Saturday, July 09, 2022

Today in Comics History, July 9: Happy birthday, Atom!

Born today: Earth 1's Ray Palmer, The Atom! At least Pre-Crisis, according to the Super DC Calendar '76!


from Super DC Calendar 1976 (DC, 1975), letters by Ben Oda






But, the only birthday we have on record in comics for Ray is when he was de-aged and leading the Teen Titans!



from Teen Titans (1996 series) #18 (March 1998), script and pencils by Dan Jurgens, inks by Phil Jimenez, colors by Gregory Wright, color separations by Digital Chameleon, letters by Comicraft

But at least he got to hang out with the (not all totally classic) JLA later that day.


Say, can you spot Ray Palmer at the wedding of Jean Loring and Ray Palmer...oh, yeah, that's prob'bly gonna be pretty easy.


"Who's Who at the Wedding" in Justice League of America (1960 series) #157 (DC, August 1978), pencils by Dick Dillin, inks by Frank McLaughlin
(Click top picture to matrimoni-size)

Happy birthday, Ray! Hope you have a little fun in your own small way!


from Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe (1985 series) #1 (DC, March 1985), pencils and inks by Gil Kane



from Who's Who Update '88 #1 (DC, August 1988), pencils by Dwayne Turner, inks by Keith Wilson, colors by Carl Gafford



from DCU Heroes Secret Files #1 one-shot (DC, February 1999), text by Matt Brady, pencils by Georges Jeanty, inks by Jason Martin, colors by Tom McCraw, color separations by Digital Chameleon

2 comments:

argh.sims said...

oh man, so much baggage

Blam said...

I have fond memories of geeking out over that spread in JLA #157 — always cool to see the heroes in their civilian identities together. What I don't get is why if Jean had just found out about Ray's Atom identity she already had Diana Prince, Linda Danvers, Shiera Hall, and Dinah Lance as such close friends they were her bridesmaids. Ray doesn't have any groomsmen that we can see, and it's kind-of hilarious to imagine that has some random schmoes standing up for him — literally out of the picture — instead of the World's Greatest Superheroes.