Today in Comics History, February 12, 1967: The magical whimsy of Cicely once again irritates Dr. Joel Fleischman

from "The UFOs Arctic Assault" in UFO Flying Saucers #3 (Western/Gold Key, November 1972), pencils (and inks?) by Luis Dominguez, letters by Gaspar Saladino

Today in Comics History, February 12: Happy birthday, Anna Pavlova!

Today we celebrate the birth (in 1881) of the heroine known to the criminal world as Super-Ballerina, the dexterous crimefighter Anna Pavlova! PS: I was lying about the crimefighting. And if you're as dessert-minded as yours little stuffed truly is, you'll also know that she's the inspiration for the delicious creamy meringue and fruit dessert named after her, the Anna Pavlova! Mmm, them's good eatin'.


As usual for this birthday feature, here's everything you need to know about Anna Pavlova from a comic book!


"The Ballerina's Last Dance" from Ripley's Believe It or Not! (1965 series) #11 (Western/Gold Key, November 1968), pencils and inks by Joe Certa

Today in Comics History, February 12, 1949: Careers in crime determined by names given at birth

from "Visitor" in The Spirit Section (Register and Tribune Syndicate, February 13, 1949), script, pencils, and inks by Will Eisner; letters by Abe Kanegson; as reprinted in black-and-white in The Spirit [Magazine] (1974 series) #8 (Warren, June 1975)

Today in Comics History, February 12: Happy Birthday, Abraham Lincoln!

Born on this day in 1809: Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, the Great Emanicipator, and the guy who grew up in a log cabin, did his school lessons on a shovel, and wishes in retrospect he hadn't been so keen to see Our American Cousin: Abraham Lincoln!


from Mighty Marvel Calendar 1976 (Marvel, December 1975)
Abe has been in comic books lotsa times, and IU've celebrated him several times in poss on this here puppet-town cow blog. Here's just a few:

• Presidents in Comic Books #16: Abraham Lincoln
• Today in Comics History, February 12, 1809: Please celebrate today by drawing Daniel Day-Lewis.
• Today in Comics History, April 14, 1861: Abraham Lincoln teaches the crowd how to spell "yay"
• Today in Comics History, November 19, 1863: Superman uses his great powers for profiting on eBay
• Today in Comics History, April 9, 1865: Abe Lincoln throws the most lackluster frat party ever
• Today in Comics History, April 14, 1865: Abraham Lincoln is assassinated
• Today in Comics History, April 14, 1865: Abraham Lincoln is assassinated, again
• Today in Comics History, April 14, 1865: Batman posits that perhaps Abraham Lincoln was not assassinated today
• Today in Comics History, April 14, 1865: Abraham Lincoln is not assassinated
• Today in Comics History, April 14, 1865: Abraham Lincoln is not assassinated again
• Today in Comics History, April 14, 1865: Abraham Lincoln is not assassinated yet again
• Today in Comics History, April 14, 1865: Abraham Lincoln is further not assassinated yet again
• Today in Comics History, April 14, 1865: Abraham Lincoln is still further not assassinated yet again
• Today in Comics History, April 14, 1865: Abraham Lincoln takes active steps to avoid being assassinated
• Today in Comics History, April 14, 1865: Abraham Lincoln is assassinated by Jimmy Olsen
• Today in Comics History, April 14, 1865: Abraham Lincoln is saved from assassination by a gorilla
• Today in Comics History, April 14, 1865: Kirby Krackle is involved with Abraham Lincoln's assassination
• Today in Comics History, April 14, 1865: Abraham Lincoln is not assassinated by Plastic Man
• Today in Comics History, April 14, 1865: Abraham Lincoln is not assassinated on Earth-1865
• Today in Comics History, April 14, 1865: Superboy prevents the assassination of Abraham Lincoln Lex Luthor
• Today in Comics History, April 14, 1865: Superman has learned nothing from the events of Superboy #85
• Today in Comics History, April 14, 1865: ?????!????!!!!?????!!!!?
• Today in Comics History, April 14, 1865: Or again, maybe he was
• Today in Comics History, April 14, 1865: Aside from that, yes, actually, Mrs. Lincoln did enjoy the play
• Today in Comics History, April 14, 1865: Abraham Lincoln is awesominated
• Today in Comics History, April 14, 1865: Oh, you jerk Booth, look at his hands, he'd already surrendered
• Today in Comics History, April 15, 1865: Man sitting in front of Lincoln's bed is so traumatized all the color drains from his face
• Today in Comics History, April 15, 1865: Kid Colt picked the wrong time to get a Presidential pardon
• The Dark Lincoln Saga
• A Month of... Pancakes! Day 4: Celebrate Independence Day by enjoying the traditional July 4th meal!
• 365 Days of Defiance, Day 282: To overthrow the men who pervert it

