NOW! Comics Astro Boy - Issue Four

[Fauna]

I've posted the complete issue here. Also, if you haven't seen my Wikipedia article, check it out!


Nothing insane to report in this issue, but it's revealed that Tenma had a son and a wife at one point. That's Jean Boynton, the woman, who is obviously based on Tenma's assistant from the first 80's episode...which is hilarious, because NOW! Comics declared they wanted nothing to do with the 80's series just one issue prior.


Hamegg comes along for the first time...and his accent is horrendous. I used to have an Italian friend named Gino, whose family ended up moving away because (among other things) people would talk to him like the above panel. (i.e. "This-ah panel! She-a not-ah nice, eh.")

On the side, there's some wacky romantic hijinks with the researchers at the Institute of Science, not that anyone ever wanted to see that.


1) Anyone remember the song "Don't Stand So Close To Me"? The fact that Foola/Plenty is talking about Rebecca in the above panel is very creepy, and reminiscent of the song.
2) There's a dog in the movie Up that looks just like Spud - down to the speaking collar. Except in Up, the speech comes out of the collar and not horrifically out of the dog.

[Sailor Kitty]

I freakin' love these comics-

They are so FAIL, it's hilarious, XD It's totally "Astro-boy-if-it-were-american" Thank you for posting them. :3

[jeffbert]

Thanks, Fauna!

[ASTROBUDDY]

Just took a look at your wikepedia entry on this series! I find it interesting your fascination with this series! By the way, are you aware that a short Astro Boy story appears as a backup story in the twentieth issue of NOW comics "Speed Racer" comic? I believe it was written and illustrated by Brian Thomas! You should definitely check it out!

[munquibyte]

Well, for all its flaws I liked the Now AB-at least for the first seven issues.

And blatant racism aside, Dempsey's HamEgg wasn't a big departure from Ladd's 'Cacciatore'.

Yep, they borrowed from the 80s set more than than they liked to let on.

[Fauna]

And blatant racism aside, Dempsey's HamEgg wasn't a big departure from Ladd's 'Cacciatore'.

Well, they call him 'Cacciatore' in the comic, but do I know that Ladd gave Hamegg a French accent. I think I said something like "maybe someone at NOW! Comics hated the Italians more than the French" in my article.

[jeffbert]

[QUOTE=munquibyte;89656]And blatant racism aside, Dempsey's HamEgg wasn't a big departure from Ladd's 'Cacciatore'.

Well, they call him 'Cacciatore' in the comic, but do I know that Ladd gave Hamegg a French accent. I think I said something like "maybe someone at NOW! Comics hated the Italians more than the French" in my article.[/QUOTE]
It may have been a poor Italian accent, but in his new book, Ladd does say that it was Italian.

[ASTROBUDDY]

What is all this talk about racism? Pun-like names and comic charactization are in the work! First think of it, as a friend of mine once pointed out, it was humourous of Dr. Tezuka, a Buddist and therefore a vegetarian, to name a villian "Ham Egg"! But what if one were to infer that because ham and eggs are a popular American breakfast staple that he was actually "Anti-American", which would be ridiculous because his philosophy was "love all things"! As for "Cacciatore" I believe Ladd was paying homage to the Ringmaster character in Disney's "Pinochio", "Stromboli"! As far as the accent the actor spoke in, my God haven't you guys ever seen a Marx Brothers movie! You think Chico talked that way in real life! Sometimes it can be fun poking fun at something if done with good taste! In defense of the writer, I think he was using the accent as part of the identity of the character and let's face it, accents can be funny!

[jeffbert]

Yes, I too, think that Ladd, seeing the resemblance between Hamegg & Stromboli, Disney's version of the Puppeteer, very likely gave Hamegg the name of another Italian food and the accent to go with it; and I was a bit surprised to note that Ladd said nothing about Stromboli.

[ASTROBUDDY]

While Ladd does not necessarily make a direct mention of Stromboli, he has commented on the similarity between "Astro Boy" and "Pinocchio" in interviews. Especially since NBC brought the cartoon to him & asked him if it was "another Pinocchio", to which Ladd understood "Astro Boy" was much different from "Pinocchio", but was still interesting just the same and if done right could see the potential in its adaptation for the U.S. market! As far as NOW comics version of Astro Boy, I find it interesting how they tried to make up stories of our hero, especially when at the time little was available in English re: Astro Boy's history! Oh by the way that "Astro Boy" back-up short story I mentioned before appeared in the 17th issue of "Speed Racer" (cover-dated, Feb., 1989), not the 20th issue as I mistakenly stated before!