Same Story, Different Cover: Hellboy, no!

Left: Tales to Astonish #25 (November 1961), pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Dick Ayers, colors by Stan Goldberg
Right: Weird Wonder Tales #17 (August 1976), pencils by Larry Lieber, inks by Frank Giacoia

(Click picture to high-def-size)

366 jours avec Alfred Pennyworth, spécial pour le 14 juillet: Jour cent quatre-vingt-seize

In celebration of Bastille Day, Alfred's gone continental today! Bonjour, M. Pennyworth!



pages de "Les 'Souris' Dansent" dans Batman Poche #44 (Sage/Sagédition, 3e trimestre 1982), le scénario par Bob Rozakis et Roy Thomas, crayonné par José Luis Garcia-Lopez, encrage par Frank McLaughlin, coloration par Adrienne Roy
And a special merci to Bully-Buddy Brian for providing the French Batman comics to scan! Vous êtes merveilleux, Brian! I know I should've used "tu" there because he's my pal, but my French isn't that good.

Today in Comics History, July 14: Bat-Family game night finally ends; Bruce wins "Operation"

from "The Warrior in a Wheel-Chair" in The Brave and the Bold (1955 series) #100 (DC, February 1972), script by Bob Haney; pencils, inks, and letters by Jim Aparo

Today in Comics History, Friday the 13th: If you know what's good for you, don't appear on Roy Raymond's TV show today

Why not? Well, first of all, Alicia Masters is appearing on it in drag:


from "The Unlucky Guest Stars!" in Detective Comics #217 (DC, March 1955), pencils and inks by Ruben Moreira

All's well, until under a full moon, the villainous Purple Man is run over by a purple car going "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" at him.


As Dostoevsky might say: "Things keep occurin'!"


TMZ is quick to leap upon the muckraking bandwagon, and thousands of internet commenters strike out against TV Detective Roy Raymond! Not pictured: Comic Book Guy going "Worst...show...ever."


We then go on to prove that like Friday nights in 2012, Friday nights in 1955 was the TV Graveyard for About-to-Be-Cancelled Series. "There's a two-headed carp on TV!" was not a call to watch in the fifties.


And hey, wouldn't viewers in 1955 have seen that weird-ass multi-colored South American plant like this?:


Well, here's Roy himself to wrap it all up with a cleverly detected ending!:


Okay, uh...Huh?!?

366 Days with Alfred Pennyworth, Day 195

Later...


Panels from "Batcave Action Playset" in Tiny Titans #3 (June 2008), script, pencils, inks, colors and letters by Art Baltazar; co-scripted by Franco Aureliani:

Today in Comics History. Friday the 13th (of July): Batman has fewer regrets than Frank Sinatra

from "The Warrior in a Wheel-Chair" in The Brave and the Bold (1955 series) #100 (DC, February 1972), script by Bob Haney; pencils, inks, and letters by Jim Aparo

The City of Tomorrow

Still too much real-life commotion to give you a full post tonight, folks, but in the meantime here's a gorgeous flyover of Metropolis! (Wow, they sure devote lots of lucrative waterfront property to parkland in Metropolis, don't they?)


Panel from "Man of Steel Versus Man of Metal" from World's Finest Comics #6 (Summer 1942), script by Jerry Siegel, pencils and inks by John Sikela

366 Days with Alfred Pennyworth, Day 194

Ah, another Elseworlds. Well, there's not much this story can do to surprise me.



!

Okay, that surprised me.

Panels from Batman/Demon: A Tragedy one-shot (2000), script by Alan Grant; pencils, inks, and colors by Jim Murray; letters by Clem Robins

Today in Comics History, July 12: The Collapse of Batman

from "The Warrior in a Wheel-Chair" in The Brave and the Bold (1955 series) #100 (DC, February 1972), script by Bob Haney; pencils, inks, and letters by Jim Aparo

Today in Comics History, July 12: Robin fails Feminism 101

from "The Warrior in a Wheel-Chair" in The Brave and the Bold (1955 series) #100 (DC, February 1972), script by Bob Haney; pencils, inks, and letters by Jim Aparo

Today in Comics History, July 11: Batman taunts a spider

from "The Warrior in a Wheel-Chair" in The Brave and the Bold (1955 series) #100 (DC, February 1972), script by Bob Haney; pencils, inks, and letters by Jim Aparo

366 Days with Alfred Pennyworth, Day 193

An Alfred sequence too good to limit it to just a panel or two!:



Panels from "The Duped Domestics!" in Batman #22 (April-May 1944), script by Alvin Schwartz, pencils by Bob Kane, inks by Jerry Robinson, letters by George Roussos

Incidentally, that's Catwoman in disguise. D'oh!

