Yes, it’s another map from an old comic book.
from Action Comics #337 (May 1966) by Otto Binder & Jim Mooney
You know, given that the Evil-Eyed People only have one entrance to their underground realm, you’d think folks would have since found some kind of alternative path that didn’t lead right towards it.
Then again, who’s gonna feel threatened by these guys?
Now we humans have smallish eyes with lids, and I don’t know about you, but I’m always getting, like, something blown into my eye out of my truck’s air vents, or an eyelash stuck in there, or just some random detritus flung into my eyeballs by a cool summer zephyr. Maybe I’m just lucky like that. But this guy…this guy…he’s gotta be peeling crap out of eyes constantly.
But on the other hand…the Evil-Eyed People are able to shoot fire out of their eyes, so if their eyes can handle straight-up open flame, having a gnat fly in there probably ain’t no big thing.
…This really wasn’t what I meant to talk about, here. I was going to comment on the map, because boy howdy I love maps in comic books, but…seriously, it’s a map with ant people, giant acorn trees (not “giant trees with acorns,” though they are big, but “trees with huge-ass acorns“), and Evil Eye People. What’s not to love?
Sooner or later we need to gather up all these comic book maps, and feed ’em into a Google Maps/Mapquest-esque database: “How do I get to Star City?” “Well, hang a left at Gotham City, go a couple of miles past the Justice Society headquarters, make a right at Titans Tower, and if you’ve reached Gorilla City, you’ve gone too far.”
In other news:
- Amalgam Reborn, by Awesome Hospital artist Matt Digges. Not many there yet, but it starts off with “Batman Beyonder” and how great is that?
- And now…the Worst Comic Book of All Time, courtesy Dr. K., a professor who’s studied, academically, stories featuring Chop Chop from Blackhawk, so he knows from terrible. By the way, the comic under discussion couldn’t be more racist if it tried, so be prepared.
- Superman also hates vuvuzelas.
- Here’s your odd Swamp Thing link of the week: a comparison between the behavior of a particular U.S. political movement of some note and the author’s attempts to cajole his parents into buying him a Swamp Thing action figure. …Certainly wasn’t expecting to read something like that this week. Also, that post made me feel very old.
- Speaking of Swamp Thing, approximately 3,000 of you out there in the Progressive Ruin Super Agent Force emailed me the link to Daniel Crosier’s Deviant Art page featuring a wood-burned art piece of our favorite swamp dude.
Here, let me get this out of the way, before anyone asks this:
FAQ: Wouldn’t Swamp Thing, representative of Earth’s plant life, object to the burning of a piece of a tree?
A: No. Swamp Thing is a fictional character, and can’t object to anything.
- For more recent Swamp Thing-ery, hie yourself hither to Roots of the Swamp Thing, which has had a flurry of entries covering recent events and historical material involving the big green fella.
- And finally:
“The Joker becomes Swamp Thing Alec Holland does not become part of the Green, the Joker does. All Swamp Thing issues are retroactively taken out of continuity, replacing them with Joker-Swamp Thing. How does this affect things?”
I shudder to think.
The last bit there, about mapping the DC Universe, reminded me of something I read god only knows where about the Marvel Universe:
“There is no Chicago in the Marvel universe. Marvel America consists of fifty miles of New York, three miles of LA, the White House and Capitol right next to each other, and 3,000 miles of DANGER MISSILE TESTING AREA in between”
Mapping superhero universes could be great fun!
You might get a kick out of this site, Mike:
http://comicbookcartography.posterous.com/
I stumbled onto it by accident one day and it’s never left my bookmarks since.
That has got to be one of the coolest comic book sites out there. Thank you so much for sharing!
I’ll bet you’re the #1 Google search for “cool summer zephyr” right now. Also, will someone please turn Comic Book Cartography into a Chip Kidd book before Christmas?
I can’t believe the only landmarks on the map are the ones that will try to eat you. Wouldn’t it be better to include landmarks you’d see >before< reaching those, so as not to get killed while trying to figure out where the hell you are?
By the way, any foreign body in the eye could be instantly destroyed with heat vision. For once having giant eyes is reasonable.
I assume that the “migrating ant men” migrate very slowly to be considered a fixed point on a map. It’s like saying turn right at the flock flying south or turn left at the running dog. However, this may be the case as they are “ant men” which could imply very small ant-like strides.
Y’know, when I can actually find work related to my degree instead of selling comical books, I make maps. Real-world maps. environmental maps. Demographic maps.
I have decent open-source mapping software that I’m still figuring out, and I know where to get data files of cities and highways and terrain features in the United States.
I obviously need to do this, just for practice.
(Warning: Your Obedient Serpent’s map of the DCU is likely to replace Earth Prime cities with DC’s fictionopoli … and small towns in New England with towns from H.P. Lovecraft and Stephen King.)
And that final note about the Joker makes me dizzy.
Must be Vertigo.