Today in Comics History, November 1: Nobody at Arkham Asylum wants to admit they were the one who gave a knife to Santa

from Detective Comics #593 (DC, December 1988), script by Alan Grant, pencils by Norm Breyfogle, inks by Steve Mitchell, colors by Adrienne Roy, letters by Todd Klein

Archie's Generic Celebrities Month, Day 1: Not Actually Johnny Depp

Which comic book character do you think has met the largest number of famous people? Wolverine? Wolverine? Do you think it's Wolverine? It's probably Wolverine, isn't it? Well, actually, it's those crazy kids of Riverdale, USA: Archie, Betty, Veronica, Jughead... um... Gerry...Pingu... Vyvyan and Rick... um... Spanky and Alfalfa... and the Professor and Mary Ann. But somehow all those celebrities who ride the little-seen Acela Express from Westbridge, Massachusetts straight to the Riverdale / Pembrooke / Greendale tri-state area seem to be...not quite the real thing. I don't know whether this is to avoid Archie Comics being sued by a celebrity (although let's face it, Angelina Jolie was just a really poor sport about that story where Jughead dumped a bucket of mustard on her head) or just that Riverdale exists in a parallel universe where big-time Hollywood stars have close-but-not-legal-actionable names. In any case, let's take thirty days' look-see at fake celebrities that don't really exist, like Michael Jonkson, Scarlett Jansonberry and Glenn Scarpelli!

In short: this month, all month: Archie's Generic Celebrities! First up: that dreamboat star who made us all forget that pirates were hateful, murderous villains who looted, pillaged, and participated in internet hate crimes against women: Jon E. Depth!


Panel from "Pirates Ahoy!" in Archie Comics Digest #237 (August 2007), script by Mike Pellowski, pencils by Henry Scarpelli, inks by Jon D'Agostino
You know, I liked the original Spy Guy movies much better before they rebooted them with Steve Martin.

Today in Comics History, October 31, 1951: So that makes teenage witch Sabrina 64 years old? I'll buy that

from Chilling Adventures of Sabrina #1 (Archie, December 2014); script by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa; pencils, inks, and colors by Robert Hack; letters by Jack Morelli

Today in Comics History, October 31, 1813: And that's why Scotland can never secede from the United Kingdom

from Hellboy in Hell #4 (Dark Horse, March 2013); script, pencils, and inks by Mike Mignola, colors by Dave Stewart, letters by Clem Robins

Today in Comics History, October 31: Business as usual in the Frump* household

from "You've Got to Relax!" in Gasp! #4 (ACG, August 1967), script by Joe Morrison, pencils and inks by Sal Trapani
*A special Candy-Coated Bull-Prize to the first commenter to identify this reference!

A Sugar and Spike Halloween, Night 31: Halloween Terror Beyond Imagination

Let's wrap up on the spookiest day of the year by posting the most terrifying adventure ever of Spike Wilson and Sugar Plumm! Have a sugary Halloween and a spiky All Hallow's Eve, everyone!


Panels from "Night of the Living Doll" in Ambush Bug Stocking Stuffer one-shot (1986); script by Robert Loren Fleming, pencils by Keith Giffen, inks by Bob Oksner, colors by Anthony Tollin, letters by John Costanza

Today in Comics History, October 30: No time for love; just gimme that cake

from "Wedding Forecast!" in Wonder Woman (1942 series) #182 (DC, May 1969), writer and artist uncredited and unknown

Today in Comics History, October 30, 1929: Professor Xavier really enjoys his Norwegian Cruise

from The Shadow: Year One #1 (Dynamite, February 2013), script by Matt Wagner, pencils and inks by Wilfredo Torres, colors by Brennan Wagner, letters by Rob Steen

Today in Comics History, October 30: Vandal Savage resists his natural impulse to kill children

from Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor #1 (Titan, July 2014), script by Nick Abadzis, pencils and inks by Elena Casagrande with Michele Pasta, colors by Arianna Florean, letters by Richard Starkings and Jimmy Betancourt

A Sugar and Spike Halloween, Night 30: How come they have all these costumes yet every Halloween story is about them not being allowed to go out trick-or-treating?

