Today in Comics History, June 19: Happy birthday, Zoe Saldaña!

Born on this day: movie star, model, and voice artist Zoe Saldaña of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, The Terminal, The Losers, Death at a Funeral, The Book of Life, Maya and the Three, From Scratch and many more...but we nerds know her best from the Avatar series, the 2009 Star Trek reboots, and the Guardians of the Galaxy movies! And from appearing on (or at least inspiring) comic book covers!


covers from (1) Gamora #1 (Marvel, February 2017), pencils and inks by J. Scott Campbell, colors by Peter Steigerwald;
(2) All-New Guardians of the Galaxy #1 (Marvel, July 2017), art by Natali Sanders;
(3) Guardians of the Galaxy (2013 series) #4 (Marvel, August 2013), pencils and inks by Sara Pichelli, colors by Justin Ponsor;
(4) Guardians of the Galaxy Annual (2015 series) #1 (Marvel, 2015 series), pencils and inks by Frank Cho, colors by Jason Keith;
(5) Thanos (2019 series) #6 (Marvel, November 2019), painted art by Jeff Dekal;
(6) All-New Guardians of the Galaxy #1 (Marvel, July 2017), painted art by John Tyler Christopher


covers from (1) Star Trek (2011 series) #30 (IDW, February 2014);
(2) Star Trek: Countdown to Darkness #2 (IDW, February 2013), pencils and inks by David Messina, colors by Claudia Scarletgothica;
(3) Star Trek: Boldly Go #9 (IDW, June 2017), painted art by Arianna Florean;
(4) Star Trek (2011 series) #56 (IDW, April 2016), painted art by John Watson;
(5) Star Trek: Boldly Go #4 (IDW, January 2017), painted art by Tony Shasteen;
(6) Star Trek (2011 series) #28 (IDW, December 2013), pencils and inks by Erfan Fajar, colors by Ifansyah Noor and Stellar Labs
Happy birthday, Zoe! Say, I have noticed that in your biggest hit films, you're a beautiful woman who falls in love with an alien. Now, have you considered in your next movie playing a beautiful woman who falls in love with a little stuffed bull? It'd be a box-office smash! In Bullsylvania.

No, I can't believe MAD never did a spoof of Kelvinverse Trek either.

Today in Comics History, June 19: Happy birthday, Thomas Fuller!

Born (or hey, at least baptized) on this day in 1608: Thomas Fuller, churchman and historian, author of Worthies of England, and probably the first professional writer, but not of Superboy, who quotes him:


from "Brotherly Hate!" in Superboy (1949 series) #172 (DC/National, March 1971), script by E. Nelson Bridwell, pencils and inks by George Tuska, letters by Joe Letterese
Happy birthday, Thomas Fuller, and even if you can't actually appear in a comic book, feel honored that you've been name-dropped by the one and only Kid Kal-El, teenage teen of the thirtieth century, who is obviously reading ahead of his class level! Geez, Clark, stop showin' off. Read some Hardy Boys once in a while.

Also, he lived in the seventeenth century, ya gigantic superdweeb.

Today in Comics History, June 19: Happy birthday, Charlie Drake!

Hallo, my darlings! Born in 1925, today's the birthday of British comedian, writer, actor, sing-songer, and painter Charlie Drake from The Worker, Drake's Progress, Charlie Drake In..., and (naturally) The Charlie Drake Show, a 1968 Montreux Festival winner, and twenty UK pop singles!


from Radio Fun #1039 (Amalgamated UK, 06 September 1958), creators uncredited and unknown

Today in Comics History, June 19: Happy birthday, Blaise Pascal!

Born today in 1623, lets all raise a toast to the mathemetician with the most, Blaise Pascal, inventor of the Pascaline (an early calculator you could not spell "BOOBS" on), master of probability theory, creator of The Treatise on the Arithmetical Triangle (a convenient tabular presentation for binomial coefficients which he called the arithmetical triangle, but is now called Pascal's triangle. Thanks, Wikipedia!) and designer of Pascal's Wager, which ended with him owing forty large to the Vegas mob.

Also, he died pretty uniquely.


from "The Apple" in S.H.I.E.L.D.* (2011 series) #∞ (Marvel, June 2011); script by Jonathan Hickman; pencils, inks, and colors by Gabriel Hernández Walta; letters by Todd Klein
Happy birthday, M. Pascal! Sorry about all the formalin.

