Sunday, February 15, 2009

The Racist Bears Of Alaska

You know, we really don't spend enough time here looking at WWII:

Not a symbolic scene!!Ah, yes, I warned you this was coming.

I've avoided most of the fiendishly insensitive racial components of this story, but be advised there's a couple of rough things in here. Nothing as offensive as Gran Torino, but still...

So Uncle Sam and his young buddy...uh, Buddy...are watching a parade, which gives Uncle Sam an idea:

You don't know how hard it was to avoid a Of course, some of Uncle Sam's ideas are pretty freakin' weird:

I like Sam's version of nature better than the Discovery Channel'sBut it turn out Sarah Palin was right: Alaska IS key to our defenses:

Yes, US Military headquarters for all of Alaska is a yellow log cabinAnyway, Uncle Sam goes out to find some bears...and apparently has confused kodiak bears with polar bears:

Hat-poppin' funWhat follows is the greatest fight in Golden Age history:

Uncle Sam--the fourth Stooge
Bears can be taught by whoppin' 'em
...and again!The art here is by George Tuska (really? Yeah, that's what GCD says). I just wanted to point that out, because this next panel is maybe my favorite panel of all time (at least for this week):

Gotta love that sweat bead...on a bear!!Fortunately, mercenary bears work cheap:

They could have caught their own fish, Sam...that's what they do!So, Uncle Sam, now that you've tamed these fighting bears, how do you train the to fight for you?

Oh, dearThat's right...turn them into racist bears.

Sigh.

Anyway, who knew that George Tuska could draw such great bear faces?

That's one happy racist bear!Well, surprisingly enough, the Japanese do attack Alaska, so Sam lets out a mighty, patriotic whistle:

Bears Assemble!!And the bears do their job, pawing their way through the odd "fragile" Japanese invading craft:

Aquaman wishes he were that tough...The result? Well, let's just say that Chewbacca is very, very jealous:

30 years later, I STILL want to know why the wookie didn't get a medal...But wait,you ask...what about the mechanical penguins? Friends, trust me, you don't want to know (for those who do want to know--Buddy makes some exploding mechanical penguins that take out some highly offensive caricatures of Japanese soldiers rowing into shore...I just ain't going there).

You know, since DC owns this stuff now, how about a story where some of these bears are still alive...still filled with Uncle Sam's hate-the-Japanese training...and now it's up to the Freedom Fighters to stop them? I'd buy that.

The Golden Age Racist Bears of Alaska are from Uncle Sam Quarterly #4 (1942).

3 comments:

Jack Hare said...

I wouldn't -- I mean, this is precisely the type of impulse I work so hard to resist -- but since you had to go and beg for comments on this one, on your head be it:

Three cheers for the Constitutional right to arm bears.

La Belle Esplanade said...

My poor excuse is that I wasn't reading you in 2009. You are right. I missed a doozy. Well played, sir. Thanks for bringing this to light.

Cabin said...

http://thestrangestadventures.blogspot.com/2011/07/world-war-ii-war-bond-crossover-issue.html
I linked to this post-Thanks for this unusual story!