? ((in Soviet Russia — and, here, this is actually appropriate –, life gets YOU!!))
- not only that, but two of them are shown holding glasses of wine or champagne. Nice! 🙂 Though I’d have though vodka would have been more appropriate…
- can you really see Khrushchev’s “number twos” addressing him as “Comrade K”? 🙂 And don’t tell me that this was a case of censorship, as, if they printed comics like this, they weren’t particularly worried about what the Kremlin would think of them, or how it would affect US-USSR relations…
- “Comrade K” is actually depicted relatively benignly here, being the only one among the Communists in the room with a brain. Very different from an Iron Man comic from the same era ((the one with the origin of the Crimson Dynamo)), where he is presented as a sniveling, treacherous coward (we actually see his thought balloons)… and fatter and uglier, too!
- is the guy on the left, the one wearing purple, supposed to be based on Trotsky? He had been dead for 23 years when this comic was published, you know… Or perhaps that look was based on an “archetype” of the “evil Commie intellectual” common during the 50s-60s… anyone?
I don’t think that it’s Khrushchev saying that quote. Since it’s the weird guy (who you refer as a Trotsky inspired character, I doubt because I don’t see the mustache, he just looks weird) in the purple suit who started the phrase with “Da!” in the previous dialogue. I’d attribute the quote to him.
I’ve thought of that possibility. In the end, I decided it was more likely that Khrushchev was saying it, as that quote is replying to someone who just addressed “comrade K” directly. Also, the three guys at the table are shown to be all making the same mistake, so all of them “never thought of that”; there would be no reason for one of them criticize or gloat over another, since it would also apply to himself. But there’s no way to be sure, of course. Anyway, thanks for the comment. 🙂