Today in Comics History, October 4: Happy birthday, Giovanni Battista Piranesi!

Born on this date in 1720 in Venice (Italy, not that beach in California): Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Italian artist, architect, and archaeologist. So proficient was he in the arts that began with the letter "A" that he would have been called a Renaissance Man except that he was born about 400 years too late, on this very date. He's famous for his etchings of Rome and of fictitious and atmospheric "prisons" (like Blackgate or Iron Heights?), and he's infamous in the DC/Proto-Vertigo Universe for his Painting That Ate Paris.


from Doom Patrol (1987 series) #27 (DC, November 1989), script by Grant Morrison, pencils by Richard Case, inks by John Nyberg, colors by Daniel Vozzo, letters by John Workman

Today in Comics History, August 17: Happy birthday, Rachel Pollack!

Towards the middle of 1992, as Grant Morrison began to wind down their groundbreaking run on Doom Patrol, a curious set of missives began to appear on its letters page:



from letter columns in Doom Patrol (1987 series) #57 and 60 (DC, July and October 1992)

Today in Comics History, December 5, 1945: Pilot flies from pages of Our Fighting Forces into Weird War Stories

from Doom Patrol (1987 series) #38 (DC, November 1990), script by Grant Morrison, pencils by Richard Case, inks by Mark McKenna, colors by Daniel Vozzo, letters by John Workman

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, August 31: Tonight's Episode: The Writer's Barely-Disguised Fetish

It's August 31 and members of the Doom Patrol have travelled back in time to put right what once went wrong! Actually, they manifested themselves in their older bodies but with their modern minds. Make sense? Of course it doesn't. Anyway, it's thirteen years ago and Cliff Steele has not yet had the accident that forces him to become Robotman:


from Doom Patrol (2004 series) #13 (DC, August 2005), script and pencils by John Byrne, inks by Terry Austin, colors by Alex Bleyaert, letters by Jared K. Fletcher
Also meanwhile at the same time thirteen years ago, Rita Farr (the Elasti-Girl who's not married to Craig T. Nelson) travels back to inhabit her own teen-age body. Annnnnnnnnd she's a teen-age fangirl for racer Cliff Steele. Gosh, John Byrne, I sure hope you don't take advantage of this and portray yet another of your inappropriate teen/adult kiss-crushes:


OH FOR F---'S SAKE JOHN BYRNE

Today in Comics History, August 23, 1968: Rare up-nose shot that's not by Gil Kane

from Doom Patrol (1987 series) #38 (DC, November 1990), script by Grant Morrison, pencils by Richard Case, inks by Mark McKenna, colors by Daniel Vozzo, letters by John Workman

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

The Marvel Age Calendar for 1994 2022: May Marine Mauling

Hey, it's


...so it's time for my usual monthly may-hem in bringing you a calendar for the month. Yup, here it is...May!


from Doom Patrol #23 (DC, June 1989), script by Grant Morrison, pencils by Richard Case, inks by Scott Hanna, colors by Daniel Vozzo, letters by John Workman
Isn't that helpful? Not! (as the kids say today) But seriously, what do you even need a calendar for?


from Batman/Superman (2019 series) #2 (DC, November 2021), script by Gene Luen Yang, pencils by Paul Pelletier, inks by Keith Champagne, colors by Hi-Fi, letters by Saida Temofonte
Oh, well, when ya put it like that, I better give you a calendar you can actually use this month, even though it's from (gazes deeply into the distant, prehistoric past) 1994!

"Classic Clash #5: Daredevil vs. Namor" from Marvel Age #137 (Marvel, June 1994), pencils by Darren Auck, inks by Michael
(Click picture to giant tuna-size)
Print it up and nail it to your wall! I'd suggest that you color it, but wow, they've already shaded in Daredevil and Namor's mostly just pink. What am I gonan do with all these red crayons?

More May calendar fun in about an hour! That work for you, Julian Day?

