All three of the stories presented in PLASTIC MAN #63 in 1956 were reprints of earlier Plas adventures. And all three of them ran up against problems withe the relatively new Comics Code, requiring them to make revisions. Obviously, these revisions were imperative to prevent the sort of chaos and murder that was generated when these stories first went out in their unaltered forms. So let’s take a look at another of these stories and see just what our benevolent protectors did to sanitize it for our convenience.
This story by Plastic Man’s creator Jack Cole concerns a pair of brothers who eat everything in sight. More, in fact, than the Comics Code thought was good for them. The revisions begin right here on the first page in the first panel, where a hungry man’s foot has been taken out of Plastic Man’s mouth, and the FBI designation has been removed from Chief Branner’s nameplate. And in the last panel, the can of peas that’s being swallowed whole is replaced with a pair of still-wrapped candy bard–I’m not sure how that’s supposed to be better for you, but oh well.
In panel one, Woozy still refers to the guy eating a can of peas, though the text has changed to “right out of the can.” In panel 5, the woman in the foreground has her cleavage made more modest.
Here on Page 3, though, in Panel 2, Woozy slips up and remarks that the guy they’ve tripped up is the same one who at the can of peas, can and all. Apparently the Code was asleep at the switch here. Probably they were too focused on changing the fish the guy was eating in the final panel into a box of fish food.
Here, in panel 4, that long sausage has been eliminated–I’m guessing that somebody thought it looked too much like something else. In panel 5, a whole cornucopia of food, including a whole live pig, is replaced by a single bit of fruit. The pig’s squeals have been edited out from Panel 6 as well.
Strangely, in panel 3, the X-Ray specialist’s name, Duodenum C. Gastritis M.D. is taken off of the door–maybe somebody thought there was something nasty about that name? Or maybe it was that Gastritis was x-raying his mother in panel 4, another detail that was excised. And Panel 7 is heavily reworked so as to not show the insides of the two brothers crammed full of undigested and still wrapped foodstuffs.
In panel 1, a pair of hungry people knawing on the telephone pole have been edited out as has the dog that te third hungry guy on the ground is chasing, so he’s a strange non-sequitur in that background–looks kinda like he wants to chow down on Plas and Woozy now despite the fact that his bat and fork have been taken away.
The final page of the story appears to be untouched, thank heavens. But I’m sure you’ll agree that these adjustments improved the story in every way, and prevented any further outbreaks of juvenile delinquency or, for that matter, gluttony–despite the fact that everything was now in good taste.
The Tom Brevoort Experience 