Stoopid comics

[House of Usher]

I've been working lots of unsociable hours lately, and I've been getting behind on my reading. I treated myself to an issue of Sinister Six (DC) the other day (treated, because it's not a series I've been following), and I've only just got round to looking at it properly this morning. I was going to read it, but I was put off by some idiocy in the first panel - I'll have another go at it later today.

The story, written by Gail Simone, features the Batman villain Mad Hatter very prominently. In the first panel on page 1 he's been badly duffed up, and complains of being "ten sixths gone", a reference to the label tucked into the band around his top hat. As an fool knows, that label is a price ticket: "in this style, 10/6".

That's "10 and 6", or ten shillings and sixpence; not ten sixths.

Has Gail Simone been taking stupid pills?

[DavidXBrunt]

Could be a mistake, as it's archaic monetry language from a country other than her own, or it could be a joke. Ten sixths is the kind of basic nonsense you'd expect from somebody parodying Lewis Carroll.

Erm...dunno.

[The Adventurer]

No, I think she's just not British and probably didn't brush up on her Victorian era hat price ticket knowledge before taking on the title.

Just a guess.

[johnnystress]

what a howler

hangings too good for her

[Concrete Block 15]

Tsk. Wimmin, eh?

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjxY9rZwNGU" target="_blank">VENEMOUS HARRIDANS!

[Max Kon]

and it's not the hat size?

[Concrete Block 15]

Well, perhaps not any fool...

[The Monarch]

wow and I seriously thought I seen the nitpickiest of nitpicks in this board...

course looking away from hat prices or whatever Secret six is a cracking and very fun read and I hope the characters get a proper series sometime

[johnnystress]

speaking of howlers

remember the time Slaine said " we'll play hurley with their heads"

geez louise

we all know it should have been "play hurling with their heads" , the hurley being the stick used to play that game.

I hope Tharg punished him severely for that one

sheesh

Yours,

Irate reader with too much time on his hands

Kildare

[Max Kon]

well i dunno, i've not read, just a possible explanation from the facts available

[TordelBack]

"remember the time Slaine said " we'll play hurley with their heads" "

Hah!  Hardly bears comparison with the deal-breaker in "SD: Outlaw", when Spud Murphy says "Begorrah!  It's the Garda!", when there was plainly more than one policeman, and thus he should have used the plural "Gardaí".   Are we supposed to believe that the Irish language has mutated as badly as the speaker?  Pah, talk about shattering suspension of disbelief.

Completely spoilt an otherwise excellent tale of mutant mayhem.  I sincerely hope the Wagner and Grant droids were never let near another 2000AD strip after that disaster.  

[Bico]

Depends which part of the isle he was supposed to be from.  Some I know refer to the Gardai as 'the guards', even if there's only one.  "Wheesht, it's the guards" etcetera...
As a Stront, though, surely he would have been in exile as soon as his mutation was apparant?  He could only retain the barest flecks of a native accent.

Armed with this knowledge, I'm sure Grant and Wagner were given a second chance, or perhaps because the comic needed more gay characters for the sake of a realistic picture of futuristic multiculturalism.  Begorrah.

[Concrete Block 15]

Ah, but in this context, Garda (note with a capital G) is being used as a collective proper noun to describe the entire organisation as a whole, and not just individual members of it, a la "Shit! It's the police!" (no capital required here, however, as there's no use of a proper noun on account of there not being one single UK organisation 'the Police', many separate individual bodies/forces being involved.)

The confusion comes when the same word is also used to describe an individual officer (garda, with a lower case g), the plural indeed being gardaí but again without a capital; Gardaí is non-existent.  

Hopefully, you'll be able to enjoy this excellent tale of mutant mayhem free from falsely perceived grammatical distress in future...    

[WoD]

All the best to you all for the New Year.

[House of Usher]

Re: hat sizes and possible explanations from the facts available...

10/6 makes no sense as a hat size.

Hat sizes are either measured in inches diameter (e.g. 7 and 3 eighths) or they come in centimetres circumference.

A hat that was 10/6 of an inch in diameter would be a very small hat indeed.