Today in Comics History, December 31, 1968, New Year's Eve: Not so much a nightmare, more of a nice date

from "That Was Then...This Is NOW" in Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme (1988 series) #9 (Marvel, November 1989), text by Roy Thomas and Dann Thomas
I set this in 1968 because I imagine that this text piece is referring to this story and the night Clea met Tom Wolfe.

Today in Comics History, November 2: Happy birthday, Steve Ditko!

Born on this day in 1927: comics writer/artist Steve Ditko, who created and co-created "a few" characters along the way of his lengthy career...


"DC Profiles #58" from DC Comics cover-dated April 1980

Today in Comics History, December 31, 1968, 11:59 PM, New Year's Eve: The Electric Clea-Aid Acid Test

from Doctor Strange (1968 series) #180 (Marvel, May 1969), script by Roy Thomas, pencils by Gene Colan, inks by Tom Palmer, letters by Sam Rosen

Today in Comics History, December 31, 1968, 11:30-11:55 PM, New Year's Eve: His scarf is made of Kirby Krackle!

from Doctor Strange (1968 series) #180 (Marvel, May 1969), script by Roy Thomas, pencils by Gene Colan, inks by Tom Palmer, letters by Sam Rosen

Comics Calendars for 2022: No-Nonsense November

As Mariah Carey casts off her sexy witch costume (no peekin') and puts on her fur-trimmed Santa's elf micromini, it's time to declare welcome to November, the calendar's only month dedicated to Richard Rider, the original Nova! Actually, the massive unabridged Oxford English Dictionary dictionary on my shelf tells me that A) the word is taken from the world "nine" for "ninth month" in this...eleventh month, and B) no way am I getting this big-ass book back up on the top shelf until John and Randi come home to help.

So what's in November that we have to celebrate besides stuffing outself stupid in three weeks and two days (uh, not that I'm counting down or anything)? Why, 'tis the month of Doctor Strange's Birthday! Happy b-day, Steve-O! Please blow out your birthday cake candles. Don't listen to the snakes telling you it would be fun to put your face in them. We're gonna celebrate his birthday it right now instead of on the actual date under a "Today in Comics History" tag, because we don't know the exact day in November he was born. Dang these eroded gravestones!

Also: sorry, Doc; forgot to celebrate your death last month.




from Doctor Strange (1968 series) #176 (Marvel, January 1969), script by Roy Thomas, pencils by Gene Colan, inks and colors by Tom Palmer, letters by Herb Cooper
A great cover deserves a second lookin' at — in pencils and inks! Take it away, Messrs. Colan and Palmer:


But if it's a November calendar you're needin', well, then about about this LexCorp Snappable (by Superman) Tools girlie calendar, suitable for putting up on the wall of your greasemonkey garage or man cave. WHOA, Miss Lane! Didn't know ya posed for these things.


from Doom Patrol (1987 series) #5 (DC, February 1988), script by Paul Kupperberg, pencils by Steve Lightle, inks by Gary Martin, colors by Carl Gafford, letters by Janice Chiang
All right, all right, if it's a sexy wall calendar you can use for November 2022 that you want, nobody can beat the back cover of The Human Target, where spandex gets a real strrrrretch!:


from The Human Target (2022 series) #1 (DC/Black Label, January 2022), art by Greg Smallwood
So what if it only goes down to the 19th? Who's lookin' at the dates?!?

Oh, okay, since you're my pals, stay tuned for more poses on comics calendars you can actrually use this month of November 2022. I'll...I'll just be right here for a few more minutes.

Today in Comics History, July 30: Happy Birthday, Kate Bush!

Born on this day and currently having the best year ever: singer/songwriter/musician/producer Kate Bush, who's created ten albums that have changed my life. I didn't discover her this year, but at the same time I didn't become a fan until she put out a greatest hits album (1986's The Whole Story), so I missed the beginning of Kate Bush-mania. I'm glad for every moment and song listening that I'm a fan!

But can you find Kate inside comic books? Well, you have to look carefully.


from Doctor Strange (1974 series) #63 (Marvel, February 1984); script, pencils, and inks by Carl Potts; colors by Bob Sharen; letters by Jim Novak (credited)
There she is! But still, that's only Kate Bush on a poster. Do you think we can find a picture in comics with her in it?

Today in Comics History, July 19: Happy birthday, Benedict Cumberbatch!

