Today in Comics History, August 21, 1950: Don Ho is invented

Today, won't you please raise your glass of fresh-squeezed pineapple juice in a hearty salute to our fiftieth and islandest state, Hawaii, which became a state on this very date in 1959, fifty-four years ago today! (Or, as we like to say on the Big Island, Hau'oli la Ho'omana'o!)


"Aloha...Hawaii!" DC PSA comic from DC Comics cover-dated April 1960, script by Jack Schiff, pencils and inks by Bernard Baily, letters by Ira Schnapp
This comic points out several notable Hawaiians, but it's left off a lot of my personal favorites: comic book artist Steve Leialoha, actor Keanu Reeves; Battlestar Galactica's original Athena, Maren Jensen; musician Pete Wentz; famous police detective Chang Apana (and his fictional version Charlie Chan); singer Israel "Iz" Kaʻanoʻi Kamakawiwoiole; surfer guru Duke Kahanamoku; journalist Jeff Chang; Superboy from that run of issues where he lived in Hawaii; G.I. Joe's Torpedo; Namor nemesis Llyra...and let's not forget fiction's most important characters to originate from Hawaii:


from Disney Junior Graphic Novel #2 [Lilo & Stitch] (Disney, 2006), script by Greg Ehrbar; pencils and inks by Anna Merli, Sonia Matrone, Federico Bertolucci, Dario Calabria, Massimiliano Narciso, and Gabriella Matta
So here's to Lilo & Stitch and all our other good friends on the islands of Hawaii! Mahalo nui loa na ho'olaule'a me la kaua!