Today in Comics History, September 23: Happy birthday, El Santo!

Born on this date in 1917: probably the greatest Mexican hero and masked wrestler (luchador enmascarado) the world has never known: Rodolfo Guzmán Huerta! Hmm, that name not ringing a bell with you? That's because for decades he kept up a secret identity and and disguised himself with a silver mask, becoming known around the globe as the mighty El Santo! El Santo was not only a folk hero and wrestling icon but also a major movie action star who starred or co-starred in 52 movies between 1958 and 1982, only a handful of have been "discovered" by the general public of North America. (I myself was introduced to the Silver Maskman thanks to Mystery Science Theater 3000, which riffed Santo [aka Samson] vs. the Vampire Women in its original incarnation, and more recently, Santo in the Treasure of Dracula on the revamped Gizmoplex series.


excerpts from Mystery Science Theater 3000 season six, episode 24: "Samson vs. the Vampire Women" (best Brains, March 25, 1995), riffed by Michael J. Nelson, Trace Beaulieu, and Kevin Murphy

Today in Comics History, September 23, 1942: Exactingly planned secret night mission takes place under brilliant full moon

from "Raider!" in Semper Fi #9 (Marvel, August 1989), script by Michael P. Palladino, pencils and inks by Wayne Vansant, colors and letters by Phil Felix
Curiously, this is actually a case of the creator doing their research: September 23, 1942 was a waxing gibbous moon, and would be a full moon the very next night. I'm not sure whether the tiny slice of shading on that moon on that plash page is a sign of that or maybe a slight misalignment of the red printing plate, but let's charitably chalk it up as a genius bonus and let it go at that.

Today in Comics History, September 23: Happy birthday, Paul Ryan!

Born today in 1949: comic book artist Paul Ryan (Fantastic Four, Fantastic Five, D.P. 7, The Flash, Iron Man, The Amazing Spider-Man, The Phantom comic strip, The Amazing Spider-Man Sunday comic strip, various Superman and Batman titles, The Avengers, Maximum Security and many more)! How great is Paul Ryan? So great he got two different Marvel Pro Files!



(top) from Marvel/New Universe comics cover-dated January 1988;
(bottom) Marvel Age #93 (Marvel, October 1990)
Now for birthday party games: seek and find Paul Ryan in the crowd at the El/Lane nuptial event below!:

from Superman: The Wedding Album one-shot (DC, December 1996), pencils by Dan Jurgens, inks by Jerry Ordway, colors by Glenn Whitmore, letters by Bill Oakley
Click top picture to honeymoon-size
Happy birthday to you, Paul!

Today in Comics History, September 23, 2020: NYPD promises new subway robots will be approachable and friendly

from Machine Man (1984 series) #1 (Marvel, October 1984); script by Tom DeFalco, breakdowns by Herb Trimpe, finishes and colors by Barry Windsor-Smith, letters b7 Michael Higgins

Today in Comics History, September 23, 1999: Stan Lee sneaks into J. Jonah Jameson's office and remakes the front page

house ad from Marvel Comics cover-dated December 1999

Today in Comics History, September 23: Happy birthday, Anthony Mackie!

Born on this day: actor Anthony Mackie!, the MCU's Sam Wilson, the Falcon and Captain America II!



from Guidebook to the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Captain America: Civil War (March 2017)
Happy birthday, Anthony!

Today in Comics History, September 23, 1996: Linda Park tells Rob his fly is open

from Flash (1987 series) #119 (DC, November 1996), script by Brian Augustyn and Mark Waid, pencils by Paul Ryan, inks by Jose Marzan, Jr., colors by Tom McCraw, letters by Gaspar Saladino

Today in Comics History, September 22: Happy birthday, E. Nelson Bridwell!

