Born on this day in 1841: Henry Morton Stanley, reporter and explorer who supposedly uttered the phrase "Dr. Livingston, I presume?" And we all know that when you presume, you make a pres out of you and me. As I depict these events using comic books, feel free to read along in safety...all panels of African natives calling Stanley "bwana" have been excised!
from "Historical Almanac" in Real Fact Comics #21 (DC, July 1949), pencils and inks by Joe Kubert
Stanley, like Dennis the Menace or Dennis the Menace (UK), was never one for school learning. He left university early...out the window! Unfortunately, he attended college in the tallest building in Great Britain: four stories!
from "Sir Henry Morton Stanley" in Real Life Comics #26 (Pines, November 1945), creators uncredited and unknown
As an explorer, he visited the mysterious Tibetan city Lhasa, and also expefriemented with the effect of boulders dropped upon Monopoly houses.
By 1969 Stanley finally decided on his life's work: walking up to strangers and telling them who he presumed they were!
"How did I grow a mustache and goatee just by moving to another comic book?"
from "Henry Morton Stanley...The Adventurous Scribe" in Wild Boy #7 (Ziff-Davis, August 1952), pencils (and inks?) by George Tuska
And it was when he finally encountered Dr. Livingston that he uttered his famous words:
from Real Life Comics #26
OH FOR PETE'S SAKE STANLEY. Take two:
from Wild Boy #7
Nobody quite believed Stanley when he returned to England minus Dr. Livingstone, just like nobody believed me I had met Keira Knightley down at the CVS when she was really thankful for my order of dinner at our apartment but had to go iron her salamander:
Stanley lived a presumptuous life, getting bonked on the shoulder by an unamused Queen Victoria, until, like all 19th century explorers, he died.
Curiously, he did not utter his catchphrase when summoned from the past by Kid Eternity. What he presumably uttered: "Who the devil are you? And how in blazes did you drag me out of the afterlife?"
from "The Man Who Lived a Million Years" in Hit Comics #52 (Quality, May 1948), script by Bill Woolfolk, pencils and inks by Pete Riss
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1 comment:
+500 for the self-defenestration
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