Saturday, February 22, 2014

365 Days of KirbyTech, Day 53: Apokoliptian Ground Probe

And now, a little bit of personal time for Scott Free and Big Barda.


Panels from Mister Miracle (1971 series) #18 (February-March 1974), script and pencils by Jack Kirby, inks and letters by Mike Royer

WHOA MAMA WOCKA-CHA-WOCKA-CA-WOCKA

That is, until some pesky groundhog interrupts. No, wait, it's not Comics Oughta Be Fun!'s beloved furry rodent favorite Grover Groundhog, but the forces of baddie-planet Apokolips, searching underground for Mister M. and Big B. by using a frankly fantastic Ground Probe! Ah, if only Bill Murray had had one of these in Caddyshack.


Luckily Mister Miracle has one more trick up his sleeve: the equivalent of shining a flashlight in the eyes of somebody wearing night-vision goggles, or sprinkling Tabasco sauce on Matt Murdock's tongue. SENSORY OVERLOAD AHOY!


Bwah-ha-ha-ha-ha! That trick never gets old! You won't believe how many times Blue Beetle and Booster Gold fell for this when they were in the JLI with Mister Miracle.

Friday, February 21, 2014

365 Days of KirbyTech, Day 52: Baron Zemo's Circular Television Set


Panel from "The Strength of the Sumo" in Tales of Suspense #61 (January 1965), script by Stan Lee, pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Chic Stone, letters by Art Simek

Wow, a circular TV screen! That Nazi super-science is lightyears beyond ours! I bet that thing's really fragile, though, so you probably need to treat it with kid gloves and great care, because that picture tube has got to be uber expensive to replace, and


D'OH


Thursday, February 20, 2014

Today in Comics History, February 20: The movie The Great Escape is reenacted by pigs


Panel from "Strange Laws" in Detective Comics #278 (DC, April 1960); script, pencils, inks and letters by Henry Boltinoff

365 Days of KirbyTech, Day 51: Reed Richards' Noisy Nuclear Activators

WHAT'S THAT? I CAN'T HEAR YOU!

WHAT?

WHAT'D YOU SAY?

WHAT?


Panel from Fantastic Four (1961 series) #21 (December 1963), script by Stan Lee, pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by George Roussos, colors by Stan Goldberg, letters by Artie Simek

Oh, that's better.

Today in Comics History, February 20, 1947: MTR: Music Television Radio is on the air!


from Steed and Mrs. Peel (2012 series) #6 (Boom, February 2013), script by Caleb Monroe, pencils and inks by Yasmin Liang, colors by Ron Riley, letters by Ed Dukeshire

Today in Comics History, February 20: The notorious Culvert Diamond Thief is captured


from a Ray-O-Vac battery advertisement in DC Comics cover-dated October 1950

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

365 Days of KirbyTech, Day 50: The Toad Men's Magnetic Mind-Detector

Please excuse this little stuffed blogger if posts in this series are momentarily out of order or post-dated! I'm currently catching up to fill in all the days I've missed while I've been away! Rest assured, KirbyFans...you'll get all 365 of 'em!

The Toad Men are attacking! Well, technically, they're the Tribbites from Toadworld (aka Tribbit), but hey, let's call 'em the Toad Men, because hey! Orange Toads!


Panels from The Incredible Hulk (1962 series) #2 (July 1962), script by Stan Lee, pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Steve Ditko, colors by Stan Goldberg, letters by Artie Simek

Ah yes, the magnetic weaponry of the Toad Men. And there's no greater magnetic tool for our Kosmic Kermits than the Magnetic Mind-Detector!


BWAH-HA-HA-HA-HA IT'S A TENNIS RACKET WITH A REAR VIEW MIRROR BWAH-HA-HA-HA-HA!



Today in Comics History, February 19: Secret Squirrel and associate crack the Case of the Zodiac Killer


from "Pity Poor Pisces..." in Sweethearts (1954 series) #116 (Charlton, May 1971), pencils by Art Cappello, inks by Charles Nicholas, with Keuffel & Esser Leroy lettering

Today in Comics History, February 19, 1968: Superman arrests the single Englishman in Metropolis


from "The Menace of Superman's Fan Mail!" in Jimmy Olsen #110 (April 1968), script by Otto Binder, pencils by Curt Swan, inks by John Giunta (?)

It's like he didn't even consider that some Canadians might wanna kill him, huh?

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

365 Days of KirbyTech, Day 49: Reed Richards' Compu-Beam


Splash page from Silver Surfer (1968 series) #5 (April 1969), script by Stan Lee, pencils by John Buscema, inks by Sal Buscema, letters by Sam Rosen

Reed may call it the Compu-Beam, but I like to say it's the Fantastic Four's Bathroom Alarm.


Today in Comics History, February 18: Superboy thwarts the crime of Jupiter aligning with Mars


from "The Forging of Young Batman!" in Superboy (1949 series) #182 (DC, February 1972), script by Leo Dorfman, pencils by Bob Brown, inks by Murphy Anderson

Today in Comics History, February 18, 1968: Superman remembers the white-hot withering glare of a disdainful Lana Lang


from "The Menace of Superman's Fan Mail!" in Jimmy Olsen #110 (DC, April 1968), script by Otto Binder, pencils by Curt Swan, inks by John Giunta (?)

