Today in Comics History, August 2: Happy birthday, Myrna Loy!

Born on this day in 1905 and our lives are better for it: the beautiful Myrna Loy, actress (The Thin Man series, The Best Years of Our Lives, Cheaper by the Dozen, The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer, Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, and many more)!


from "[Murder Tunes In Unexpectedly]" in Smash Comics #34 (Quality, July 1942); scriupt, pencils, inks and colors by Jack Cole



Loy was frequently featured in movie magazines — and comics, where she cameoed in several installments of "Screen Odditiies" by Roscoe Fawcett and Bruno Thompson:




from "Screen Oddities" in Famous Funnies #22 (top), 32 (middle), and 39 (bottom) (Eastern Color, 1936-1937), text by Roscoe Fawcett, pencils and inks by Jimmy Thompson
She headlined in and cover-starred on this movie tie-in comic...



cover and inside cover of Movie Love #2 (Eastern Color, April 1950, creators unknown)
...adapting for the comics medium her 1949 starring vehicle If This Be Sin. (Spoiler alert: It wasn't.)





Hey look! Myrna got a fundraising letter from the GOP!


Betty Brant references Loy's most famous role here, as socialite Nora Charles in The Thin Man movie series co-starring William Powell (and a fox terrier named Asta)!


from Spider-Man: Hobgoblin Lives #2 (Marvel, February 1997), script by Roger Stern, pencils by Ron Frenz, inks by Jerome Moore and Scott Hanna, colors by Joe Andreani, letters by Jim Novak
But sadly, there were never any comic books of The Thin Man. Or were there? Well, no, there weren't, but was this Rocketeer issue, which was close! Cliff Secord's main squeeze, the delightful Betty, is helping him out on a case by snoopin'. Say, that fox ter rier looks familiar, doesn't he?



from The Rocketeer: Hollywood Horror #2 (IDW, March 2013), script by Roger Langridge, pencils and inks by J. Bone, colors by Jordie Bellaire, letters by Tom B. Long
Happy birthday, Myrna Loy!