Superman is vegetarian, right?

[Aldous]

the only purpose of the Smallville science fair seems to be to showcase new kinds of fertilizer.

And to demonstrate brave new forms of horse thievery!

Explain.

[Lee Semmens]

Super Monkey wrote:
TELLE wrote:


Actually, I would be interested to know if Superman or Superboy ever dealt with drug smuggling or dealing before the 1960s in any Gold or Silver Age comic.
 


I am sure they did, here is a example: https://www.supermanthroughtheages.com/wiki/index.php/John_Parrone


Quote:
a gang of "drug-crazed bandits" ...... slavish dependance on hard drugs


That comic, which I wouldn't mind reading, would seem to be ahead of its time, and most certainly before the advent of the comics code.

Does anyone own this story, or has anyone read it?

Aldous, that story was reprinted in Superman Archives Volume 2, which I have not re-read for quite a few years.

It appeared 13 years before the CCA was introduced.

[Permanus]

The bolts of lightning are probably in keeping with organic farming, as lightning does strike the earth of its own accord, and it's merely being encouraged, much like encouraging a new insect to establish itself on an orchard so it will eat an existing insect pest, or adding compost you have made to a potato patch.

Okay, but you know what I mean; the inhabitants of Smallville, like most of their real-life counterparts in the 50s, constantly seem to be on the lookout for artificial ways to boost yields, which is hardly the organic ethos.

(It occurs to me that Swamp Thing, who under Alan Moore's tenure became a figurehead for environmentalism - and by extension, I suppose, organic farming - is actually not organically sound himself, being a creation of Alec Holland's "bio-restorative formula", which sounds a bit like genetic manipulation.)

[Aldous]

Lee Semmens:

Aldous, that story was reprinted in Superman Archives Volume 2....

Thanks, Lee. Not sure if I'll ever own that Archive, but I would like to read the story one day.

Permanus:

Okay, but you know what I mean; the inhabitants of Smallville, like most of their real-life counterparts in the 50s, constantly seem to be on the lookout for artificial ways to boost yields, which is hardly the organic ethos.

Yes, I do know what you mean. Now that I think about it, the line between organic and artificial is quite blurred, and sometimes it's a grey area, open to interpretation. There are farmers and orchardists here who don't help; every so often a case is successfully prosecuted through the courts in which a farmer using "artificial" methods has advertised his produce as "organic" to increase prices and/or sales, and there are even cases of, for example, "battery-hen" egg producers or "barn-hen" egg producers using the Free Range label to justify increased prices, before being caught out.

[TELLE]

the only purpose of the Smallville science fair seems to be to showcase new kinds of fertilizer.

And to demonstrate brave new forms of horse thievery!

Explain.

Lex Luthor "borrowed" a farmer's horse for his holographic exhibition at a Science Fair in Elliot S! Maggin's Last Son of Krypton:
https://www.supermanthroughtheages.com/thebook/lsok/?chapter=15

"Out of a spinning silk ribbon and a copper toilet tank float, Pete Ross built a Van de Graaf electrostatic generator which could shoot tiny bolts of lightning at a flower box and, theoretically, stimulate the growth of plants.  Clark Kent showed off a crude, nearly indescribable harness-and-pulley system which, Clark said, simulated for prospective space travellers the condition of low gravitation.  A person in the harness would hang parallel to the ground, walk/swing along a wall like a pendulum, and feel as though he or she were hopping high off the ground/wall with each step."

I just realized that the pulley system may have been the one the Kents used to train Clark to "fly straight"

[Great Rao]

Telle, thanks for the post.  I noticed a typo in the excerpt that you posted; so I went back and corrected it both in the online version of the book and in your article.

[Aldous]

the only purpose of the Smallville science fair seems to be to showcase new kinds of fertilizer.

And to demonstrate brave new forms of horse thievery!

Explain.

Lex Luthor "borrowed" a farmer's horse for his holographic exhibition at a Science Fair in Elliot S! Maggin's Last Son of Krypton:
https://www.supermanthroughtheages.com/thebook/lsok/?chapter=15

Thanks, Telle. Your reference may have been a bit too obscure for someone (ie. me) who hasn't read Last Son for a number of years. It must be time I re-read that great little novel.