A Grand Night Out: Natalie Merchant's Leave Your Sleep concert

Thanks to pal Steve who bought the tickets, I'm seeing Natalie Merchant at the Tilles Center on Long Island for her tour to accompany her new album Leave Your Sleep! Sing "These Are Days," Ms. M! (She did!)


Thank you Steve, and thank you Natalie!

Today in Comics History, December 1: Only twenty-four more swooping days until Christmas

from The Batman Adventures Holiday Special one-shot (DC, January 1995), script by Paul Dini, pencils and inks by Dan Riba, colors by Bruce Timm, letters by Richard Starkings

366 Days with Alfred Pennyworth, Day 336

Page from "Here Comes Alfred!" in Batman #27 (April-May 1943), script by Don Cameron, pencils by Bob Kane, figure inks by Jerry Robinson, background inks and letters by George Roussos

Bully's Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar Countdown 2012: Day 1

Starting today! An event I've been waiting for since a long time ago, in a galaxy far away: I get to start opening my Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar! (slight pause for a Kermit-style YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!)

Here I am getting ready to open it! This is the last time you'll see this box in mint condition, folks! I am not interested in selling it in later years on eBay...I want to play with my Lego toys now! (Like all right-thinking folks!)


You may have noticed that my Lego Star Wars calendar is labelled "2011!" That's because it is last year's model (not to be confused with the Elvis Costello LP). I don't mind because even tho' it was last years calendar it was on sale! Yes, I am a very thrifty bull who saves his dimes for special Christmas treats.


The front of the box folds out into an elaborate tableau (thank you, Word of the Day™ Calendar for 2011!) on which to place your finished Lego toys. I can't wait to lay them all out! Elaborate arrangements, here I come!


Let's see what's behind Door Number 1, and whether we want to trade it for what is behind door number three. Oh wait, for a moment there I was thinking of Monty Hall's Let's Make a Deal. I got overexcited and I have made another one of my silly mistakes.


OH BOY OH BOY OH BOY I'M SO EXCITED


It's a small package of Lego pieces! Thank you Lego Star Wars Calendar! Oh, wait, I'm supposed to put them together. Even better!


Golly! There's a lot of itty-bitty teen-weent red and grey and white pikini...I mean pieces.


Luckily there are pictorial instructions on the insides of each door. I believe this one is showing me how to make a barbecue rotisserie!


Well, what do ya know...it's the first thing we ever saw in Star Wars...the Rebel Blockade Runner Tantive IV! You know, I always wondered what happened to Tantives I-III. I bet they got eaten by giant space worms. No, it isn't! It's a Republic Cruiser. Thanks, commenter Kid Kyoto!


Much like constructing your average Ikea flat-pack furniture kit, there are several pieces left over. Ah well! Perhaps these are the bonus pieces that will later combine to form a fully-functional life-size R2-D2! Oh maybe not.


So there you go, Star Wars fans! As we count down the days until the galaxy's most beloved holiday, Life Day, let's keep this in mind: a day without Bea Arthur is like a day without sunshine! oooh, I can hardly wait to construct Jefferson Starship out of Lego! See you tomorrow!

A Hanna-Barbera Christmas, Day 1: And this is what led to The Day After Tomorrow

Let's leap into the holiday season with a daily December visit to those citizens of Bedrock, the family of the future, Mystery Incorporated, a cat who lives in a trash can, and all the other denizens of a world of limited animation. It's time for A Hanna-Barbera Christmas!


Cover of The Jetsons #6 (Archie Series, February 1996), art by Scott J. and Scott A.

Spider-Man is tired...

Panels from Amazing Spider-Man v.1 #10 (March 1964), script by Stan Lee, pencils and inks by Steve Ditko, letters by Sam Rosen

...and so am I. So I'm going to bed. See you tomorrow, folks! Don't stay up too late now, Spidey!

366 Days with Alfred Pennyworth, Day 335

Pages from Batgirl v.3 #17 (March 2011), script by Bryan Q. Miller, pencils and inks by Pere Perez, colors by Guy Major, letters by Travis Lanham

Today in Comics History, November 30: Time to buy a new Mr. Chimps calendar

Panel from iZombie #2 (DC/Vertigo, August 2010), script by Chris Roberson, pencils and inks by Michael Allred, colors by Laura Allred, letters by Todd Klein

More Cow/Bull Month, Day 30: Mooo.

Wrapping up More Bull/Cow Month with perhaps the most famous cows in the Marvel Universe...twice!


Panel from Fantastic Four v.1 #2 (January 1962), script by Stan Lee, pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by George Klein, colors by Stan Goldberg, letters by John Duffy


Panel from Fantastic Four Annual #17 (May 1983); script, pencils and inks by John Byrne; colors by Glynis Wein; letters by Jim Novak

I've got hundreds more cow and bull panels, folks, so remind me in 2013 if you want a return of...More Cow/Bull Month! Sooner, though, stay tuned tomorrow for December's daily special feature...A Very Hanna-Barbera Christmas! (Jinkies!)

