Christmas Shopping Made Classic

Welcome to Black Friday, folks—the single busiest shopping day of the year! If you're like me you have plenty of Christmas shopping to get started on, so crack open those piggy banks and get buying! But heading out to the mall is a mug's game...the smart consumers shop at home on their computer, with a big leftover turkey sandwich by their side. Why, you can even do it in your underwear! I'm doin' it right now. Haw! No, I kid. I don't wear any underwear!

This year I'm making my Christmas giftin' easier by choosing one-stop shopping and a similar gift for everyone on my lengthy list: everybody gets comic books this year! And not merely any old comic book, oh no oh no. No foisting off old issues of Civil War on my extensive group of recipients! Everybody on my list is getting a vintage issue of the single greatest way to avoid reading great works of literature in their original editions: Classics Illustrated!

Classics Illustrated ran for so long and with such a diverse collection of stories that it's perfect just absolutely everybody on my Christmas list. Don't believe me? Why, here's what I'm getting for these fine friends of mine:

Frank Castle!



Oliver Queen!



Reed Richards!



Nick Fury!



Steve Rogers!



Morpheus!



Sergei Kravinoff!



Jack Napier!



Bruce Banner!



Betty Ross!



Emma Frost!



Alex Summers!



Ralph Dibny!



Tony Stark!



Logan!



Wanda Maximoff!



Victor von Doom!



The Anti-Monitor!



And, ahem, just in case any of you were wondering what to get me, hint hint:



Happy shopping!

Folks to be Thankful For (John Romita Edition)

It is a universal truth that no one draws a crazed-lookin' J. Jonah Jameson quite like John Romita, Sr.




And as if in some act of fate or cosmic balance, it's also a universal truth that no one draws a gorgeous-yet-wholesome Gwen Stacy quite like John Romita, Sr.




For these and thousands of other beautiful moments in comic history, we salute you, John Romita, Sr.!

all panels from Spectacular Spider-Man Magazine #1, July 1968

Saucer of milk, Miss Watson?

from Spectacular Spider-Man Magazine #1, July 1968

Nor is it Bella Abzug.

from Spectacular Spider-Man Magazine #1, July 1968

Stan, Stan, Stan, you're writing for the ages...don't do topical.

For the curious among you.

The Unsettling Slang of Mister Peter Parker

What with work, travel, and yummy, yummy, turkey, this is a busy busy Bully week, folks, so hope you'll excuse brief picture-oriented entries most of this week. Most of them are going to be from the great but not quite successful black-and-white Spectacular Spider-Man magazine of 1968, featuring the fantastic artwork of Jazzy John Romita. That alone is worth the price of admission, especially in glorious black-and-white, but there's a few oddities lurking within these greyscale pages. For example:


from Spectacular Spider-Man Magazine #1, July 1968

Whoa, who says that it wasn't the Mighty Marvel Age of Innuendo and Double-Entendre?

Ten of a Kind: Surprise Visitors

(More Ten of a Kind here.)