365 Days of Star Wars Comics, Day 344: Always something there to remind me

Panels from Star Wars: Darth Vader and the Lost Command #2 (February 2011), script by Haden Blackman, pencils by Rick Leonardi, inks by Daniel Green, colors by Wes Dzioba, letters by Michael Heisler

365 Days of Star Wars Comics, Day 343: It's about ethics in the Star Wars Universe

Panels from Star Wars (1977 Marvel series) #51 (September 1981), script by David Michelinie, pencils by Walt Simonson, inks by Tom Palmer, colors by Don Warfield, letters by John Morelli

If it ain't baroque

Andrew Otis Weiss here again, with a guest post guaranteed to make even the most indulgent fashionista cry.

Last time around, I celebrated the Golden Age simplicity of the Black Condor. Today, I'm here to shine a little love on a pair of Bronze Age bookends of the baroque.

Representing DC Comics, we have...

(from Fury of Firestorm #1, June 1982; by Gerry Conway, Pat Broderick & Rodin Rodriguez)

...the furious Firestorm, the Nuclear Man!

Origin: The fusion of a high school jock and a middle aged physicist.

Powers: Flight, blasty-hands, intangibility, matter transmutation.

Costume: Poofy sleeves, blazing noggin, pointy shoulders, sorta symbolic insignia, 1970s McDonalds color scheme.

Archvillain: Killer Frost, the frozen Femme Fatale.

Current status: Check out LEGENDS OF TOMORROW on the New CW!


Meanwhile, over in the mighty Marvel corner, we have:

(from Marvel Premiere #44, October 1978; by Bill Mantlo, Keith Giffen & Rudy Nebres)

...the jaunty Jack of Hearts!

Origin: Got dipped in his poker-loving pa's experimental "Zero Fluid." (Also, his mom turned out to be a space alien.)

Powers: Flight, blasty-hands, super-strength, damage resistance.

Costume: What happens when a Bicycle deck face card joins the SCA.

Archvillain: Hemlock, the assassin who wields heat-seeking explosive garden trowels. (As well as any penciller, inker, or colorist who had to deal with the character.)

Current status: Man, Phase 7 on the Marvel Cinematic Universe is going to be SO RAD.

All kidding aside, I love both these exercises in over-complicated garishness with equal measure. They were the lurid, overwrought products of a lurid, overwrought period in comics history -- one that just so happened to coincide with my childhood obsession with all things gaudy and superheroic. Their confusing powersets and convoluted origins informed my own early attempts at creating superheroes, where "too much" was "never enough" and there was always room for a bit of contra-fashionable flair.

Look, any schmoe can come up with "noble alien champion" or "spider-powered teenager." A truly imaginative child of the late 1970s would never settle for anything less than "um, he's a robot who is also part alien and the son of Zeus and he can fly and spit fire and lift a billion tons and his name is 'Mega-PowerMaster King.'"

Chuckle all you want. My mom said I was "very creative" when she hung the sketch on the family fridge.


Seriously, though: When I embarked on my Great Back Issue Buying Binge during the mid-1990s, Firestorm and Jack of Hearts appearances filled the top half of my wish list. They might be goofy, but it's a goofiness that cuts right to the nostalgic core of my comics fandom.

365 Days of Star Wars Comics, Day 342: Year-end employee evaluations of the Star Wars Universe

Panels from Star Wars: The Force Unleashed graphic novel (August 2008), script by Haden Blackman; pencils and inks by Brian Ching, Bong Dazo, and Wayne Nichols; colors by Michael Atiyeh; letters by Michael Heisler

Today in Comics History: Using time travel, Garth Ennis ironically creates new gay rights anthem

Panel from Dicks: To the End of Time, Like #2 (June 2014), script by Garth Ennis, pencils and inks by John McCrea
Note: I am not allowed to read this comic book so it must have been Andrew who posted this. Who else knows more about British music of the 1970s?

