Steranko's Nick Fury #4. Op art meets pop art
Did you ever learn or figure out something that in retrospect, seemed so obvious that it's hard to believe that you didn't know about it in the first place? I sure hope so, because here's my list of STUFF THAT I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BUT ONLY RECENTLY LEARNED.
Arby's
You know the place that makes those yummy roast beef sandwiches? Well the name is the initials of the product that they sell, but spelled out phonetically into a name. R. B. for Roast Beef. Connie could not believe that I didn't know that. Did you know that? Sometimes you don't really think about things because they are right under your nose. You don't think they have deeper meaning.
Chips Ahoy
I didn't realize that the name of this popular cookie is a take-off on "Ship Ahoy!" When I first heard about this cookie I had a limited vocabulary. My knowledge of the cookie pre-dates my knowledge of the phrase so I just took it for granted.
Rock The Vote
I don't have any excuse here. I really should have realized that this was a take-off on "Rock the Boat."
Namor (The Sub-Mariner)
Didn't realize that this famous Marvel Comics character's name it the word "Roman" spelled backward. He's kind of like a Roman Emperor. That's more of a tough one, you probably don't look at names backwards looking for meaning all the time ether.
Rom (Spaceknight)
I didn't realize that Rom's name is short for Romany, meaning gypsy. He is a gypsy that roams around the galaxy.
Cloak and Dagger
For some reason, it didn't occur to me that this team's name was a take-off on a slang term for spy fiction. That's because you could clearly see the girl's cloak, and the dude's daggers. I didn't think about the name any further! Talk about not seeing the forest for the trees!
I'll be updating this list from time-to-time as I think of new ones.
BB Gun
What are the BBs that a BB gun shoots. BB is short for Ball Bearing.
Tony the Tiger
You know how Tony the Tiger, say's "It's Grrrrrrrrate!" I didn't realize that he elongated the Grrrr because he's a tiger, And Tigers say Grrrrr. It wasn't untill McGruff the crime dog came on the scene and used pretty much the same gag, that I caught on. What's the Armstrong's Roofing guy's excuse (Three sevens, Aaaaaaaand a one two three four!) He's not dog or tiger (But he is dead.)
Pop Music
I didn't realize that this was short for Popular Music. It seemed like it was music that Popped. Around the same time I heard about Pop Art, I heard about Op art, which I knew used optical illusion. Steranko used a lot of it in his art. But what about "pop guns" or "pop rocks" the pop in those are not short for "popular." The items make a popping sound.
Pulp Culture
I didn't realize that this popular book on Pulp Magazine art was a take-off on "Pop Culture", or Popular Culture. Perhaps others didn't realize it as well, as there were other books on subjects other than Pulp magazines published in the same format that still used the word "Culture" thus elimating the play on words entirely. "Comics Culture" is one of the titles.
I will update the list from time to time when I think of more things that I didn't know at the time, but should have been obvious to me.
