{"id":37116,"date":"2022-01-21T10:55:51","date_gmt":"2022-01-21T15:55:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/?p=37116"},"modified":"2022-01-21T11:03:11","modified_gmt":"2022-01-21T16:03:11","slug":"dont-mess-with-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2022\/01\/21\/dont-mess-with-success\/","title":{"rendered":"Don&#8217;t Mess With Success"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a title=\"Punisher Lapel Pin\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/willceau\/51833168934\/in\/dateposted-public\/\" data-flickr-embed=\"true\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51833168934_71484a45ae_z.jpg?resize=640%2C480&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Punisher Lapel Pin\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" \/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>Pictured above is an enamel lapel pin of <em>The Punisher&#8217;s <\/em>logo. I actually forgot I had this and came across it while looking for something else. <em>It&#8217;s always the way.<\/em><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"37120\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2022\/01\/21\/dont-mess-with-success\/spidey129\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/spidey129.jpeg?fit=300%2C400&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"300,400\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"spidey129\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/spidey129.jpeg?fit=300%2C400&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-37120\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/spidey129.jpeg?resize=300%2C400&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/spidey129.jpeg?w=300&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/spidey129.jpeg?resize=225%2C300&amp;ssl=1 225w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>The skull logo has become the subject of controversy lately in that it has been embraced by police and members of the military.\u00a0 It&#8217;s on patches, tee-shirts, stickers and is nearly as omnipresent as the Superman logo. Rather than happily banking this income, the corporate holder of the intellectual property <em>(Disney)<\/em> as well as the author of the original character find this discomfiting. They want customers, but not <em>those<\/em> customers! There has been talk of retiring the character or changing the logo.<\/p>\n<p>Yep. Great. Don&#8217;t mess with success. Remember <em>New Coke<\/em>? C&#8217;mon &#8212; it wasn&#8217;t that long ago.<\/p>\n<p>I always loved The Punisher, but I always knew he was a derivative character. He was a knockoff of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Destroyer_(novel_series)\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Destroyer<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Executioner_(book_series)\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Executioner<\/a> and a bevy of other gun-toting anti-heroes from the pulps all of whom had better names. The name <em>The Punisher<\/em> fits now after almost 50 years of publication, but back then it felt like they were scraping the bottom of the barrel for a name that wasn&#8217;t already taken. Why not <em>Big Meanie With a Gun?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I always wondered why the King Features Syndicate who owned <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Phantom\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>The Phantom<\/em><\/a> didn&#8217;t bring suit against Marvel Comics. The skull motif definitely looks like a lift from the earlier comic strip character. Give <em>Punisher<\/em> a hood and a harlequin mask and he would be <em>The Phantom!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pictured above is an enamel lapel pin of The Punisher&#8217;s logo. I actually forgot I had this and came across it while looking for something else. It&#8217;s always the way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[120],"tags":[3517,5254,5253],"class_list":["post-37116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-curious-clutter","tag-clutter","tag-pin","tag-the-punisher"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1ed1x-9EE","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":37147,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2022\/01\/26\/out-of-context-comics\/","url_meta":{"origin":37116,"position":0},"title":"Out of Context Comics","author":"Joe","date":"January 26, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"A panel from The Phantom from March 22, 1980. I'm not sure what's going on here. I never really got into daily newspaper comic strips preferring comic books instead. I would get a chuckle from the humor strips, but wasn't interested enough to pursue the action stories. It always seemed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Curious Clutter&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Curious Clutter","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/curious-clutter\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Phantom!","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51843343441_4d336cda03_c.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51843343441_4d336cda03_c.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51843343441_4d336cda03_c.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2426,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2011\/04\/14\/holy-high-tops-batman\/","url_meta":{"origin":37116,"position":1},"title":"Holy High Tops, Batman!!!","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"April 14, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Geek Cred returns with this fabulous pair of canvas sneakers emblazoned with the Batman logo! These Converse Sneakers were released to coincide with the 1989 Tim Burton movie. After the movie's release, and the VHS tape's release, and the VHS tape finding a home in Blockbuster's previously viewed rack, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Curious Clutter&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Curious Clutter","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/curious-clutter\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Bat Sneakers","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3587\/3606770301_6807f72aee.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":44452,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2025\/01\/14\/it-came-from-the-filing-cabinet\/","url_meta":{"origin":37116,"position":2},"title":"It Came from the Filing Cabinet","author":"Joe","date":"January 14, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"My obsession with a drawing I penciled almost 40 years ago continues and keeps dragging me back no matter what I do. It started when I was trying to organize a flat file cabinet and I came upon the penciled original I drew on a 14 inch by 17 inch\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Curious Clutter&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Curious Clutter","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/curious-clutter\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/TB-photostat.jpg?fit=800%2C694&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/TB-photostat.jpg?fit=800%2C694&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/TB-photostat.jpg?fit=800%2C694&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/TB-photostat.jpg?fit=800%2C694&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":22351,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2017\/06\/09\/digital-clutter\/","url_meta":{"origin":37116,"position":3},"title":"Digital Clutter","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"June 9, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"This is a followup to my earlier post about the art school formerly known as The Philadelphia College of Art. Thanks to the Internet Archive which is probably the greatest site on the internet a number of odd, wonderful and rare publications are available for your perusal for FREE. There\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Blast from the Past&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Blast from the Past","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/blast-from-the-past\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18612,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2015\/04\/23\/aloha-means-good-bye\/","url_meta":{"origin":37116,"position":4},"title":"Aloha Means Good-Bye","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"April 23, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Another platter from the Stax O' Wax Collection of a huge stash of records found at a Philadelphia area printer.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Curious Clutter&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Curious Clutter","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/curious-clutter\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Aloha means good-bye","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm3.staticflickr.com\/2086\/2263726744_37f8fdbeaf_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm3.staticflickr.com\/2086\/2263726744_37f8fdbeaf_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm3.staticflickr.com\/2086\/2263726744_37f8fdbeaf_z.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":13361,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2013\/06\/24\/invasion-of-the-clutter-monkeys\/","url_meta":{"origin":37116,"position":5},"title":"Invasion of the Clutter Monkeys","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"June 24, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Once again, whilst on a mission to de-clutter, I found myself completely diverted from my mission by a chunk of clutter. In a four drawer file cabinet that has a whole story of it's own I uncovered a forgotten folder marked ENTERTAINMENT. Inside of the folder I found a bunch\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Blast from the Past&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Blast from the Past","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/blast-from-the-past\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/hbo-improved.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37116\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}