In a famous (and possibly apocryphal) story, Ernest Hemingway cemented his reputation as the 20th century's master of brevity by writing an entire story in only six words: "For sale: baby shoes, never worn." Ever since this became common knowledge, it's become a common game among writers to write their own six-word stories.

We here at ComicsAlliance, however, were wondering if it was possible to cut stories that already existed down to just six words without losing their essential meaning:

As for whether we succeeded, we leave that to you to decide! We're putting our best six-word summaries from ComicsAlliance contributors Chris Sims, Laura Hudson, David Uzumeri, Caleb Goellner, Nick Nadel, Jason Michelitch, John Parker, Alice Parker, and CA newcomer Andrew Weiss up to see if you can figure out which stories we've cut down! Just leave your answers as a comment below, and we'll provide an answer key next week!

[UPDATE: We've provided the answers! Just highlight the line below each clue to see which story we're talking about!]

1. Brains, brawn, puppies, gods, and beer. --LH

The Incredible Hercules

2. Dinosaurs, cavemen, aliens and beatdowns co-existed. --CS

Jack Kirby's Devil Dinosaur


3. Monsters, witches and ghosts again? Crap. --CG

Hellboy


4. Paranoid schizophrenics lose against Aryan gods. --DU

Siege


5. Goodbye, Stamford. Time for pointless fighting! --AW

Civil War


6. Oh no, zombies! White power! Yayyyy! --CS

Blackest Night


7. Gwen Stacy: Kind of a whore. --LH

Spider-Man: Sins Past


8. "One universe? That's a great idea!" --AW

Crisis on Infinite Earths

9. "One universe? That's a terrible idea!" --AW

Infinite Crisis

10. Mice = Jews. Cats = Nazis. Instant Pulitzer. --NN

Maus

11. New Buddha, Decadence, Violence, Secret Society. --AP

The Invisibles

12. Dating through space genocide? Oh Thanos! --CS

The Infinity Gauntlet

13. Padre's pups pull pops on perps. --JP

Criminal: The Sinners

14. Scuba Suit. Jail Bait. Murder time! --CG

Kick-Ass

15. Like English Lit, but with punching. --CS

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

16. Pagan mysteries meet quadruple D-cups. --AW

Tarot: Witch of the Black Rose

17. Julie Schwartz's disembodied tumbleweed postapocalyptic head. --JM

Ambush Bug: Nothing Special

18. Compared to you, he's Chris Isaak. --CS

James Robinson's Starman

19. Serious Adult Comics, now with rape! --LH

Identity Crisis

20. "Is this... poetic justice? GASP! CHOKE!" --AW

Every EC Horror Story Ever

21. Man, Young Batman is a badass! --CS

Batman: Year One

22. Man, Old Batman is a badass! --CS

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns

23. Hey Satan: Take my marriage--PLEASE! --CS

Spider-Man: One More Day

24. MY SPACE MULLET COMMANDS YOU: FIGHT! --CS

Secret Wars and Secret Wars II

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