365 Days of DC House Ads, Day 271: Proof that global warming is just a myth

House ad for Strange Adventures #233 (November-December 1971); printed in The Brave and the Bold #99 (December 1971)
Ad designed and lettered by Gaspar Saladino

Cover of Strange Adventures #233 (November-December 1971), pencils and inks by Murphy Anderson

Comics Within Comics Month, Day 28: Tonight I'm gonna party like it's 1963

Panel from 1963 #1 [Mystery Incorporated] (April 1993), script by Alan Moore, pencils by Rick Veitch, inks by Dave Gibbons, colors by Marvin Kilroy, letters by Don Simpson



Cover of 1963 #3 [Tales of the Uncanny] (June 1993), pencils by Rick Veitch, inks by Don Simpson
The scene in 1963 #1 was of course inspired by similar scenes in Fantastic Four...also "circa 1963":


Panels from Fantastic Four (1961 series) #5 (July 1962), script by Stan Lee, pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Joe Sinnott, colors by Stan Goldberg, letters by Artie Simek
Say, why is the Hulk colored purple? (Because he's a giant grape?) A more important observation: didja notice the other comic within a comic?


Cover of The Incredible Hulk (1962 series) #1 (May 1962), pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by George Roussos or maybe Jack Kirby (?), colors by Stan Goldberg, letters by Artie Simek
However, the issue of The Incredible Hulk #1 that Johnny Storm is reading has an incorrect back cover. The real Marvel-Deal featured an ad for for the Famous Artist's School on its back cover, not a pin-up. But the back cover of Johnny's mag is similar to the page one title of Hulk #1! Have you got your comic book inside out, Young Mister Storm?


Back cover and page one of The Incredible Hulk #1
But hey, what about that quirky back cover of Tales of the Uncanny that Kid Dynamo is relaxing with in the 1963 panel waaaaay at the very top of this post? Is that accurate? Welllllll...it's close, but no go, Joe. Here's the actual back cover of 1963 #3:


Back cover of 1963 #3 [Tales of the Uncanny] (June 1993), probably created by Rick Veitch
Which is a parody of this frequently seen comic book ad:


(By the way, that hefty "80 lb. stock" that the monsters are printed on? At .011" thick, 80 pound stock is only marginally heavier and thicker than a regular sheet of printer paper. I'm betting these monsters were printed in thin poster paper and shipped rolled up in a tube.)

Actually, the back cover of 1963 #1 (the one in which Kid Dynamo is appearing) has the back cover ad parody that we see on 1963 #3, he one he's reading. Doesn't that blow your puny human brain?!?


Back cover of 1963 #1 [Mystery Incorporated] (April 1993); script, pencils, and inks by Rick Veitch
And yes, "Shamed By You English?" is a take-off on another popular comic book ad:


The deep-drilling into the onion of Comics Within Comics ends for today, but for those of you who care to Read More About It™, you can bike on down to your local library just click on this link to read about the British version of the "Shamed by Your English?" ad! But not me. Nope, I aint click'in on no ad, no way sirree, 'cuz my English-speakifyin' is poifect.

The Ultimate Zing!

Panels from Secret Avengers (2010 series) #23 (April 2012), script by Rick Remender, pencils and inks by Gabriel Hardman, colors by Elizabeth Breitweiser, letters by Chris Eliopoulos

365 Days of DC House Ads, Day 270: By overwhelming demand of Green Arrow, that is

House ad for Green Lantern #123 (December 1979); printed in Batman #318 (December 1979)
Comic cover art: pencils and inks by Gil Kane, colors by Tatjana Wood
Ad designed and lettered by Gaspar Saladino

Comics Within Comics Month, Day 27: Comics are your best nutritional value

Panels from Superman/Batman Annual #1 (December 2006)



Cover of Superman (1939 series) #76 (May-June 1952), pencils and inks by Win Mortimer
Hey, look, you can tell the cover image they used in Superman/Batman Annual #1 came from the Grand Comics Database, because the imperfections and the markings on it match!

Comics Within Comics Month, Day 26: Love is like oxygen an onion

...because no matter how many layers you peel away, there's still more underneath! I shall demonstrate in this entry of Comics Within Comics that is too big for you to handle at noon, so here it is at nighttime when you can savor it fully. (Also, I didn't have it written at noon.)


Panels from "Down with Romance" in Heart Throbs #100 (February-March 1966), pencils by Don Heck
Hotchy motchy! That's a whole lotta DC romances photostatted into that rack in the second panel. Let me see if I can ID 'em all, which may take my mind off the sight of Dr. Don Blake browsing medical magazines at the newsstand.

365 Days of DC House Ads, Day 269: Good thing they both used Ultra-Brite, the toothpaste with—ding!—sex appeal!

House ad for and printed in Love Stories #147 (November 1972)
Ad artist unknown, ad designed and lettered by Gaspar Saladino

Eat a peach

Hi hi hi, all you good folks out there! If you're the sort of blog fan who sits out there frantically hitting command-R to refresh and re-refresh Google Reader Feedly, trying to see if the blogs you follow have been updated in the past sixty seconds, then you've no doubt noticed that I've been a little off-schedule with some of my posts recently (altho' I always strive to catch up with them at some point). In the interests of National Security Disclosure I'm now able to let you know what I've been up to when I haven't been instantly updating the blog exactly on schedule: I've been away at Peach Camp!

