this post was submitted on 24 Aug 2024
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Everett True Comics

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A place to appreciate the twentieth century comic character Everett True of "The Outbursts of Everett True." Feel free to check out the sticky.

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On June 28, 1919, the day this was printed, the Treaty of Versailles was signed in France ending the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers of World War I. That's the context for the "hun mine-layer" comment.

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[–] rayquetzalcoatl@lemmy.world 43 points 2 weeks ago (11 children)

I am pretty sure "Hun" was a way to refer to the Germans in WW1, so a Hun Mine-Layer would be a German who laid mines... But could be totally talking out of my arse so will look it up πŸ˜‚

[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 10 points 2 weeks ago (7 children)

So is Atilla the Hun just Atilla the German?

[–] OhNoMoreLemmy@lemmy.ml 26 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

Other way round. The nickname/insult was saying Germans are warlike barbarians like Atila the Hun and the rest of the the Huns.

[–] eestileib@sh.itjust.works 20 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Kaiser Wilhelm gave a speech encouraging his soldiers to "be huns" on campaign, which led to it being an insult applied to Germans.

[–] AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space 17 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

β€œhun” was the β€œorc” of the pre-Tolkien era

[–] Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works 12 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

1919 was the Tolkien era. He just hadn't published yet

[–] Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works 8 points 2 weeks ago

Ehhh yes, but the stereotype already existed before that speech: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hun_speech

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