"Pint-Size Pin-Ups" in Sugar and Spike #49 (October-November 1963); script, pencils, and inks by Sheldon Mayer

Quite Possibly the World's Greatest Interruption

Panel from the Marvel Boy story "The Screaming Tomb!" in Astonishing #4 (June 1951); script (?), pencils, inks, and letters by Bill Everett

A Sugar and Spike Halloween, Night 29: Shy comic book characters sneakily manage to stay off-panel in every shot

Panels from "Sugar and Spike's Halloween Adventure" in Sugar and Spike #49 (October-November 1963); script, pencils, and inks by Sheldon Mayer

Previews for Bulls (October 29, 2014)

Hi hi hi! Your friendly neighborhood Little Stuffed Mike-Sterling's-End-of-Civilization fanboy here to give you a look-see at Previews magazine (the only magazine that actually says "Buy this stuff, sucker!") for all the crap things you can get tomorrow, October 29, 2014, at your local comicky-book store! Please support them by using their free wi-fi to download comics purchasing these fine items from your LCS, except you probably shoulda put them on your pull list a couple months ago. Um. Sorry.

HARLEY QUINN ANNUAL #1

It's the special "scratch and sniff issue!" (Which is a good enough reason for you to put this comic book in a sealed plastic bag.) Who doesn't enjoy the great scent of Harley Quinn? Actually, this is a pretty cool idea and I think DC oughta do lots more scratch and sniff comic books...



VERTIGO QUARTERLY: YELLOW #1

...BUT NOT THIS ONE.



BOB'S BURGERS #3

Wait, So Bob Belcher and his family are wacky waving inflatable arm-flailing tubemen? Is this another one of those wacky Sunday night Fox Animation Domination crossovers the kids are all so crazy about?



ARCHIE 1000-PAGE COMICS CELEBRATION

Sure, they say 1,000 pages, but they're counting the covers, so you really only get 996 pages. Rip-off!



FACE VALUE #1

"Hey, how much is this comic worth?"
"Face value."
"No, I asked how much it was worth, not what its title was."
"Face value."
"Look, all I'm asking you is..."
"THIRD BASE!"



SOUTH PARK FAQ

Q: Wait, this show is still on?



RASPUTIN #1

New from Elevator Pitch Comics!



THE SANDMAN: OVERTURE #4

At this point, not so much an overture, more a Grateful Dead pre-show tune-up session.



DEATH OF WOLVERINE: DEADPOOL AND CAPTAIN AMERICA #1

NO?!?



GAME OF THRONES DAENERYS TARGARYEN LUNCHBOX

"Oh, Mom, Mom, Mom, Mom! I want that lunchbox!"
"Which one, honey?"
"This one! It's got Elsa from Frozen on it!"
"Ummmm..."



FUNKO POP KILL BILL BEATRIX KIDDO VINYL FIG

Curse you, Uma Thurman, and the unrealistic body shape image that you project to America's young girls!



SAW PIG MASK

Yikes! That's pretty scary. That's likely to be the most terrifying animal mask this Halloween, right?...



GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY ROCKET RACCOON MASK

...or...is it?

Today in Comics History, October 28, 1943: When supper time came the old cook came on deck saying fellas it's too intangible to feed ya

from "Philadelphia Experiment" in Atomic Robo Presents Real Science Adventures #6 (Red 5, September 2012), script by Brian Clevinger, pencils and inks by Erica Henderson, letters by Jeff Powell

A Sugar and Spike Halloween, Night 28: Somebody's gonna get a rock and it sure as heck ain't gonna be Spike

Splash page from "Sugar and Spike's Halloween Adventure" in Sugar and Spike #49 (October-November 1963); script, pencils, and inks by Sheldon Mayer

This Week on the BBC

Hey, let's find out what's playing this week on BBC Radio! (I listen to the Beeb a lot, and so should you!) Since they've recently extended the time period you can listen to most of their radio shows via the patented and yet oddly non-Apple iPlayer from a week to a month, there's no better time than right now (or anytime during the next month) to listen to BBC Radio programmes! (Extra M and E added for special British effect.)