Today in Comics History, April 19, 1943: Doctor experimenting with weird substances had the time right but should have waited one day

from Doom Patrol (1987 series) #50 (DC, December 1991), script by Grant Morrison, pencils and inks by Richard Case, colors by Daniel Vozzo, letters by John Workman

Today in Comics History, March 12, 1965: Elasti-Girl is dragged, kicking and screaming, back to the basics

from Doom Patrol (2004 series) #14 (DC, September 2005), script and pencils by John Byrne, inks by Terry Austin, colors by Alex Bleyaert, letters by Jared K. Fletcher

Today in Comics History, February 23: Happy birthday, Tom Peyer!

Born on this very day in my own hometown of Syracuse, New York: comics writer, editor, and artist Tom Peyer, one of my favorite comics creators! He's written Hourman, Legion of Super-Heroes and Legionnaires, L.E.G.I.O.N. and R.E.B.E.L.S., Cruel and Unusual, New Gods, Amazing Spider-Man, Marvel Team-Up, Spider-Man: House of M, Bart Simpson, Magnus Robot Fighter, and been editor or assistant editor of some of the greatest Vertigo books: Animal Man, Doom Patrol, The Sandman, Shade the Changing Man, Swamp Thing, Hellblazer. And, that old Syracuse phrase: "many, many more!"


"On the Ledge" from DC/Vertigo Comics cover-dated June 1993
Yes, Vertigo! Where you knew you were somebody when your name appeared in the classic "Beard-Hunter" issue of Doom Patrol!


from Doom Patrol (1987 series) #45 (DC/Vertigo, July 1991), script by Grant Morrison, pencils by Vince Giarrano (who, I believe, is another Central New York guy!), inks by Malcolm Jones III, colors by Daniel Vozzo, letters by John Workman
Somebody needs to update Tom's Wikipedia article because it says nuthin' about the absolutely amazin' Ahoy Comics! Tom is a co-founder, editor, and writer of many Ahoy Comics, including the modern classic The Wrong Earth (and its sequels featuring Dragonfly and Dragonflyman), Hashtag Danger, High Heaven, Penultiman, and others. Not tryin to suck up here or anything (oh, maybe I am) but as far as I'm concerned, Ahoy is the best publisher debut of the past ten years, and I love a huge number of the titles they publish. Try one today! Tell 'em a little stuffed bull sent ya!

Here's an interview with Tom in an issue of the Peyer-scripted High Heaven (which also featured Peyer's Hashtag Danger). I'm only showing you one page of this because the whole interview is available on ComicsAhoy.com!


"Tom Peyer" from High Heaven #2 (Ahoy, October 2018)
And here's a fun rainy-day activity all about Tom from one of their recent new superhero multiverse series My Bad, which I also recommend highly. GEEZ JUST PICK IT UP ALREADY.


"Bad Libs: Tom and the No Good, Very Bad New Comic Book Day" in My Bad #1 (Ahoy, November 2021), text by Scott Morse, colors by Kelly Fitzpatrick, letters by Rob Steen (
But now I'm gonna show you some comic appearances of and comics by Tom Peyer that you probably have never seen before, unless you grew up in Syracuse or are stalking the man right now.


cover of Sideshow: Cartoons from the Syracuse New Times (Times-Advocate of New York, January 1982), by Tom Peyer
"Sideshow" was a comic strip written and drawn by Tom during the 1980s and published in the local indie free weekly The Syracuse New Times. I grew up on that newspaper and was influenced by a lot of its left-leaning, humanist and progressive editorial stance and stories, especially in a city where the two major daily newspapers, The Post-Standard (morning) and The Herald-Journal (evening) were well-chewed pablums of iffy, soft journalism, worth the subscription cost mostly only for the comics pages. Nancy and Peanuts and Rip Kirby, baby!

The New Times ceased publication relatively recently (2019) and it's a sad loss. I still have kept some back issues of the paper in the vast Bully Archives; I think you can tell why I saved this one.


The Sideshow book is apparently rare. There's zero copies of it available on Amazon.com (Amazon ad) right now, and no listings on most of the other major online book retailers. I don't know the print run, but it was distriubuted locally, so it probably only had Central New York regional distribution. But I recommend it highly: if you're ever in Syracuse, check used book stores (not that many left) to see if they have it. I've had my copy forty years (which is a neat trick when you're a seven-year-old little stuffed bull) and Tom's cartoons have been a constant inspiration to my own sense of humor and writing.