Born on this day: actor and confusing name to pronounce Benedict Cumberbatch, who's starred on stage, screen, film and radio in such productions as Hedda Gabler, Hamlet, Frankenstein, Atonement, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The War Horse, The Hobbit, 12 Years a Slave, The Power of the Dog, Van Gogh: Painted with Words, Patrick Melrose, and many more.

What? Didn't I mention that he played KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN in Star Trek: Into Darkness?


photo cover of Star Trek: Countdown to Darkness #4 (IDW, April 2013)
Or Doctor Strange in the Marvel Cinematic Multiverse of Madness?


photo covers of Marvel's Doctor Strange Prelude #1-2 (Marvel, September-October 2016)
Well, surely i must have made a fuss about his award-winning role of the detective Holmes in the TV series Sherlock, right?


photo covers of Sherlock: A Study in Pink #1-6 (Titan, June-November 2016)
I didn't? Geez, I oughta have done that.

Happy birthday, Benny!

The Marvel Comics Memory Album Calendar for 1977 2022: Justifiably Juju July

I bet you thought this month would be all about Captain America, huh? Well, who else did you think would be featured on a July calendar that you can print out and hang on your wall because it works this month, too, Doctor Octopus?*

Naw, instead devote your attention instead to the mildly marvelous magical Doctor Strange as he fights Sandman Nightmare, then spend the whole month staring at important events in the Marvel Universe like Bardo Mordo's birthday and Dormammu's Bar Mitzvah. Now he is a man (with a head that's on fire).

from Marvel Comics Memory Album 1977 (Marvel, 1976), art by Gene Colan
(Click picture to bad dream-size)
* Stay tuned in October for Doctor Octoberpus!

Today in Comics History, June 13: Happy birthday, W. B. Yeats!

You'd hardly expect comics books to spotlight writers of great literature, but as they've said somewhere or other, comics: they're not just for kids anymore! That's why we gather together on this here blog to celebrate today's birthday of William Butler Yeats, the great Irish writer of drama, poetry, fiction, and essays: At the Hawk's Well, The Land of Heart's Desire, "The Second Coming," "He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven," Long-Legged Fly," "Sailing to Byzantium," "Easter 1916," and more.

No, he didn't star in superhero comics (if you ignore Marvel's The Redoubtable Yeats miniseriesl), but he did get quoted in a few, sometimes by the most unlikely of characters:



from "The Return of the Defenders Part 4: Hot Spell" in Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme Annual (1922 series) #2 (Marvel, 1992), script by Roy Thomas, pencils by M. C. Wyman, inks by E. R. Cruz, colors by Kevin Tinsley, letters by Michael Higgins

Today in Comics History, May 8: Happy birthday, Moebius!

Born on this day in 1938: French writer and artist Jean Giraud, better known to the world as Moebius, one of the greatest twentieth-century names in comics and co-creator of Blueberry and The Incal.


from The Art of Moebius (Marvel/Epic, 1989)
Does Moebius exist within the Marvel Universe? You bet your doux bippée he does — and he loves palling around with Doctor Strange!



from Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme #9 (Marvel, November 1989), script by Roy Thomas and Dann Thomas, pencils and inks by Butch Guice
Reminder: do not get Moebius mixed up with Michael Morbius!


from "These Boots Were Made for Daywalkin'!" in Toyfare #88 (Wizard, October 2004), by Pat McCallum, Tom Root, Zach Oat and Justin Aclin
Now here's Morbius. By Moebius!


cover of Marvel Tales (1966 series) #253 (Marvel, September 1991), pencils by Moebius, inks by Sylvain Despretz
Special thanks and a neck-bitten No-Bull Prize to pal Rob London for bringin' this cover to my attention!
Just remember: this is not the genuine Moebius towering over Dan Dare here like some great...towering thing.


from "The Doomsday Machine, Part 7" in 2000 AD prog 85 (IPC, 7 October 1978), script Nick Landau and Roy Preston, pencils and inks by Dave Gibbons, letters by Peter Knight
Bon anniversaire, M. Moebius!


from Marvel Age #119 (Marvel, December 1992)

Today in Comics History, January 29: Happy birthday, Steve Skeates!

