A few days ago, a package arrived at my door: it was my ebay-purchased, beat-up-but-readable copy of Dell Comics’ 1957 “Paul Revere’s Ride,” with art by Alex Toth (which is why I bought it). Today I read it. Good stuff: Toth took a lot more care with this than with the 1960 Four Color adaptation of “The Real McCoys,” which I acquired in the same fashion. So anyway, there I was happily reading away — not paying too much attention to the writing, but it didn’t require much — and Paul was happily riding away, when this happens:
Do you see what he just did, in that last panel?? He warned the British. During the Ride. Warned them that they’re not going to be able to make it to Concord to seize the rebels’ cache of weapons — take our guns away!! (I paid enough attention to the story to understand that much!)
Then, a couple of pages later…
…in the last two panels: he does it again!
Now, it’s not that I’m a fan of Sarah Palin, but let’s be fair: she didn’t mess up on Paul Revere… she just learned her history from a comic book drawn by Alex Toth! So regardless of political ideology, we in the comic book world should come to her defense, right?
Okay, well I didn’t give the full title of the comic, which is “Walt Disney’s Paul Revere’s Ride with Johnny Tremain.” So perhaps the fact that this is Disney’s version of history, and includes the fictional character of Johnny Tremain, has to be taken into account here. Probably Sarah actually got her history lesson from watching Uncle Walt’s Wonderful World of Himself, in which case I’m not sure we need to rise to her defense. Never mind.
3 replies on “Sarah Palin Vindicated by Alex Toth!!”
This is a fairly accurate portrayal of one unplanned moment from Paul Revere’s busy night of 18-19 April. When he was stopped by British officers in Lincoln, he told them what he’d been doing—which could be interpreted as warning them. The noise that startled Maj. Edward Mitchell (page two, panel 4) should be gunshots, not bells, but there were church bells elsewhere that night.
The problem for former half-term governor Palin is that this conversation was most definitely not the purpose of Revere’s ride. (The first time she said that was probably the slip of a tongue. The second time she said it was sign of an inability to admit to a slip of the tongue.) It was a conversation that Revere had been trying to avoid all night.
Also, Revere didn’t warn either the British or the provincials “by ringin’ those bells and um by makin’ sure that as he’s ridin’ his horse through town to send those warnin’ shots and bells…” He had the ability to make himself understood with words.
But the part with the Herculoids fighting the British, that’s true, right?
Paul Revere’s ride in his own words
http://www.themoralliberal.com/2010/11/19/paul-reveres-ride-in-his-own-words/