Today in Comics History, January 18: Happy birthday, Human Bomb!

Born on this day: Roy Lincoln, better known to the superhero world and comic book-reading collective as The Human Bomb! (Boom!)


from Super DC Calendar 1976 (DC, 1975), letters by Ben Oda
I usually like to include some of a character's first appearance on their birthday, but alas! Aside from the Phantom Lady and Plastic Man stories, I don't have anything from H.B.'s debut story by Paul Gustavson in Police Comics #1 (Quality, August 1941). No, not even the Millennium Edition (DC, 2000)! So here's a nice recapped version of his origin from a little later on.


from Police Comics #12 (Quality, October 1942); script, pencils, inks and letters by Paul Gustavson
Yes, 27QRX, now with new additive Lincoln!

Roy';s origin is revisited once again in the Silver Age...well, almost. The following is from a Xerox™ of the cancelled Freedom Fighters #17, a victim of the DC Implosion (see here and here for more on that), so it was only published in a short run of 35 copies for copyright purposes. And I've got one of 'em! (Naw, not really! You can find this story reprinted in The Secret Society of Super-Villains, Volume 2 trade from about ten years back.)




from "Murder Times Seven" in Cancelled Comic Cavalcade #2 (DC, Fall 1978), script by Bob Rozakis, pencils by Dick Ayers and Mike Vosburg, inks by Bob Smith, letters by Shelly Leferman
Happy birthday, Roy! Please remember to blow out, not blow up, your birthday cake candles!