Here's a handful of my favorite strips from the New Times and the book collection. I've scanned and reproduced them much smaller than in the actual book (which is 11 inches wide) so that while they're readable, you really oughta go on a Duran Duran-style hunt for the book itself.


"Sideshow" was the first place I ever saw the "Conan the Librarian" gag, and as far as I'm concerned, Tom Peyer did it first (and best):


I can never hear a song by REO Speedwagon without thinking of this comic strip, from the days when the radio stations would play their music incessantly:

>
Clark Kent goes to work for the Syracuse newspapers. Remember what I said about journalistic pablum? Yeah, that. (Please note the name Mike Sagert; we'll look at him a little later.)


This comic, about trickle-down economics (timely for today, even!) is one of my favorites, and whenever the subject comes up in conversation, I never resist replying the speech from the fourth and fifth panels.


As you can see from the cover of the book, then-President Reagan was a frequent target for satire by Tom. The strip played up Reagan's disconnection from reality and current events, and helped shape my left-wing political views in my own Republican family household. The other figure on the cover is Lee Alexander's Cat, the (fictional) pet of then-Mayor Lee Alexander, well-known for always travelling out of town rather than satying in Syracuse, and after that well-known for being indicted on 40 counts of extortion, income tax evasion, racketeering and conspiracy. He spent six years in prison. Syracuse politics! It's not as well-known as New York City or Chicago politics but it's just as grafty.

Anyway, Ronald Reagan:


I've also got to tip my hat to Tom for being fond of Ernie Bushmiller's Nancy and for helping me to appreciate the draftmanship and clever design of the strip.




Of course, there were occasional self-portraits of Peyer himself in the strips, which contributes nicely to my usual birthday theme of "where can I find this artist appeaaring inside a comics story?"



Going through old Syracuse New Times has not only provided me with inspiration for my Tom Peyer birthday post, but it's also unleashed a lake-effect, salt-potato, nostalgia for my early home in Syracuse and my first discovery and fandom of comics. That was definitely a Golden Age for me, and how could it not be: lookit how many comic book shops we had! My "usual" was downtown's Dream Days, but I also would shop at Twilight (just around the corner from a huge warehouse of used book where I could happily spend a whole afternoon) and I definitely remember buying Hellblazer #1 at Captain Comics. All of the stores in these ads are long out of business. Twilight's signage was still up as of a couple years ago, but it is now a head shop. (And not a good one that sold concert t-shirts like Liverpool's The Panhandler!)


Dream Days was owned and operated by the late great Mike Sagert, who always took time to talk to a nerdy young man bull starting out reading and collecting comics. I bought Avengers #197 there, my first Marvel superhero comic after I'd already been collecting Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica and became intrigued by the Bullpen Bulletins news of their super-stuff. I bought X-Men #137 there, probably the single worst first X-Men comic anyone has ever bought, but Mike filled me in on the background of the story and I was there at his store the day follow-up ish #138 was released. He let me buy multiple copies of Daredevil #190, while warning me not to forget the true joy of comic books was the reading, not the investment. (Although I did make out pretty well re-selling those copies on eBay in the 2000s!)

Here's a few of the inexpertly cut-out clippings I still have about Mike Sagert.




In with those same clippings: I'd totally forgotten that Tom Peyer used to write a column for the Syracuse New Times (great title, too!), frequently focusing on the type of comics I wanted to read. His recommndations were gold.




"Recent Comic Books!" Featuring Sugar and Spike, Ronin, the early Alan Moore Swamp Thing, and The New Gods. In just a few years Tom would be editing Swamp Thing and writing New Gods.



Hey, Mike Sterling, check it out! ONE OF US! He's one of us!


So my point, and I do have one, is that I love the work of birthday boy Tom Peyer, and writing about him carries me along to quite a pleasant nostalgic memory lane of my love of comics. You're very much an influence on that love, Tom, and I wish you a happy birthday, and many more.

Besides: Tom Peyer taught me in nine easy steps how to draw for comics!


from Sideshow