Next year: S'more of the 125+ comics panels featuring Abraham Lincoln that I've got hoarded away for just such a occasion like February 12. But now, I'm goin' to bed. It's been a long day. Happy birthday, Abe!

Today in Comics History, February 12, 1931: "Hello, Dracula." "How do you do, sir?' "Why, Count Dracula, nice to meet you!" "It is my pleasure, madame." "Hey, it's Dracula!" "Hello and velcome to my motion picture."

from Lugosi: The Rise and Fall of Hollywood's Dracula (Humanoids/Life Drawn, September 2021), story and art by Koren Shadm, letters by Tom Napolitano

Today in Comics history, February 12, 1968: Frank Sinatra and Mia Farrow prepare to divorce

from The 'Nam #82 (Marvel, July 1993), script by Don Lomax, pencils and inks by Wayne Vansant, colors by John Kalisz, letters by Phil Felix

Today in Comics History, February 12: Whatever Lulu wants, Lulu gets

from Marge's Little Lulu (1948 series) #32 (Dell, February 1951), script by John Stanley, pencils and inks by Irving Tripp

Today in Comic History, February 12: Happy birthday, Lou Bank!

Born on this day: Marvel's Director of Sales in the 1990s, Lou Bank!


from Marvel Age #87, 98, and 110 (Marvel, April 1990, and March 1991), text by Chris Eliopoulis and Barry Dutter (#87 and 98) & Mike Lackey (#110); pencils and inks by Ron Zalme (#87 and 98) and Darren Auck (#110); colors by Gregory Wright (#87) and Renee Witterstaetter (#98)
Happy birthday, Lou!


from Marvel Age #107 (Marvel, December 1991)

Today in Comics History, February 12: Happy birthday, Judd Winick!

Born today: comics writer and artist Judd Winick! He's worked on many of the top-name DC comics series: Green Lantern, Green Arrow, The Outsiders, The Trials Of Shazam!, Justice League: Generation Lost, a co-writer of Countdown to Infinite Crisis (I'm gonna hold that againast ya, Judd), Green Arrow and Black Canary, Catwoman, and he's the writer who reintroduced Jason Todd to the DC Universe as the Red Hood. (But I won't hold that against ya, Judd.) Winick's the co-creator of Grace Choi, Thunder, Tommy Merlyn and more, creator of Barry Ween, Boy Genius, the Cartoon Network's The Life and Times of Juniper Lee, and he created the all-ages graphic novel series Hilo.


portion of advertisement from Hilo and His Friends Get Graphic Halloween ComicFest 2008 (Random House Graphic, October 2018)
Winick's magnum opus, however, is probably his (auto)biographical Pedro and Me, which recounts his time spent as a cast member of MTV's The Real World: San Francisco...


from Pedro and Me: Friendship, Loss, and What I Learned (Henry Holt, August 2000); script, pencils, inks and letters by Judd Winick
It was on The Real World that Judd met and began a relationship with his eventual wife, housemate Pam Ling...


...and housemmate Pedro Zamora, a HIV-positive AIDS activist and educator and eventual great friend.


Pedro and Me is a funny, sobering, loving, eye-opening sketch of Pedro and Judd and Pam and their friendship. It was one of the first books (graphic novel or otherwise) I'd read about an HIV-positive person, and it's not an exaggeration to say it had a major effect upon my current progressive views. Even twenty years later it still has the power to inspire me. I may have chosen to feature it today because Judd Winick is in it and his birthday, but this is an all-time must-read. Happy birthday, Judd. We miss you, Pedro.




Infomation on Pedro Zamora and the Pedro Zamora Scholarship:

• The National AIDS Memorial
• The Pedro Zamora Scholarship

Today in Comics History, February 12, 1941: Revenge is a dish best served cold!

