Le cabinet de curiosités de Laurent Gauthier : “Manipulations” 2013
On this day, 30 January 1968, the North Vietnamese military and the National Liberation Front (NLF) in the South launched the Tet offensive – a major operation against US and ARVN (pro-US South Vietnamese) forces to coincide with Vietnamese New Year. While the offensive was a tactical failure and they suffered massive casualties, it did show the public in the US that their military propaganda stating that the war was nearly over and that the NLF had almost been defeated was a lie. This helped swing public sentiment, including amongst US troops, against their involvement in the region.
Our podcast episodes 10-11 are about the anti-war movement amongst US service personnel: https://workingclasshistory.com/2018/08/06/e10-the-gi-resistance-in-vietnam-part-1/
Pictured: NLF fighters https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/2198451077006697/?type=3
Fun Fact: Marvel Comics entered into a partnership with Japanese film and TV studio Toei to make stuff for the Japanese market back in the 70s.
The most interesting what-could-have-been was a Silver Surfer series that would have seen a half-human version of the character teaming up with Japanese secret agent Ms. Marvel (based on the Carol Danvers) and The Thing, who would have been a working class Japanese truck driver mutated by the invading Galactus Corps.
Less fleshed out were ideas to adapt Moon Knight (due to his superficial resemblance to a classic Japanese character Moonlight Mask) or The 3D Man. Allegedly, Toei was just picking characters that they thought looked good and then intended to do whatever. Picking 3D Man is kind of a “Get Fucked” to….literally any Marvel character who actually had their own series or spot in a team book at the time, having made a total of three appearances.
What actually did get made was an apparently not-that-good anime movie based on Tomb of Dracula, the legendarily weird Spiderman series (wherein he got his powers from a dying alien and piloted a giant robot), and the inspired-by-Captain-America series Battle Fever J that basically gave the world Power Rangers (Sentai has existed before, but this introduced the giant robots and suit style).
All of which is so much more interesting than Marvel’s Mangaverse (though it had a couple bright spots).
