Today’s a big day! First of all, we have a new page, Page 218, featuring our heroes asking Beowulf for help with the castle’s Nazi problem, plus the return of Elizabeth the Pizza Girl.
Secondly, we have . . . well, it’s important enough to have its own blog post.
Our latest page of The Electric Team features Bart Hill, a man from Earth, answering the question, “What are Nazis?” Bart knows all about Nazis, having punched a lot of them–see our previous blog post for examples.
While it makes sense that our heroes, who are from another world, don’t know what Nazis are, does it really make sense to devote most of a page to answering the question? Especially since most of our readers already know, and our page space is precious and limited? I went back and forth on this for awhile, but eventually decided to do it for a couple of reasons. First, it’s thematically appropriate. Just like the pizza parlor serves as an example of what the Electric Team is fighting for, the Nazis serve as an example of what the Electric Team is fighting against.
The second, and more important, reason is that my daughter Abi, who’s the co-writer of the comic, couldn’t tell me what a Nazi is. She knew they were bad, but she’s in third grade, and hasn’t learned about World War II yet, so her main source of information is “Crisis on Earth-X.” Since The Electric Team is an all-ages comic, I decided it was important to give some historical context for our younger readers, even if it doesn’t go into much detail, and it’s stuff the older readers already know. Older readers, don’t worry, we’ll be getting to the big action scene soon.
And even if it was stuff you already knew, that’s some lovely artwork by Sam Albert, isn’t it?
We have a new page up and, oh no, the Nazis are involved! But that shouldn’t be a total surprise . . . I mean, we did see some menacing guys speaking in German a few pages back . . .
After reading this page, you may be thinking to yourself, “Leeta just met this Bart Hill guy. Why is she trusting him? Maybe he’s also a Nazi, and he’s luring her into a trap!” Let me tell you, friend, that Bart Hill’s anti-Nazi credentials are impeccable. Here he is, in a page from 1941’s Daredevil Comics #1:
Bart infiltrates a meeting and, two pages later, he punches Hitler. As he’s punching Hitler, Nazis shoot at him, but it’s okay, because he screams, “This is worth dying for!”
Bart Hill has zero patience for Nazis.
On a related note, keep reading! Coming up soon, we’ve got the Nazi-punching action you crave!