{"id":850,"date":"2016-04-29T23:30:15","date_gmt":"2016-04-30T03:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aboutcomics.blogwyrm.com\/?p=850"},"modified":"2016-06-22T07:26:37","modified_gmt":"2016-06-22T11:26:37","slug":"badger-dont-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aboutcomics.blogwyrm.com\/?p=850","title":{"rendered":"Badger Don’t Care"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yo! Larry.<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0 If that rallying cry doesn\u2019t mean anything to you then you were not exposed to one of the most fun and quirky comic book runs of the 1980s \u2013 The Badger<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"Badger_Badger<\/a><\/p>\n

The central character, one Norbert Sykes, just happens to a Vietnam vet who exhibits multiple-personalities, a curious devotion to and the ability to speak with animals, a penchant for mastering various abstruse martial arts, and a total disregard for both social convention and for his own safety.\u00a0 In his role as Badger, Sykes is, more or less, the familiar of\u00a0a 4th<\/sup> century Druid wizard who goes by the name Ham since his original Welsh name is a touch too long to pronounce.<\/p>\n

Whether Ham is a force for good or evil or just in it for a little material comfort and wealth (well a lot of wealth \u2013 more on that in a moment) is difficult to pin down, but his magic certainly gets him and the Badger into some curious and amusing spots.<\/p>\n

The final member of our little group is a clinical psychologist named Daisy Fields.\u00a0\u00a0 On paper, Daisy is Ham\u2019s private secretary, but closer to the truth, she seems to be both a moderator and enabler of the hijinks and insanity that ensue.<\/p>\n

If my description seems murky, weird, confusing, and aimless then I shall have been true to the nature of the book.\u00a0 And what a wonderful nature it is.\u00a0 Rather than being a ponderously heavy and serious examination of modern life, The Badger<\/em> has its tongue fairly planted in its cheek even when displaying biting social commentary on everything from annoying people in the checkout line in front of you or those who start their yard work a wee bit too early in the morning to the sometimes self-involved behavior of the rich and corporate malfeasance.\u00a0 The Badger<\/em> shows that a good sense of humor is a powerful tool for both entertaining and making a point.<\/p>\n

The trio is first brought together in a state sanitarium somewhere in Wisconsin, where the central figures of these tales, Norbert and Ham, are enjoying room and board and relaxing padded rooms courtesy of that fine state.\u00a0 It seems that Norbert has been committed for committing a variety of civil disobediences of the sort mentioned above.<\/p>\n

\"Badger_Gets<\/a><\/p>\n

On the other hand, the state has consigned Ham to a rubber room of catatonia and vagrancy.\u00a0 The former condition is a consequence of some early handling of the Druid by the angry townsfolk of the 4th<\/sup> century British Isles.\u00a0 It seems that Ham had a nasty habit of sacrificing whatever he needed to get the magic he wanted<\/p>\n

\"Badger_Meeting<\/a><\/p>\n

Having had enough, the various peoples subdue him and, failing to be able to harm or kill him, they place him under spells of deep sleep and then hiring explorers to drop his body off the face of the Earth.\u00a0 Mistaking North America as the end of the world, the explorers deposit Ham in what would later be one of the Midwest\u2019s most interesting commonwealths.<\/p>\n

Sharing adjacent rooms, Ham and Badger forge a psychic connection that soon blossoms into a full-fledged working relationship<\/p>\n

\"Badger<\/a><\/p>\n

Affecting their joint release, Ham soon discovers that the magic of money may be as powerful as the magic of sacrifice.\u00a0 Using his wizarding skill, he amasses a small fortune which he uses to set to build a castle in which he and Badger will use as a base of operations.\u00a0 He also entices Daisy from the Sanitarium with both a promise of more money and a chance to examine Norbert and his various splintered personalities at her leisure.\u00a0 He wants her part of the team so that she can help manage his growing wealth and to help manage the Badger, who is an integral part of his scheme.<\/p>\n

