365 Days with Ben Grimm: Day 97

Panels from Alpha Flight #94 (March 1991), script by Fabian Nicieza, pencils by Michael Bair, inks by Mike Manley, colors by Bob Sharen, letters by Janice Chiang

Bully Value Stamp #91

365 Days with Ben Grimm: Day 96

An unusual and very cool one today! Both Douglas Wolk (author of the ultra-cool Reading Comics and, perhaps more appropriate in this instance, author of the funktastic James Brown's Live at the Apollo) and Sean Howe both alerted me via email to boogie on over to the music blog Funky16Corners, most specifically this post where I discovered that not only is Benjamin J. Grimm an ace test pilot, clobberer, and all around good-guy, but he's also the owner and manager of his own record label:



In a word, whoa?!? As big a Ben Grimm fan as I am, I've never heard of or seen this record label before. There's not an awful lot specifically about the label that I can find online, but I I have discovered it's a reggae label out of jamaica that was headed up by Jah Thomas, who's certainly a big name in the reggae world. And who else to tell the world to rock, mon than the original rock man, Mister Grimm, Ben? Here's some other versions of the Grimm Ben record label I've discovered through the magic of the internet—lay your peepers on 'em, brothers and sisters in rhythm:






That last one? Found via eBay, through the courtesy of whom that very copy of "Happy People" is winging its way to me, because I can't help bidding on something unusual with Ben Grimm on it. Also, I like dancing to the ska rhythm, mon.

You can and should do the same by clicking back to that original post over at Funky16Corners that Douglas and Sean alerted me to and checking out the sweet soulful sound of the great, recently late Eddie Bo singing "Check Your Bucket." And don't forget to check out the comments for a little more history on the Grimm Ben record label! Because we all know about his careers as a jet pilot, astronaut, adventurer, wrassler and space ranger...but now you can add record producer to his CV!

Bully Value Stamp #45 (Collect 'Em All!)

Ten of a Kind: Mice love fishing...

...and so do little stuffed bulls! That's right, folks, I'm packing up my tackle box and my rod and reel and my flies and my Bass-0-Matic '76 and heading out for the river that runs through it to spend a delightful cold rainy week up to my hips in cold murky water and...

Naw, come to think of it, I'd rather take the week and head off to Norton Sales Conference, where I'm be learning all about great books coming soon from Norton and our fine distributed publishers, and taking excellent and pitch-worthy notes to help me sell 'em to my pals at Amazon.com. Plus, I get to go eat at fancy restaurants! Whoo hoo!

Anyway, while I'll be "gone fishin'" at sales conference all this week, you still get the benefit of Bully-content with daily "365 Days of Ben Grimm" updates, plus a special every-weekday surprise that will have you reaching for your scissors and your pot of paste. (Collect 'em all!) See you here back on Saturday for all the regular weekend regular content. As always, be good to yourself and others!





















(More Ten of a Kind here.)

365 Days with Ben Grimm: Day 95

Panel from Fantastic Four #543 (March 2007), script by Dwayne McDuffie, pencilled by Mike McKone, inked by Andy Lanning, colored by Paul Mounts, lettered by Rus Wooton

Separated at Byrne-th Month, Week 1: "How'd you like a nice Canadian Punch?" "Sure, bub!"

It's Separated at Byrne-th Month! It's a hoot and a half, it's a back-to-the-basics bonanza, it's more thrilling than paparazzi photos of the She-Hulk, it's more fun than the time the Watcher stole Jaunty John B. from his drawing desk to serve as a witness in the trial of Reed Richard (not covered on Court TV)! Yes, it's a month of Saturdays spotlighting the salutes, parodies, pastiches and homages of Mister John Byrne, so let's get started with a bang, shall we? Oh maybe I should say...with a bang, eh?

L: [Uncanny] X-Men #109 (February 1978), art by Dave Cockrum and Terry Austin
R: Alpha Flight #17 (December 1984), art by John Byrne ("after Cockrum")
(Click picture to ROG-2000-size)

365 Days with Ben Grimm: Day 94

Panel from Marvel Team-Up #100 (December 1980), script and co-plot by Chris Claremont, co-plot and breakdowns by Frank Miller, finishes and inks by Bob Wiacek, colors by Carl Gafford, letters by Annette Kawecki

Saturday Morning Cartoon: Tilly and the Wall "You and I Misbheaving"

"You and I Misbehaving" by Tilly and the Wall (2005), directed by Nik Fackler

Highlights, for Bloggers

Later, "Gallant" became a famous and acclaimed comic book writer and editor. Meanwhile, "Goofus" got squat. (Unless this is the same guy, in which case, hey, he finally did get to put Wolverine front and center, didn't he?)