Born on this day in 1931: E. Nelson Bridwell, comics writer and editor (MAD, Super Friends, the Batman comic strip, Action Comics, Adventure Comics, Shazam!, Superman, The Superman Family, World's Finest Comics, The Legion of Super-Heroes and more)! Bridwell co-created some of the greatest B-list characters at DC, including the Inferior Five, The Maniaks, the Secret Six, Angel and the Ape, Fire and Ice, and more! He was an early advocate of continuity between titles, and in his role as assistant editor to Mort Weisinger and Julius Schwartz on the Superman titles, he edited the letters columns and developed the Kryptonese language and characters. So yeah: he's pretty important! Why not read more about him in this post? Sure, we all do!


from the editorial page of Showcase #62 [The Inferior Five] (DC/National, May 1966), text by Jack Miller

Today in Comics History, September 22: Happy birthday, Kathy Ling!

Today in 1970 in the New Universe was born Kathy Ling, one of the members of Psi-Force with the paranomal power of really long legs and really short shirts. Also: she got her fashion sense about belts from Rogue.


from Psi-Force #21 (Marvel/New Universe, July 1988), pencils by Ron Lim
Happy birthday, Ms. Ling!

Today in Comics History, September 21: Happy birthday, Larry Hagman!

Born on this day in 1931: actor (and director and producer) Larry Hagman! You know him from a whole lotta film and TV shows, and especially from that time he had his house saved by Iron Man:


from Iron Man (1968 series) #222 (Marvel, September 1987), co-plot and script by David Michelinie, co-plot and finishes by Bob Layton, breakdowns by M. D. Bright, colors by Bob Sharen, letters by Janice Chiang
This scene was slightly adapted into 2013's Iron Man 3 movie, and the only reason it didn't co-star Larry Hagman was that Robert Downey felt Hagman would be too awesome for the film. And also, Hagman died in 2012.

Today in Comics History, September 21: Happy birthday, James Basevi!

Born on this day in 1890: pioneering motion picture art director and special effects director James Basevi. he worked on dozens of films (See?) and developed groundbreaking special effects.


from "Seein Stars" in Ace Comics #20 (David McKay, November 1938); script, pencils, and inks by Feg Murray
Happy birthday, James!

Today in Comics History, September 21: Happy birthday, Mastodon!

Born on this date in 1952: Dave Landers, better known to us as everybody's favorite Displaced Paranormal: Mastodon! Frankly, I can't see why he would be displaced — how could you possible move that guy! he was one of the most visible characters in the 1980s New Universe. You can tell he's from the eighties because of those adorable furry shoulder pads.


from D.P. 7 #22 (Marvel/New Universe, August 1988), creators uncredited and unknown
Happy birthday, Dave! Don't eat all the cake before I get a slice, big guy!

Today in Comics History, September 21, 1949: Jackie Robinson gets Zestfully clean

from Don Newcombe one-shot (Fawcett, 1950), script by Charles Dexter

Today in Comics History, September 20: Happy birthday, Monte Pearson!

Born on this day in 1908: Major League Baseball pitcher and All Star Monte "Hoot" Pearson (Cleveland Indians, New York Yankees and Cincinnati Reds from 1932 to 1941). He's in the upper-right on this page:


"Sports Close-Ups!: Sore Arm Puzzle" from Superman (1939 series) #6 (DC/Superman, Inc, September 1940); text, pencils, and inks by Jack Burnley
Let's not mention the time he spent eight months in jail in 1962 for bribery concerning faulty septic tanks, and just wish Monte Pearson a happy birthday, shall we?

Today in Comics History, September 20: Happy birthday, Jelly Roll Morton!

