1/26/09

Fruitman, subtext or not?

"The Bunny Ball Fantasy Theatre presents Fruitman's Vacation," from Harvey's Bunny comics #6 (December 1968).
Fruitman was a regular backup to Bunny comics.
As the Toonopedia says:
Fruitman (aka Percival Pineapple) was a "special" superhero — not quite in the sense of "special" education, but tending in that direction....Percy could transform himself into any kind of fruit. Thus, he could squirt citrus juice in criminals' eyes (with no hand at hand to slice and squeeze him), make them slip on his skin when he was in banana form (and yet, be unharmed when he switched back), and hide as a grape, blueberry, or some other small and relatively unnoticeable fruit.

Since Fruitman was published in '68, the Stonewall Riots were at least 6 months in the future, but I have to wonder whether some writer somewhere was making a comment about superheroes. Still, as you can see in this episode, Percival's sexual preference is obvious, if a little pathetic. I mean, hanging around on someone's ear?
Also, cannibal jokes are a little over the top. Is Fruitman a repressed version of R. Crumb, or a very tongue-in-cheek send up of all superheroes? You be the judge.
Here's another site that has a couple of scanned Fruitman comics.





1 comment:

  1. Wow, that is a crazy comic, nice find! I covered Super-Hippie (from Bunny #5) but I didn't know about Fruitman.

    Pat from Silver Age Comics

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