Today in Comics History, May 8: Happy birthday, Don Rickles, ya hockey puck!

When my pal Ron Hogan points something out to me, you'd better believe I pay attention!


So: born on this day in 1926: actor, stand-up and insult comedian Don Rickles! Also: comic book star!


cover of Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #139 (DC, July 1971), pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Vince Colletta, redrawn Superman and Jimmy heads by Murphy Anderson, Rickles caricature by unknown, letters by Gaspar Saladino
It may or may not also be the birthday of Don's "look-alike" or "alter ego," created by Jack Kirby: Goody Rickels, walking disaster area!

Kirby never defines exactly WHAT Goody is to Jack: clone, impersonator, long-lost brother? (They do spell their last names differently.)





from Jimmy Olsen #139 (September 1971), script and pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Vince Colletta, letters by John Costanza
Will the real Don Rickles please stand up? He first appears in #141 (#140 was a reprint).

Please note, at the top, the single greatest advertising line in the history of comics.


cover of Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #141 (DC, September 1971), pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Neal Adams
Golly, Morgan Edge and his employees seem to love the Don Rickles! They musta caught his act in whatever the Earth-1 equivalent of Vegas is.




from Jimmy Olsen #141; script and pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Vince Colletta, redrawn Superman and Jimmy heads by Murphy Anderson, letters by John Constanza
When Don meets Goody, that's when the misunderstandings begin and the feathers start flyin'! Even without an appearance by Cluck Kent, the Amazing Super-Chicken.

Before your Crisises and you Final Nights and your Dark Metals, kids, this is what we had for entertainment. And we loved it!




Ha! It's funny because Don Rickles goes crazy! This'll lead to a long-running storyline, I'm sure! (Note: Don or Goody never appeared again in DC Comics.)


But Don did appear in comics, because, hey, you can't keep a good, insulting man down! Here he is as a super-hero stopping a bank robber, with fellow comics/heroes Henny Youngman, Johnny Carson, and Rodney Dangerfield.


from National Lampoon Presents the Very Large Book of Comical Funnies (National Lampoon, 1975), art by Frank Spinger
Back when kids actually knew who the comedians of the '60s were, MAD went whole hog in on Rickles and his contemporaries (Danny Thomas, Richard Pryor, Woody Allen, and Bob Hope)!


from "Botch Casually and the Somedunce Kid" in MAD #136 (July 1970), script by Arnie Kogen, pencils and inks by Mort Drucker
And somebody workin' on The Simpsons seems to be under the influence of Rickles. in two consecutive issues!


from "The Homer Show" in Simpsons Comics #42 (Bongo, April 1999), script by Chuck Dixon, pencils by Phil Ortiz, inks by Tim Bavington, colors by Nathan Kane, letters by Jeannine Crowell Black


from "Journey to the Cellar of the Kwik-E-Mart" in Simpsons Comics #43 (Bongo, June 1999), script by Robert Graff and Jesse Leon McCann, pencils by Julius Preite III and Erick Tran, inks by Tim Bavington, colors by Nathan Kane, letters by Jeannine Crowell Black
So, happy birthday, Don Rickles, ya meatball! Naw, I'm just kiddin'. I like you! Next to the dog-faced boy! Ha!

Happy birthday to you too, Goody. May you come back soon in, I dunno...let's say...Suicide Squad.


from "If Everyone Talked Like Don Rickles" in MAD #131 (Bongo, December 1969), script by Earle Doud, pencils and inks by Angelo Torres