Saturday, December 05, 2009

This just makes me so happy

The BBC 1 2009 Christmas channel ident:



Brought to my attention by the ever-Who-ful Dorian Wright.


Bully's Advent Calendar: Day 5

Advent Calendar



Separated at Birth: By the time I get to Phoenix, she'll be rising

You may remember a few weeks ago I posted this fiery, waterlogged Separated at Birth:

UXM #101/AWC #71
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

(Click picture to Titanic-size)




Well, prepare for that Sep to be super-sized with the addition of two more Jean Grey comin' outta the pool covers!

UXM #101/AWC #71
L: Classic X-Men #9 (May 1987), art by Art Adams
R: X-Men Adventures, Season III #71 (June 1995), art by Mike S. Miller

(Click picture to Titanic II: The Revenge of Jack-size)


Only six more and I've got Ten of a Kind!


365 Days with Ben Grimm: Day 339

Marvel Age Preview #2
Panel from Marvel Age Preview #2 (1992) promoting the 1992 Marvel Holiday Special, artist unknown. I don't know if this pin-up appeared in color in the Holiday Special, but you can color this one yourself! Get your orange crayon ready!



Happy Sixth Blogiversary, Mike Sterling!

Roll on over to Progressive Ruin and wish him a happy anniversary, why doncha?

Mike & Friends
Early photograph of Mike Sterling. He's the one on the right.

Saturday Morning Cartoon: Hector's Hectic Life


Hector's Hectic Life (1948), directed by Bill Tytla



Friday, December 04, 2009

Bully's Advent Calendar: Day 4

Advent Calendar



365 Days with Ben Grimm, Day 338

XHY #8
Panel from X-Men: The Hidden Years #8 (July 2000), script, pencils, and letters by John Byrne, inks by Tom Palmer and Joe Sinnott, colors by Greg Wright



Thursday, December 03, 2009

Bully's Advent Calendar: Day 3

Advent Calendar



Well, that'll happen.

Once in a while, one of Doctor Doom's sinister plans works:

FF #330
FF #330
FF #330
FF #330
FF #330
FF #330
FF #330
FF #330
FF #330
Panels from Fantastic Four #330 (September 1989), script by Steve Englehart writing as John Harkness (here's why), pencils by Rich Buckler, inks by Romeo Tanghal, colors by Jack Fury, letters by Jade Moedo

So. Sweet dreams!

365 Days with Ben Grimm, Day 337

SS: The Thing #75 ad
Panel from Startling Stories: The Thing #1 (May 2003), script by Ron Zimmerman, pencils by Don Kramer, inks by Scott Hanna and Sandu Florea, colors by Studio F, letters by Dave Sharpe
(Click picture to Danny Thomasize)





Wednesday, December 02, 2009

Bully's Advent Calendar: Day 2

Advent Calendar
Each day, "open" the door for a Bully surprise counting down to Christmas!



Aw geez, Johnny, no, not again!: More of the Inappropriate Loves of Jonathan Spencer Storm

Human TorchJohnny Storm. The Human Torch. One of the Fantastic Four. At the heart of it, a nice guy who tries to do the right thing. Except...well, how can I put this diplomatically...Johnny isn't the sharpest knife at the end of Wolverine's fist. He is, in fact, as dumb as a bag of HAMMER agents. He's not the brightest guy who ever set himself on fire, now, is he? Sure, we all love the light-up lug, but again and again he proves that the boy ain't right. You may remember his unfortunate obsession with Alicia Masters, who looked, in fact just like...ah, now you remember?...just like his sister Sue. No, Johnny, no! Geez, Johnny, stop that!

FF #276


Geez, Johnny! Okay, yeah, but that's in comic book...we all know those things rot your mind. To take our minds off Johnny Storm and his CRUSH ON A GIRL WHO LOOKS JUST LIKE HIS SISTER let's turn to the world of literature and pick up a good book to read. Ah, this looks like an entertaining tome over here on the right: Peter David's What Lies Between...and what luck, it just happens to be about the Fantastic Four as well! Fine literature and comic book superheroes...two great tastes that go great together.

