Comic Book Filter: Abe Lincoln tears off Jack Kennedy’s arms
June 17, 2023 11:31 AM
Content note: Gore
Some time between 1999 and 2004 I flipped through a comic book that featured a manifestation of John F Kennedy. While interacting with the main character, Kennedy has to keep his hand over the gunshot wound on his head to keep his brains from spilling out. Later in the comic, Kennedy meets Abraham Lincoln, who I believe was intended to be a sinister manifestation of the USA itself. Lincoln offers Kennedy help, saying something like “all you have to do is give me your hands.”
The final page shows Kennedy wandering mindlessly—Lincoln has torn off his arms, allowing his brains to spill out of his head unimpeded, leaving him lobotomized but not dead (since he’s a metaphor and not a real person).
What was this comic? It seemed like something Grant Morrison, Garth Ennis, or Warren Ellis might have written, but I didn’t find anything of theirs like it in my research. I was reminded of this comic by a tweet about Peter Milligan’s run on Shade the Changing Man in the 90s, but JFK was treated very differently in it.
I believe it was between 1999 and 2004 that I saw this since I’m pretty certain it was in an HMV store in San Francisco. I moved to San Francisco in 1999 and it seems the last HMV store in the US closed in 2004.
I’m pretty sure it was a single issue, not a graphic novel. The art was not of any distinctive style that I recall, just standard realist comic book art of the time.
Searching DuckDuckGo and Comixology has been fruitless. I’d ask on Reddit but I’m boycotting. I may have to break the picket line if you all can’t help me!
Some time between 1999 and 2004 I flipped through a comic book that featured a manifestation of John F Kennedy. While interacting with the main character, Kennedy has to keep his hand over the gunshot wound on his head to keep his brains from spilling out. Later in the comic, Kennedy meets Abraham Lincoln, who I believe was intended to be a sinister manifestation of the USA itself. Lincoln offers Kennedy help, saying something like “all you have to do is give me your hands.”
The final page shows Kennedy wandering mindlessly—Lincoln has torn off his arms, allowing his brains to spill out of his head unimpeded, leaving him lobotomized but not dead (since he’s a metaphor and not a real person).
What was this comic? It seemed like something Grant Morrison, Garth Ennis, or Warren Ellis might have written, but I didn’t find anything of theirs like it in my research. I was reminded of this comic by a tweet about Peter Milligan’s run on Shade the Changing Man in the 90s, but JFK was treated very differently in it.
I believe it was between 1999 and 2004 that I saw this since I’m pretty certain it was in an HMV store in San Francisco. I moved to San Francisco in 1999 and it seems the last HMV store in the US closed in 2004.
I’m pretty sure it was a single issue, not a graphic novel. The art was not of any distinctive style that I recall, just standard realist comic book art of the time.
Searching DuckDuckGo and Comixology has been fruitless. I’d ask on Reddit but I’m boycotting. I may have to break the picket line if you all can’t help me!
How did I miss that!! Thank you so much! You da bomb, a feather in amber.
posted by ejs at 11:54 AM on June 17, 2023
posted by ejs at 11:54 AM on June 17, 2023
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posted by a feather in amber at 11:50 AM on June 17, 2023