Today in Comics History, August 9, 1910: White man announces plan to do something; everybody expected to drop what they're doing to help

"Pioneers of Science: Roald Amundsen, Discoverer of the South Pole" from Classics Illustrated #76 (Gilberton, October 1950), creators uncredited and unknown

Today in Comics History, August 9: Happy birthday, Alyce Gordon!

Born on this day: Marvel secretary during the '80s Alyce Gordon!


from Marvel Age #56 and 32 (Marvel, November 1987 and November 1985; text by Mike Carlin (#56) and Jim Salicrup (#32); pencils and inks by Ron Zalme; colors by Paul Becton (#56) and Andy Yanchus (#32)
Happy birthday, Alyce!

Today in Comics History, August 9: Happy birthday, Rick Leonardi!

Born on this day: comics artist Rick Leonardi (Cloak and Dagger, Amazing Spider-Man, Uncanny X-Men, New Mutants, Batgirl, Star Wars, Nightwing, Superman, Green Lantern Versus Aliens, Painkiller Jane and many more) and co-creator of Spider-Man 2099 and many of his supporting cast!


from Marvel Age #32, 56, 92, and 104 (Marvel, November 1985, November 1987, September 1990, and September 1991); text by Jim Salicrup (#32), Mike Carlin (#56) and Chris Eliopoulis and Barry Dutter (#92 and 104); pencils and inks by Ron Zalme; colors by Andy Yanchus (#32), Paul Becton (#56) and Renee Witterstaetter (#92 and 104)
Happy birthday, Rick!

Today in Comics History, August 9: Happy birthday, Pink Bunny!

Born on this day: my good stuffed pal Pink Bunny, all the way over there on the Left Coast. I haven't seen her (left) and best pal Grey Rabbit (right) in several years, but someday we hope that the COVID pandemic will be less risky and we'll be able to see each other again!


Happy birthday, Pink!

Today in Comics History, August 9, 1922: The newest fad of the Roaring '20s: bum-shooting!

from "Bullet-Man of the Bowery" in Crime Must Pay the Penalty #2 (Ace, June 1948), pencils and inks by Sid Greene

Today in Comics History, August 9, 1999: Something big's clearly going to happen, so stay tuned for the next couple days!

from The Invisibles (1999 series) #4 (DC/Vertigo, March 2000), script by Grant Morrison, pencils and inks by Steve Yeowell, colors by Daniel Vozzo, letters by Todd Klein
...THE INVISIBLES!

Today in Comics History, August 9: Happy birthday, Dwayne Turner!

Born on this day: comics and video game artist Dwayne Turner (Black Panther: Panther's Prey, Curse of the Spawn, Batman: Orpheus Rising, Sovereign Seven, Wolverine, Power of the Atom, Marvel Comics Presents, Avengers Spotlight, The Authority, Ms. Mystic, Aliens vs. Predator vs. The Terminator and more)!


from Marvel Age #92 (Marvel, September 1990), text by Chris Eliopoulis and Barry Dutter, pencils and inks by Ron Zalme, colors by Renee Witterstaetter
Here's Dwayne (right) with Black Panther scripter Don McGregor:


from Black Panther: Panther's Prey #1 (Marvel, May 1991)
Happy birthday, Dwayne!

Today in Comics History, August 9: Happy birthday, Bob McLeod!

Born on this day, so a very happy birthday to comic book penciller and inker Bob McLeod! Co-creator of The New Mutants, he's worked on a huge number of titles for Marvel, DC, and many indies like Action Comics, Amazing Spider-Man/Spectacular Spider-Man/Marvel Team-Up, Detective Comics, Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery, Crazy Magazine, The Phantom, Hulk! magazine, Showcase '93, Bold Adventures and more!


from Marvel Comics Memory Calendar 1977 (Marvel, 1976); Marvel Age #32 (Marvel, November 1985), text by Jim Salicrup, pencils and inks by Ron Zalm,; colors by Andy Yanchus; Marvel Age #56 (Marvel, Noivember 1987), text by Mike Carlin, pencils and inks by Ron Zalme, colors by Paul Becton; Marvel Age #104 (Marvel, September 1991); text by Chris Eliopoulis and Barry Dutter; pencils and inks by Ron Zalme, colors by Renee Witterstaetter;
P.S.: today is not Thor's birthday. Quit bogarting that cake, Thor, that's for Bob!