Hmmm...uh huh...mmmm, not bad...mmmm...hmmm...uh huh...hmmwha...

What the Sam Scratch?!?:


What Lies Between

Now, I'm guessing Johnny doesn't the swiftly-cancelled Marvel UK comic book character Hell's Dark Angel but this swiftly-cancelled Fox sci-fi syfy TV show:

Dark Angel


Okay, let's back up a minute here, Johnny. Now let's just get this straight, okay? You think this girl is hot...

Dark Angel


Um, let me put it like this, Johnny. What do you think your sister Sue would have to say about that?

Sue Storm


Okay then, what if we got your sister and this actress together in the same place so you could hang out with them together?

Dark Angel + Sue Storm


What do you think about that, Johnny?

Johnny Storm


Ummm...okay. So let me just double check on this, Johnny, 'kay? Girl of your dreams...


Dark Angel

...hangin' out with you and then meets your sister?


Sue Storm

Any reaction to that, Johnny? Make you think, or...


Johnny Storm

So, just DOUBLE-checking here, Johnny...


Dark Angel + Sue Storm

Nothin', huh? No reaction? Anybody home? Aw, c'mon Johnny, geez, take a look at YOUR DREAM GIRL:


Dark Angel

...and YOUR FREAKIN' SISTER:


Sue Storm

Say Johnny, why don't you stand here and look at this hot girl AND your sister for a while and chew some Doublemint Gum, huh?!?


Dark Angel + Sue Storm


ANY THOUGHTS ABOUT THAT AT ALL, JOHNNY?!?

Human Torch

Aw, fer cryin' out...geez, Johnny, no no no NO!!!

Sigh. Eh, let's skip ahead in the book and see if there's any good bits about Ben Grimm.

What Lies Between

Yeah, well, Ben, ain't it true? Everybody can't be Michael Chiklis, now, can they?

Michael Chiklis + The Thing



365 Days with Ben Grimm, Day 336

ASM #18
Panel portion from Amazing Spider-Man #18 (November 1964), script by Stan Lee, pencils and inks by Steve Ditko, letters by Sam Rosen



Tuesday, December 01, 2009

Bully's Advent Calendar: Day 1

Advent Calendar
Each day, "open" the door for a Bully surprise counting down to Christmas!



Monday Night Murals Tuesday Night Towers: All Four One

As I mentioned last night, whoopsie! My new Monday Night Murals feature is so brand-new I plum forgot it last night. (That's what happens when your little stuffed brain is made of beans and fluff.) Sooner or later the old garbanzos start ticking, though, and even tho' it's a day late, here's your Monday Night Mural. Except, it's a day later. And, it's tall rather than wide. Well, gosh, I guess that makes it a...Tuesday Night Tower:

FF v.3 #51-54
Covers from Fantastic Four v.3 #51-54 (March-June 2002), art by Mike Wieringo, colors by Liquid! Graphics


This is one of my favorite interconnected images, not simply because it's got Jolly Orange Ben Grimm anchoring the bottom (altho' that don't hurt!) I really like the way there's a hint of the other's presence or powers on their teammates' spotlighted covers: Johnny's flame rises the entire length of the mural, Reed stretches up the bottom three, and the debris thrown up by Ben's clobberin' flies as high as Reed. Sue's "invisible" force field is anchored behind Ben, right next to her husband's lower, um, half. It's not merely a lovely image, it's a wonderful metaphor for the FF as a family. Remember that Claremont and Byrne X-Men where Phoenix saves the universe by knitting the fabric of time, space, and Professor X's wooly jumper back together while inside the M'Kraan Crystal?


UXM #108
Panel from [Uncanny] X-Men #108 (December 1977), script by Chris Claremont, pencils by John Byrne, inks by Terry Austin, colors by Andy Yanchus, letters by Denise Wohl


Whoa, that's a lot of info crammed into that panel that's kinda tiny on my ever-lovin' blue-eyed blog. Let's magnify the important bit here...Claremont's ever-so-poetic captions, lettered by Denise Wohl:

UXM #108
Whoa, that's heady stuff! Phoenix has called upon the X-Men to form a lattice of power to reform the broken M'Kraan Crystal (and I think we all know how painful that can be!). The family of X-Men take on the base and brances of a tree of living energy: strong man Colossus at the base, Xavier as the leafy bit at the top...um, Cyclops is the squirrels that gather in the branches, Wolverine is the part that's carved with naughty words in the bark...I dunno, it's Claremont's metaphor, let's just go with it. By the way, I coulda swore there was an actual pictorial representation of the X-Men forming this "tree", but it ain't in UXM #108. I'm sure I saw it somewhere...! Am I imagining it, or did I see it in another ish? Clue me in the comments if'n you know!)