"Murder in the Frozen North" in Murderous Gangsters #4 (Avon, June 1952), creators unknown
"Payed?" "PAYED?"

Today in Comics History, February 12: Happy birthday, Joe Albelo!

Born on this day: Joe Albelo, Marvel and Acclaim/Valiant Comics penciller/inker/letterer!


from Marvel Age #26, 50, 87 and 98 (Marvel, May 1985, May 1987, April 1990, and March 1991), text by Jim Salicrup (#26), Mike Carlin (#50), and Chris Eliopoulis and Barry Dutter (#87 and 98); pencils and inks by Ron Zalme; colors by Gregory Wright (#87) and Renee Witterstaetter (#98)
Joe's worked on Magnus: Robot Fighter, Solar: Man of the Atom, Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham, Crazy Magazine, Moon Knight, What If...?, and others. He also did...this weird stuff, I guess, although I wouldn't bet on that not being a spoof.


from What If...? (1977 series) #34 (Marvel, August 1982), script and letters by Rick Parker, pencils and inks by Joe Albelo
Happy birthday, Joe!

Today in Comics History, February 12, 1908: Grandfather bores young boy by relating the entire plot of the movie The Great Race

from "The Race History Will Never Forget" in Real Fact Comics #20 (DC, May 1949); script by Jack Schiff, Mort Weisinger, and/or George Kashdan
PS: Peter Falk was in it!

Today in Comics History: February 12, 1980: Jimmy Carter exhausts all non-peanut-related options

from Kirby: Genesis: Silver Star #1 (Dynamite, November 2011), co-plot by Alex Ross, co-plot and script by Jai Nitz, pencils by Johnny Desjardins, colors by Vinicius Andrade, letters by Simon Bowland

Today in Comics History, February 12, 1924: The United Airlines PR director breathes a sigh of relief

from "Scoops...Pictures to Remember" in Real Fact Comics #1 (DC March 1946), pencils and inks by George Russos
Here's "Bullhattan," my little Ken Burnsesque mini-movie featuring me running around New York City to the tune of Gershwin's great gelody, YouTube took it down, but it still survives. Bite me, YouTube!

And for you purists (and anti-bull, I'd imagine), here's that original version of Paul Whiteman and His Non-Bull Orchestra performing "Rhapsody in Blue."

Today in Comics History, February 12, 1984: I happen to have Marshall McLuhan right here

In his apocalyptic classic The One, Rick Veitch postulates that media megabrain Marshall McLuhan would look to the skies to see not TV transmissions, but falling nuclear weapons! Ouch, Mr. McLuhan! You'd better get out of there! Here, go inside this movie cinema and hide behind this promotional standee!


from The One #1 (Marvel/Epic, July 1985), script by Rick Veitch
But: join us again on March 14 for...the rest of the story!

Today in Comics History, February 12, 1937: Monster.com is still not yet invented

from Doomsday Clock #10 (DC, July 2019), script by Geoff Johns, pencils and inks by Gary Frank, colors by Brad Anderson, letters by Rob Leigh
Tune in again on April 18 to see the exciting conclusion!

Today in Comics History, February 12, 1941: Captain America is going to be stuck buying February 15 half-price pink-wrapped Snickers again

from The Adventures of Captain America #1 (Marvel, September 1991), script by Fabian Nicieza, pencils by Kevin Maguire, inks by Joe Rubinstein, colors by Paul Mounts, letters by Richard Starkings

Today in Comics History, February 12, 1992: Jeanne Constantine Still Won't Do Her Dirty Dishes

from Jenny Sparks: The Secret History of the Authority #2 (WildStorm, September 2000), script by Mark Millar, pencils by John McCrea, inks by James Hodgkins, colors by Ian Hannin, letters by Bill O'Neil

Today in Comics History, February 12, 1947: Fans line up overnight for the Playstation '47

from Girl in Dior graphic novel (NBM, April 2015); script, pencils and inks by Annie Goetzinger, translation by Joe Johnson, letters by Ortho

Today in Comics History, February 12, 1980: Exploding driver's license seriously injuresMister Miracle

from Justice League (2011 series) #41 (DC, August 2015), script by Geoff Johns, pencils and inks by Jason Fabok, colors by Brad Anderson, letters by Rob Leigh