| E-Mail | Introduction | Archives | Message Board | September, 14, 2009 Issue #1257 of 1282 |
Title: What Do GM Diesels Do?
Issue: “21 SA-82C 250M—7-55”
Date: 1955
Publisher: General Motors Corporation
Cover Artist(s): Unknown
Here’s an ODDBALL COMIC that’s told through the sketches of a
talented cartoonist employed by General Motors – in other words, it’s
either a complete fantasy…or a bailout scheme! Don’t miss WHAT DO GM DIESELS DO?, a “giveaway” funnybook written entirely in rhyme, starring that lovable corporate-spokes-character-of-many-hats, “Jimmy Diesel”! (And the kids just love ‘im!)
This well-executed eight-page “giveaway” comic is slightly bigger in dimensions (7¼” by 10 ¼”) than the average comic book – and certainly with better paper, printing and production values in general -- WHAT DO GM DIESELS DO? was created with the intention of educating young children about the many uses of General Motors’ line of diesel-powered vehicles. Although this issue’s 8-page story bears the sole credit, “Verses by J. W. Brown, Detroit Diesel Engine Division”, no effort has been made to identify the person who so ably drew it. This story – which actually begins on the 8-page comic’s cover -- introduces a new corporate cartoon spokes-character to represent General Motors’ diesel division, “Jimmy Diesel”.
But what’s truly Oddball about WHAT DO GM DIESELS DO? is that Jimmy Diesel and the other illustrations in this comic were supposedly designed and drawn by the father depicted twice in the story itself! Even more far-fetched is the notion that he has a full-time job at GM’s “Detroit Diesel” plant; if he can draw this well, he’s clearly a professional cartoonist…so what’s he doing working at GM? Are we expected to believe that, in 1955, that General Motors had a full-time professional cartoonist on its staff? Maybe so, but that’s a looong stretch just to set up a story that could have been so conveniently narrated by Jimmy Diesel! If nothing else, it would have given bland Jimmy an excuse to exist, instead of standing around various locations wearing different hats but not really doing much of anything! With thinking like that displayed in WHAT DO GM DIESELS DO?, it’s no wonder that companies like GM are asking for bailouts…!
Anyway, here’s WHAT DO GM DIESELS DO? in its entirety:
Cover/Page One:
Last night my little eight-year-old
Stopped by to say to me
“Dad, what do GM diesels do?”
I said – Well now, let’s see…
Give me that pencil and a pad
Which like an artist’s easel
Will make it easy for your Dad
To first sketch “Jimmy Diesel”.
For Jimmy Diesel is the name
(A “nick-name” you might say)
Applied to engines that we build
Where Dad works every day.
For this – the “Detroit Diesel” plant
Which Daddy knows the best
Turns engines out for things of which
You may have never guessed.
Page Two:
First there’s the bus, which city boys
See almost every hour,
There’s more and more of them each day
Which runs by diesel power.
Cross-country buses, such as these,
Take folks from sea to sea,
Then there’s the railroad diesel car
We call the “RDC.”
No doubt you’ve seen big diesel trucks
Go rolling down the road,
They scoot right over mountains
With a big and precious load.
They carry milk and food and clothes,
And other things we need,
We’d find it very hard to do
Without these trucks, indeed!
Page Three:
Out on the farm, where things are done
In bigger and bigger ways,
The diesel tractor has replaced
The horse and mule these days.
And diesel tractors help to build
Our airports and our roads,
They dig right in and never stall
Regardless of the loads.
The “steam-shovels” that once I knew
No longer run by steam
For diesel power and the shovels
Now make a bang-up team.
Shovels and cranes and drag-lines vary
In the work that they do,
But one and all they take a lot
Of power to see them through.
Page Four:
Wherever pumps are needed
With a high out-put per hour
You’ll often find the pump is run
By GM diesel power,
Away out west where “men are men”
And all have lots of room,
They furnish irrigation which
Will make the deserts bloom.
The very lumber in your home
From the time the trees come down
Furnishes many, many trying jobs
On which diesel “goes to town”,
For GM diesels drag the logs
Or haul them to the mill,
They saw the boards and plane them smooth
And do it with a will.
Page Five:
But, Papa, tell me something else
Before we go too far –
One of the boys was asking me
Do diesels run a car?
In European cars, I said
The diesel’s often seen
But here in our own U.S.A.
Cars run on gasoline.
South of the Mason-Dixon Line
Where cotton reigns supreme,
They’re doing less and less by hand
And more by the machine,
The cotton gin and compress
Which prepare the snowy fluff
Will soon be joined by diesel pickers
If I know my stuff.
Page Six:
Our diesel generating sets
Are running by the hour
In coal and goal mines far beyond
The reach of other power.
There are isolated feed mills
Far from the nearest town,
Rock-crushing plants and other things
Too many to put down.
In oil fields scattered everywhere
The GM “quad” and “twin”
Are drilling holes deep in the earth
To bring petroleum in.
To hoist the heavy drilling pipe
Where’er the derricks tower,
And mix up mud and pump it down
Takes GM diesel power.
Page Seven:
The fishing boats that help to fee
The folk of many nations,
And pleasure craft which we enjoy
On week-ends and vacations –
The boats that push the barges
Tugs and ferry boats, you know,
All call for GM diesel power
To keep them on the go.
Two other busy GM plants
Are working night and day
To turn out diesels on demand
And are they busy – say!
In diesel power for streamlined trains
For “freights” and “switchers” too
“Electro-motive leads the field
Or is that news to you?
Page Eight:
The “Cleveland Diesel” engines go
In power plants, “subs” and boats
The tugs these larger engines power
Move anything that floats.
Gee Dad, that’s swell! My small boy said
I’d like, as a surprise
To take these drawings all to school
To show the other guys.
Why sure, I said, take them along
And, yet, I’m telling you –
I’ve only briefly covered what
These GM diesels do!
Also included in this issue of WHAT DO GM DIESELS DO? is the following advertisement:
- “Courtesy Of Detroit Diesel Engine Division”, a third-page ad for the “General Motors Corporation”,
ODDBALL FACTOID – Over the course of this story, “Jimmy Diesel” is seen wearing a variety of headgear to represent many vocations that deal with diesel equipment: a train engineer’s hat; a trucker’s cap: a ranger’s hat: a construction helmet; a cowboy hat; a toque, a farmer’s straw hat; a firefighter’s helmet; and a sailor’s hat!
New Next Week: ODDBALL COMIC #1,273 -- MONDAY, SEPTMBER 21, 2009 – Calling all freaks, geeks, nerds and wimps! If you’re tired of getting bullied for being a comic book fan, this funnybook is for you! Why? Because this week’s ODDBALL COMIC guarantees “a complete judo lesson in each issue!” — in this case, “The Trip From Behind!” If you wanna even the odds against your tormentors, you’re gonna flip for JUDO JOE, “one of the most important influences in young America”! And wait ‘til you see Judo Joe go head-to-head with Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin – or at least their masked look-alikes!
For more from Scott Shaw!, visit his Web site at http://www.shawcartoons.com/.Just how odd is today's Oddball Comic?
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in the poll on the left. Then come talk about it
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