365 Days of Star Wars Comics, Day 341: Don't mention Skywalker. I mentioned him once but I think I got away with it.

Panels from Star Wars: Vader's Quest #1 (February 1999); script by Darko Macan; pencils, inks, and letters by Dave Gibbons; colors by Angus McKie

A moment of condor

Howdy, folks!  This is your special guest host Andrew Otis Weiss, here to disprove my fun-hating reputation by taking a look at another funnybook character I truly and sincerely love.

This particular fella comes from the dawn of the Golden Age of Superheroes, back when "a dude who can fly" was a bankable concept in and of itself.   If you had that angle locked down, you really didn't need extraneous clutter...

...which in the Black Condor's case included "pants" and "a shirt."

Condor's minimalist choice of fighting togs can be traced back to the character's origins as an avian-themed riff on Tarzan's pulp adventures.   After his archaeologist parents were slain by bandits, the infant mystery-man-to-be was taken in and raised by a colony of "intelligent" condors.  

There the young man learned the language, mysteries, and (presumably) carrion-munching ways of his feathered foster brethren.   Getting the hang of flying was a little bit trickier...

...but nothing that a few panels and some heavy suspension of disbelief couldn't solve.

 Once that was sorted, it only took a little anti-bandit payback, an encounter with a kindly monk, and the assumption of a dead senator's identity to get him back to America and battling Ratzis and gangsters on a monthly basis.

Since those heady logic-optional times, Black Condor has undergone multiple minor retcons and spun off a pair of legacy characters -- all adding additional baggage and superfluous explanations to what was a delightfully uncomplicated concept.

I first encountered the character during the "Crisis on Earth-X" arc in All-Star Squadron, where Roy Thomas and Rick Hoberg attempted to flesh-out the backstory of the Quality Comics alt-corner of DC's multiverse (while offing the Red Bee in the process).  I've since read through Condor's Eisner/Fine-helmed adventures in Crack Comics, which are pretty amazing -- like so many early Golden Age superhero features -- for witnessing the foundations of the genre get hashed out in real-time.

Honestly, though, no story the Black Condor has appeared in can match the Jerry Ordway illustration of that Who's Who entry above.  It perfectly captures the square-jawed, high concept essence of the character in all his elegant pulp-inflected simplicity...

...even with the garish, off-register "Flexographic" printing muddling up Ordway's stellar artwork.  

365 Days of Star Wars Comics, Day 340: The Man with the Sunn-Childe in His Eyes

Panels from "The Dreams of Cody Sunn-Childe!" in Star Wars (1977 Marvel series) #46 (April 1981), script by "Wally Lombego", pencils by Carmine Infantino, inks by Tom Palmer, colors by Glynis Wein, letters by Diana Albers
Wally Lombego? Who he? Well, that's a pen name of prolific comics creator J.M. DeMatteis. And you can find the story of how Lucasfilm made him get all Alan Smitheesque, over at his blog here!

Do not adjust your browser settings

Welcome to Comics Oughta Be Fun! I'm Andrew Otis Weiss. You may remember me from such internet phenomena as "Armagideon Time," "You Chose Wrong," and "That One Mean Thing I Said on Twitter About Some Geeky Thing You Enjoy!"

When I heard that everyone's favorite little stuffed bull was experiencing technical issues, I offered to fill in as a guest host for this magnificent site.


The joyful focus of Comics Oughta Be Fun may make this gig seem like an odd fit, as I have a (somewhat deserved) reputation for being a buzz-killing crankypants. Truth to tell, my cantankerous nature comes not from hate, but from love -- an abiding yet tough love for a medium (take your pick of which one) that has produced some truly great things and even more terrible ones.


It's not a matter of "high/low art," but one of intent and execution. To this end, I figured I'd use this guest hosting opportunity to spotlight some characters and comics I truly adore.

Our first entry should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with my work at Armagideon Time:

(from "Mr. Tawny Seeks Happiness" in Captain Marvel Adventures #117, Feb. 1951; by Otto Binder and C.C. Beck)

More than just an obvious example of the child-like whimsy at play in the Golden Age Marvel Family comics, Mister Tawny the Talking Tiger served as a plaid-jacketed everyman whose fallibility was offset by a noble heart and supportive peers.

