Rubber and Glue
Rubber and Glue
[Playground. Young Megan is balancing on a swing, two Cueball-like kids are swinging and two more kids, a young Cueball and a young Hairy are approaching a reading young Black Hat, whose hat is almost too big for his small head.] Hairy: Whatchya reading, Hatboy? Black Hat: The CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics. Cueball: You are such a loser, it's painful . Black Hat: I'm rubber, you're glue.
[In a frame-less panel Hairy and Cueball looks down on Black Hat sitting with his book in his lap on the ground between them. He looks back up over his shoulder at Hairy.] Hairy: Yeah, well— Black Hat: Glue can't speak. Black Hat: You try to scream, but your mouth fills with glue. Black Hat: Your face is glue. Your body is glue.
[Black Hat has left the book on the ground behind him and has risen. Hairy and Cueball is now together to the right and Black Hat advances towards them arms stretched out. Hairy steps backwards away from him.] Black Hat: I wrap my rubber arms around your sticky bulk. Black Hat: Your neoprene base bonds instantly with my surface. Black Hat: Never to let go.
[Zoom in on Black Hat's head. He is holding his arms up in front of him clapping them together. Hairy shouts from off panel.] Black Hat: You are glue. I am rubber. Black Hat: Staring at you with my dead, rubber eyes- Black Hat: Forever. Hairy (off-panel): Moooom!

"I'm rubber, you're glue; whatever you say bounces off me and sticks to you" is a school-ground retort used by children to suggest that one's insults are being ignored by the intended recipient of the insult and counter that the insult rather refers to the insulter . On a deeper level, it may imply that a person insulting others is an indication of their own insecurity and weakness.
In this comic, a young Black Hat is reading a chemistry and physics handbook, which leads to a literal and graphic visualization of the phrase. He uses the retort to frighten the children bullying him (young versions of Hairy and Cueball ). Black Hat takes the traditional saying and twists it into a creepy thought by saying that they are both literally glue and rubber and that they are permanently stuck together, which scares Hairy and Cueball and prompts them to call for their mothers.
The book is the CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics . It is also nicknamed the 'Rubber Bible' or the 'Rubber Book', as CRC originally stood for "Chemical Rubber Company".
The title text says that I (meaning him) and you (Hairy and Cueball, although it could possibly be the reader) are both rubber. Rubber is not a living object, so it is stuck in "vulcanized horror" in the position it was sculpted in. This could be a reference to how powerless we are in the changing of the world.
Young Black Hat also taunts young Hairy later in 1753: Thumb War .
[Playground. Young Megan is balancing on a swing, two Cueball-like kids are swinging and two more kids, a young Cueball and a young Hairy are approaching a reading young Black Hat, whose hat is almost too big for his small head.] Hairy: Whatchya reading, Hatboy? Black Hat: The CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics. Cueball: You are such a loser, it's painful . Black Hat: I'm rubber, you're glue.
[In a frame-less panel Hairy and Cueball looks down on Black Hat sitting with his book in his lap on the ground between them. He looks back up over his shoulder at Hairy.] Hairy: Yeah, well— Black Hat: Glue can't speak. Black Hat: You try to scream, but your mouth fills with glue. Black Hat: Your face is glue. Your body is glue.
[Black Hat has left the book on the ground behind him and has risen. Hairy and Cueball is now together to the right and Black Hat advances towards them arms stretched out. Hairy steps backwards away from him.] Black Hat: I wrap my rubber arms around your sticky bulk. Black Hat: Your neoprene base bonds instantly with my surface. Black Hat: Never to let go.
[Zoom in on Black Hat's head. He is holding his arms up in front of him clapping them together. Hairy shouts from off panel.] Black Hat: You are glue. I am rubber. Black Hat: Staring at you with my dead, rubber eyes- Black Hat: Forever. Hairy (off-panel): Moooom!