365 Days with Ben Grimm: Day 93

Panel from Marvel Two-in-One #95 (January 1983), script by David Anthony Kraft, pencils by Alan Kupperberg, inks by Jon D'Agostino, colors by George Rousso, letters by Diana Albers

Remember those fabulous sixties? The marches, the be-ins, the draft-card burnings and best of all...the Avengers.

At the risk of sounding uncannily like grumpy Grampy Bull, you kids today and your Avengers. You got New Avengers and Mighty Avengers and Dark Avengers and Initiative Avengers and Secret Avengers and Cobalt Avengers and 100-Calorie Pack Avengers and Bikini Avengers and Chocolate Avengers...well, now, that last one sounds pretty good to me, and some of my readers might really enjoy the one before that.

My point, though—and I do have one—is that in my day, we had Avengers and only Avengers, and that was the way we liked it! before the franchise got so bloomin' popular that it required seventeen or eighteen monthly comics books, miniseries, one-shots, Official Handbooks to the Avengers Universii, and heavily annotated extremely unofficial webguides to all fifty states worth of Avengers plus Avengers Puerto Rico...well, before all that there was simply one comic book, The Avengers, which has always been one of my favorite comic books of all time, and right behind the FF, my second favorite superhero team. Who can resist the team antics of Dr. Druid, Gilgamesh, Sersi, Rage, Firestar and Jarvis? Not me, that's who!

Like all my favorite comic books, there's a solid handful of creator teams on the book that have truly made The Avengers the world's mightiest heroes, to this little stuffed bull, at least. I love the David Michelinie/John Byrne/George Perez eras, and the wacky and wild Steve Englehart era, and there's the Kurt Busiek/George Perez "Heroes Return" relaunch, all of which have a special place in my little red satin heart. I loves me the period just post issue #16 when the team really started to take off, and the Roger Stern/John Buscema issues of the mid-1980s got me back interested in the book after a long period of distinterest. And oh my golly, I simply stand up and cheer when I read the Avengers: The Crossing-era books. Oh wait, that's the wrong word. Stand up and jeer, I mean.

But by far my fave era of The Avengers is the last couple years of the 1960s, starting round about issue #50 and running through the early #70s, where Roy Thomas and John Buscema introduced the world to the Marvel Universe's first crying robot, Yellowjacket (and his amazing treehouse), and brought The Black Panther Black Leopard Panther into the fold of the World's Mightiest. This is the era I mostly collected in the 1980s reprint issues of Marvel Triple Action, a title which might have made no logical sense by the time Shooter and Company just threw up their hands and said, "Let's just reprint Avengers in the thing"...but for me, a copy of MTA always meant as much excitement and thrills as three regular Marvel Comics. I collected a large number of reprints from this period, missing a few issues here and there, but enough to make up my decision very early on in my comic book-collectin' career: them's good comics.

I could spend several dozen columns going over each ish of this magnificent run by Messrs Thomas, Buscema, and many other fantabulous Marvel creators, but instead let's have a fun and rapid romp through those golden coupla years by peeking in on each issue's coming next issue blurbs. They're works of art in and of themselves, aren't they? Starting with Avengers #50 (March 1968) and zooming right onto the end of the Age of Aquarius, December '69's #71, here, in order, are the cliffhanger teasers that made sure you would eagerly fork over your twelve cents each and every month of the Woodstock years. Why, this run is so classic, I bet you can even name the issues each story blurb belongs to!
























By the time the sixties are rolling to a close, Neil Armstrong's starting work building our first moon hotel, Nixon's getting into practice by stealing candy from babies, and the Beatles are hitting each other with folding chairs. But the sixties Avengers are going out on a high note, with the conclusion of a mega-issue story that somehow guest-starred the Invaders and later gave rise to Roy Thomas's supposition that a villain would take off Namor's trunks and replace them with another pair, just to have those green trunks. (Yeah, I'm sure that's why he did it.) So there's no "next issue" blurb at the end of #71 as we say goodbye to the Screamin' Sixties, but rather as Marvel starts to head into its second sensation decade, Roy and John bring the whole cast onto stage to jubilantly announce those two words, that, whenever they've been spoken with urgency and purpose, signal great events: Avengers Assemble!:




Ah, those were the days, my friends. We thought they'd never end.

More Avengers "Next Issue" blurbs here!

365 Days with Ben Grimm: Day 92

Panel from Marvel Two-in-One #24 (January 1983), script by Bill Mantlo and Jim Shooter, breakdowns by Sal Buscema, finishes and inks by Pablo Marcos Pablo Marcos, colors by George Roussos, letters by Irving Watanabe