Here's a handful of the shows I'm enjoying that I think the readers of this blog might like as well.

Show of the Week: Krazy Kat — A radio documentary on George Herriman's groundbreaking comic strip, hosted by noted illustrator Quentin Blake (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and other Roald Dahl books).

And here's some other cool stuff!:

• Doctor Who: Rebroadcasts of the classic Eighth Doctor Big Finish radio plays, including "Lucie Miller", "Prisoner of the Sun", "Relative Dimensions", and "The Resurrection of Mars".
• Night Waves: A segment from BBC Radio 3's arts show on fifty years of Doctor Who.
• The Goon Show: The brilliant and fast-paced anarchic, surrealist BBC radio comedy from the 1950s (it inspired Monty Python!), starring Harry Secombe, Spike Milligan, and Peter Sellers (yes, that Peter Sellers!). Episodes currently available on the BBC iPlayer include "The Moriarty Murder Mystery" (one of my faves; highly recommended), "The String Robberies", and "The Curse of Frankenstein" ("Blast!" he says.) Follow along using the Goon Show Scripts website!
• Ian Fleming's Thrilling Cities: Simon Williams (no, no, not this guy, sorry) reads abridged chapters from Fleming's travelogue of the world's most exotic cities. Three episodes are available: Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Chicago and New York.
• I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again!: Another of my all-time most-loved British radio programmes, a fast-moving sketch show starring John Cleese, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graeme Garden, Bill Oddie (of The Goodies) and the proverbial "and the rest" (okay, Jo Kendall and David Hatch). Pretty much every episode has some fantastic stuff in it.
• Jeeves Live: I'm a nut for P.G. Wodehouse, and here's The Man Who Reads Everything (Martin Jarvis) doing his one-man show of Wodehouse classics before a live audience.
• Jeremy Hardy Speaks to the Nation: There's still time to catch most of the brand-new series of left-wing comedian and commenter Jeremy Hardy (frequent panelist on The News Quiz) walking you through his acerbic guide to life. This is Series Ten, which means there's nine whole more series out there to look for after you enjoy these.
• The News at Bedtime: For all you comics fans, here's a sum-up of the concept behind this comedy show: imagine if Bill Willingham's Fables series had a nightly newscast of the events in their mystic land. Starring Jack Dee (the current host of the long-running I'm Sorry, I Haven't a Clue panel game) and a guy you may have heard of named Peter Capaldi. There's still time to catch the last few episodes of the series.

So there y'all go: lots of cool stuff to listen to on BBC Radio recommended to you by a Little Stuffed Bull, and you don't even have to pay the licence fee! Ha!

Today in Comics History, October 27: Happy birthday, John Cleese!

from Comics: Monty Python one-shot (Bluewater, April 2014), script by Chris Canibano, pencils and colors by Juan Luis Rincón, letters by Gary Scott Beatty
2022 addition: Geez, but i wish you weren't such a jerk now, John Cleese.

A Sugar and Spike Halloween, Night 27: NYPD Orange

Splash panel from "Uncle Charley's Talking Pumpkin" in Sugar and Spike #43 (October-November 1962); script, pencils, and inks by Sheldon Mayer
Say, what's that "HCS" mean at the end of Mayer's signature?

A Sugar and Spike Halloween, Night 26: Control tower to Goblin / Your broomstick is wobblin'

Panel from "A Real Halloween Goblin" in Sugar and Spike #55 (October-November 1964); script, pencils, and inks by Sheldon Mayer