*Sinking Head In Essentially Liquid Death

Today in Comics History, June 19: Roger C. Carmel startled

from "The Lair of Lady Frankenstein" in Secrets of Haunted House #35 (DC, April 1981), script by Bob Rozakis with Jack C. Harris as "collaborator", pencils and inks by Dan Spiegle, colors by Gene D'Angelo, letters by John Costanza
Wait, what happened on July 9 that I've censored out using the handy blur tool (not to be confused with Blur, performing the hit single "Song 2")? Well, I dunno...guess you just have to stay tuned until July 9!

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, June 19, 1944: Novelty oversized helmet disorients GI Joe

from Ghosts (1971 series) #85 (DC, February 1980), script by David Allikas, pencils and inks by Vic Catan
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, June 19: Happy Birthday, Mick Anglo!

Born on this day in 1916: comic book writer, artist, letterer and editor Mick Anglo (nee the appropriate Michael Anglo), creator of Marvelman (or, as Eclipse Comics and Marvel itself would latrer call him, Miracleman), founer of Gower Art Studios and Anglo Features, joke ghost writer for British comedian Tommy Cooper — a true renaissance man who made "Kimota!" the household word it is today in the Moran home.


from Marvel Comics cover-dated February 2012
Happy birthday, Mick!

Today in Comics History, June 19, 1867: Giant text box reduces artist's workload

from Picture Stories from American History #4 (EC, Summer 1947), script by Jerry Coleman, pencils and inks by Allen Simon

Today in Comics History, June 19, 1875: Baseball game won by Chicago Dog-Whistles

from "Bob Feller's Baseball 'Firsts'" in Baseball Thrills #3 (Ziff-Davis, Summer 1952), pencils and inks by Wally Littman

Today in Comics History, June 19, 1968: Filming begins on Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown*

from The 'Nam #29 (Marvel, April 1989), script by Doug Murray, pencils by Wayne Vansant, inks by Frank Springer, colors by Steve Mellor, letters by Phil Felix
*And Don't Come Back!

Today in Comics History, June 19, 1996: Please check box "B" if you team-up with Owl-Man or are otherwise Inca hoots

text page from Aztek: The Ultimate Man #2 (DC, September 1996), text by Grant Morrison and Mark Millar

Today in Comics History, June 19, 1804: I don't much like this new version of Beany and Cecil

from Manifest Destiny #8 (Image, July 2014), script by Chris Dingess, pencils and inks by Matthew Roberts, colors by Owen Gieni, letters by Pat Brosseau

Today in Comics History, June 19: Happy birthday, Joe Letterese!

Born on this day in 1917: the man with the most appropriate name in comics, letterer Joe Letterese (Adventure Comics, Action Comics, World's Finest Comics, G.I. Combat, Kid Colt Outlaw, Batman, Strange Tales, and dozens more)!



from The Amazing World of Superman (DC, March 1973)
Spot Joe Letterese at the Superman/Ali prize fight, won't you?

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)
Oh yeah? Well, then how about finding him on this back cover, smart guy, huh?




back cover of The Best of DC Blue Ribbon Digest #5 (DC, May 1980), pencils by Ross Andru, inks by Dick Giordano
Happy birthday, Joe!

Today in Comics History, June 19: Happy birthday, Devin Grayson!

Born on this day: comics writer Devin Grayson (Nightwing, Batman: Gotham Knights, Titans, Black Widow, Catwoman, USER, Matador, and more)!


from Kurt Busiek's Astro City (1999 series) #21 (Homage, March 2000), script by Kurt Busiek, pencils by Brent E. Anderson, inks by Will Blyberg, colors by Alex Sinclair, letters by John Roshell and Wes Abbott
Happy birthday, Devin!

Today in Comics History, June 19, 1804: Meet-Cutes of the 19th Century

from Manifest Destiny #7 (Image, June 2014), script by Chris Dingess, pencils and inks by Matthew Roberts, colors by Owen Gieni, letters by Pat Brosseau

Today in Comics History, June 19: Happy birthday, Joyce Phua!

Born on this day, so wish her a happy birthday: Joyce Phua, Assistant Traffic Manager at Marvel during
from Marvel Age #90 (July 1990), text by Chris Eliopoulis and Barry Dutter, pencils and inks by Ron Zalme, colors by Renee Witterstaetter
Happy birthday, Joyce!

