Today in Comics History, June 22: Happy birthday, Jae Lee!

Born on this day: comics artist Jae Lee (Red Sonja, Batman/Superman, Inhumans, Namor the Sub-Mariner, Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, Darkwing Duck: Negaduck, Wolverine, Before Watchmen: Ozymandias, Django/Zorro and many more)!


from Marvel Knights Sketchbook one-shot (Marvel/Wizard, August 1998), art by Jae Lee
Happy birthday, Jae!


from Battlestar Galactica 1999 Tour Book one-shot (Realm, May 1999), art by Jae Lee

The Marvel Age Calendar for 1994 2022: Jaw-dropping July Joinery

'Tis the first of the month again, folks, and besides being my seventh birthday, it's time to welcome in


from Mighty Marvel Calendar 1981 (Marvel, 1980)
And I hope you get your fair share of baseball, apple pies, and Chevrolets all this month.

Let's kick if off good with the first of four fabulous falendars calendars that're from past years, but you can use 'em again in 2022, because such is the cyclical nature of time! "All this has happened before, and will happen again," in the words of my pal Bill Adama, and he oughta know. He was on Miami Vice!

It's also time for your traditional gift-giving of July Calendars! Here's one for ya!


from "The Riddle of the Gold Stagecoach!" in Western Comics #71 (DC, September 1958), script by Gardner Fox, pencils and inks by Howard Sherman, letters by Morris Waldinger
Ow wow, that's not gonna be much help. Let's see what else we've got...

...oh hey! A calendar from a Spider-Man comic that actually works in 2022! Way ta go, Spidey!


from Amazing Spider-Man (1963 series) #245 (Marvel, October 1983), script by Roger Stern, pencils by John Romita, Jr., inks by Dave Simons, colors by Bob Sharen, letters by Joe Rosen
Eh, too much Spider-rompin' all over this month if you ask me.

Okay, enough foolin' around! Here's the 1994 2022 Marvel Age Calendar, ready for you to cut out, color, and tack up on your wall, but first, can you locate the error in this page! Get your magnifying glass out to check every detal, or, you could just click on the picture to embiggen.

from Marvel Age #139 (Marvel, August 1994), pencils and inks by Darren Auck
(Click picture to, as I said above, embiggen. Weren't you paying attention?)
Didja spot the error yet? No, it is not that my birthday is not listed (although, hey!). It's that this month's Classic Clash is listed as coming from Daredevil #7, which, quite frankly, I don't see as happening. And neither does Dared(is dragged off-stage by the hook)

Nope! This is obviously just a typo or error, because DD #7 featured a Classic Clash of its own in The Man WIthout Fear vs. The Man Without a Shirt (aka Sub-Mariner). This Panther vs. Inhumans bout took place in Fantastic Four Annual #5, and I think it would go a li'l somethin' like this:


from "Divide — and Conquer!" in Fantastic Four Annual (1963 series) #5 (Marvel, November 1967), script by Stan Lee, pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Frank Giacoia, colors by Stan Goldberg (?), letters by Sam Rosen
Og course, by the Rules of Marvel Engagement™, two groups of heroes must always fight upon first contact. It's not just a Stan Leeism, it's the law.


Of course, no truly heroic Marvel clash last for long, and this one's over pretty quick as the Black Panther and the Uncanny Inhumans (they were called that before the X-Men were, you know! It's a Bully Fact!) make peace and team up to confront a bigger menace than each other standing on their section of the beach, kickin' sand in each other's faces.


That's why I call this installment "Jaw-dropping July Joinery," because when you get these two forces together for a Marvel Team-Up, there's nothing they can't triumph against! Except Psycho-Man, who shows up a handful of pages later and can only be defeated by the FF, but then again, that's why it's the Fantastic Four Annual.

Enjoy your calendar! Enjoy your July!

365 Days of Defiance, Day 137: Some Things Are Better Left Unsaid

Hey, let's look at a good Inhumans story! Yep, there are some! In this one, Magneto gets ticked off that Marvel is trying to replace mutants with Inhumans, so he kidnaps and brain-enslaves Black Bolt. Whose real name is, have we mentioned before Blackagar Boltagon? hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee okay here's what happens.


