July 26th, 2010
Monday PSA: Binky Says “It’s Fun to Belong!”
Filed under: Comics | 1 Comment »
Another Binky public service ad — actually his second PSA featuring the theme of how to spend a constructive summer. The initial PSA dealt with Binky’s friends; this PSA deals with Binky’s younger brother (he of the enormous bowtie): Allergy.
“Uncle Binky” — that’s a more than a little creepy. I foresee the little blond girl ending up in therapy years later telling stories about her “uncle.”
Speaking of creepy, I suspect that monkey puppet will be a thing of nightmares.
This public service ad is found in DC comics from April 1956. The script is by Jack Schiff and has art by Win Mortimer.
More PSAs
The teens walked all the way to the river carrying a large empty box, a bottle, and a tin can just so they can throw them in the water? There have got to be easier ways to litter — or better yet, recycle.
It seems to me that a big flaw in Wolfie’s plan is that few women would find the “ability to almost drown” a positive. 
Further Reading: 
I haven’t read too many Superboy stories, but does he come across as smug and condescending in the comics as he does in these PSAs?
As a bonus, the PSA features birds. Sure, they’re no 
— may very well have caused more problems than it solved.
Jesse, trying to emulate his older brother Dave, has started to use drugs. After he shares some angel dust-laced marijuana with his friends, he heads off to an anti-drug rally his parents are making him attend. The Teen Titans (minus Robin, who is once again replaced by generic hero “The Protector”) are speaking at the rally — no, not Speedy, he’s probably back at Titan’s Tower getting high. 
Dennis the Menace Takes a Poke at Poison was published in 1961 by the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (which split in 1979 to form the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services). In a mere sixteen pages, Dennis and the rest of the Mitchell family cover a variety of poison-related topics, including — but not limited to — children’s medicine, pet medicine, spoiled lunchmeat, toxic wild berries, bug bombs, and weed killers.
Speaking of the glucose tolerance test, the patient needs to be fasting, and it doesn’t take 12 hours to run.
, the author proposes that this PSA has “Superman himself endorse a program of national social welfare.” I think that’s reading a bit much into the ad. To me, while Superman seems to be advocating some form of community welfare, it is a combination system of both private and government programs (he refers to “taxes” suggesting a governmental approach; but the hospital is having a fund drive, which suggests non-governmental funding), and one more locally based than national is scope. Overall, I think Superman is just proposing that “neighbors help neighbors”, whatever the system.
A rare white orchid is on display at the black-tie dinner at the Gotham City Botanical Gardens and Bruce Wayne (Batman) and Tim Drake (Robin) are there to keep an eye on it. The reason? Poison Ivy has recently broken out of prison and this is just the kind of plant she likes to steal. Sure enough, she shows up and Batman and Robin spring into action. Unfortunately Robin is so sedated from his over-the-counter allergy medication that he lets Poison Ivy escape with the orchid.
It all starts when Captain America receives a note from Keith, a member of his Teen Brigade. Keith plays on his high school baseball team and is concerned about the team’s star pitcher Mitch. Recently, Mitch has started performing poorly, wheezing, and acting very anxious. Keith also tells Cap that he saw a strange man on a street corner giving something to Mitch, but Mitch wouldn’t tell him what it was. Keith is worried about Mitch and asks Captain America to check it out, especially with the big state championship game coming up.
It seems that whenever I visit a comic book convention, I always manage to stumble across a few public service comics I haven’t seen before. Wizard World Texas was no exception and I managed to find a few good ones. For starters, here is Supergirl (or American Honda Presents DC Comics’ Supergirl, In Cooperation with the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Safety Belt Campaign). While not horrible, it’s not a particular good PSA — the fact that four writers are listed is always a dead giveaway. There’s about six pages of story stretched out to 28 pages. The message is somewhat muddled too, as the person who is supposed to be “learning a lesson” seems to be having a better time than everyone else.
Hearing the news, Linda rushes to the hospital and is dismayed when she realizes how badly Steve has been hurt. Doing what any normal person would do when she finds a loved one injured, she runs off to Superman’s Fortress of Solitude and uses some of the alien machinery there to access Steve’s mind in an attempt to bring him out of the coma.
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