Separated at Birth: Don't go in the water for one hour after after dying

L: [Uncanny] X-Men #101 (October 1976), art by Dave Cockrum
R: Avengers West Coast #71 (June 1991), art by Tom Morgan and Danny Bulandi

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365 Days with Ben Grimm, Day 325

Panel from What If? v.2 #11 (March 1990), script and pencils by Jim Valentino, inks by Hilary Barta, colors by Tom Vincent, letters by Phil Felix

Saturday Morning Cartoon: Mr. Magoo for Stag Brew

1960s Mr. Magoo animated commercials for regional midwest beer Stag Brew, commercials created by United Productions of America

Wolvie needs food badly.

Cover of Marvel Comics Presents #93 (December 26, 1991), art by Todd Foxx

365 Days with Ben Grimm, Day 324

Panel from The Thing: Freakshow #1 (August 2002), script by Geoff Johns, pencils by Scott Kolins, inks by Andy Lanning, colors by David Self, letters by Randy Gentile

All these comics and not one Dark Reign tie-in.

Marvel Comics subscription ad, as seen in Werewolf by Night #29 (May 1975)

So you think there's a lot of Marvel Comics to buy each month in 2009...check out 1975! Sure, there's no multiple Avengers or X-Men or Spider-Man titles, but look what you would get: classic cancelled comics like Arrgh! Frankenstein! War is Hell! Our Love Story! Chamber of Chills! (That last one, by the way, was just a refrigerator.)

If you look at that subscription list carefully, can you count the number of titles that are still around today without having been rebooted to a new #1 at some point? Go ahead, start counting...I'll wait for you right here...keep counting...write down the numbers if you need to...

That's right...NONE! Not a single one of these titles had an uninterrupted run; every single one of them was either cancelled or renumbered to start a new series, and only a handful (Amazing Spider-Man, Captain America, Daredevil, Fantastic Four, Incredible Hulk, and Thor) have resumed their regular numbering. In fact, there's only one title currently being published by Marvel that still retains its original numbering without having been rebooted...and it ain't on the list, not quite. Give up? Uncanny X-Men, very nearly cancelled but not quite, was in reprints until 1975. Giant-Size X-Men, which is on this list, would herald in a new age of confusing crossovers, Chris Claremont's fetishes, and, eventually, Gambit.

Speakin' of Giant-Size X-Men #1, wouldn't you have loved to pick that up at its 1975 price of 50¢? Or for that matter, any book on this list...or why not...all of them? Just for fun, I computed that if all of these books came out in one single month (they didn't, but work with me here)...they'd cost you a total of $31.50. You'd get eighty-six comics for your money. And one of them would be



Comic: 35¢.
Spidey fighting the Mole Man while the multi-ethnic pop group The Short Circus perform their new hit "Jelly Belly" above him? Priceless.



From The Electric Company: Morgan Freeman as DJ Mel Mounds introduces The Short Circus (including Irene Cara!) sings their #1 hit single "Jelly Belly." Hey, Rita Moreno digs it!

365 Days with Ben Grimm, Day 323

Panel from Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four #48 (June 2009), script by Paul Tobin, pencils and inks by Denis Medri, colors by Soto Color, letters by Nate Piekos
(Click picture to retweet-size)

Spider-Ham, Spider-Ham/Does whatever a Spider can/Gets into lots of scuffles/Catches thieves just like truffles

Cast of characters from the Marvel/Star comic book Peter Porker, The Spectacular Spider-Ham, full-page by Steve Mellor from Marvel Age Annual #3 (1986)
(Click picture to ham-size)

I'm very fond of Marvel's attempt at the venerable funny-animal parody comic, Peter Porker, The Spectacular Spider-Ham...it was one of the few kid-oriented Star Comics that actually had an appeal to pre-exsiting Marvel fans. Populated by characters whose names were groan-inducing, delightfully-bad animal puns on Marvel's super heroes (Deerdevil! The Fantastic Fur! Goose Rider! Ducktor Doom!) and some distinctive fluid and delightfully cartoon-inspired art (mostly by Joe Abelo, Mark Armstrong, and Steve and Mike Mellor), I frequently hope for a Marvel trade paperback...heck, I'd settle for a crayon-it-yourself Essential Peter Porker. After all, it doesn't need to be in color and nobody will get confused...I'm sure every Marvel fan will be able to understand what the pig meant.



Spider-Ham came back relatively recently in an almost universally lambasted Civil War one-shot appearance, I'm betting the little bacon-ball still has a lot of friends out there: Marvel fans voted him the Spider-Guy they wanted to see on the Mike Wieringo alternate cover of Amazing Spider-Man #528:



Hey Joey Q! With the rest of the Star original characters reappearing in this year's X-Babies miniseries, isn't it time to bring Your Friendly Neighbor Spider-Ham back to comics? C'mon...don't hog all the fun! Look, we'll even let you bring back this guy:

365 Days with Ben Grimm, Day 322

Panel from Ultimate Fantastic Four #8 (August 2004), script by Warren Ellis, pencils by Stuart Immonen, inks by Wade Von Grawbadger, colors by Dave Stewart, letters by Chris Eliopoulos

You know of course this means war.

365 Days with Ben Grimm, Day 321

Splash page from Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four #47 (June 2009), script by Paul Tobin, pencils by Vincenç Villagrasa, colors by Andrew Dalhouse, letters by Nate Piekos

(Click picture to Mister-Green-Genes-size)

Sponsored advertisement FAIL

As seen here and throughout the Muppet Wiki on November 16, 2009

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What If...Monty Python Wrote Marvel Comics?

All panels from Silver Surfer #7 (August 1969), script by Stan Lee, pencils by John Buscema, inks by Sal Buscema, letters by Sam Rosen

365 Days with Ben Grimm, Day 320

Panel from Fantastic Four #548 (October 2007), script by Dwayne McDuffie, pencils by Paul Pelletier, inks by Rick Magyar, colors by Paul Mounts, letters by Rus Wooton

Ten of a Kind: And Ann B. Davis as The Hulk

(More Ten of a Kind here.)

365 Days with Ben Grimm, Day 319

Screenshot from Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes "Impossible," (June 23, 2007), featuring—who else?—The Impossible Man

Sunday Morning Bullyfilm: Breakfast at Forbidden Planet