Panels from the Inhumans story "—In His Hand — the World!" in Amazing Adventures (1970 series) #10 (January 1972), script by Gerry Conway, pencils by Mike Sekowsky, inks by Frank Giacoia, letters by Sam Rosen
It's horrendous! It's terrifying! It's totally earth-shattering...the mixing of Sony/FGox Marvel characters with Marvel Cinematic Universe characters! Also, it's a little scary that Magneto has Black Bolt under his thrall, which, as I think we can all agree, is a very uncomfortable place to be. Or...is he?


BLACK BOLT'S BREAKIN' LOOSE, BABY! LIVE FREE OR DIE! Etc.


So just a little minor skirmish, and Black Bolt quietly goes his way...not. Thus follows several pages of destruction the Mighty Marvel Way!



I presume they sent in Damage Control after that, which only goes to show: don't mess around with Black Bolt. Unless you pay him enough to present him on IMAX screens and on network television as a wuss and a pushover, in which case, fair enough.

365 Days of KirbyTech, Day 84: The Inhumans' Magnetic-Powered Ark

Back in the dawn of prehistory, when primitive cavemen lived in crude dwellings merely approximating modern civilization...


...but while these tribes were the hunters, the biogentically engineered advanced Inhumans were the gatherers, scooping up examples of weird and interesting wild, wild life to study with their Magnetic Space Arc [sic].


Panel from "The Origin of...the Incomparable Inhumans!" in Thor (1966 series) #146 (November 1967), script by Stan Lee, pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Joe Sinnott, letters by Artie Simek
What kind of fauna did the early Inhumans cart away, you may ask? Well, that's simple: here we can see they're collecting a tapir.


Their scientific experiments upon the humble tapir accelerated its own evolution billions of years beyond the knowledge of men, which is why this summer you've got a Marvel space adventure movie coming out this summer that stars Rocket Tapir. Unless I've gotten that wrong.

365 Days of KirbyTech, Day 67: The Mandarin's Scanner

What's that, Jack? It's just called the Mandarin's Scanner? It's not called the Optic Tele-Scanner or the Visu-Largement Scanner or the Anti-Iron Man Scanner? You're letting us down in the clever double-barrelled technology names department, Jack! Of course, this story is pretty much one of Jack's final works for Marvel. So maybe he was saving all the good names for his Fourth World over at DC. Nevertheless, we present...The Mandarin's Scanner!


Panel from "Pawns of the Mandarin" in Amazing Adventures (1970 series) #3 (November 1970), script and pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Chic Stone, letters by Artie Simek
The Mandarin, long before he was Gandhi, has a flair for an quite the obsession with visual devices. Here's his big-screen TV, similar to the FF's famed giant viewscreen in the Baxter Building.


And his assistant, "Kid" Darkseid, also has one, which has all the trademarks of a piece of consumer electronics created by KirbyCo. Not shown: the slot you have to put mega-quarters into.


Supervillainy! It don't get nowhere without kickass viewing devices!

365 Days of KirbyTech, Day 43: Maximus the Mad's Atmo-Gun

Maximus the Mad! He's the brother of the king of the Inhumans, Black Bolt! Which means that Maximus's full name is Maximus Dennis Boltagon. How mad is he? He's even madder than the Seeker, the guy in red who's mad enough to wear the Swiss Army Helmet!


Panel from Fantastic Four (1961 series) #47 (February 1966), script by Stan Lee, pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Joe Sinnott, colors by Stan Goldberg, letters by Artie Simek
Why, he's even mad enough to be firing up the Sunset Gun* Atmo-Gun!





How powerful is the Atmo-Gun? So powerful it makes the Earth glow in the dark. (Note: For best effect, first expose Earth to bright light, then take Earth into hall closet.)


Maximus' Atmo-Gun manipulates the atmosphere by exciting it (probably by showin' it photos of Kelly Rowland) until the very ground shakes with massive earthquakes! Or, as they probably should be technically called, atmospherequakes. It even makes the Attilan Chamber of Commerce crash and collapse! OH THE INHUMANITY! All those tourist pamphlets, gone!


Panels from Fantastic Four (1961 series) #48 (March 1966), plot and script by Stan Lee, plot and pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Joe Sinnott, colors by Stan Goldberg, letters by Artie Simek
Here's an external shot of the Atmo-Gun that doesn't look much like the view we saw above, so I'd like to propose that the machine seen in FF #47 was the underground control module and this is the above-ground atmospheric manipulator. Either that or Jack didn't keep a reference copy for drawing its second appearance.