Today in Comics History, February 18, 1823: Ma Kent takes Clark to County Fair; forgets to tell Pa Kent


from Frankensten, Agent of SHADE #11 (DC, September 2012), script by Matt Kindt, pencils by Alberto Ponticelli, inks by Wayne Faucher, colors by José Villarrubia, letters by Pat Brosseau

Monday, February 17, 2014

At 13th Dimension: "Happy Presidents Day: It’s Our Favorite President!"

...no, not Chester A. Arthur. Stop writin' in demanding more Chester A. Arthur comics!

It's actually Richard M. Nixon that my bestest pal John has written about today on 13th Dimension, and you can check out 13 of Tricky Dick's most bizarre and outrageous appearances in comics! From pinching Teri Garr's bottom to facing off against the New Three Musketeers, it's all here, even that time when Captain America watched President N cash in his chips! (You really have to pick your poker buddies more carefully, Steve.)

However, once again John has missed out on one of the finest Nixon appearances in comic books: that time he cut off Wonder Woman in mid-speech.


Panels from DC: The New Frontier #3 (May 2004); script, pencils, and inks by Darwyn Cooke,
colors by Dave Stewart, letters by Jared K. Fletcher

The next sixty-four pages of that comic is Wonder Woman dribbling Nixon like a basketball, so it's well worth picking up the trade.

365 Days of KirbyTech, Day 48: The Asgardian Cosmic Bolt

So, Marvel's Thor: The Dark World comes out on DVD next week, and by watching it three or four hundred times in the theater, I've realized two things:


1. Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.* really needs to hire Darcy Lewis, and fast. And


2. Asgard sure has a lot of laser beam weapons, don't they?

Check it out: it's a veritable stellar assortment of stuff Odin picked up at George Lucas's garage sale, isn't it? There's a whole array of big-ass laser cannon guns manned godded by Asgardian warriors to shoot at the invading Dark Elf troops in their flying Elfmobiles!


These laser cannons allow Asgard to put down a stream of suppressing fire that makes approaching the All-Father's Palace of Norse Stuff feel like running the Death Star Trench attack, but with Norse Stuff.


Why, the Asgardians even have Star Wars-prequel-a-like flying spaceships that hum like Ben Burtt's electric razor...


...armed with rotating-magazine machine-gun death beams straight not out of the Prose Edda.


To paraphrase one of Loki's prison pen-pals: where do they get those wonderful toys? I guess upon reflection, you could chalk it up to one of the fundamental differences in the Asgard of Earth-199999 (the Marvel Cinematic Universe) and the Asgard of Earth-616 (the familiar Stan Lee Presents-o-verse): in the movies, Asgard is presented as being an advanced alien civilization. An alien civilization with big horned helmets, mind you, but aliens.

After all, we all know that the Asgardians of the Marvel Regular, No Cream, Two Sugars Universe are generally armed with swords, maces, spears, axes, and the occasional Sears Craftsman uru hammer. From Thor #157:


Page from Thor (1966 series) #157 (October 1968), script by Stan Lee, pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Vince Colletta, letters by Sam Rosen

Ah, yes, But occasionally Jack Kirby does let you see slightly...shall we say...more cosmic weaponry of Asgard. Remember the powerful blasts of the Asgardian Frost Gun, which doth shooteth tiny Emma Frosts at the enemies of Odin? Well, only a couple pages after seeing that above image of the traditionally-armed forces of Balder and The World's Most Dangerous Band, the situation in at least this one of the Nine Worlds is so bad that they need to roll out...no, not the barrel, you put that thing back, Volstagg...they need to roll out the mightiest weapon in all of Asgard! Forsooth, e'en mightier than the Fabled Wind of Odin on the Evenings of Roast Boar and Boiled Cabbage with Beans!


Behold: a weapon ripped straight from the legends of Ninth Century Vikings...The Cosmic Bolt!


And...it doesn't work.


So, putting together the Frost Gun and the Cosmic Bolt, as far as the Weapons of Asgard go, that's 0 for 2. Geez, Wile E. Coyote had a better rate of gadget success, guys. Say, Darcy Lewis, how would you react in that crisis?




*Suddenly Here It's Everybody Loves Darcy

Today in Comics History, February 17: Happy Brotherhood Week!

How well can you guess random facts about the fact that everyone in our country except Native Americans are immigrants?


"Special Brotherhood Week Quiz" PSA from DC Comics cover-dated March 1957, script by Jack Schiff (?), pencils and inks by Ruben Moreira, letters by Ira Schnapp

Gosh, they make it all sound so friendly:


Sunday, February 16, 2014

365 Days of KirbyTech, Day 47: Sledpool

Q: When Deadpool, the Merc with a Mouth, has to travel through cosmic dimensions to other times and brand-new realms, how does he get around?

A: Sledpool.


Panel from Deadpool (2013 series) #20 (February 2014), script by Gerry Duggan and Brian Posehn, pencils and inks by Scott Koblish, colors by Val Staples, letters by Joe Sabino

Na na na na na na na na Sledpool


Go Speed Sledpool! Go, Speed Sledpool! Go, Speed Sledpool, go!


Here in Sledpool / I feel safest of all / I can lock all my doors / It’s the only way to live / Sledpool!


My pappy said, "Son, you’re gonna make me read Deadpool / If you don’t stop driving that Hot Rod Sledpool!"

Sledpool!


Today in Comics History, February 16, 1971: Print media given burst of gamma radiation to extend life, just makes newspapers angry


from Incredible Hulk (1968 series) #139 (May 1971), script by Roy Thomas, pencils by Herb Trimpe, inks by Sam Grainger, letters by Artie Simek