Today in Comics History, April 4: Happy birthday, Joe Orlando!

Born on this date in 1927: artist, writer, editor and publisher Joe Orlando, whose extensive work at EC, DC, MAD, and Atlas have cemented his status as a grand master of comics art.


from Weird Fantasy (1951 series) #12 (EC, March 1952), written by Al Feldstein

Today in Comics History, April 4: Happy birthday, Bob Rozakis!

Born on this day: Bob Rozakis, DC Comics writer (Action Comics, The New Adventures of Superboy, Detective Comics, World's Finest comics, The Batman Family, 'Mazing Man, Freedom Fighters and lots more), editor, and "The Answer Man"; DC's Executive Director of Production, co-creator of Mister E, Bumblebee, 'Mazing Man, Hero Hotline, Quakemaster, and more!


from Amazing World of DC Comics #1 (DC, July 1974)

Today in Comics History, July 23, 1979 and 2029: Once again, comics predicted 2023

from "Some Place Where the Sun Don't Shine" in House of Mystery (1951 series) #282 (DC, July 1980), script by Bob Ingersoll, pencils by Mike Sekowsky, inks by John Celardo, colors by Jerry Serpe, letters by Shelly Leferman
This post was suggested by faithful reader and frequent commenter Blam, who's provided a lot of date references in comics that I'll spotlight throughout 2023 in this series. Thanks, Blam!

Today in Comics History, March 10, 1910 and/or 1945: Happy birthday, Kenny Point, whichever year it is

from "The Idol of Millions" in House of Mystery (1951 series) #297 (DC, October 1981), script by Gerry Conway, pencils by Denys Cowan, inks by Tony DeZuniga, colors by Carl Gafford, letters by Todd Klein
This post was suggested by faithful reader and frequent commenter Blam, who's provided a lot of date references in comics that I'll spotlight throughout 2023 in this series. Thanks, Blam!

Today in Comics History, March 8, 1980: Superman v. Batman: Dawn of Nothing

from "Some Place Where the Sun Don't Shine" in House of Mystery (1951 series) #282 (DC, July 1980), script by Bob Ingersoll, pencils by Mike Sekowsky, inks by John Celardo, colors by Jerry Serpe, letters by Shelly Leferman
This post was suggested by faithful reader and frequent commenter Blam, who's provided a lot of date references in comics that I'll spotlight throughout 2023 in this series. Thanks, Blam!

Today in Comics History, December 24, Christmas Eve: Oh, so this is the "scary ghost stories" part

from "Small Wonder" in House of Mystery #255 (DC, November 1977), script by Jack Oleck, pencils by Ernie Chan, inks by Vince Colletta

Today in Comics History, August 31: Monsters' Ball

from House of Mystery #255 (November 1977), script by Paul Kupperberg, pencils by Ric Estrada, inks by Wayne Howard, letters by Ben Oda

Today in Comics History, August 30: Happy birthday, Jack C. Harris!

Born on this day: comics scripter Jack C. Harris (Secrets of Haunted House, Superman Family, Wonder Woman, Men of War, Detective Comics, Sgt. Rock, House of Mystery, Kamandi and lots more)! He also co-created the DC/Marvel Universe-spanning character Annex and wrote his miniseries, which means he doesn't get royalities on it from two companies!


"DC Profiles #9: Jack C. Harris" from DC Comics cover-dated June 1977

Today in Comics History, August 4: Happy birthday, Mike Gold!

Born on this day: comics writer, editor and publisher (co-founder of First Comics!), PR person and activist Mike Gold, here giving advice to Abel on how to spike awareness of the House of Secrets:



from "Is Anyone Listening?" in House of Mystery (1951 series) #255 (DC, November, 1977), script by Jack C. Harris, pencils by Ric Estrada, inks by Wayne Howard

Today in Comics History, July 1: Happy birthday, Jack Adler!

Born on this day in 1917: longtime innovative DC Comics cover artist, colorist, and production manager Jack Adler! You'll see his work in Action Comics, House of Mystery, Sea Devils, Sensation Comics, Green Lantern, G.I. Combat, and many, many more! He did the color separation for Action Comics #1, and eventually becaome DC's Vice President of Production.


from DC Comics cover-dated June 1977

Today in Comics History, June 14: Happy birthday, Paul Kupperberg!

Born on this day: comics writer and editor, book author, co-creator of Arion, Dorothy Spinner, Ch'p and more: Paul Kupperberg! His comics credits include Arion, Lord of Atlantis, Checkmate, The Superman Family, DC Comics Presents, the Daring New Adventures of Supergirl, Green Lantern, 2000 AD, Life with Archie, and dozens more, plus superhero, SF, and general prose fiction and non-fiction and comic strips!


from Showcase #95 (DC, October 1977)

Today in Comics History, May 24: Happy birthday, Carmine Infantino!

Born today in 1925: legendary comics artist, editor, and publisher Carmine Infantino, who co-created Batgirl, The Flash (Barry Allen and Wally West), Black Canary, Animal Man, Bat Lash, Phantom Stranger, Deadman, and more! He's drawn pretty much everybody in books like Detective Comics and Batman, Star Wars, Adventure Comics, The Avengers, Mystery in Space, Spider-Woman, The Brave and the Bold, Iron Man, Green Lantern, Nova, Phantom Stranger, Daredevil, and so much more!


from Fifty Who Made DC Great one-shot (DC, 1985)

Today in Comics History, May 16: Happy birthday, Jenette Kahn!

