Thursday, August 16, 2012

Masked Man

Dell produced these Lone Ranger comic books throughout the 1950s when I was young enough to be part of the target audience, although I myself never bought one – or even saw one, as far as I can remember – in those far-off days.

For my childhood family, a combination of rural poverty and puritanical religion made pop culture itself into a form of forbidden fruit. Yet I did somehow see an occasional episode of the TV show that ran during the same decade. I definitely remember tiny black-and-white images of the Lone Ranger behind thick glass, like an aquarium. This would have been a sneaky and guilty pleasure, and Superman was equally sinful. I believed at the time that the same plump actor played both characters.