Power to the people! Teeth for shrimp! Plato was a fascist!
Chris Bertram over at Crooked Timber brought up Harry Perkins, the fictional prime minister from A Very British Coup, in the course of a post that seems cheekily to suggest we Yanks are a bit more starry-eyed and less cynical than Brits when it comes to pop culture representations of our respective Fearless Leaders. (This is not necessarily a bad thing, mind. Do remember that the monolithic Left controls the entertainment industry in both realms.) Coup is a hardnosed political thriller, but it’s leftist, socialist, old skool Labour politics, and that makes all the difference. A great little fairy tale; highly recommended when you want a little dose of mightabeen. (I’ve only ever seen it up at Skook’s place, where I imagine it’s still a rainy-day security blanket..?)
Being reminded of Harry Perkins reminded me in turn of J Daniels’ bootleg Tintin comic, Breaking Free, in which the boy reporter, on the dole after being sacked from a dodgy construction job, joins up with the Captain and just about every worker in Britain in a popular uprising, peacefully overthrowing the corporatist state in favor of a happy anarcho-socialist people-powered muddle. It’s heartbreakingly hopeful and hoplessly naïve; another fairy tale that I adore. You can buy it, of course, but while trying to scare up the links I discovered it’s also available online. Enjoy.
You could have knocked me over with a feather--I thought I was the only person in North America with a copy of Breaking Free.
I think Charles picked it up—am I right, Charles? I ended up with it in the divorce (as it were). It's one of the old Attack International editions, with the blue cover, battered and well-loved. (Not this spiffy new vaguely suspicious yellow cover I've seen kicking about online. —Change. Feh. Nossir, we don't like it.)
Pride and Prejudice seems to be the current rainy day favorite for the Nizz. British Coup and Anne of Green Gables (and sequels) wait patiently in reserve.
I got a copy of a pamphlet on Depleted Uranium, which makes ample use of rewordballooned Tintin samples. Very amateuristic, but fun in a perverted way.
And there also Tintin in Switzerland, where he and the opera diva get it on...