A couple of weeks ago, I checked out a new-ish LCS to grab some titles that were out of stock at my usual shop. While waiting for the cashier to ring me up, I just happened to turn around. That’s when I saw it.
Me: “Holy crap! Fast Willie Jackson!”
The cashier gave me a befuddled look, because she obviously had no idea what I was talking about. But sitting atop a discount longbox were two issues of the short-lived ‘70s comic that Fitzgerald Comics published as an “ethnic” Archie ripoff.
How bad was this comic? Willie and his cronies lived in “Mocity,” and they used a lot of slang. A lot of slang. And for the love of God, just look at this nonsense!
The resident lothario dressed like a Shaft-era pimp. No one in my family said things like “Can you dig it?” or wore purple leisure suits, but I guess Fitzgerald Comics wanted to make sure all the jive-talking brown kids out there could relate. Even at 7 years old, I knew this was a bootleg concept — and I had a pretty high tolerance for stupid comic books. I thought the girls looked pretty, but that’s about as far as my appreciation of Fast Willie went.
More than 30 years later, though, I couldn’t resist the warm glow of nostalgia. I bought those two Fast Willie Jackson comics for a buck apiece, if for no other reason than to have a reminder of just how much can change in three decades. Right on.
I wanna wear a purple leisure suit!!!! “Can ya dig it!”
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Oh, I would pay good money to see that!
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Sweet Christmas that yellow leisure suit was outrageous. I mean, what self-respecting comic book persona would be caught dead in a canary-colored getup like that?… Oh … wait … nevermind.
Signed,
Luke Cage
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Bwahahaha! Mr. Cage, I’ve got some stonewashed denim and a pair of Timberland boots with your name on them. I hear you aren’t wearing shirts these days, or maybe that’s just a Bendis thing.
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When you grow up on the mean streets of Harlem, get sent to prison for a crime you didn’t commit, and have steel-hard skin, you wear whatever hell you want. Is that a tiara on my head? DAMN RIGHT!
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My brain! Now I am unable to erase the vision of Luke Cage with jewelry on his head …
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