Flanders & Swann's "The Spider" - who is 'Garth'

[Joel Polowin]

I was recently listening to Flanders and Swann's "The Spider" (AKA
"The Spider in the Bath"), and was trying to figure out the line
that mentions "Superman or Garth". A bit of Googling gives me the
impression that "Garth" is probably referring to a British action/
adventure comic-strip hero... is this correct? If so, how well is
the reference likely to have been known outside the UK in the
1960s, when the song was published?

[Paul Magnussen]

Yes, that's the reference. Garth started in 1943.

Lots of references in Flanders and Swann would be unintelligible to
anyone outside the UK.

Paul Magnussen

[Merle]

I'm not familiar with Flanders and Swann's work. So, thank you for
introducing them to me. I just listened to a couple of their songs on
Youtube and I love them!! Thank God for the internet!! :-)
They are probably referring to Garth/Aqualad - a member of the Teen Titans.
He was Aquaman's sidekick. Then he grew up and became "Tempest".

So, I probably won't get anything done today at all. I'll probably spend the
rest of the day listening to Flanders and Swann. Thanks a lot!!!! :-)

Take Care
Merle

"Joel Polowin" <jpol...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:5f664c65-b0f8-40d3...@q36g2000yqn.googlegroups.com...

[Paul Magnussen]

Merle wrote:

> They are probably referring to Garth/Aqualad - a member of the Teen Titans.

No. It's Garth in the Daily Mirror, very well known in Britain (see
Nancy Mitford's "The Blessing".

Paul Magnussen

[Merle]

Ah, there you go! Not being from Britain, I had no idea that particular
Garth existed!
BTW, there's information here about that Garth:
http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/g/garth.htm

There's also a story about the return of Garth in 2008 at
http://www.downthetubes.net/resources/comics_links/comics_characters/british_comics_characters1.html#garth
but it seems to have been discontinued.

Take Care
Merle

"Paul Magnussen" <magic...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
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