Born on this day: Steve Skeates, writer for comic books (Adventure Comics, The Flash, House of Mystery, House of Secrets, Debbi's Dates, Plastic Man, Plop!, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, The Many Ghosts of Doctor Graves, Underdog, Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham, Creepy, Eerie, Vampirella, and many other comics at Tower, Charlton, DC, Gold Key, Red Circle, Archie, and Warren Publishing), animation (Transformers, G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, Jem) and self-publisher ("Could I Have My Reality Check Please?").

Didja know (I didn't!) that he's the actual author of Marvel's Generic Comic Book, published under the pseudonym "A Writer." Speaking of pen names, Steve has also written under the aliases Chester P. Hazel and Warren Savin. I mention that because it'll become an Important Point™ a little later. Not too much later, but not right now! Geez, people, have some patience.


from "Behind the Scenes at the House of Mystery" in Limited Collectors' Edition #C-23 [The House of Mystery] (DC, Winter 1973), text by Joe Orlando
Here's another fun fact I discovered about Steve while researching him on Wikipedia ("We Don't Charge You for Our Encyclopedia But by Golly We'll Hound You to the Death for a $3.75 Donation"):

One of the series Skeates wrote at DC in the 1970s was Plastic Man, for which he created the villain Carrot Man, an evil game show host who hit contestants on their heads with a toaster. When that character appeared on the Plastic Man animated show, his creator received no royalties, but the showrunners "tried to make good" by changing Carrot Man's true identity to Stephen Skeates.

Oh wait. That's not fun at all! That's just another case of a writer being cheated out of royalities and given "exposure" instead! I'm going to report you to @forexposure_txt, DC! Sheesh.

Here's Steve apologizing for jumbled-up rules in a Doctor Strange game he wrote in Crazy Magazine. I imagine Pal Dr.PTOR, collector of all things Stephen Strange, has a copy, but do you think he has the correct rules?


from Crazy Magazine #91 (Marvel, October 1982)

---

Edit on 3/22/2022: Hey, Dr.PTOR did have a copy, and all the rules, and he's bligged about it, scanned it, and offered it for download! So head over to the leading Doc Strange blog to get it by clicking here! Thanks, oh Munificent One!

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Say, speaking of board games...and trust me, this segue makes sense, unlike this segue...


...because no matter how confusing that Doctor Strange game was, it can't possibly be as bad as this Abbott and Costello board game from a comic book (trust me, I'm getting there)...


"Abbott & Costello Game Page" from Abbott & Costello (1968 series) #8 (Charlton, April 1969), script by Steve Skeates, pencils and inks by Tony Tallarico (?), letters by Ray Burzon
...which is in the same comic book as this story that features a character named Warren Savin (trust me, we're so almost there), which, if you remember all the way back to the top of this post, was a pseudonym for Steve Skeates! (Blows horns, whistles, lets off streamers to celebrate the fact that we finally got to the Interesting Point™ I'd promised you at the beginning)!




from Abbott & Costello #8
We leave Bud 'n' Lou debating the potential player line-up of an upcoming game of baseball and we leave Steve Skeates by wishing him a very happy birthday. Happy birthday, Steve!

365 Days of Defiance, Day 299: I am NOT Groot

Panels from Marvel Premiere #3 (July 1972), plot and pencils by Barry Windsor-Smith, dialogue by Stan Lee, inks by Dan Adkins, letters by John Costanza

365 Days of Defiance, Day 220: In which Cloris Leachman kicks ass

Na na na na na na
Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman

Today's episode of "Let's Kick Some Nazi Butt" highlights one of my favorite retcons of the Modern Comics Age. Trust me, it's much better than "the Beyonder was an Inhuman" or "the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver are Inhumans", or "everyone loves reading about the Inhumans." Nope: it's all tied up (with a golden lasso, I assume) in this:


Panels from Wonder Woman (1987 series) #184 (October 2002), script and pencils by Phil Jimenez, inks by Andy Lanning, colors by Trish Mulvihill, color separations by WildStorm FX, letters by Comicraft
To get you up to speed, Wally West-style, on what's happenin' here: Princess Diana (aka Wonder Woman) has (unknowingly) travelled back in time (doncha hate when that happens?) and has stumbled across Nazi soldiers (boo!) working in partnership with...Clea!


Cover of Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme #13 (January 1990), pencils and inks by Butch Guice
No, no, not that Clea! This Clea...


