Death Trap in Iran!

Jingoist 1952 comic book worth reconsidering in a modern context, or, as Boing-Boing puts it, "1952 Comic Predicts Bush/Cheney Iran Policy."

A bit of a stretch, maybe, but an extraordinary cultural document all the same. "Take it up with Washington, kiddo! And see how far you get!" I know what you mean, Agent Trask!

Here's the cover to the comic book that Boing-Boing excerpts, T-Man: World Wide Crime-Buster #3. It avers that it's "an authentic case based on the files of the U.S Treasury Department!" God help us all, I almost believe them.

[UPDATE: The honor of early '50s U.S. treasury agents in comic books is saved! While this is indeed the genuine page, comment thread skeptics were correct there was a hidden plot twist—that wasn't Trask himself, but a commie double! I looked up Trask in some of my comic book histories, and all was revealed in the nifty book Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America by Bradford W. Wright. And god bless Google books for the page link. I had read Wright's book when it was new, and goodness knows how I had forgotten the detail that it was a commie spy who threw the pig at the Iranian diplomat. Apologies for traducing Trask–he was a good liberal Cold Warrior, not a sinister pirate.]