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In praise of Paste Pot Pete
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63 posts in this topic

I've noticed an increase in the mention of Paste Pot Pete as of late; in a Stan Lee thread and in a Strange Tales 110 thread, for example.
Usually these notations are of the negative variety as to how terrible a character he is (was).  A lot of this is likely due to his name and scope of powers (paste!).

I'd submit that the character actually has a redeeming quality in terms of satire - something Stan and the gang were fond of in the early silver age.
Back in those days, commercial art production of any sort required a cut-and-paste method, not the modern computer cut & paste by clicking a mouse, but by actually trimming and cutting components with an exacto-blade and pasting them together with glue to create a layout.  I'd bet that every comic book production department (such as Marvel's "bullpen") had several paste pots sitting around near drafting and light tables.

...So the name "Past Pot Pete" probably had bullpenners laughing and rolling in the aisles.  :whee:

 

...that is all.

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Preach Brother!

Pete is a favorite of mine, and your explanation adds up. That is probably also behind all those “I’m being erased!” / Living Eraser villains, or all the dolls coming to life. 

But The Trapster is a fine foil for the first family; The Fantastic Four!

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I too have a soft spot for the character. "Strange Tales" 124 was one of the first Marvels I read as a kid - and the first time I had seen any of the Fantastic Four.

ST124551x786.jpg

The thing that struck me about the story - and has stuck with me since - is the idiotic plot point of Thing, pinned to a wall by the Trapster's glue, struggling to break free, until Torch sagely advises "Don't try to break the paste, Ben, pull out the wall!"

Thus instructed, Ben does just that.

The stupidity of this is that even as an eight year old I understood that the force he was applying to "break the paste" was exactly the same force required to bust the wall.

That I continued to read Marvels after this is something of a mystery.

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10 minutes ago, Duffman_Comics said:

I too have a soft spot for the character. "Strange Tales" 124 was one of the first Marvels I read as a kid - and the first time I had seen any of the Fantastic Four.

ST124551x786.jpg

The thing that struck me about the story - and has stuck with me since - is the idiotic plot point of Thing, pinned to a wall by the Trapster's glue, struggling to break free, until Torch sagely advises "Don't try to break the paste, Ben, pull out the wall!"

Thus instructed, Ben does just that.

The stupidity of this is that even as an eight year old I understood that the force he was applying to "break the paste" was exactly the same force required to bust the wall.

That I continued to read Marvels after this is something of a mystery.

Did your 8 year old brain ponder also the mystery of the Lady from Nowhere? Now that's going to be a tough assignment for Doctor Strange. Think about it; she is from nowherehm

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                                                                                                               solo movie coming out someday lol 

                                                                                                          Image result for paste pot pete

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2 hours ago, KirbyJack said:

Preach Brother!

Pete is a favorite of mine, and your explanation adds up. That is probably also behind all those “I’m being erased!” / Living Eraser villains, or all the dolls coming to life. 

But The Trapster is a fine foil for the first family; The Fantastic Four!

i have an under the radar favorite villain too......

here he is .......

Image result for evil mutant toad

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5 minutes ago, Shaolingoat said:

One of these days I'm going to convince both @Batmanderson and @comicquant to cosplay as PPP and go to a major con.  I'm not sure when it'll be, but I'll trick them somehow.  

That would be awesome ! even though the young crowd would have no idea who he was it would be awesome .... ??.... !!

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12 minutes ago, Shaolingoat said:

One of these days I'm going to convince both @Batmanderson and @comicquant to cosplay as PPP and go to a major con.  I'm not sure when it'll be, but I'll trick them somehow.  

I will do this out of respect for the people who knew this character was awful but went through with it anyway.  I guarantee someone in storyboarding said "This is so bad we have to run with it."

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3 minutes ago, comicquant said:

I will do this out of respect for the people who knew this character was awful but went through with it anyway.  I guarantee someone in storyboarding said "This is so bad we have to run with it."

What about captain boomerang?

I could of sworn that I even today at the LCS he was even in a modern book... 

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43 minutes ago, Get Marwood & I said:

Did your 8 year old brain ponder also the mystery of the Lady from Nowhere? Now that's going to be a tough assignment for Doctor Strange. Think about it; she is from nowherehm

No. I had no such concerns with the Doc Strange story, again the first time I had encountered the character.

I did, however, much prefer that story.I liked the Ditko art, found the dialogue interesting and just thought the pacing of the yarn was "better".

Of course, my eight year old self was not quite able to explain why I liked it in those terms. Then I would have just thought it was a much gooder story. lol

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