Separated at Byrne-th Month, Week 2: A Treemendous Fight

Welcome back, my friends, to the fun that never ends...until April 26, at least. It's Week Two of the increasingly exciting Separated at Byrne-th Month!, celebrating, ceremonializing, and contemplating the many cover tributes, salutes, and parodies of that ol' Canucklehead himself, John Byrne! This week: in the midst of his sprawling saga returning Danny Rand to the Marvel Universe (without which we'd not have this, so we owe Byrne a debt of thanks for that), Mister Johnny B sneakily snuck in a homage to the iron one's second issue in Namor's twenty-second issue. (Holy Harvey Dent!) Sure, maybe it ain't easy being green, but clobber that photosynthetic parasite, Danny and Nammy! If giant man-eating plant monsters who won't...heh heh heh...won't leaf you alone are your kinda thing, then check this out!:

L: Iron Fist #2 (December 1975), art by Gil Kane and John Romita
R: Namor #22 (January 1992), art by John Byrne
(Click picture to Audrey II-size)

365 Days with Ben Grimm: Day 101

Panel from The Amazing Spider-Man Super Special (1995), script by David Michelinie, pencils by Dave Hoover, inks by Ralph Cabrera, colors by Tom Smith, letters by Bill Oakley

365 Days with Ben Grimm: Day 100

Segment from cover of Fantastic Four #100 (July 1970), art by Jack Kirby and Joe Sinnott
(Click picture to see entire cover)

Bully Value Stamp #83

365 Days with Ben Grimm: Day 99

Panel from Strange Tales #127 (January 1962), script by Stan Lee, pencils by Dick Ayers, inks by Paul Reinman, letters by Artie Simek

Bully Value Stamp #10

365 Days with Ben Grimm: Day 98

Panels from Fantastic Four #2 (January 1962), script by Stan Lee, pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by George Klein, letters by John Duffy

Bully Value Stamp #77

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