Ten of a Kind #176: Carry That Weight (Today in Comics History, September 26, 1969)

On this date in 1969, the Beatles released Abbey Road, their elevent and final album recorded. They would never cross a road again.

(Click Madman Atomic Comics #16 to bigger-than-Jesus-size)

More Ten of a Kind here. See also.

Separated at Birth: And that's why they invented adamantium comic bags

L: The Sensational She-Hulk #1 (May 1989), art by John Byrne
M: The Sensational She-Hulk #60 (February 1994), art by Pat Olliffe
R: She-Hulk v.3 #8, second printing variant Civil War cover (July 2006), art by Juan Bobillo
(Click picture to gamma-size)

365 Days with Ben Grimm, Day 269

Johnny "The Thing" Storm (Chris Evans) and Ben "Human Torch" Grimm (Michael Chiklis) in a scene from Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007)

Saturday Morning Cartoon: Just a Minute: Reloaded

Just a Minute: Reloaded, "Paul Merton on Sudoku" (2009), animated by Run Wrake

Just a Minute is a long-running BBC Radio panel game in which the celebrity panel members must speak on a particular subject given to them by the chairman for sixty seconds with hesitation, repetition of words, or deviating from the subject. If the panelist does so, another panelist can buzz in and challenge to take over the subject for the remainder of the sixty seconds. The point of the game is less to win points than it is to be funny, outrageous, and steal the show for yourself. It's a great favorite of yours little stuffed truly, and now several of the funnier moments from the show have been turned into animation and displayed on the BBC website.

Don't quite get the picture yet? Click on the "film" below to hear a sample round from Just a Minute accompanied by a slideshow of the panelists! And/or read the history of the show on the BBC website!

365 Days with Ben Grimm, Day 268

Panel from Marvel Two-in-One #82 (December 1981), script by Tom DeFalco, pencils by Ron Wilson, inks by Chic Stone, colors by George Roussos, letters by Joe Rosen

365 Days with Ben Grimm, Day 267

Panel from The Incredible Hulk #153 (July 1972), script by Roy Thomas and Gary Friedrich, pencils by Dick Ayers and Herb Trimpe, inks by John Severin, letters by Jean Izzo

Well, sometimes I might get drunk/Walk like a duck and smell like a skunk

Listing for a seminar at the The 2009 New York City Wine & Food Festival

I guess what this means is the sixties are really over now, because what I'm sure Bob Dylan had in mind when he wrote "his famous counterculture anthems of the 1960s" was SPENDING $125 TO FIND OUT WHAT WINE YOU SHOULD DRINK WHILE YOU LISTEN TO A COVER BAND PERFORMING HIS GREATEST HITS.

If Bob wasn't dead, this woulda killed him. (What? Oh, sorry. I've made another one of my silly mistakes.)

Me? Well, yours little stuffed truly will be at the Wine & Food Festival, and I'm heading up a seminar of what cookie to eat while reading a Stan Lee comic book. Chips Ahoy, of course, for Sub-Mariner, and Mallomars for The Incredible Hulk. Thor? I'm picturing a Snickerdoodle. The Amazing Spider-Man is best enjoyed with a plate of Aunt May's steamin'-hot Wheatmeal Scotchies, and I think The Fantastic Four should be accompanied by Nabisco's Fudge-Covered Oreos. And Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.*? Hardtack smeared with used motor oil.

But let's not get silly about pairing food or wine with pop culture, shall we? Why, next thing you know we'll be having cooking demonstrations by Cher from Clueless. As if!




*Supreme Headquarters, International Espionage, Law-Enforcement Division

365 Days with Ben Grimm, Day 266

Panels from Marvel Two-in-One #77 (July 1981), script by Tom DeFalco, pencils by Ron Wilson, inks by Chic Stone, colors by George Roussos, letters by Michael Higgins

Tuesday Nighty Tighty-Whities: Tony Stark in His Underwear, Part 2

As you may remember from last week, Tuesday nights are Underwear Nights here at Comics Oughta Be Fun!, and once again let's peek in through the blinds at the Marky Mark of the Marvel Universe, Tony Stark!:


Panels from What If? v.2 #8 (Mid-December 1989), script by Danny Fingeroth, pencils by Greg Capullo, inks by Ian Akin and Brian Garvey, colors by Tom Vincent, letters by Richard Starkings

In this week's look at Tony's monogrammed Fruit-of-the-Looms, he's been kidnapped by his evil nemesis Justin Hammer, heir to the worldwide baking soda fortune. Hammer wants to "take a closer look" at Tony. I'll say he does! Tony's forced to remove his Iron Man armor and shove it down the laundry chute. Bet it clatters and makes a heck of a noise all the way down! Hope those pesky Li'l Rascals aren't climbing up from the other direction, huh?