Cover of Wonder Woman (1987 series) #182 (January 1990), pencils and inks by Phil Jimenez, colors by José Villarrubia
...who's a classic Golden Age villain created by Marston and Peters as the jerk ruler of Atlantis (sound familiar, Marvel?) and charter member of "Villany, Inc.," which I think is some sort of licensed limited company. She's a go-getter gal in today's World War II's modern age of feminism and she's teaming up with Nazis, so hiss to her. She's in cahoots to trade a mystic Atlantean translation horn (the Rosetta Horn?) for an armored German submarine, presumably so she can finish filming her visionary film "Das U-Boot."


When what should appear to their Nazi sights but


WONDER WOMAN IN HER SATIN TIGHTS!

To explain: that's actually Hippolyta, Wondy's mom, who, the Post-Crisis Universe told us, was the Golden Age World War II Wonder Woman! I've always loved this relatively new retcon. (It leads to some neat character stuff over in the JSA comic, too.) I'm pretty sure this retcon doesn't exist in today's comics, which only makes me hate you more, New 52/Rebirth Universe.


Wonder Woman (Diana) needs to aid Wonder Woman (Hippolyta), but rushing into battle in her Wonder Woman (Diana) costume will surely wreck the timeline and confuse Wonder Woman (Hippo). So here's a plan: why not Wonder Woman (Lynda Carter) herself into the costume of another, '40s contemporary Wonder Woman (Miss America), Miss America!



Of course, two Wonders make no blunders and easily beat a pack o'Nazis and a Clea. But the adventure isn't over yet! Tune in tomorrow, same Wonder time, same Woman station, to see the continued team-up of Wonder and Wonder in a tale we had to title...ah, but I'll make you wait for that one.

365 Days of Defiance, Day 190: Doctors are strange when you're a stranger

Doctor Strange #3 (1974) boldly features (and apologizes for) a case of the Dreaded Deadline Doom, where, a handful of issues into the (bi-monthly) series, artist (and co-plotter) Frank Brunner couldn't get in the art on time. Today, they'd just postpone the issue another month or two and make us wait for it. Not in those days! The standard modus operandering of 1970s Marvel was to print a fill-in inventory story if the schedule was interrupted in any way — or, frequently, a reprint of an older issue. In those days, at least, if you couldn't hunt down back issues, the only chance you had to see the original stories was reading a reprint, but that's got to be a disappointment when you pick up a new issue.

Still, you can't say that Marvel didn't give us good reprints. (Go ahead: it's actually physically impossible to say that, right?) Most of the issue is a reprint of Doc's big-ass battle with Dormammu (yo mammu!) with classic Ditko art, and that story contains this vitally important debut of Doc's paramour Clea and a definite Declaration of Defiance!


Panel from Doctor Strange (1974 series) #3 (September 1974), reprinted from "Duel with the Dread Dormammu!" in Strange Tales (1951 series) #127 (December 1964); plot, pencils, and inks by Steve Ditko; dialogue by Stan Lee, colors by Stan Goldberg, letters by Sam Rosen
...and it's got a page and a half wrap-around bookend by Brunner which ends with this bold bravado:


Panels from "Amidst the Madness" in Doctor Strange (1974 series) #3 (September 1974), script by Steve Englehart, pencils by Frank Brunner, inks by Alan Weiss, colors by Jan Brunner, letters by Tom Orzechowski
After that it's even pretty easy to forgive Frank Brunner for missing #3's deadline, because here's the sort of art he created for issue #4:


Page from "Amidst the Madness" in Doctor Strange (1974 series) #4 (October 1974), co-plot and script by Steve Englehart, co-plot and pencils by Frank Brunner, inks by Dick Giordano and Bob Wiacek, colors by Linda Lessman, letters by Tom Orzechowski
WHOA.

Here's the bad news: obviously Brunner couldn't keep up with the schedule, because issue #5 is his last. He's replaced by Gene Colan, and '70s Colan is about as appropriate for Doc Strange as cookies are for your little stuffed truly.


Letter page segment from Doctor Strange (1974 series) #5 (December 1974)
Sadly, I don't think the Englehart/Brunner Fu Manchu project ever materialized, but Frank continued to do artwork for Marvel on Howard the Duck, Conan, and others, and co-created the classic First Comics series Warp. I've always felt we never got enough of Brunner's stunning art, but his work on Doctor Strange for Marvel Premiere #11-14 and Doctor Strange #1-5 are stone cold classic. Here's to you, Frank!