Today in Comics History, July 22: Happy birthday, Sonny Liston!

Born on this day in 1930 (possibly; there's no official record; see Wikipedia): Sonny Liston, pro boxer and heavyweight champion of the world. An inductee into the International Boxing Hall of Fame, many sports journalists and analysists consider him among the top boxers of the twentieth century.

Despite that, Liston is also infamous for losing his title in 1964 to Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) and his failed attempt to win back the title from Clay that ended in just over two minutes. But listen, you probably heard about Liston's most ignominious defeat at the fists of Pablo Popsicle, the Cuban champion. Sure, you all read it in the papers, right?


from "Herbie Beards Castro!" in Herbie #1 (ACG, April 1964), script by Richard Hughes as Shane O'Shea, pencils and inks by Ogden Whitney, letters by Ed Hamilton
Silly names aside, you may be forgiven if you think this is a serious sports story so far. But all bets are off when Sonny sports a disturbing prescence in the audience while he's training:


You know, of course, this means war.


Herbie easily defeats Sonny, and he didn't even have a foreign object (i.e., a lollipop) in the ring!


And that's why Pablo Popsicle was, for a time, heavyweight champion of the world.

Happy birthday, Sonny Liston!