Though he often played the Goofus to Billy Batson's and the Big Red Cheese's Gallant, the intent was to offer him as an instructional example for self-improvement rather than an object lesson to avoid.  He slipped, he stumbled, yet always emerged from these lapses as a better person.

Whether Binder and Beck intended it to be the case, Tawny's predicament mirrored that of America's newly elevated post-WW2 middle class in his attempts to navigate a confusing environment without a clear roadmap.

His origin -- a beast of the wild who aspires toward civilized behavior -- gave a nod not only to the foibles of farm folk turned semi-sophisticated suburbanite(like my maternal grandparents) but to the process of child-to-adult maturation in general.

That's some serious semiotic baggage for a great cat in golf pants.

365 Days of Star Wars Comics, Day 339: Well, that explains the whole saga

Panel from Star Wars Episode I: Anakin Skywalker one-shot (May 1999), script by Timothy Truman, pencils by Steve Crespo, inks by George Freeman, colors by Dave Nestelle, letters by Vickie Williams

No computer no cry

Temporarily, Comics Oughta Be Fun will be paused because my computer has died. Services will be held at your local comic book shop, where you should buy something fun and hug your friends.

Back soon, hopefully next week. And remember: be good and be good to each other!

365 Days of Star Wars Comics, Day 338: Groot: Jedi Master

Panels from Star Wars: Dark Empire II #3 (February 1995); script by Tom Veitch; pencils, inks, and colors by Cam Kennedy, letters by Todd Klein

365 Days of Star Wars Comics, Day 337: Jedis are jerks

Panels from "Twisted Toyfare Theatre: Sith Sandwich" in Toyfare #98 (October 2005), by Pat McCallum, Zach Oat, and Justin Aclin; with Jon Gutierrez, Andrew Kardon, and Chris Ward

365 Days of Star Wars Comics, Day 336: Muppet Labs in the Star Wars Universe

Panels from Star Wars: Agent of the Empire: Iron Eclipse #1 (December 2011), script by John Ostrander, pencils by Stéphane Roux, inks by Julien Hugonnard-Bert, colors by Wes Dzioba, letters by Michael Heisler

Comic books teach me numbers!

Yesterday Mike "My Comic Book Shop is Made Out of Silver" Sterling, proprietor of America's only comic book blog, asked the musical question, at the special request of pal Cathy Leamy, how do you keep the different editions of recently published comic books straight, especially when they been renumbered very recently? Which is a darn good question to ask.

I, for one, am a master of all things numbery, from chimpan-one to chimpan-three. Why, I've even read an entire comic book devoted to the art of how comics teach numbers, both whole and numbers between (and presumably up to eleventy-teen).


Comics Teach ##M-03 [Whole Numbers and Numbers Between]

Because comics have taught me many numbers. They've taught me how to count one-two-three:


Amazing Spider-Man #1, 2, and 3

They've taught me to count all the way up to 718, 719, and 720!


Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #718, 719, and 720

Comics have taught me how to count up to one thousand!


2000 AD Prog 1000, Wolverine #1000, Radioactive Man #1000

And even all the way, as of last week, to 1,958! Which was a pretty good year.


2000 AD Progs 1956, 1957, and 1958

Tho' I have to travel overseas, passport in hand, comics can teach me to count all the way up to 4,016!


Robbedoes #3518, The Dandy #3610, Spirou #4016

Yes, comics can teach you to count to a million. It takes a long time, and it's pretty confusing, but there's a really good story about Robin the Toy Wonder along the way.


Batman #1,000,000; Legionnaires #1,000,000; Starman #1,000,000

What, more? Yes! Comics have taught me to count backwards from 899!


Deadpool Team-Up #899, 898, and 897

Negative numbers equal something I've been taught by comics.


Silver Surfer #-1, Untold Tales of Spider-Man #-1, What If? #-1

Also, to embrace the cool mysticism of the simple, round zero given to us by famous ancient mathematicians who left clues behind, so that one day Indiana Jones and Lara Croft could find nothing.