Today in Comics History, November 29, 1991: Death takes a holiday to a Wyld Stallyns concert

from Bill & Ted's Excellent Comic Book #3 (Marvel, February 1992), script and pencils by Evan Dorkin, inks by Stephen DeStefano, colors by Robbie Busch, letters by Kurt Hathaway

How Many X-Men Comics Were Released This Week? (11/28/12)

It's weeks like this that are the reason that I invited a little puppet-town cow-blog features called How Many X-Men Comics Were Released This Week?, because believe it or not, when you step up to the comics stands this week, you'll find, crowding out orther comics with sharp claws and nasty fangs, that there were

• A+X #2: It's a comic book featuring both Avengers and X-Men! Say, why don't they call this comic something like...I dunno, Mighty X-Men...or maybe...Uncanny Avengers?!? Has a ring to it!
• All-New X-Men #2: What do you suppose they will title this series when it's published in trade collections? Originally Published in Comic Book Format X-Men?
• Astonishing X-Men Annual #1: Remember when annuals were double-sized and had a perfect-bound spine and they came out in the summer and you looked forward to them every year? Yeah, me either.
• Gambit #6: No, really, is this comic book coming out every week? Because that's just too much Gambit for anyone.
• Ultimate Comics X-Men #19: If you told all the late-1980s fanboys that their favorite, Kitty Pryde, was someday going to headline an X-Men team book, I bet their collective heads exploding would sheer joy would have shook the earth off its axis. Also, did you ever think that in a week in which eight X-Men comics were released, the one from the Ultimate Universe would be the one with the highest issue number? Why, it has been being published nearly two years!
• Uncanny Avengers #2: It's a comic book featuring both X-Men and Avengers! Say, why don't they call this comic something like...I dunno, X+A...or maybe...A+X?!? Has a ring to it!
• X-Men Legacy #2: X-Men Legacy! The book that replaced X-Men v.2 that replaced New X-Men that replaced X-Men v.2*. Oh, this is X-Men Legacy v.2? Boy, Marvel, must really be thinking we have infinite capability to keep all this X-Men comic book publishing history straight in our heads, don't they! *I did not have to look that up.
• X-Treme X-Men #7: Scuttlebutt on the Twitterverse (say that three times fast) says this is one of the more entertaining new X-Titles out there. But, of course! It stars Dazzler.

Next week: this little stuffed blogger will be out on assignment and won't be counting those X-Men titles, so will you please do it for me and let me know? WIll it be six? Will it be nine? Will it be, in Marvel's quest to give Brian Bendis eighteen titles to write and to therefore take over the world of comics, thirty-three? Next Wednesday, only you will know...How Many X-Men Comics Were Released This Week?

366 Days with Alfred Pennyworth, Day 334

Page from Batman: Gotham Knights #38 (April 2003), script by Scott Beatty, pencils by Roger Robinson, inks by John Floyd, colors by Gloria Vasquez, color separations by Wildstorm FX, letters by Bob Pinaha

More Cow/Bull Month, Day 29: As if.

Panel from "The Dudette Ranch" in Clueless Spring Special one-shot (May 1995), script by Jack Enyart, pencils and inks by Dave Hoover, colors by Ben Sean, letters by Janice Chiang

366 Days with Alfred Pennyworth, Day 333

Panels from Batman #247 (February 1973), script by Denny O'Neil, pencils by Irv Novick, inks by Dick Giordano

More Cow/Bull Month, Day 28: Tossing the bull around

Panel from Daredevil #129 (January 1976), script by Marv Wolfman, pencils by Bob Brown, inks by Klaus Janson, colors by Michele Wolfman, letters by Joe Rosen

My Movember mustache grew really good

But I'm not really certain why it came in brown.

366 Days with Alfred Pennyworth, Day 332

Panels from Batman: Family #1 (December 2002), script by John Francis Moore, pencils by Rick Hoberg, inks by Stefano Gaudiano, colors by Carla Feeny, color separations by Heroic Age, letters by John Workman

Today in Comics History, November 27: Buying that giant novelty calendar finally pays off for Joker

cover of Detective Comics #71 (January 1943), art version published in The Batman Gallery (DC, 1992), pencils and inks by Jerry Robinson
And here's Jerry Robinson's original pencils and inks for this cover!


pencil and ink version from The Batman Vault (Running Press, October 2009)

More Cow/Bull Month, Day 27: World's least subtle museum heist

Panels from Thor #146 (November 1967), script by Stan Lee, pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Vince Colletta, letters by Artie Simek

Want to see more of Marvel's Solid Gold Bull? Tune in tomorrow, effendi!

366 Days with Alfred Pennyworth, Day 331

Panel from "Poison Ivy" storyline in Batman with Robin the Boy Wonder comic strip (February 2, 1967),
script by Whitney Ellsworth, art by Joe Giella

Today in Comics History, November 26/Thanksgiving: You kind of expected this one, didn't you

from "The Red Letter Day Crimes" in Detective Comics #65 (DC, July 1942), script and pencils by Jack Lehti, inks and letters by Charles Paris

More Cow/Bull Month, Day 26: Pity the Kent farm bull

Panels from Action Comics v.2 #6 (April 2012), script by Grant Morrison, pencils by Andy Kubert, inks by John Dell, colors by Brad Anderson, letters by Patrick Brosseau

Comics News for November 25, 2012

366 Days with Alfred Pennyworth, Day 330

Panel from New Titans #100 (August 1993); script by Marv Wolfman; pencils by Tom Grummett and Bill Jaaska; inks by Al Vey, Rob Leigh, Steve George, and John Statema; colors by Adrienne Roy; letters by John Costanza

More Cow/Bull Month, Day 25: Bulls come runnin' for the great taste of Kryptonian

Panels from The Man of Steel #1 (October 1986), script and pencils by John Byrne, inks by Dick Giordano, colors by Tom Ziuko, letters by John Costanza

More Kal versus Bull action tomorrow!

Happy First Anniversary, John and Randi!

I would like to wish a happy first anniversary to the two best people in my life, John and Randi! (pictured below)


from All Star Superman #3 (DC, May 2006), script by Grant Morrison, pencils by Frank Quitely, inks and colors by Jamie Grant