Born on this date in 1890: Ferdinand Joseph Lemott, better known to the world as Jelly Roll Morton, ragtime and jazz pianist, bandleader, and composer ("King Porter Stomp," "Grandpa's Spells," "Wolverine Blues," "Black Bottom Stomp," "Jelly Roll Blues," "I Thought I Heard Buddy Bolden Say," "Wild Man Blues," and many more). He claimed to have invented the genre and called himself "The Inventor of Jazz," and even if it's possibly not 100% true, he's one of the greatest pioneer and innovators of jazz music. Harvey Pekar and Robert Crumb, natch, were big fans, and here's the first page of Crumb's story on Jelly's Roll's belief that a voodoo curse caused his later decline in popularity:


from "Jelly Roll Morton's Voodoo Curse" in Raw (1980 series) #7 (Raw, May 1985), by Robert Crumb
Great musician and named after a great dessert? He's one of my favorites, too. Happy birthday, Jelly Roll, and keep on playin'.


"King Porter Stomp" by Jelly Roll Morton (Vocalion, 1926), written by Jelly Roll Morton

Today in Comics History, September 20: Happy birthday, Gus Edson!

Born on this date in 1901: Gus Edson, writer and cartoonist on the comics strip The Gumps (for 24 years!) and co-creator of the strip Dondi (which he wrote for 12 years). Edson co-scripted and made a cameo in the 1961 Dondi movie as a police sergeant (along with artist Irwin Hasen as a police sketch artist).


"A Dream Comes True" from Four Color #1176 [Dondi] (Dell, January 1961)
Happy birthday, Gus!

Today in Comics History, September 20, 1648: Science proves people like messing around with barometers for some reason

from Picture Stories from Science #1 (EC, Spring 1947), script by Morris Nelson Sachs, pencils and inks by Don Cameron

Today in Comics History, September 19: Happy birthday, William Golding!

Born on this day in 1911: author William Golding, who wrote The Pyramid, the To the Ends of the Earth trilogy, The Inheritors, The Brass Butterfly, The Scorpion God, and of course Lord of the Flies, all about a young hobbit who has been tasked to toss a particularly nasty housefly into an evil volcano...Oh, I've made another one of my silly mistakes. It's actually a novelization of that episode of The Simpsons where all the kids were marooned on a deserted island from a sinking school bus.



from "The Lord of the Flies" in The Graphic Canon v.3: From Heart of Darkness to Hemingway to Infinite Jest (Seven Stories, July 2013), from the niovel by William Golding, adapted by Trevor Alixopulos
William Golding! One heck of a writer, not onloy of novels, but of pithy epitaths to round out your superhero saga.

from Earth X #12 (Marvel, April 2000), co-plot and script by Jim Krueger, co-plot by Alex Ross, pencils and ink assists by John Paul Leon, inks by Bill Reinhold, colors by Melissa Edwards, letters by Todd Klein
(Click top picture to fattening-Earth-diet-size)
Happy birthday, Bill!

Today in Comics History, September 19: Happy birthday, Twiggy!

Born on this day: Dame Lesley Lawson, DBE. But she whispered in my ear to have me call her Twiggy!


cover of Tippy Teen #16 (Tower, October 1967), artist uncredited and unknown

Today in Comics History, September 19, 1783: The Golden Age of Ballooning

This is a much expanded and updated version of a post originally published September 19, 2016.


Yes, t'was today in 1783, that Joseph and Etienne Montgolfier initiated the livestock-crewed flight that ushered in the Golden Age of Ballooning!


from "Airecords" in Adventure Comics #40 (DC/Detective Comics, Inc., July 1939), by Terry Gilkison

Today in Comics History, September 19: Schoolchildren can no longer read these captions

from Spectacular Spider-Man #149 (Marvel, April 1989), script by Gerry Conway, pencils and inks by Sal Buscema, colors by Bob Sharen, letters by Rick Parker

Today in Comics History, September 19: Happy birthday, Rosemary Harris!

Born on this day: actor Rosemary Harris! She starred in Crossing Delancey, The Boys from Brazil, Holocaust, and a li'l role you might know spelled AUNT MAY PARKER.




from Spider-Man: The Movie (Marvel, May 2002), script by Stan Lee, pencils by Alan Davis, inks by Mark Farmer, colors by Dave Kemp, letters by Dave Sharp

Today in Comics History, September 19, 1948: Larry puts it there

from Larry Doby, Baseball Hero one-shot (Fawcett, 1950), script by Charles Dexter

Today in Comics History, September 19: Happy birthday, Felix Mendelssohn!

