Are you a friend of the Clan? The Trash Clan, that is? Whew, bet you thought we meant something else, didn't you? Well if you were in Pennsylvania back in the 80s and had a concern with trash and were some kind of talking trash bag or an alien trash-battling robot, then you might be a Clan member - a Trash Clan member, that is!
Yes, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and its various regulatory bodies thereof at some point determined that a good way to teach youngsters about litter would be to post a lot of signs that read "Don't Litter." No, wait, they decided to print this comic book about the Trash Clan, a litter-fighting force of hideous freaks led by an outer space robot.
Here they are - Space Robot, Smiling Bag Man, Talking Trash Can, and Pea Person, blasting across the skies of Pennsylvania in their rocket ship, testing their new litter-fighting devices. And no, it's not a bag and a stick with a nail on the end of it! Space robots aren't about low-tech solutions!
The latest in litter demolishing technology - a ray gun that turns any kind of litter into flowers and trees. We'll install these along the turnpike and soon our cigarette-butt strewn medians will be transformed into beautiful flower gardens. Just be careful getting out of your car if you have to change a tire, though - you might wind up a hydrangea!
Be sure to keep piles of experimental litter around your space ship for all your talking-trash-bag-ray-gun-firing litter removal experimentation needs.
Uh oh something's gone terribly wrong and now the ray gun is turning piles of litter into even larger piles of litter because, to the surprise of no one, talking trash bags probably shouldn't be trusted with powerful beam-emission transformation weapons.
And what's even worse is, the space robot who flies this space ship, he's vanished! They're probably going to crash into one of Central Pennsylvania's many pictureseque hills or perhaps an underground coal fire that's been burning out of control for 100 years, maybe!
Through the miracle of mental communication, Bag-It is in touch with the evil Dr. Doog who has taken Trashmaster prisoner, and is, like the Riddler, giving our heroes a series of Pennsylvania-related clues as to his wereabouts. It's off to Lake Erie!
Wow, what happened to make Lake Erie horrifying and polluted? Here's a hint guys, it's called "The 19th And 20th Centuries," that's what screwed up Lake Erie.
(note to artist) Say, what kind of music are those kids into these days? I mean, the black kids. What kind of music are they into? I wonder if we couldn't indicate that by means of lettering on a shirt? You know, just to make sure the kids know we're "hip" to what's "going down" these days.
It's off to Hershey PA to find Trashmaster! But who will clean up Lake Erie's beaches? Surely the local municipality or the state department of.. no! Let the kids clean up the beach! You know how conscientious and hard-working kids are! They'll have that beach cleaned up in a jiffy.
Leapin' Litterbags! Yes the street lights actually are made in the shape of Hershey's Kisses! Fun Hershey PA Streetlight fact: Nestle's salesman who venture too close to town will occasionally be found hanging from them.
Closed down rides, piles of garbage, whining children - yup, it's an amusement park all right. I will point out that this panel here is the first and only time this comic book will mention the word 'recycling'. It's a brave step into the 1970s for this 1988 comic!
If you didn't know Williamsport PA was the Little League Capital of the United States, you do now. The bronze statues of the Bad News Bears at Williamsport City Hall are a nice touch, I think. But Williamsport is in crisis because weeds have overgrown all the ball fields and if there's one thing the children of America can't stand, it's playing ball in messy, unkempt fields!
All right, come on, I know full well that the county Parks & Rec has actual landscaping & groundskeeping professionals that are paid good money to keep those fields mowed. How does a freakin' talking garbage can get the stones to try and drag senior citizens and garden clubs into this mess?
It's off the peaceful-looking state capital, Harrisburg! Yes, Harrisburg is the state capital of PA. Look it up if you don't believe me.
A handy tip for artists - save time drawing complicated cityscapes by simply photocopying existing pictures and pasting them onto your artwork!
Wow, the Capitol Rotunda is strangely free of trash and litter! Mostly because of the professional custodial staff keeping it free of trash and litter!
Handy tip for artists - save time drawing, etc., photocopying existing pictures, etc., pasting, etc.
Meanwhile in a hippy van the evil Dr. Doog holds Trashmaster prisoner by means of his pointy finger and his green bow tie and pink shirt.
Aw man Talking Garbage Bag is armed with the Trash Ray! One blast of that and everybody starts doing the Trashmen's greatest hit, "Surfin' Bird!"
Just as predicted, Talking Garbage Bag lets Dr. Doog have fifty thousand volts of Litter Changing Ray right in the bow tie. Take that, hippy-van owner!
The Litter Ray does NOT turn Dr Doog into a hydrangea, but merely overloads the mind control colander that had been put on backwards and instead of removing litter with mental powers was CREATING litter with mental powers. Did you know that YOU can create litter with your OWN mental powers? First step is to write and draw a terrible comic book!
Restored to his regular non-litter-creating mentality, Dr. Good swears on a stack of... uh, something sacred to Pennsylvanians... uh, scrapple, or hilarious Pennsylvania Dutch joke books, or Wawa, or something... that he will do his best to keep Pennsylvania beautiful. Only Pennsylvania's kids, and seniors, and garden clubs, and PennDOT - mostly PennDOT - can keep litter from ruining the Keystone State!
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