Same Story, (Sorta) Different Cover: Thanks to Photoshop, we can blame any invasion of Manhattan on Namor

Left: Sub-Mariner #7 (November 1968), Namor figure pencils by John Buscema, inks by Dan Adkins
Right: Tales to Astonish v.2 #7 (June 1980), art credits identical, new photo

(Click picture to photo manip-u-size)

366 Days with Alfred Pennyworth, Day 203

Panels from Trinity #19 (October 8, 2008), script by Kurt Busiek, pencils by Mark Bagley, inks by Art Thibert, colors by Pete Pantazis, letters by Pat Brosseau

Marvel Team-Up

The Church of Gethsemane, Park Slope, Brooklyn; June 11, 2012

366 Days with Alfred Pennyworth, Day 202

Michael Caine (The Greatest Actor of Our Time™) as Alfred Pennyworth in The Dark Knight Rises (2008), screenplay by Christopher Nolan and Jonathan Nolan, directed by Christopher Nolan

Marvel NOW! That's What I Call Comics

By "now" you've heard the news: Marvel is going to cancel and restart many of its flagship titles this fall in a plan to freshen and invigorate the series. The new program, titled Marvel NOW!, will team up Avengers and X-Men in The Uncanny Avengers (not to be confused with The Mighty X-Men), returns Jean Grey to the Marvel Universe in all her multi-colored glory, finds a way to replace old white one-eyed Nick Fury with young black one-eyed Nick Fury, pushes into the spotlight Rocket Racoon (never a bad thing), gives Thor some honkin' big swords, and reintroduces all your favorite Star Comics characters into an original super-hero team led by Royal Roy and Wally the Wizard!



Marvel plans that this brand-new jumping- off on point and renumbering of many issues will please and delight comics fandom, who have repeatedly demanded and rejected change in the Marvel Universe's status quo. But what else can you expect from the all-new, all-different Marvel NOW!? Yours little stuffed truly talked to my mole at Marvel


...and I'm happy to be able to share this with you: here's lots more of what you can expect from Marvel NOW! (I think you are supposed to shout the NOW! when you say it) this fall. So enjoy the new secrets of... Marvel NOW! Now!

• Instead of beginning with "Stan Lee Presents," all Marvel Comics will be headlined with "Walt Disney in Association with the Walt Disney Company Corporation, Walt Disney Productions, Walt Disney Entertainment, Disney Consumer Products and Walt Disney Theme Parks Present"
• Reuse the plots from "Heroes Reborn"
• In his new origin, Daredevil blinded by a radioactive Kardashian
• Northstar divorces his husband; marries Kevin Keller
• Original five members of the X-Men replaced by Wolverine, Deadpool, Punisher, Thanos, and Wolverine
• New digital comics format allow readers to download and pirate comics within seconds
• Spider-Man now carries guilt of having personally beaten Uncle Ben to death in an argument over wheatcakes
• The New Universe, and this time we're gonna make that puppy stick
• Brian Bendis will probably write something
• Reed Richards divorces Sue, remarries with younger trophy wife Mary Jane Watson
• Annual crossover with superheroes from Earth-2
• Marvel Now! Pogs
• Tony Stark's drinking problem replaced by OCD; each issue to feature 8-10 pages of Tony washing his hands
• Dark Power Pack
• Carol Danvers demoted to Lieutenant Marvel
• Wolverine's claws now made of delicious candy
• Give The New Warriors their own book one more time. Kids love The New Warriors, right?
• Comic book printing to introduce fifth color
• Nick Fury Jr. revealed to have five-year-old illegitimate son missing one eye, who takes command of SHIELD
• Psylocke's rear end to get its own four-issue limited series
• Marvel to publish new Batman comic; bets DC won't even notice
• Holding the line at $5.99

366 Days with Alfred Pennyworth, Day 201

Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne and Michael Caine (The Greatest Actor of Our Time™) as Alfred Pennyworth in The Dark Knight (2008), screenplay by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan, directed by Christopher Nolan

366 Days with Alfred Pennyworth, Day 200/Today in Comics History, July 19, 1927

Let's celebrate our terrific two hundredth day with Alfred Pennyworth with one of the more unusual Batman comic book stories: a prose tale, written by Bat-master Denny O'Neil and illustrated by Marshall Rogers, that also just happens to mention a date...Today in Comics History!


from "Death Strikes at Midnight and Three" in DC Special Series #15 (DC, Summer 1978), script by Denny O'Neil, pencils and inks by Marshall Rogers

My Parents Are Deeaaaaaad!!! 2012

I think it's fair to say that we're all pretty tired of this worn-out meme:


Re-dialogued panel from World’s Finest Comics #153 (November 1965), pencils by Curt Swan, inks by George Klein
So why not make way for an all-new, all different meme?!?