Born on this day: Jenette Kahn, former publisher, president, and editor-in-chief of DC Comics, and visible editorial face of the company for much of the '80s and '90s.


cover of Savvy (January 1984)

Today in Comics History, May 6: Happy birthday, David Michelinie!

Born on this day: David Michelinie, comics scripter of Iron Man, The Avengers, Amazing Spider-Man, Action Comics, House of Mystery, House of Secrets, Aquaman, Star Wars, Marvel Team-Up, and others; co-creator of Venom, Carnage, Scott and Cassie Lang, Jim Rhodes, Taskmaster, Star Raiders, Madame Xanadu, and many more!


from Marvel Age #29, 53, 89, and 101 (Marvel, August 1985, August 1987, June 1990, and June 1991); text by Jim Salicrup (#29), Mike Carlin (#53) and Chris Eliopoulis and Barry Dutter (#89 and 101); pencils and inks by Ron Zalme; colors by Paul Becton (#53) and Renee Witterstaetter (#89 and 101)
He arrived at Marvel in a cloud of dust and a hearty "heigh-ho, Silver!" Oh, excuse me, I've made another one of my silly mistakes. That was actually Bob Layton who did that.


from "Bullpen Bulletins" in Marvel Comics cover-dated November 1978, text by Jim Shooter
Page 7 of iron Man #116 provides a mind-shattering surprise? Well, let's check out page 7 of that comic and find out what the Sam Scratch is just so fantastic, amazing, incredible and uncanny!


from Iron Man (1958 series) #116 (Marvel, November 1978), co-plot and script by David Michelinie, co-plot and inks by Bob Layton, pencils by John Romita Jr., colors by George Roussos, letters by Annette Kawecki
Oh, I guess the big surprise is that when you hit him, Iron Man goes BLANG BLANG BLANG.

Wait, didn't Shooter say page 7 of the script? That's different: that would be around the final panels of the story.


Oooh, that is surprising! Okay, Bullpen Bulletins, I'll give ya this one.

But say! How do you pronounce "Michelinie?" Me, I'm been pronouncing it "Throatwarbler Mangrove," but I might have it wrong.


letter column from Amazing Spider-Man (1962 series) #338 (Marvel, September 1990)
So there ya go. Don't pickle her knee, or his or even your cat's: pick my knee.

Can you find Michelinie among the guests at Superman's wedding?

from Superman: The Wedding Album one-shot (DC, December 1996), pencils by Dan Jurgens, inks by Jerry Ordway, colors by Glenn Whitmore, letters by Bill Oakley
Click top picture to honeymoon-size
Here's a trickier one: find David (and other DC chiller creators) in the House of Mystery! (If you can't, don't fret it: it's a mystery!)

from "Do You Dare Enter The House of Mystery?" in House of Mystery (1951 series) #226 (DC, August 1974), script by Paul Levitz, pencils and inks by Sergio Aragonés
(Click top picture to ogre-size)
Finally, just in case that comic book writing career never becomes lucrative, Dave also runs a automobile tire business. They're having a hard month finance-wise, but if they can just deliver this van of radials without incident or accident...D'OH!


from Marvel Team-Up (1972 series) #121 (Marvel, September 1982), script by J. M. DeMatteis, pencils by Kerry Gammill, inks by Mike Esposito, colors by Bob Sharen, letters by Joe Rosen
A very happy birthday to you, David Michelinie, from me an' Mrs. Arbogast!


from DC Comics cover-dated August 1977

Today in Comics History, March 30: Happy birthday, Tex Blaisdell!

Born today in the year 1920: Philip "Tex" Blaisdell, comics artist and editor. He was penciller and/or inker on such strips as The Spirit, Prince Valiant, Pope, and Little Orphan Annie, and on comic books like Superman, Batman, the Flash, World's Finest Comics, Green Lantern, Adam Strange, Treasure Chest of Fun and Fact, Military Comics, 4Most and lots more!


from DC Comics cover-dated January 1978
We're live ringside at the boxing bout between Superman and Muhammad Ali for the title of Champion of the Universe, and Tex Blaisdell is there in the stands! Can you spot him? (Hint: he does not have as good a seat as Batman.)

cover of All-New Collectors' Edition #C-56 (DC, March 1978), layout by Joe Kubert, pencils by Neal Adams, inks by Neal Adams (?) and/or Cory Adams (?), logo design by John Workman
(Click top picture to GOAT-size)
The winner of that match now goes on to face Ben Grimm over in Marvel Two-in-One Annual #7.

So you found him pretty fast, huh? Well, here's a clue for you all: he's on this house (of mystery) wall! Can you find him now? (Really, there's no prize or anything, I just thought you'd find it fun.)

from "Do You Dare Enter The House of Mystery?" in House of Mystery #226 (DC, August 1974), script by Paul Levitz, pencils and inks by Sergio Aragonés
(Click picture to Abel-size)
Finally, here's a thinly disguised Tex as "Tex Bumblewell" at Sam Simian's comic publisher in an Angel and the Ape tale!


from Showcase #77 (DC, September 1968), scripter ID uncertain (see here), pencils by Bob Oksner, inks by Tex Blaisdell, letters by Ray Holloway ?
Happy birthday, Tex!

Today in Comics History, March 21, 1967: Headline writer goes bat-crap insane

from "Thunderbolt's Secret Weapon" in House of Mystery #170 (DC, October 1967), script by Dave Wood, pencils and inks by Jim Mooney

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)

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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!