Today in Comics History, August 1: Happy birthday, Claudius!

Ave Claudius! And happy birthday to ya too, because today's your birthday (born August 1, 10 BC), Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus! Better known to the world as jus' plain Claudius, which makes it easier to write birthday cards to him, especially when you had to chistle 'em into slate tablets. "Happy birthday, Claude!" (thunk) Not that he wasn't mighty enough to pick 'em up:


from "[I Made an Airplane]" in Kid Eternity (1946 series) #5 (Quality, Spring 1947), pencils and inks by Pete Riss (?) or Witmer Williams (?)



Aside from having weirdly anachronistic armor and shield, this Claudius that Kid Eternity summoned to fight cavemen also had the vocabulary of a Brooklyn Dodger.


Later, just to balance Claudius out, Kid Eternity yanked Joseph Lister out of history, probably to make Listerine to give to the cavemen. I dunno, I stopped reading then.


But wait! That weren't our birthday boy Tiberius C.C.A. Germanicus up above! Nor was the Claudius who faced off against St. Valentine, demanding that he should get all the heart-shaped boxes:


from "Holiday for Sweethearts" in Wonder Woman (1942) #34 (DC/National, March 1949), text by Julius Schwartz (as Jules Black)
This Claudius who fought off the Vandals, and who tried to put an end to Hallmark's retail domination of February, after they spraypainted all those shop windows and tipped over a rubbish bin in Shaftesbury, was actually Claudius II: The Sequel, aka Claudius Gothicus, the Claudius who dressed all in black and locked himself in his rolm to listen to Morrissey again and again. Yes, there are a heckuva lot of Claudii in comic books, even if you leave out the king from Hamlet and C. Claudius Crow of Post Cereal fame. Or this schlemiel!:


from "Did Nero Fiddle While Rome Burned?" in Headline Comics v.1 #7 (Prize, Spring 1944), creators uncredited and unknown
I'm guessing this Claudius is our guy (the dates at the end of the story match). Besides, if you can't trust EC Comics, who can ya trust? (Answer: Robert Graves.)


from "Battle!" in Two-Fisted Tales (1950 series) #36 (EC, January 1954), script by Colin Dawkins, adapted from the book Claudius the God by Robert Graves, pencils and inks by Reed Crandall, colors by Marie Severin, letters by Ben Oda
Yes, Claudius! The dude who defeated Asterix using circus elephants!


So, let's all throw a party for Claudius, the Claudiest of them all.


Happy birthday, Claudius, ya big lug.


from The Tomorrows #6 (Dark Horse, June 2016), script by Curt Pires, pencils and inks by Kevin Zeigler, colors by Adam Metcalfe, letters by Colin Bell