ADDITION on 12/2/09: Sharp-eyed commenter H.P.L. noted that the panel I'm thinking of was actually from Classic X-Men #15, a reprint of X-Men #108 with newly-inserted panels by Chuck Patton. Thanks, H.P.L.! Please help yourself to a Bull-Prize (and if you're really H.P.L., please don't fill my nights with a nameless, un-ending ennui and dread, 'kay?' Kay!)

CXM #15
Panel from Classic X-Men #15 (November 1987), script by Chris Claremont, pencils by Chuck Patton, inks by Terry Austin, colors by Glynis Oliver, letters by Tom Orzechowski




Anyway, tree, schmee. The X-Men can have their ol' tree if they want:

The Larch.


The FF don't need no steenkin' tree: they are forming a tower or power as strong and as solid as a city skyscraper. Why, in fact, there it is right behind their portraits: The Baxter Building. Which in and of itself ain't, when you consider it, that bad a metaphor for the Fantastic Four themselves. Just like the FF themselves, the BB is strong, it's advanced, it's full of wonder, it has a gift shop in the lobby, Willie Lumpkin delivers mail to it, Doctor Doom shot it twice into space...wait a minute, where was I? Ah, yes. The FF: not merely solid as a rock, but mighty and awe-inspiring as a skyscraper.

Also, occasionally Reed blows up the top part.


365 Days with Ben Grimm, Day 335

FF #56
Panel from Fantastic Four #56 (November 1966), script by Stan Lee, pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Joe Sinnott, letters by Sam Rosen



Monday, November 30, 2009

Whoops!

(facehoof)
I forgot to do Monday Night Murals! So tune in tomorrow for...Tuesday Night Towers!

I missed the part where he saved Wilbur the pig's life, too

As I seem to remember hearing one place or another, Spider-Man "does whatever a spider can." That means, of course, that all his powers are spider-related. (Even if he doesn't shoot his webbing out of his butt.) Climbing walls, superior strength, swinging across vast divides...well, just about the only spider-skill Peter doesn't have is sucking out the blood of his victims (exception: see The Tomb of Spider-Man: Vampire miniseries, 1988).

And in the forty years he's been around, we pretty much know all of Petey's special powers, right? Wrong!

ASM #14
Panel from Amazing Spider-Man #14 (July 1964), script by Stan Lee, pencils and inks by Steve Ditko, letters by Artie Simek

Whoa. I'm not entirely certain that's a real "spider" power. Unless you count Braggy, the Spider Full of Hubris.

365 Days with Ben Grimm, Day 334

Today's edition of 365 Days with Ben Grimm comes courtesy of fellow comics blogger Doktor Andy, head of surgery over at Doktor Andy's Mutterings, the comics blog I'm jealous of for having found a Steve Martin meets Iron Man panel. (And lots of other cool stuff, too—check it out!)

Thank you, Doktor A, for sending me a Ben Grimm panel I'd completely forgotten about: the wild and wonderful promo of MTIO #75 that ran in Iron Man #146 (and other May '81 Marvel Comics). I did indeed buy this comic—just because I thought the ad was cool!

MTIO #75 ad
House ad from Marvel Comics promoting the double-sized anniversary edition of Marvel Two-in-One #75. In case you were worried, they did find plenty of room for Ben in that issue.
(Click picture to mountain-size)


Thanks, Dok! Consider yourself duly awarded with all fanfare and hoopla, the Bull-Prize (Division of Ben Grimmery)!


Sunday, November 29, 2009

Ten of a Kind: Oh F&#%





















(More Ten of a Kind here.)