Today in Comics History, June 19: Only seven more shopping days until Crime Alleymas

from Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 (DC, February 2016), script by James Tynion IV, pencils and inks by Freddie Williams II, colors by Jeremy Colwell, letters by Tom Napolitano
Hey, what's this Intimidator suit that is being referenced oh-so-casually in the middle panel? Could it possibly be a hybrid Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle armored suit, by any chance?

Eh, probably not.

(Stay tuned!)

Today in Comics History, June 19, 1778: General Washington and his troops shoot furiously at something off panel, possibly Godzilla

Ah yes, the infamous Superman Salutes the Bicentennial treasury which has zero Superman stories in it, only reprints of Tomahawk comics. No wonder I tried to drown this comic book in the bathtub.


from "Valley Forge" in Limited Collectors' Edition #C-47 [Superman Salutes the Bicentennial] (DC, August 1976); script, pencils and inks by Fred Ray

Today in Comics History, June 19, 1933: A floaty pool toy arrives for the Loch Ness Monster

from Doc Savage (1975 magazine series) #5 (Marvel, July 1976), script by Doug Moench, pencils and inks by Tony DeZuniga, letters by Irving Watanabe

Today in Comics History, June 19: Wonder Woman loses her powers for a day and is captured by an alien giant and placed on a human charm bracelet with Steve Trevor and I'm honestly not making any of this up, I swear

So yesterday, June 18, we discovered that due to using a really powerful shampoo...


from Wonder Woman #176 (DC, May 1968), script by Robert Kanigher, pencils by Ric Estrada, inks by Mike Esposito
...Wonder Woman loses all her powers every year on June 18th.


Ouch! That's some powerful shampoo. On the other hand, it did rid the Amazing Amazon of her Demonic Dandruff, so that's not all bad. But it appears it's also given her some Amazonian Amnesia, because the last time this happened, was it on June 18? No. No, it was not. It was June 19. (picks up echoing megaphone and announces through it:) Continuity!


from Wonder Woman #106 (DC, May 1959), script by Robert Kanigher, pencils by Ross Andru, inks by Mike Esposito
The title of this story is "The Human Charm Bracelet," and that ain't allegorical, brother sister.

On the other hand, while Ozma Queen Hippolyta watches on the Magic Picture Omni-Screen, it's clear that our Miss of Might (or is that Supergirl?) is in definite need of some ginkgo biloba. Geez, would it kill ya to give her a phone call and remind her, Hippie?


Well, long story short, yada yada yada, next thing you know it's 10:00 AM on June 19 (arbitrary, ain't it?) and Diana has lost her Amazon powers for 24 hours. And we're not given an explanation of why or how. Presumably it's in a previous issue of Wonder Woman, but there's like, a hundred of those and so many of them involve Diana getting tied up for silly reasons, so I'm not looking through those now.


No time is a good time to lose your superpowers, but this is especially a difficult moment because Wondy and Steve "The Male Lois Lane" Trevor have been captured...by a giant who clearly doesn't understand the Square-Cube Law. (And yes, I'll wait here patiently while you follow that link to TVTropes.org and then spend the next three hours opening multiple browser tabs.)


Also ignoring any known laws of perspective, proportion, and storytelling, the giant attaches Diana, Steve, and Wonder Woman's various accoutrements (bullet-deflecting bracelets, tiara, lasso, GIANT INVISIBLE PLANE) to a charm bracelet. Hence, the title. What? The story if called "The Human Charm Bracelet" and I warned you it wasn't allegorical. And please ignore the fact that her bracelets are the diameter of the I-Jet's engines. Look, it's a human charm bracelet.


Oh! Also he's a space giant, and he has a cute girlfriend. All together now...awwwwwwwwww.

Then there's a lot of stuff about Wonder Woman competing against Mr. Space Giant Alien Guy in Love™ in a Giant Space Olympics competition in order to win her (and, as an afterthought, Steve's) freedom. In an arrow fetching contest, she hops aboard...hee hee hee...a giant arrow...hee hee!...that travels one thousand miles...BWAH-HA-HA-HA! No, seriously, folks. Wonder Woman in the late sixties, everyone: Wonder Woman.


Also, this issue features Donna Troy*: Vampire**.


Which is surprising, because, y'know, Amazon camera technology...light-years beyond ours***.

*Not actually Donna Troy.
**Not actually a vampire.
***This might be true.