Panel from "The North Pole Crimes!" World's Finest Comics #7 (Autumn 1942), script by Bill Finger, pencils by Bob Kane, inks by Jerry Robinson
Here, I've started you out with a new joke!


Now you try!

Fifty Shades of Jean Grey

Red

Yellow

Blue

Black

White

Green

Orange

Purple

Pink

Blue and Yellow

Black and Yellow

Grey

Jungle animal prints!

??!???

Can't make up her mind!

366 Days with Alfred Pennyworth, Day 199

Alfred (voiced by Alastair Duncan) and the young Bruce Wayne in The Batman "Traction" (September 18, 2004), written by Adam Beechen, directed by Sam Liu

Nobody expects a Madonna vs. Python mash-up

Hey, if you're a fan of the musical mash-up genre, scoot on over to my This Is My Jam page and check out a Madonna vs. Monty Python mash-up I did. Please excuse the sound quality: I made it years and years ago (even tho' I'm only six) and it had been saved in, wouldja believe it or not, the Macintosh System 7 Sound File format!

That page again is right here for a Madonna vs. Python mash-up, and hurry: this offer expires next Monday! (By which I mean This Is My Jam pages only stay up for one week.)


PS: Here it is as well:

366 Days with Alfred Pennyworth, Day 198

Chris O'Donnell as Dick Grayson, Alicia Silverstone as Barbara Wilson, George Clooney as Bruce Wayne, and Michael Gough as Alfred Pennyworth in Batman & Robin (1997), script by Akiva Goldsman, directed by Joel Schumacher

Today in Comics History, July 16, 1995: From this date on, we shall never ever see any Captain Atom comic books ever again

from Armageddon 2001 #2 (DC, October 1991), script by Dennis O'Neil; pencils by Dan Jurgens; inks by Art Thibert, Steve Mitchell, and Dick Giordano; colors by Adrienne Roy; letters by John Costanza

Ten of a Kind: The Situation Is Not Improving

See also. (More Ten of a Kind here.)

Today in Comics History, July 15, 1942: John Byrne subtlely plugs his new crossover

Oh no! Golden Age Flash Jay Garrick has been trapped by the Fiddler! Which, I think we'll all agree, is better than being fiddled by the Trapster.


from "A Stranger with My Face" in Speed Force one-shot (DC, November 1997); script, pencils, inks, and letters by John Byrne; colors by Noelle Giddings
Luckily a mysterious stranger who looks kind of like a relative is able to release Flash, but not being telling him to remember the date. You know, Mysterious Stranger, you could have at least given him a Post-It™ note with the date of 7/15/42 on it.


Well, luckily, as you see in the caption above, we can find out the answer to this puzzling conundrum (or, as we in the bloggin' business say, puzzdrum) within the pages of Wonder Woman #129, only a few months later!

Oh wait...hope you didn't buy Wonder Woman #129, because the story actually continued in Wonder Woman #130. Whoopsie.


Panels from Wonder Woman v.2 #130 (February 1998); script, pencils, inks, and letters by John Byrne; colors by Patricia Mulvihill
Oh, so the M.S. was the white-templed Jay Garrick of 1998 who traveled back to 1942 and released the Jay Garrick of that time so that he could survive into 1998 and go back in time to save himself in 1942 so he could...look, you guys all know how time travel works. Everything is predestined. Unless it isn't.

So, thank you John Byrne, for helping us laugh at July 15...again!

366 Days with Alfred Pennyworth, Day 197

Panel from Batman/Nightwing: Bloodborne one-shot (2002), script by Kelley Puckett, pencils and inks by Toby Cypress, colors by Melissa Edwards, letters by Willie Schubert