Polite Dissent

Published in 1986, this is the second Supergirl public service comic teaching about seatbelts. Like the first one, it was sponsored by American Honda and the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Safety Belt Campaign.

In this story, Linda Danvers is driving two kids and their pet dog home. (No, I don’t know who the kids are, or why she’s driving them home – that’s never explained.) During the ride, the kids and dog fall asleep and dream they are in Motorville, a town home to all the famous characters of nursery rhymes and fairy tales, all driving cars or trucks – and most driving badly. Supergirl arrives and the three of them decide to catch a show while they’re in town, and they want to see the most popular show in town, The Crash Test Dummies (not those Crash Test Dummies, but these Crash Test Dummies).

Supergirl and the kids first catch a ride with the taxi-driving Humpty Dumpty, but he gets cracked in a minor fender bender because he wasn’t wearing his seatbelt. (Never is it explained why Supergirl doesn’t just fly them across town to the show).

Next, they hitch a ride with the Little Old Lady and her kids that live in a shoe, but the Little Old Lady’s car gets a flat when it’s rear-ended by a truck-driving Big Bad Wolf (luckily there were no injuries because everyone was wearing their seatbelts).

The Three Little Pigs offer Supergirl and the kids a ride, but they get hit from behind by the Big Bad Wolf’s little brother C.C. and Supergirl has to catch the two pigs which weren’t wearing seatbelts.

Finally, the Crash Test Dummies themselves pick up the trio and take them to the show. In the end, the kids wake up back in the car with Linda driving, wondering if it was really a dream.

In addition to the story, the comic also contains a letter from Elizabeth Dole (Secretary of Transportation at the time), an page on how to design a poster encouraging others to wear seatbelts, and “The Great Motorville Auto Race” game.

The comic was primarily written and drawn by Andy Helfer, Joe Orlando, and Barry Marx, with help from Jose Delbo, Dave Hunt, Bob Oksner, and Bob Rozakis.