Brief anecdote about the educational power of comic books: Today while out running errands, I stopped to buy a cup of cofee at a shop that was offering ten cents off the price of purchase to any customers who answered a trivia question. The question was, "What does 'defenestration' mean?"
I correctly guessed that it meant to throw someone or something out of a window.
Know how I know? Because of Garth Ennis and John McCrea's late '90s DC series Hitman, my favorite comic book series of all time.
In it, Ennis and McCrea introduced a team of "super" heroes known as Section Eight. They were lead by local drunk Sixpack and included among their number the fearsome Dogwelder, who welded dead dogs onto his enemies, and Bueno Excellente, a sweaty naked man in a trenchcoat who fought crime with "the power of perversion" (Whatever he did to criminals, it happens off-panel, thank God).
Anyway, one of these degenerate superheroes is named The Defenestrator (far left in the picture above), a big man who dresses like Arnold Schwarzenegger's Terminator and carries a window with him at all times. In battle, he picks up his foes in one hand, and then throws him through the window he's holding in his other hand. Sure, it's not much of a gimmick, but it's better than Dogwelder's.
So thanks Mr. Ennis and Mr. McCrea. Not simply for producing my favorite comic book, but for saving me ten cents on my coffee today.
What a bunch of cheap asses. Only ten cents? Ten cents off of a probably, ten dollar coffee. I would've given it to you for free for knowing that - but then again...that's probably why I don't own a coffee shop, eh?
ReplyDeleteIn that case, I wish you did own a cofee shop.
ReplyDeleteI ended up tossing the dime in the tip jar too, so I guess I technically didn't win any thing in the trivia contest. Other than fond memories of Section Eight.