Maximus, as befits any nutty, wacky, way-out criminal super-genius with a hatred of his brother (see also: Loki, Grim Reaper, Fat Freddy Freekowtski), taunts Black Bolt with the sort of expository dialogue that made Goldfinger such a popular name in motion picture history.


To which Black Bolt replies, succinctly:


Which only spurs Maximus to go reverse the polarity and erect an impenetrable Negative Zone (not to be confused with the anti-matter universe ruled by Annihilus, or the corner that Sue Storm makes her brother sit in when he gets into a fight with Ben) around Attilan, home of the Inhumans! Yes, it's a giant machine with a big-ass fist-grippin' handle and when you switch it it goes "click!" Human–computer interaction at its finest!


You know, for a super-villain, Maximus' dentistry is impeccable. That's what happens when you brush with new improved Terrigen with Fluoride™!


And nobody ever saw Attilan, ever again. Until Black Bolt, under the influence of too many Bartles & Jaymes wine coolers, crashed it into the Hudson River.



*

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Edited on 03/09/14 to insert this addition:

Maximus' Atmo-Gun is also seen in the miniseries Fantastic Four: Fireworks, although this isn't a separate appearance: FFF is one of the short-lived "Marvel Remix" series, retelling the first Inhumans story, focusing on the relationship of Crystal and the Human Torch, which is one of the few pairings in the Marvel Universe that I wished woulda happened. (Still could, for that matter!) It also, of course, spotlighted the Atmo-Gun!


Panels from Fantastic Four: Fireworks #2 (February 1999), script by Gerard Jones, pencils by Jeff Johnson, inks by Mark Pennington, colors by Richard Horie and Tanya Horie, letters by Richard Starkings and Albert Deschesne
Fireworks shows us a little more detail on the effects of reversing the polarity (©1963 BBC) of the Atmo-Gun, creating an impenetrable "Negative Zone" barrier surrounding Attilan (not to be confused with Reed's Negative Zone portal from the Baxter Building to the antimatter universe of Annihilus).


As well as showing the tragic result: Crystal is separated from Johnny forever (well, at least until FF #59).



Oh, why must I be a Fantastic Teenager in love?

---

365 Days of KirbyTech, Day 10: Reed Richards's Heat-Image Tracer

One of the greatest things about examining and cataloguing pieces of KirbyTech is that frequently one leads you right to the next. A story in which one piece of KirbyTech is used suddenly needs another piece, and another, and then...well, it's kind of like eating potato chips. It's almost like the guy couldn't stop inventing fantastic mechanical items that defy the laws of physics!

For example: today let's spy through the giant alien peepers of Uatu straight into the Baxter Building, where Johnny Storm kicks off the conversation and Sue Richards ably passes the ball to Reed for the exposition on his one, the only, patented...Heat-Image Tracer!


Panel from Fantastic Four (1961 series) #66 (September 1967), co-plot and script by Stan Lee, co-plot and pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Joe Sinnott, letters by Artie Simek

Same Story, Different Cover: Oh the Inhumanity

L: The Inhumans #9 (February 1977), pencils by Keith Pollard, inks by Aubrey Bradford
R: The Inhumans #10 (April 1977), pencils by Ed Hannigan, inks by Mike Esposito
(Click picture to Gorgan-zolasize)

What's this? (in my best William Frazier voice) An Inhumans "Same Story, Different Cover" for two issues that are consecutive? What the Sam Scratch is that all about? Why, be patient, Gentle Reader, and all shall be explained. Except why the Inhumans can't hold down their own series. Sigh.

Once upon a time, boys and girls, long before yours little stuffed truly was collecting comics (I'm only six, y'know), there was occasionally a big scary monster known as the Dreaded Deadline Doom, which threatened your timely (not Timely) comics appearing every month on the newsstand or the spinner rack of your local Rexall. In those days, come heck or high water, the next issue of the comic book appeared on time, whether or not it was the issue you were promised in the Bullpen Bulletins or last ish's "next time" blurb. That's all thanks to the fairly extinct animal known as the Fill-In Issue, a comic book length story scheduled to be printed instead of the original story because the artist or writer or tracer inker was running over schedule, or if a raccoon fell into one of the Sparta printing presses. Fill-Ins came in two delicious flavors: inventory stories (non-continued, done-in-one issues that could be slotted in between any other issues to fill up the empty slot) and reprints ("classics" of yesteryear pulled hurriedly into service when the brand-new comic went AWOL). It's the latter we're dealing with here. But how so?

