Today in Comics History, June 3: Happy birthday, Tony Curtis!

Born on this day in 1925: screen and television actor Tony Curtis!!

Now, if'n you're a fan of Tony Curtis (and who ain't?), you can save your money and send away for his photo from comic book ads…



from DC Comics cover-dated September 1957 and September 1958
...or: do what I do! And clip his picture out of the comic books, perhaps decreasing the value of your comics, but certainly increasing the Tony Curtis Quotient of your walls!

(romantic sigh as I gaze at Tony)


cover of Thrilling Romances #24 (Pines, January 1954)



Tony also appears inside comic books as well! Here, with Elvis and Richard Chamberlain, all kissin' April O'Day, sister to the DC heroine who teams with an ape to solve crimes!


from "Midnight Cinderella!" in Girls' Love Storires #109 (DC, February 1965), script by Robert Kanigher, pencils and inks by Bob Oksner
And here's Tony a few issues later, with Hayley Mills! Hayley Mills! Somebody online probably likes Hayley Mills, don't they?


from "Shortcut to Heartbreak!" in Girls' Love Storires #116 (DC, January 1966), pencils by Tony Abruzzo
Tony Curtis starred alongside Roger Moore in one of my favorite seventies British action/adventure series, The Persuaders! Yes, that exclamation point is part of the official title, and the series was turned into a strip serial in the British comics anthology TV Action, which also featured such shows as Doctor Who, Cannon, Hawaii Five-O, Alias Smith and Jones, Mission: Impossible, and UFO.




"The Persuaders: Who Is Sylvia" from TV Action #124 (Polystyle, 30 June 1973), creators uncredited
Prolific movie and television actor that he is, Tony Curtis appears a lot...in MAD magazine!


from "Movie Land" in MAD #54 (April 1960), script by Larry Siegel, pencils and inks by Joe Orlando



from "The Man of Science" in MAD #61 (March 1961), script by Larry Siegel, pencils and inks by Mort Drucker



from "How to Read Between the Lines and Fill In Those Little Dots in a Gossip Column" in MAD #63 (June 1961), script by Don Reilly, pencils and inks by George Woodbridge



from MAD #210 (October 1979), script by Dick DeBartolo, pencils and inks by Angelo Torres
Who am I?!? Aw, can't ya guess?



from Movie Love #14 (Eastern Color, April 1952), pencils and inks by Harold LeDoux
Happy birthday, Tony! My only regret is that I couldn't find you a Flintstones comic book of your stone-age equivalent, Stony Curtis.