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!
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