Tony is so upset to be sitting around in his Y-fronts, sweat socks and brainwashing electronic collar (sold in a set at Target), that he tips over his eggs, bacon, beans and chip breakfast. Watch out, Tony, that's the good china...oh, we can't have nice things.



Of course, you know the rest: eventually Tony escapes, probably by wooing one of Hammer's female assistants (seriously, James Bond has got nuthin' on Mister S.) and flies away to safety and refuge in...um, a dirty city alley. Where he instantly strips back down to his undies once again:



What th--?? Y'know, I'm beginnin' to think...could this mean...well, it's almost as if Tony likes running around in his underwear...?

365 Days with Ben Grimm, Day 265

Panels from Strange Tales #123 (August 1964), script by Stan Lee, pencils by Carl Burgos (creator of the original Human Torch!), inks by Dick Ayers, colors by Stan Goldberg, letters by Sam Rosen

Shalla Bal, Sha-la-la-la-la Bal (get a job)

Money! As top economist Joseph Stiglitz has written,

Money, get away
Get a good job with good pay and you're okay
Money, it's a gas
Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash
New car, caviar, four star daydream
Think I'll buy me a football team

And he oughta know...he won the Nobel Prize twice: once for Economics, and once for Sexiest Man of the Year. And, his hit album was on the Billboard Charts for over 740 weeks.

Thing is, everybody needs money. And in these tough economic times, if you don't have a tin cup full of pencils or some shiny polished apples to sell (and no selling on my corner! This is my territory!), you're gonna need a job of some sort to earn yourself some cool green moola.


Yes, money. You can't live without it, and you can't eat it, unless it's Hungarian sausage bucks, now available in thick or thin slice currency.


But if you wanna earn a daily living, the competition is fierce, because it seems these days everybody's looking for gainful employment:


Say, just who is that behind those Foster Grants, huh? Why, it's none other than the Argent Agent, the Sterling Soarer, the Tinfoil Thrasher....

The Silver Surfer!

All panels are from Silver Surfer #5 (April 1969), script by Stan Lee, pencils by John Buscema, inks by Sal Buscema, letters by Sam Rosen
But the man with the reflective face (not to mention the rest of him) finds that getting a job isn't as easy as popular culture makes it out to be! No, first he must dress up as a woman and get a place to live in an all-girl's apartment building...oh, wait, I got The Silver Surfer mixed up with Bosom Buddies. Again.



Yep, it's just like the U. S. Army commercials tell ya: no experience, no job. But no job, no experience? What's a depressed and overdramatic glistening-skinned alien to do?!? Huh? Huh?

Well, luckily for the Twinkling Titan, the answer to all his problems, like that of all problems in life, can be found within the pages of a Marvel comic book...in fact, the very same comic book he's appearing in as we now speak read: Silver Surfer #5. Many behemoths of business got their start by answering an ad in the back of a Marvel comic. Was it by selling Grit, or flower seeds, or maybe by offering to last three rounds in a ring with the Hulk? Nay (as our pal Thor might say), it was not-eth. Hmmm, well, was it one of these ads?:



No! Nor is it a need for a GED that's holding Norrin Rad back, because everyone knows he's a proud graduate of Zenn-La High, starting captain for the Zenn-La Zygotes Nurgball team, homecoming king (despite the attempts by his mischievous rival Reggin Mann to upsurp the throne and Norrin's prom date, Shalla Bal), and later went on to two and a half years of community college, proudly achieving his B.S. in Space Astrophysics (minoring in Zenn-La studies).


No, forget all that: here's how the Silver Surfer made his first billion quatloos and became the cover boy of Zenn-La's leading business publication, Business 2099.0—by selling valuable and rare coins at an amazing and astonishing profit!


More specifically, these coins:


Say, Norrin Radd: I've just got one question: I'm wondering, um...

365 Days with Ben Grimm, Day 264

Ben Grimm meets "The Great One," Jackie Gleason, in a panel from Fantastic Four #9 (December 1962), script by Stan Lee, pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Dick Ayers, letters by Artie Simek

365 Days with Ben Grimm, Day 263

Panel from Marvel Super Hero Contest of Champions #3 (August 1982), script by Mark Gruenwald, Steven Grant, and Bill Mantlo, pencils by John Romita, Jr., inks by Pablo Marcos, colors by Don Warfield and Carl Gafford, letters by Joe Rosen