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WHAAMSKI

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In 1963, Roy Lichtenstein created a, destined to become world famous, masterpiece called "WHAAM!". It appears to be a depiction of a friendly fire incident that took place during the (Korean?) war as both planes appear to be depictions of F-86 Sabres (although the American plane also looks like a late model Mustang). Note the low tailplane and single air intake of the WHAAMed plane in Roy's original [link]

Incidently, the original comic frame from which Roy took his idea (DC Comics "All-American Men of War") does show a MiG-15 being WHAAMed by an F-86 Sabre - the plane types are quite definite in the original DC comic of 1962 - the WHAAMed Russky even has a split air-intake and high tail section a-la a MiG-15 Fagot of 1950's vintage.

So a few things crossed my mind

a) The now declassified communications between the North Koreans, Russians and the Chinese during the Korean War clearly show that nearly all (if not REALLY all) of the North Korean pilots were in fact Russian - and bloody good Russian pilots at that - see my drawing of Ivan Kozhedub for more info
b) It's been more than 40 years since Roy produced his enormous piece of Pop art and in all those 40 years (as far as I know) no-one has ever sought to redress the balance.
c) We all like the Russians again, the cold war's over and there are other people in the world now to dislike and distrust - so I say crack open a Vodka, string your Balaliaka, dust off your Dostoyevsky and party till the Yaks come home.
d) Last but not least it's a chance to make an idiot of myself with my crappy Russian - okay so it was Google translate, so don't blame me. If any Russian speakers would like to correct any mistakes in the Russian - no profanities please, I will check ALL suggestions - any of those that don't feel offended by my effort anyway. Roy (sorry Mr. Lichtenstein's estate will probably try to litigate for the rest of the world - ho hum!!

Anyway - Enjoy if you like.

P.S. Done on the wonderful and refreshingly free GIMP.
P.P.S. The Yellow Background callout should say

"I PRESSED THE FIRE CONTROL AND AHEAD OF ME CANNONS BLAZED THROUGH THE SKY" (The MiG-15 didn't have rockets, they had cannons) I think it actually says ""I PRESSED THE FIRE CONTROL AND AHEAD OF ME GUNS BLAZED THROUGH THE SKY"

The White Background callout should say

"THE ENEMY HAS BECOME A FLAMING STAR" but I think it says "THE ENEMY WAS FLAMING STAR" - which sounds better to me.

Not meant to glorify war in any way shape or form - just there to be looked at, liked, disliked etc.

Rev 1 - Added second cannon fire flashes
Rev 2 - Added this link to Roy Lichtenstein on Wikipedia [link]
Rev 3 - Added link to WHAAM! in text and here [link] because the link in the text didn't work
Rev 4 - Added third cannon fire flash (another to farside)
Rev 5 - Following a better translation with the help of ~Shia-Rina I have submitted "WHAAMSKI!-TWO-SKI" as an updated version (Version 2.00)
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Shia-Rina's avatar
Your Russian, and the truth is not very good)