Bad Taste: obsessed with the dark

The scan: sc-no224.pdf (PDF, Marxists Internet Archive, opens at this page)

This text was corrected by hand against the scan: the strip at the foot of page 5, which the machine reading did not see; image taken from the scan and its lettering transcribed (18 Oct 2026). One of Cormac's Bad Taste strips: obsessed with the dark. Note: numbered by year: "Cormac '81 #8".

page 5 of the scan

Five-panel cartoon strip: asked whether he is not in danger of becoming obsessed with the possibility of a nuclear holocaust, the cartoonist recalls muttering something about preferring to light one candle than curse the dark — for he really is obsessed with the dark; a candle burns on a CND box. — Cormac, "Bad Taste" (numbered '81/8), Socialist Challenge no. 224, 3 December 1981, page 5. From the Marxists Internet Archive scan.

The strip, panel by panel

1. BAD TASTE — Cormac '81 #8. "Is this a poem?"

2. (A "Complaints Dept." window:) Caption: "Recently I was asked if I was not in danger of becoming obsessed with the possibility of a nuclear holocaust"

3. "I seem to recall that I muttered some feeble reply about preferring to curse one candle" "Not too clever a response I'll admit" "For I really am obsessed with the dark"

4. (A candle burns on a box bearing the CND symbol.)