No, no, not the classical music Felix Mendelssohn who composed the "Wedding March" and "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing"...but instead Bartholdy Felix Mendelssohn, born on this day in 1911, who founded Felix Mendelssohn's Hawaiian Serenaders, the British Hawaiian band who popularized island music in Britain in the 1930s and '40s. And yes, he had a comic strip. (Doesn't everybody?) Look, see!:


"The White Queen of the Islands" in Radio Fun Annual 1948 (Amalgamated Press UK, 1948), creators uncredited and unknown
Hauʻoli Lā Hānau, Felix!

Today in Comics History, September 18: Happy birthday, Jesse Shepard! Or is that...Francis Grierson?!?

Born on this day in 1848 (so in case you wanted to contact him in a séance, he's probably on that other side): Jesse Shepard, who used the pen name Francis Grierson. He was a composer, pianist and writer, but we, as fans of comic books and ghost stories, are primarily interested in him as an occultist, who claimed to channel the spirit of the dead Hector Berlioz and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart through his musical performances. Spooky, huh, kids? here, read more about it...on yellow paper!:


"Phantom Fingers" from Ghosts (1971 series) #10 (DC, December 1972), creators uncredited and unknown
Happy birthday, Jeese and/or Francis, wherever you are! Hey, play us that brand new song by Prince, huh?

Today in Comics History, September 18: Happy birthday, Harvey Haddix!

Born today in 1925: Major League Baseball pitcher and pitching coach Harvey Haddix (St. Louis Cardinals, Philadelphia Phillies, Cincinnati Redlegs, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Baltimore Orioles). As a Pirate, he pitched a near-perfect game against the Braves in 1959. (See?)


"It's in the Cards for '53" in Home Run #3 (Magazine Enterprises, 1953), pencils and inks by Bob Powell
Happy birthday, Harvey! Pitch me a low slow one right down the center...whoa, I totally whiffed that one.

Today in Comics History, September 18: Happy birthday, Fred Willard!

Happy birthday (born on this day in 1933) comedian and actor Fred Willard (This Is Spinal Tap, Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind, Anchorman, Modern Family, Fernwood 2 Night and America 2-Night, Maybe It's Me and many more)! Fred passed away in 2020, and we miss his acerbic wit and deft comedy. A man of excellent taste, and you can tell because he read and enjoyed MAD magazine!


from MAD #534 (August 2015)
Happy birthday, Fred. You're much missed.

Today in Comics History, September 18: Happy birthday, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson!

Born on this day in 1905: comedian and actor Eddie Anderson, best known in the role of Rochester, valet of radio and television's Jack Benny!


from "Hello Again! This is Jack Benny" in True Comics #69 (Parents' Magazine Press, February 1948), creators uncredited and unknown

Today in Comics History, September 18: Happy birthday, Dee Dee Ramone!

Born on this day in 1951: musician and composer Douglas Glenn Colvin, better known to you and me as Dee Dee Ramone of...you guessed it...The Ramones!


from "The Origin" in Weird Tales of the Ramones (Warner Bros., 2005), by John Holmstrom

Today in Comics History, September 17, 2053: Galactus helpfully puts his appointment book online

from Predator (2022 series) #1 (Marvel, October 2022), script by Ed Brisson, pencils and inks by Kevin Walker, colors by Frank D'Armata, letters by Clayton Cowles

Today in Comics History, September 17, 1989: Carmela throws the best parties

from Doctor Fate (1988 series) #14 (DC, February 1990), script by J. M. DeMatteis, pencils and inks by Shawn McManus, colors by Lovern Kindzierski, letters by Todd Klein