\"Badger_Ham<\/a><\/p>\n

As Ham later explains to a supernatural entity called the Hodag, the Badger is his familiar<\/p>\n

\"Badger_Hodag<\/a><\/p>\n

and that connection \u2013 sometimes strained, oftentimes cordial, and always strange \u2013 catapults them into bizarre territory and unimagined adventure that allows the series creator, Mike Baron, the material he needs to explore spirituality, individualism, society, lunacy, and fun.<\/p>\n

For example, one the earliest adventures involves a California-based energy company being a poor corporate citizen.\u00a0 Wanting to build a Midwest power plant, the company has procured a parcel of land that contains an extremely old oak tree.\u00a0 They plan to level the parcel in order to make way for their new power plant, thus ending the oak\u2019s long life span.\u00a0 Being a Druid, Ham desperately wants the land since the ancient oak is a powerful source of magic.\u00a0 Being rich, Ham tries to purchase the land in the usual fashion \u2013 directing one of his minion\u2019s to dig up information while he is chauffeured in his Bently by another<\/p>\n

\"Bader_Norbert<\/a><\/p>\n

When he discovers that he has been too late to save the oak, Ham vows revenge.\u00a0 He asks the Badger to<\/p>\n

\"Badger_Badger<\/a><\/p>\n

Using the resulting, mystic surf-board, Ham mounts a huge tidal wave which he has aimed at the power company\u2019s California headquarters.<\/p>\n

\"Badger_Ham<\/a><\/p>\n

At the last minute, disaster is averted, but not before the corporate-types are sufficiently chastised by the whole experience.<\/p>\n

Other zany vignettes include an exchange between a flight attendant and a westward-bound Badger that reflects a point many air travelers have pondered<\/p>\n

\"Badger_SeatBack<\/a><\/p>\n

and a self-absorbed, wealthy woman, who disregards the need to evacuate an upscale Madison mall when two jaguars free themselves from a mall-attraction and decide to do a little shopping<\/p>\n

\"Badger_Jaguar<\/a><\/p>\n

Along the way, the reader gets to meet some of the various personalities that make up Norbert\u2019s psyche<\/p>\n

\"Badger_Emily<\/a><\/p>\n

Of particular interest, is Max, who is charming, refined, and gentlemanly in ways that neither Norbert nor Badger can be<\/p>\n

\"Badger_Max<\/a><\/p>\n

Along the way, Mike Baron throws in a lot of esoteric modern lore, including a whole-issue (#23) homage to the Church of the SubGenius<\/a>, in which the International Brotherhood of Brujos (IBOB) has sent a powerful demon, who just happens to bear a striking resemblance to J.R. \u2018Bob\u2019 Dobbs<\/a>, to take on the Badger (a sampling of their verbal sparring shown below)<\/p>\n

\"Badger_Badger<\/a><\/p>\n

All told, I wish there were trade paperback versions of The Badger<\/em> readily available because it was a fun read and remains quite fresh.\u00a0 It would do the new generation of comics readers some good to see some of the crazy but charming ways in which a series can be both enjoyable and meaningful. \u00a0A new version of The Badger<\/em>, stylistically updated to reflect the 30-years that have elapsed, is being published.\u00a0 Whether it can conjure the old fun remains to be seen but if not we always have Yo! Larry<\/em><\/strong> to fall back on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yo! Larry.\u00a0 If that rallying cry doesn\u2019t mean anything to you then you were not exposed to one of the most fun and quirky comic book runs of the 1980s… Read more ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aboutcomics.blogwyrm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aboutcomics.blogwyrm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aboutcomics.blogwyrm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aboutcomics.blogwyrm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aboutcomics.blogwyrm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=850"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/aboutcomics.blogwyrm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":898,"href":"https:\/\/aboutcomics.blogwyrm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850\/revisions\/898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aboutcomics.blogwyrm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aboutcomics.blogwyrm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aboutcomics.blogwyrm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}