Today in Comics History, August 9, 1999: Wedding of Ma Frost and Pete the Wanker

from The Invisibles (1999 series) #4 (DC/Vertigo, March 2000), script by Grant Morrison, pencils and inks by Steve Yeowell, colors by Daniel Vozzo, letters by Todd Klein

Today in Comics History, August 9, 1939: Happy birthday, Aunt May's second dead husband

Well, today's another birthday date for Aunt May to get all sad about.


from Amazing Spider-Man #583 (Marvel, March 2009), script by Mark Waid, pencils by Barry Kitson, inks by Mark Farmer, colors by Andres Mossa, letters by Cory Petit
Also in this issue: the story takes place on Betty Brant's birthday! Except...the story never identifies when it's taking place. So we still don't know what date 3B (Betty Brant's birthday) is.


Darn it, Marvel, tell us when more birthdays are!

Today in Comics History, August 9, 1999: What we have here is a failure to communicate on Grant Morrison's notational level

from The Invisibles (1999 series) #4 (DC/Vertigo, March 2000), script by Grant Morrison, pencils and inks by Steve Yeowell, colors by Daniel Vozzo, letters by Todd Klein

Today in Comics History, August 9, 1999: Just another completely ordinary day in England

from The Invisibles (1999 series) #4 (DC/Vertigo, March 2000), script by Grant Morrison, pencils and inks by Steve Yeowell, colors by Daniel Vozzo, letters by Todd Klein

Today in Comics History, August 9, 2000: A Tale of Two Cities Editions

Good morning! It's early in the day (well, earlier than I get up, at least) in Manhattan on August 9!


from Section Zero (2000 series) #3 (Image/Gorilla, September 2000), script and inks by Karl Kesel, pencils by Tom Grummett, colors by Benedict Dimagmaliw, letters by Richard Starkings and Jason Levine
But wait! (you're no doubt saying) How do we even know it's August 9 in these panels? Well, that's very simply explained: it's August 9 in these panels when the series is revised and expanded in its 2019 edition!


from Section Zero (2019 series) #3 (Image, June 2019), script and inks by Karl Kesel, pencils by Tom Grummett, colors by Benedict Dimagmaliw and Grace Allison, letters by Richard Starkings
Section Zero was originally published in 2000 under the short-lived Gorilla Comics imprint, but sadly stopped after its cliffhanger third issue. In 2019 the series returned to tweak and revise the first three issues and finally finish off the series with three brand-new issues. I enjoyed it a lot; check it out! And you don't even have to read it on August 9!

Today in Comics History, August 9, 1981: At last Lois and Lucy have a kid sibling to push around

from Checkmate (2021 series) #4 (DC, November 2021), script by Brian Michael Bendis, pencils and inks by Alex Maleev, colors by Dave Stewart, letters by Josh Reed

Today in Comics History, July 29, 1945: The next two panels in this comic are of August 5 and August 9 and show the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, so I won't be bringing you those. Enjoy this panel of three guys sitting around.

from General Douglas MacArthur one-shot (Fox, 1951), creators uncredited and unknown

Today in Comics History: Happy birthday, Tove Jansson!

Born on this day in 1914: Finnish author and cartoonist Tove Jansson, creator of the Moomin novels and comic strips! One of my favorite authors since childhood, as the melancholy mood of the later Moomin books perfectly matched my childhood. (her adult books are great, too!)



from Moominvalley Turns Jungle (D+Q, October 2012), by Tove Jansson
Grattis på födelsedagen, Fröken Jansson!

Today in Comics History, August 9, 1938: Nothing Much Happened Today

from Mighty Marvel Calendar 1980: The Occult World of Doctor Strange (Marvel, 1979)
Last year on this date, good Bully fan Sean McGonegal Twittered:


Sean made a very good point: why didn't I post a "Today in Comics History" for his birthday? And as you can see, I promised him I'd do better this year, upon the name of one of the worst DC characters ever! So here we go, Sean...your birthday happens to be...the date Bucky Barnes entered the Army!


from "Precious Gifts" in Marvel Holiday Special 1991 #1 one-shot (Marvel, 1991), script by Len Kaminski, pencils by Ron Lim, inks by Jim Sanders III, colors by Marie Javins, letters by Roxanne Starr
Ummmm...okay. So as you can see, Sean, Today in Comics History...was something...that I really don't have a joke for.

We'll try again next year.

Happy Birthday!