Today in Comics History, January 14, 1971: Hitchcock ordered to assassinate Tudor naval warship

from Alfred Hitchcock: Master of Suspense (NBM, March 2022), script by by Noël Simsolo, translation by Monatan Kane, art by Dominique Hé, lettering by Ortho

Today in Comics History, January 12, 1943: Soldiers go to war armed with little sound effects

from "General Jacques LeClerc" in Real Life Comics #26 (Pines, November 1945), creators uncredited and unknown

Today in Comics History, January 12, 1993: Passersby Were Amazed by the Unusually Large Amounts of Blood

cover of The Punisher War Zone (1992 series) #13 (Marvel, March 1993), pencils by Mike McKone, inks by Mark McKenna and Mick MGray

Today in Comics History, January 12: Burning the ground, I break from the crowd / I'm on the hunt, I'm after you

Happy birthday to the hairest dawg of the 30th and/or 31st century, that lupine luminary of the Legion: Brin Londo, Timber Wolf!


from Super DC Calendar 1976 (DC, 1975), letters by Ben Oda

Today in Comics History, January 12: Happy birthday, Joe Frazier!

Born on this day in 1944: boxing great and heavyweight champion of the world Joe Frazier! He beat Muhammad Ali in 1971's "Fight of the Century," which means he goes on to fight Superman at the MGM Grand this fall.

"The Champ" in this Batman comic is never identifed by name in the story — but yeah, that's Joe Frazier!



from "Batman for a Night" in Detective Comics #417 (November 1971), script by Frank Robbins, pencils by Bob Brown, inks by Dick Giordano, letters by John Costanza
Hppay birthday, Smokin' Joe!


from Black Dynamite #4 (IDW, August 2014), script by Brian Ash, pencils and inks by Jun Lofamia, colors by JM Ringuet, letters by Chris Mowry

Today in Comics History, January 12: Happy Birthday, Harry "A" Chesler!

Born on this day in 1897 or 1898: Harry "A" Chesler, pioneer of commissioning, packaging and selling comics stories and full comic books to publishers in the early Golden Age — the first "shop" of writers and artists located. He also published series through his own Chesler Publications, including Bulls Eye Comics (ouch!), Dynamic Comics, Punch Comics, Scoop Comics, Spotlight Comics, Yankee Comics (gee, notice a theme?) and others. Among the later big names in the industry who worked in the Chesler Shop were Carmine Infantino, Joe Kubert, George Tuska, Otto Binder, and Mort Meskin.


from Comic Book Comics #2 (Evil Twin, October 2008); script by Fred Van Lente; pencils, inks, and letters by Ryan Dunlavey
Here's a good online article about Chelser by Jon Berk in Scoop!


Happy birthday, Harry! We salute you and your hyperbolic colophon!

Today in Comics History, January 12: Jonathan Hickman debuts Starbucks of X

from X-Factor (2020 series) #6 (Marvel, March 2021), script by Leah Williams, pencils and inks by David Baldeon, colors by Israel Silva, letters by Joe Caramagna

Today in Comics History, January 12, 1986: Comics Will Eat Itself

from Radioactive Man (1993 series) #5/679 (Bongo, 1994), script and layouts by Steve Vance, finishes by Tim Bavington, additional inks by Bill Morrison, colors by Cindy Vance

Today in Comics History, January 12, 1944: Cher overhears old man; comes up with new hit single

from "Killer at Large" in Police Line-Up #3 (Avon, April 1952), pencils and inks by Joe Kubert


"Take Me Home" by Cher (Casablanca, 1979), written by Michele Aller and Bob Esty

Today in Comics History, January 12, 1963: "But Dad, it's Ringo!"

from The Beatles: Their Story in Pictures (ITV, 1982), script by Angus P. Allan, art by Arthur Ranson

Today in Comics History, January 12, 1938: What the Vision was really built out of

from "Hop Harrigan's History of American Aviation" in All-American Comics (1939 series) #45 (DC, December 1942), text and art by Joe L. Blummer

Today in Comics History, January 12, 1912: United States Mail travels faster than today

from "Scoops...Pictures to Remember" in Real Facts Comics #4 (DC, September 1946), pencils and inks by George Roussos

Today in Comics History, January 12, 1989: Superhero is called a hockey puck

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, January 12, 1891: Wilkie Collins suddenly has an inspiration

from Eclipso: The Darkness Within #1* (DC, July 1992), co-plot and script by Robert Loren Fleming, co-plot and breakdowns by Keith Giffen, pencils by Bart Sears, inks by Randy Elliott and Mark Pennigton, colors by Tom McGraw, letters by Gaspar Saladino
*Yes, the one with the fake plastic black diamond glued to the cover that gouges a hole in whatever comic you have stored in front of it.

Today in Comics History, January 12, 1991: Happy birthday, HAL

from 2001: A Space Odyssey graphic novel (Marvel, 1976); script, pencils, and colors by Jack Kirby, inks by Frank Giacoia, colors by Jack Kirby and Marie Severin, letters by John Costanza
Which means he died at the age of ten. Kinda sad, huh? Don't worry: he got better!


from Marvel Super Special #37 [2010] (Marvel, 1984), script by J. M. DeMatteis, layoputs by Joe Barney and Larry Hama, finishes and colros by Tom Palmer, letteres by Rick Parker
One of the ways you can tell that Dave was properly dismantling HAL: HAL gets the square root of pi wrong. It's actually 1.77245385090...

There. I think that qualifies me for "World's Nerdiest Blog" for today.

Today in Comics History, January 12, 1939: Alliteration is invented

from "Sal's Scrapbook" backup in Watchmen #9 (DC, May 1987), script by Alan Moore, illustrations penciled and inked by Dave Gibbons