Today in Comics History, January 19, 1911: Platform immediately collapses into canyon because they bought it from Acme Platform Co.

from "Hop Harrigan's History of American Aviation" in All-American Comics #22 (DC/All-American, January 1941); script, pencils, and inks by Jon Blummer

Today in Comics History, January 19: Happy birthday, Edgar Allan Poe!

Happy birthday today to the Master of Macabre (sit down, Stephen King): Edgar Allan Poe! (Always remember than his middle name has an "A" in it. Sometimes comics don't and I've corrected that error in the artwork!) Born on this day in the spooky, spooky year of 1809 (scary, huh, kids?), Poe's oeuvre includes moody works you have to read in high school like "The Black Cat," "The Cask of Amontillado," "The Purloined Letter, "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" "The Masque of the Red Death,,""Annabel Lee," "The Bells,", and the novel The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, which to my vast disappointment, has nothing at all to do with shrinking down to the size of an ant.

Wikipedia (the encyclopedia where you can scribble on the pages!) tells us that Poe

is widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism in the United States, and of American literature. Poe was one of the country's earliest practitioners of the short story, and considered to be the inventor of the detective fiction genre, as well as a significant contributor to the emerging genre of science fiction.

Well, all this and more, yes, Wikipedia, but citation needed, what you didn't mention is how much vast influence Poe has had on the everyday common-or-garden comic book! (A: A lot.) And since I can't cover every appearance of Poe or story he's had adapted into comic books, I figger I'm gonna just sit back, plop on my LP of The Alan Parsons Project's Tales of Mystery and Imagination (Amazon ad) and spread out a few of my favorite Poe-influenced comic books for you, if we can just get rid of that BLOODY RAVEN TAPPING ON MY CHAMBER DOOR!

Today in Comics History, January 19: Happy birthday, Janis Joplin!

Born today in 1943: singer, songwriter, and rock legend Janis Joplin! (I shall refrain from posting the doctored Angel Love panel here out of respect.) And yes, she's appeared in comic books and in comic art!


from Comic Book Comics #4 (Evil Twin, October 2009); script by Fred Van Lente; pencils, inks, and letters by Ryan Dunlavey
One of the weirdest, and probably the least seen, Janis cameos appears in this hallucinatory sequence from a Clive Barker-inspired comic book:




from Ectokid #6 (Marvel/Razorline, February 1994), script by Larry Wachowski, pencils by Steve Skroce, inks by Bob Dvorak, colors by Mike Thomas, letters by Gaspar Saladino
And of course, Janis's most famous comic art portrayal (I'm not gonna reproduce the whole cover; you've seen it before and you'll know why).


cover detail of Cheap Thrills by Big Brother and the Holding Company (Columbia, August 1968), by Robert Crumb
Singin' her own tune, gone far too soon. Happy birthday, Janis.

Today in Comics History, January 19, 1911: Bi-plane goes both ways

from "Hop Harrigan's History of American Aviation" in All-American Comics #22 (DC, January 1941); text, panels and inks by Jon Blummer

Today in Comics History, January 19, 1942: Captain America comics are flown in to keep wartime morale high

from "He Flew 'Round the World to Get Home" in True Comics #15 (Parents' Magazine Press, August 1942), creators uncredited and unknown

Today in Comics History, January 19: Happy Birthday, Tom Yeates!

(Whoa, déjà vu!)

He may get second billing in this calendar panel, but we here at Comics Oughta Be Fun! wish a happy hearty birthday to the comic book and strip artist of Conan, Prince Valiant, Zorro, Tarzan, Swamp Thing, Sgt. Rock and The Warlord, among others: Thomas Yeates! (Did he ever really work on Howard the Duck?)


from Marvel Age #49 (Marvel, April 1987), text by Mike Carlin, pencils and inks by Ron Zalme, colors by Paul Becto
I can't find any visual appearances of Tom Yeates in the funnybooks, but here's the next best thing: Tom being given high praise for his work drawing Tarzan by none other than Sergio Aragonés, in the pages of the gorgeous and funny team-up Groo Meets Tarzan!



from Groo Meets Tarzan #1-2 (Dark Horse, August 2021), script by Sergio Aragonés and Mark Evanier, pencils and inks by Sergio Aragonés (Groo) and Thomas Yeates (Tarzan), colors by Tom Luth, lettering by Stan Sakai (Groo) and Adam Pruett (Tarzan)
Happy birthday, Tom!

Today in Comics History, January 19: Happy birthday, Milton Schiffman!

Born on this day in 1922: Milton Schiffman, who began at Marvel as a bookkeeper and rose to become the company's Vice President of Production in the 1970s!


from Marvel Age #49 (Marvel, April 1987), text by Mike Carlin, pencils and inks by Ron Zalme, colors by Paul Becto
As VP production, Milt got sample comics of each of the Marvel comics shipped to him as they rolled off the prnting press. Unopened boxes of these were later discovered and now comprise the "Milt Schiffman File Copy" collection of graded comics out and about on the secondary marketplace, sealed inside tight plastic shells where they can't breathe. For heaven's sake, people, let them out to get some air!


Happy birthday, Milt!

Today in Comics History, January 19: Happy birthday, Joe Staton!

Born on this day: comics writer and artist Joe Staton. He's known for his work on (among others) E-Man, Scooby-Doo, Doom Patrol, American Flagg!, Green Lantern, Tales of the Green Lantern Corps, Guy Gardner, DC Comics Presents, Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes, Action Comics, as well as the co-creator of the E-Man, Huntress II, Huntress III, and the Omega Men, and a near-ten year stint on the Dick Tracy comic strip! Whew! here's some more of his achievements:


from DC Comics cover-dated November 1979
My very first Charlton Comic was an issue of E-Man, so I've been a big fan of Joe's work from early on in my comics readin' and collectin' career.


house ad from First Comics cover-dated March 1984
And I've enjoyed Joe's artwork over the past decade as he and Mike Curtis (and these other good folks) brought a new vibrance and energy to the long-running Dick Tracy strip. Joe's in the brown jacket and yellow shirt below.


Dick Tracy syndicated comic strip (Tribune Content Agency, October 24, 2021), script by Mike Curtis, pencils by Joe Staton, inks and letters by Shelly Pleger (now the main artist on the strip!), colors by Shane Fisher
Happy birthday, Joe!

Today in Comics History, January 19: Happy birthday, Bert LaBrucherie!

Happy birthday to Bert LaBrucherie (born 1905), champion college football coach at UCLA and Caltech, and (surely there's some connection to his success at that here) Wheaties eater! Happy birthday, Bert!


Wheaties ad from Fawcett Comics cover-dated December 1957

Today in Comics History, January 19, 1929: Carter delivers the mail

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