Cover This!

By Beau Smith

Too much of the internet is like too much drinking. It gives some folks a lot of false courage, especially the ones with way too much time on their hands.

Recently there has been another “controversy”. This time it’s about the Showcase Presents Batgirl collection. It seems that the book was solicited with the cover of one of the Silver Age issues contained in the book. When the book shipped it had a different cover. It was an adjustment of a splash page that was also contained in one of the Silver Age stories in the book.

Being old as dirt, I remember the cover, the splash page and the stories. I still have all those original Batman comics from my childhood. I read those stories. I watched the 1960s Batman TV show that was airing during the print time of these comics. I also remember the times we lived in then.

Now with this infamous “cover switch” we’ve got some people writing about how the cover with Batgirl checking her makeup is degrading and drips with misogyny.

Who has time to think of this stuff? Is there some long line to be a victim of society that I’ve missed. Last time I looked there was a difference between being an activist and annoying. On second thought, no there isn’t. Not when it comes to this kind of time wasting stuff in comics.



The internet seems to be making things a “shoot first and ask questions later” kind of landscape. When I saw the published cover I totally got what DC Comics was going for. They were representing the lay of the land in pop culture at that time. If you watched the Batman TV show or even read the comics during that time then you got it too. Does this mean we should now start reinventing history and doctor real photos of the past to represent the current slant of this all too politically correct world?

What’s next in the creative world of pop culture, liberal arts censorship?

The word misogyny is being tossed around like it was candy at Halloween while the word misandry is used like it carried the weight of an anvil. Just like movies, books, music and other forms of pop culture, comic books have their share of problems, but nit-picking this Batgirl cover is like someone deciding they’ll complain about some paint chipping off the wall while avoiding the real work of repairing a foundation that’s crumbling. There’s truth and weight in the saying “Choose your battles wisely”.

As I’ve said many times before here in Busted Knuckles, I’m not Superman or Captain America. Reading about them saving the day and looking like an Adonis while they did it has never made me have low self-esteem because I’m not near perfect as they are. Just as I never felt like less of a man because the Batman in the 60s TV show was goofy or because most men on TV & film are show with the “less than smart” spotlight.

You also have to take into consideration the times when these things took place. Times change, history doesn’t.

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Busted Knuckles Manly Cover Of The Week

Blackhawk #94 and #140
DC Comics




To this day, some of the best, most over looked action comics are those early Blackhawk comics from DC. The covers were marketing dynamite on how to catch the eye and the art by Reed Crandall is fictional story telling at it’s best. Blackhawk was my dad’s favorite comic book when he was a kid in the 40s. It was one of my favorites growing up in the 60s. Here are two great examples of just that. It was one of the reasons I brought Lady Blackhawk back to DC Comics during the 1990s. I would’ve done the same for all the Blackhawks, but I was always told by DC that an “A-List” creator had first dibs or was working on it. Funny how none of it ever seemed to come out. At least Gail Simone has done Lady Blackhawk right in Birds Of Prey and then some!

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Busted Knuckles Babe Of The Week

Cidney Dutton
- model and beauty queen





The Beach Boys song, “California Girls,” really seemed to be based on fact. The third largest state has never had a problem giving us beautiful, blonde beauty queens. Cidney Dutton is living proof of that. From Beverly Hills High School, University of Southern California and on to the Miss California beauty pageants. She models and truly knows how to fill out clothes and swim wear. Cidney sports a figure with perfect proportions. Rare in these days of too much here and not enough there. She likes what she does and does it well. You can find out my about Cidney on her site at http://www.myspace.com/cidney.

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The Roundup



Last Friday I went and saw LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD while the rest of the oddballs and fantasy freaks paid money to watch another one of those sissy Harry Potter movies. I was happy to say that my money was well spent watching Bruce Willis in over two hours of a knockdown, drag out fight. It was a real street fight of an adventure as most of it took place in the street. I was happy to see some of my favorite stuntmen/actors Matt McColm and Cyril Raffaeli as nasty bad guys in this. McColm you may remember from such great B-Movies as Body Armor, Acts Of Betrayal or even the really bad TV show Nightman. Cyril was the pitt-bull of a cop in the wonderful French martial arts movie District B13.

It was a pleasure to see a guy my age in Bruce Willis, give the bad guys a good old school head busting. There was no hocus pocus, tea & crumpets in Die Hard. Just knuckle busting and shell casings. The only kind of fantasy I like it the kind the various Busted Knuckles Babes Of The Week bring me.

I’m now looking forward to The Bourne Ultimatum. There’s a movie that really deserves it’s sequels unlike that wand waving wimp fest with Harry Potter.

Aren’t you glad I don’t beat around the bush?

I hope you find something you enjoy at the movies, in the comic stores in books and on TV. We may not always agree, but I’m sure glad we’re free to disagree.

Your amigo…really.

Beau Smith
The Flying Fist Ranch
P.O. Box 706
Ceredo, WV. 25507
http://www.flyingfistranch.com

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Prove your manhood by visiting Beau at the Flying Fist Forum!

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