Avengers vs. X-Men #0, Star Wars #0, Batman #0

They've taught me about fractions...


Spider-Man #½, The Twelve #½, Fathom #½

Those three above comics are each ONE-HALF, which makes one and a half comics, or therefore: one of these:


Avengers #1½

And from there it's merely a hop, skip and a jump to count in decimals:


Avengers #24.1, Wolverine #5.1, Fear Iitself #7.1

My comics done taught me the delicate art of counting and adding "AU" after the numbers...


Superior Spider-Man #6AU, Fearless Defenders #4AU, Uncanny Avengers #8AU

And when I'm done counting those then, I can count these now!


Nova #13.NOW, Iron Man #23.NOW, Guardians of the Galaxy #11.NOW

Yep, it's true: many comics have actually taught me how to count two numbers at the same time. Regular numbering, and extra-crispy< numbering!


Daredevil #22/402, Donald Duck #4/371, Fantastic Four #42/471

Comics have taught me that if you're counting, make sure you keep track, because if you wait a few years you might forget where you left off!


Daredevil Annual #4, Daredevil Annual #4 (should be #5)

Comics taught me not only my 1-2-3s but my A-B-Cs (copyright ©1970 the Jackson Five).


The Prisoner #A, B, and C

Ordinary school teaches you how to count using numerals, but comics teach you how to count using colors!


Deathmate Red, Yellow, and Blue

Above and beyond our puny human limits of numbering, comics have taught me how to count from alpha to omega, and even all about prime numbers!


X-Men Alpha, Omega, and Prime

Yes, comic numbers! They can take you to infinity! (And beyond!)


S.H.I.E.L.D.* #Infinity

Abiut the only things numbers in comics don't help you do is figger out which rassin'-frassin' volume of Howard the Duck #1 you're picking up from the shelf especially since they even look alike GRRRRRRRRRRR


Howard the Duck (2015 series) #1, Howard the Duck (2016 series) #1

And the same could be said of Squirrel Girl, except


The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl (2015 series) #1, The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl (2016 series) #1

…because at least Squirrel Girl tips you off it's Volume 2.



As always: game, set, and match: Squirrel Girl.

* Start Helping In Elegant Little Decimals

365 Days of Star Wars Comics, Day 335: Well, That'll Happen

Panels from Star Wars: Rebellion #16 (August 2008), script by Rob Williams, pencils and inks by Dustin Weaver, colors by Wil Glass, letters by Michael Heisler

The 1987 2015 Marvel Age Calendar for Daredevilish December!

December 1987 calendar from the back cover of Marvel Age #59 (February 1988),
script by Mike Carlin, pencils and inks by Ron Zalme, colors by Paul Becton
(Click picture to Decidedly-Bigger-size!)
I hope you clipped 'n' saved every month of the 1987 2015 Marvel Age Calendar! Now, put them away safely and bring 'em back out in 2026, when you can use 'em again! Who says this isn't the Boisterous Bully Year of Calendar Cut-Price Savings?

Today in Comics History: Thing ditches FF, decides to get a little bit of that sweet, sweet MCU money

Splash page from Marvel Two-in-One #97 (March 1983), script by Dave Michelinie, pencils by Ron Wilson, inks by Jon D'Agostino, colors by Glynis Wein, letters by Rick Parker

365 Days of Star Wars Comics, Day 334: Usagi Yo-yoda

Stan Sakai's variant cover for Star Wars #1, pencils and inks:


Variant cover of Star Wars (Marvel 2015 series) #1 (March 2015), pencils and inks by Stan Sakai
Colored version:
Colors by Tom Luth
And the finished cover:

365 Days of Star Wars Comics, Day 333: Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions in the Star Wars Universe

Panels from "Sabotaged Supplies" in Star Wars: Rebels Magazine (Egmont UK Ltd 2015 series) #7 (15 July-11 August 2015), script by Martin Fisher, art by Ingo Römling