Today in Comics History, July 11: Batman decides to change everyone's superhero name

from "The Warrior in a Wheel-Chair" in The Brave and the Bold (1955 series) #100 (DC, February 1972), script by Bob Haney; pencils, inks, and letters by Jim Aparo

Today in Comics History, July 11: The first Batman/Spider-Man crossover comic isn't as exciting as we'd hoped

from "The Warrior in a Wheel-Chair" in The Brave and the Bold (1955 series) #100 (DC, February 1972), script by Bob Haney; pencils, inks, and letters by Jim Aparo

Today in Comics History, July 11: Green Arrow discovers the best way to ship his junk

from "The Warrior in a Wheel-Chair" in The Brave and the Bold (1955 series) #100 (DC, February 1972), script by Bob Haney; pencils, inks, and letters by Jim Aparo

Today in Comics History, July 10: The day Batman hung out on Bruce Wayne's balcony and nobody noticed

from "The Warrior in a Wheel-Chair" in The Brave and the Bold (1955 series) #100 (DC, February 1972), script by Bob Haney; pencils, inks, and letters by Jim Aparo

Today in Comics History, July 10: Warwick Davis is hired to direct the Justice League movie

from "The Warrior in a Wheel-Chair" in The Brave and the Bold (1955 series) #100 (DC, February 1972), script by Bob Haney; pencils, inks, and letters by Jim Aparo

Today in Comics History, July 10: The day Wayne Manor turned into a soap opera

from "The Warrior in a Wheel-Chair" in The Brave and the Bold (1955 series) #100 (DC, February 1972), script by Bob Haney; pencils, inks, and letters by Jim Aparo

366 Days with Alfred Pennyworth, Day 192

Panels from Detective Comics Annual #7 (1994), script by Chuck Dixon, pencils and inks by Quique Alcatena, colors by David Horning, letters by Richard Starkings

Today in Comics History, July 10, 1968: Happy birthday to everyone's favorite superheroine*, Halo!

from "Fallen Angel" in Secret Origins (1986 series) #6 (DC, September 1986), script by Mike W. Barr, pencils and inks by Dick Giordano, colors by Adrienne Roy, letters by Duncan Andrews
*Yes she is and don't you deny it.

Today in Comics History, July 10: Batman Begins...to cosplay Professor Xavier

from "The Warrior in a Wheel-Chair" in The Brave and the Bold (1955 series) #100 (DC, February 1972), script by Bob Haney; pencils, inks, and letters by Jim Aparo

Today in Comics History, July 10, 2031: Superman answers a trivia question about today's entry in "Today in Comics History"

from The Kingdom #1 (DC, February 1999), script by Mark Waid, pencils and inks by Ariel Olivetti, colors by John Kalisz, separations by Chris Chuckry, letters by Phil Felix

Fun with Multiple Covers and Animated gifs

366 Days with Alfred Pennyworth, Day 191

Panels from Batman: The Dark Knight v.1 #3 (August 2011), script and pencils by David Finch, inks by Scott Williams and Richard Friend, colors by Alex Sinclair and Pete Pantazis, letters by Dave Sharpe

Today in Comics History, July 9, 2031: The All-Superman 3D Movie Projector is invented

from The Kingdom #1 (DC, February 1999), script by Mark Waid, pencils and inks by Ariel Olivetti, colors by John Kalisz, separations by Chris Chuckry, letters by Phil Felix

Bully's Sunday Round-Up over at Unseen Films

Before you go to bed, have you turned off the television? Laid out your Monday outfit? Put the cat out? Then, you're ready, just before you crawl into bed with a good book, a glass of milk, and two or three cupcakes, to click here and check out my guest post over at pal DB's blog Unseen Films!



Okay, you can have four cupcakes if you really want.

Ten of a Kind: Upside down you're turning me

Extra bonus: Peter Parker in Escherland!

Left: Two-page spread from Amazing Spider-Man #655 (April 2011), script by Dan Slott, pencils and inks by Marcos Martin, colors by Muntsa Vicente, letters by Joe Caramagna

(Click picture to Flatiron Building-size)


(More Ten of a Kind here.)

Today in Comics History: Batman discovers a big-ass calendar

Panel from "The Mystery Rope!" in Batman #67 (October-November 1951), script by David Vern, Batman and Robin figure pencils by Bob Kane, all other pencils by Lew Schwartz, inks by Charles Paris, letters by Ira Schnapp


4,700.