Just open the cover of Inhumans #9 and you'll find out:


Splash page of Inhumans v.1 #9, reprinted from Amazing Adventures v.2 #1 (August 1970), script and pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Chic Stone, letters by Sam Rosen
Now, nobody in their sane mind (I'm lookin' at you, Maximus the Mad) is going to poo-poo a Jack Kirby story, even if it's a reprint. But in the same way you ponder the peanut butter on your chocolate, you might say "Who got their Amazing Adventures on my Inhumans?" Well, the answer is right there at the top. Let us blame the United States Postal Service from the days when they were pretty much a monopoly and a first-class stamp only cost 13¢. It appears that the art pages were slow (or had gotten lost) during their shipment from the artist (Keith Pollard, perhaps) in Pennsylvania to the Marvel offices of 1977. Inhumans editor Archie Goodwin had to make the choice: postpone the issue (very seldom done), insert a fill-in (but perhaps there weren't any in inventory) or reprint an older Inhumans tale, with an apologetic explanation. So Inhumans #9 contains an edited version of the Inhumans story originally printed in Amazing Adventures #1 and 2. Here's those original covers:


Covers of Amazing Adventures v.2 #1-2 (August-September 1970), art on #1 by Jack Kirby (Inhumans) and John Romita Sr. (Black Widow); art on #2 by John Buscema and John Verpoorten

Now, I don't know for sure, but here's what I think happened: Archie Goodwin had to plug the reprint into Inhumans #9, but he didn't have a cover that would fit it. Often a reprint would the cover of the original comic (sometimes mildly touched up or recolored), but Archie didn't have that choice: the double-story nature of Amazing Adventures meant there wasn't a full cover for that reprinted story. I'm only guessing, but I imagine he had to pull the trigger at the last minute and say "publish the reprint with the cover we were going to use for #9 anyway," and thus you have Inhumans #9, its dynamic cover featuring Black Bolt battling Mon-Tag (misspelled as "Mor-Tag" on the cover.) Now, Arch could have just used another Montag in its place which would have assured huge sales for this Marvel comic...



...but unfortunately Heidi Montag was not to be born until 1986.

Presumably another cover had to be commissioned for #10 when the story for #9 was finally printed in its pages, but the original #9 cover definitely refers to the story printed in #10. Here, in #10, is the same scene shown on the cover of #9:


Panel from Inhumans #10 (April 1977), script by Doug Moench, pencils and inks by Keith Pollard, colors by Don Warfield, letters by John Costanza

So, there ya go, folks. The strange—or should I say uncanny—tale of how two consecutive different covers are for the same story. Nowadays we have to wait for our New Avengers #Eleventy-Six...two, three, five months later, until Brilliant Young Gun Architect Creator Figure #1 can stand to finally take his fingers off it and send it to Marvel. Sure, good things are worth the wait...but sometimes you just gotta have your Inhumans.

Separated at Birth: Her summer frock clings to her wet body in the rain

L: "Splash" page of Avengers #95 (January 1972), script by Roy Thomas, pencils by Neal Adams, inks by Tom Palmer, letters by Sam Rosen
R: She-Hulk v.2 #23 (January 2008), art by Mike Deodato Jr. and Rain Beredo

(Click picture to super-soaker-size)

A special tip o' the nose ring to Mighty Mark Hale, who helped!

Subscription ads oughta be fun, Part 2!

"Deck the Halls with Marvel Comics," art by ???
Printed in Marvel Comics dated March 1983 (this was in Fantastic Four #252)


"Uncanny X-Mas Savings," art by Marc Silvestri (?)
Printed in Marvel Comics dated January 1990 (this was in Damage Control v.2 #3)


"Bet You Can't Top This Special Offer," art by ???
Printed in Marvel Comics dated December 1982
(this was in Hercules, Prince of Power v.1 #4)


"Give a Marvel Holiday Gift Subscription," art by John Byrne
Printed in Marvel Comics dated March 1984
(this was in Hercules, Prince of Power v.2 #1)

See also.