As a graphic designer, I purchased this original 1938 book for the illustrations and typography, then discovered the freakish story line. It's from the good old days when the words "sissy" and "nit-wit" were used freely and rifles and explosives were household items.
Each page names a nit-wit behavior (Firebug Nit-Wit, Head Out The Window Nit-Wit, Explosion Nit-Wit, Sharp Edge Nit-Wit and many more) and features a maniacally awesome illustration of said behavior. These unsafe behaviors are extreme to say the least. A few gems are playing with axes, hanging on the
back of a moving truck, playing with guns, fireworks, fuses, electrical wires, and being hit by a steam roller.
In honor of July 4th, I've attached the spread with the gun/fireworks. Happy
birthday USA!
[ed note: Yeah! Happy, uh, 6th of July. Backlog, my bad. I'm adding the other scans to the daddytypes photopool on flickr, in bigger sizes. stay tuned.]
4 Comments
You win. That has to be the most bizarre book ever. It does remind me a bit of the "That's disgusting" and "That's dangerous" books (Pittau & Gervais), but the addition of calling the kid names is just lovely!
Yeah. Nit-wit, infant. Whichever. The baby should just KNOW not to play with guns!
I've got a book that's the same shape and artistic style as the Tintin books except it's an incredibly detailed history of firearms.
Very odd.
Irony here is that Nit-Wit didn't waste himself. Instead, he grew up and became President Dubya Nit-Wit.
Go figure.
[d'oh, just as the "South Park Conservatives" and NRA lobbyists were venturing back to the site... -ed.]
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