The Man with the Electronic Brain

An old comic book science fiction story titled "The Man with the Electronic Brain." Electronic Brain

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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Mark Dow

Best case scenario, fighting off monkeys before next Monday. Worst case, wearing a black turtle neck.
TimDrew

Unfortunately, it seems as if when shopping for said electronic brain, he didn’t decide to go for the recommended optional “electronic brain with electronic eyes” upgrade package…
pidg

TALK ABOUT A DILEMMA!!!
Abelard Lindsay

IGNORE ME!!!
teleny

Sounds like our boy Assange!
pjcamp

Those monkeys are about to shoot him!
Anonymous

gotta say, that’s a smart outfit he’s wearing: great tailored suit, fancy embroidered tie, hankie in the pocket. Might as well look fine while you stumble about, right?
jordan

He’s trying to use Google Goggles to find a place that sells custom undershirts.
Ugly Canuck

He needs a set of four-way hips to go with that electronic brain:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_mWUyh2jMg

A catchy theme song wouldn’t hurt him either.
vancouvergrrl

It is a bug spray gun; we used to have one, back in the days when we made ornaments out of cigarette pack liners.

Why do all these men have pants that crease so much?

Why are two people in the background running towards him, one arm upraised? Is there a taxi we don’t see?
- Phikus
  
  People used to starch their clothes a lot more in those days. They’d carry around big caulk guns of the stuff for any on-the-spot starching that needed to be done.
  
  Electronic brains were very controversial in those days before the iPhone. People either wanted to wave at those who had them or shoot them in the street. There was very little reaction in between.
- Ugly Canuck
  
  Bug spray?
  Like to kill the electronic brain’s bugs?
  
  No no no. It’s a so-called “grease gun”, an M-3, as used by the US in the Korean War.
  See here:
  
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M3_submachine_gun
  
  Where’s Mr. 44 when we need his knowledge?
Rich Keller

That’s my cosplay outfit, right there.
nanuq

Great. Now I want to read the actual story which doesn’t seem to be available anywhere. Damn you, BB!
Atrum

Is the un-blanked version online anywhere? The pages at the link only offer me tantalizing tidbits of dialouge.
cinemajay

Awesome, it’s Daft Punk: The Early Years!
Anonymous

Hold it – is that soldier armed with bug spray?
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  It’s a caulking gun.
  - WizarDru
    
    Actually, it’s an M3 submachine gun, circa World War II. But it sure LOOKS like a caulking gun.
    
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M3_submachine_gun
ChiarasDad

What stands out for me about this illustration is its ethnocentricity. Everyone — well, at least the two soldiers and the caption text — relates to this being as a “man” with a deviant brain. The horror! Yet I think this is a rather poor framing of the situation.

I think a more accurate and sympathetic perspective is that this creature is a hyperintelligent electronic mind which somehow finds itself in the presumably quite discomfiting situation of being affixed to, and dependent for locomation and action, on this . . . well, where to begin? Squishy, weak, rather wobbly, failure-prone, and honestly terribly limited in virtually every way (even if rather well turned-out) bio-body.

The horror! What anguish must it feel? How can we help it?
jimkirk

It’s like Garfield minus Garfield.

http://garfieldminusgarfield.net/

Who needs words?
Anonymous

Gilbert Anonymous here:
I always like Murphy Anderson’s artwork because he would always incorporate his name in a scene, like the storefront that says “Murphy Anderson, or in another comic a street sign that said “Murphy/Anderson.
Anonymous

Very clever thought ! Love it !
Anonymous

@Antinous #23

No, it’s not a caulking gun-it’s almost certainly intended to be an M3 submachine gun.
vancouvergrrl

I like the way the military guys’ dialogue makes perfectly unambiguous who in this picture is THE MAN WITH THE ELECTRONIC BRAIN, in case there was any doubt.
Xenu

That’s not a very good superhero name. It would be like calling Superman “Man with the Cape Who Flies Around” or if you called Batman “Guy with lots of Gadgets and a Car That Makes James Bond Look Cheap.”
- knoxblox
  
  Well, since all our brains are generating a small amount of electricity through a huge number of chemical switches, wouldn’t it be “The Man What Has a Brain That Is More Electronic Than Ours”?
  
  Still a mouthful.
CANTFIGHTTHEDITE

Is he walking around like a Scooby Doo monster, or is it just that hard to balance an electronic brain of that size on his shoulders?
thecheat

It has to be hot inside with all those vacuum tubes.
Baron Karza

Say, are you kidding? That’s the new, modern streamlined Man With The Electronic Brain for 1954! He really looked like a dope the year before with that big AM Radio/Phonograph for a head!

I’m thinking he got dressed up before he had his head replaced; since he can’t see to walk he can’t tie his tie either, so why not dress up nice just once and wear the same thing forever?

His battery is running low.
dross1260

First thought was When is it going to rain?

Second was admiring the atypical grease gun.
Stefan Jones

What is the antenna on top of the dome for? Maybe he should have been called THE MAN WHO WITH WI-FI RECEPTION.
eviladrian

Is this another Assange article?
eviladrian

While I’m here…

http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/7486/wikileaksguy.jpg
Anonymous

Ahhh, the classic dicotomy “we should destroy he is a menace” versus “no, he is our only chance”. Warm like mommaÂ´s apple cake.
someToast

“MMNMMMF! MNMMNDMNMMN! MNFFMN!!”
Anonymous

Methinks this is ripe for remix…
braininavat

Yeah, well, we all have them now – these days electronic brains are so small you can just hold them up to the side of your head. I’m pretty sure the electronic brain guy in the picture is looking for a Starbucks.