Yes, Peach Camp™, the exciting new summer camp for kids from 5 to 12, which is why my kid sister Marshall had to stay at home and eat cookies and watch TV all summer! Ha ha, Marshall! I got to go to Peach Camp and you had to...hey wait a minute! But I'm not complaining. Peach Camp, like comics, is a lot of fun! Please allow me to prove this to y'all and show my work through the medium of digital photography! (And I am specially grateful to Bully-Pal Heather for taking several of the photos. The really good ones.)


Off we go to Peach Camp! I am so excited I even forgot to ask if we could go to McDonald's so I could get a Eggamuffin for breakfast. That is really excited.



Here we are in the vast peach fields of Long Island! If you thought you had to go to Georgia for fresh delicious peaches, you are wrong! I only wish I had had a chance to tell that to my good friend Miss Gladys Knight* before she got on that train in the middle of the night.



Here are yummy peaches! You get to pick them yourselves at Peach Camp. This could prove to be a bit of a challenge for a Stuffed Bull of Very Small Stature.



Luckily, at Peach Camp you are encouraged to pick peaches, in the words of comic book zealot Magneto, by any means possible. I'm assuming this means by destroying all the humans and setting up a rule of mutants over the remaining pathetic non-powered persons, or, conversely, I could just climb the tree.



Ah ha! With a bit of stretching, you can jussssssst about grab a peach. Don't stretch so far you fall out of the tree, folks! Also, I have discovered, Velcro™ gloves would be useful at this point.



Just a little bit more...



My pal Shelly the Little Otter Puppet came along to Peach Camp with me and she very much enjoyed picking lots of peaches, too! It is nice when I can introduce her to new horizons and delicious new foods, especially ones that are not just fish.



Here I am, outstanding in my field.



Aieeeeeeee! I'm being chased through the peach fields by a wild dinosaur!



Naw, i'm jus' foolin' ya! That dinosaur is actually one of my new friends that I met at Peach Camp, Shep. He's cool. He's a herbivore. Or, especially today, a peachavore.



I did get chased through the fields by a plane looking for Cary Grant, however.



How exciting is Peach Camp? So exciting! I even got to drive a tractor!



However, my legs too short to box with God push the tractor's pedals.



Everybody picked and picked and picked and picked peaches from morning until dusk, and nobody even ever brought up the subject of child labor laws, so we all had a peachy-good time!



Oh! I also got to hang out and tell some other fun new friends some of my stories, jokes and riddles. They were good listeners. In fact, they were all ears.



Next month I think I shall attend Apple Camp™! In which, I dunno, I guess I get to learn how to use my Macintosh and OSX more effectively.



On the way home I got to sit with Shep, and we all sang songs about peaches. I really love them, and I wanna shake your tree. Apparently.



So, there you are. In summary, Peach Camp, won't you? Peach Camp.

*And her Pips.

365 Days of DC House Ads, Day 268: Because of this comic book, Julius Schwartz was shot, stuffed and mounted...at the New York Athletic Club. But the joke is on them, because it's restricted.

House ad for Showcase #71 [The Maniaks] (November-December 1967); printed in The Spectre (1967 series) #1 (November-December 1967)
Comic cover art: pencils by Mike Sekowsky, inks by Mike Esposito
Ad designed and lettered by Ira Schnapp
Woody Allen? Woody Allen?!?

Well, of course.


Panels from Showcase #71 (November-December 1967), script by E. Nelson Bridwell, pencils by Mike Sekowsky, inks by Mike Esposito
Here's a page of the comic book for which I hope E. Nelson Bridwell sent Woody Allen one-twenty-oneth of his paycheck for writing Showcase #71, as the page is taken pretty much verbatim from one of Woody's stand-up routines:

Comics Within Comics Month, Day 25: Hey, that's the same garbage can everybody throws their costumes into!

Panel from "...Canon." in X-Men: First Class (2007 series) #11 (June 2008), script by Jeff Parker, pencils and inks by Colleen Coover, colors by Val Staples, letters by Nate Piekos



Cover of Journey into Mystery (1952 series) #83 (August 1962), pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Joe Sinnott, colors by Stan Goldberg, letters by Artie Simek

If I Ran Gold Key Comics

365 Days of DC House Ads, Day 267: The JLA makes you jump through hoops to join

House ad for Justice League of America (1960 series) #67 (November-December 1968); printed in Batman #206 (November 1968)
Comic cover art: pencils and inks by Neal Adams, letters by Gaspar Saladino
Ad designed and lettered by Gaspar Saladino

Comics Within Comics Month, Day 24: Maybe it's not the best idea to remind the audience of the universe that only existed for three months

Panels from Justice League Dark #3 (January 2012), script by Peter Milligan, pencils and inks by Mikel Janin, colors by Ulises Arreola, letters by Rob Leigh



Covers of Flashpoint: Secret Seven #1 (August 2011), pencils and inks by George Pérez, colors by Tom Smith;
and Flashpoint: Deadman and the Flying Graysons #1 (August 2011), pencils, inks and colors by Cliff Chiang, letters by Jared K. Fletcher

Today in Comics History, September 23, 1959: Ozymandias invents the Dutch angle

from Before Watchmen: Ozymandias #3 (DC, November 2012), script by Len Wein, pencils and inks by Jae Lee, colors by June Chung, letters by John Workman