Today in Comics History, June 25: Hoberman has been poked; had his dog shot; is bugged

from "The Sins of the Father..." in Action Comics Weekly #606 (DC, June 28, 1988), script by Martin Pasko, pencils and inks by Dan Spiegle, colors by Carl Gafford, letters by Carrie Spiegle

Today in Comics History, June 25, 8:07 AM Pacific/10:07 AM Central: A tiny gnome is kicking Rafael's shins

from "The Sins of the Father..." in Action Comics Weekly #606 (DC, June 28, 1988), script by Martin Pasko, pencils and inks by Dan Spiegle, colors by Carl Gafford, letters by Carrie Spiegle

Today in Comics History, June 25, 7:30 AM Pacific/9:30 Central: Mysterious package makes second appearance in comics within two weeks

from "If That Mockingbird Don't Sing..." in Action Comics Weekly #605 (DC, June 21, 1988), script by Martin Pasko, pencils and inks by Dan Spiegle, colors by Carl Gafford, letters by Carrie Spiegle
And now, the exciting recap:


from "The Sins of the Father..." in Action Comics Weekly #606 (DC, June 28, 1988), script by Martin Pasko, pencils and inks by Dan Spiegle, colors by Carl Gafford, letters by Carrie Spiegle
Wait, the handwriting on the package changed!

Today in Comics History, June 25, 9:05 AM: Ladies and gentlemen, Elvis has left the building

from "If That Mockingbird Don't Sing..." in Action Comics Weekly #605 (DC, June 21, 1988), script by Martin Pasko, pencils and inks by Dan Spiegle, colors by Carl Gafford, letters by Carrie Spiegle

Today in Comics History, June 25, 12:41 AM: Yep, let's paint our super-secret stealth spy plane tomato red

from "If That Mockingbird Don't Sing..." in Action Comics Weekly #605 (DC, June 21, 1988), script by Martin Pasko, pencils and inks by Dan Spiegle, colors by Carl Gafford, letters by Carrie Spiegle

Today in Comics History, June 24, 10:36 PM Pacific/June 25, 12:36 AM Central: Cops give bad news to Han Solo

from "Haunts of the Very Rich" in Action Comics Weekly #604 (DC, June 14, 1988), script by Martin Pasko, pencils and inks by Dan Spiegle, colors by Carl Gafford, letters by Carrie Spiegle

Today in Comics History, June 25, 12:33 AM: Tonight, on Jackass...

from "Haunts of the Very Rich" in Action Comics Weekly #604 (DC, June 14, 1988), script by Martin Pasko, pencils and inks by Dan Spiegle, colors by Carl Gafford, letters by Carrie Spiegle

Today in Comics History, June 24, 10:29 PM Pacific/June 25, 12:29 AM Central: Wow, that musta been some kind of magic trick

from "If That Mockingbird Don't Sing..." in Action Comics Weekly #605 (DC, June 21, 1988), script by Martin Pasko, pencils and inks by Dan Spiegle, colors by Carl Gafford, letters by Carrie Spiegle

Today in Comics History, June 25, 12:26 AM: Artificial method to jump-start a Crisis on Infinite Earths is discovered

from "If That Mockingbird Don't Sing..." in Action Comics Weekly #605 (DC, June 21, 1988), script by Martin Pasko, pencils and inks by Dan Spiegle, colors by Carl Gafford, letters by Carrie Spiegle

Today in Comics History, June 25: Happy birthday, Nathan Hamill!

Happy birthday today to Nathan Hamill, comics scripter (Simpsons Super Spectacular), illustrator (2009 Topps Star Wars Galaxy Series 4), and colorist (for Bongo Comics)! (He's also the son of actor Mark Hamill, but we won't make any nepojokes about him on his birthday!) Seen below, center...as Surly the Duff Beer mascot!


from Futurama Comics #12 (Bongo, March 2003)
Happy birthday, Nathan! Hey look, you got a birthday salute from a little stuffed bull before your old man ever did!

Today in Comics History, June 25: Happy birthday, Jeremy Bastian!

Today we wish many happy returns to comics artist Jeremy Bastian (Cursed Pirate Girl, Mouse Guard, Ye Olde Lore of Yore, Jim Henson's Labyrinth: Under the Spell, and more)!


from Mouse Guard: Legends of the Guard v.2 (Archaia, November 2013), art by Jeremy Bastian
Happy birthday, Jeremy, awesome nose-ring buddy!

Today in Comics History, June 25, 1876: In the dictionary, this is the picture next to the phrase "famous last words"

This is an expanded and updated version of a post originally published June 25, 2022.


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 25: Newspapers do look like that

Despite these newspaper clippings from MAD magazine having no date on them, they are all dated June 25. How do I know? Well, you'll just have to tune in tomorrow (as the soap opera announcers always say!).


from "One Day's Advice Columns..." [title to be continued] in MAD #41 (September 1958), pencils and inks by Wally Wood

Today in Comics History, June 25: Handwriting generously allows for panel placement

from "The Phantom of Philip Hawks" in Diary of Horror #1 (Avon, December 1952), pencils and inks by Alvin Hollingsworth

Today in Comics History, June 25: Happy birthday, Alex Toth!

Born on this day in 1928: artist and animator Alex Toth! You'll remember him from designing and working on a lot of the Hanna-Barbera 1960s cartoons (Super Friends, Fantastic Four, Sealab 2020, The Herculoids, Birdman and the Galaxy Trio, Dino Boy in the Lost Valley, among many others! His comics c.v. includes the Golden Age Green Lantern, All Star Comics, All-Star Western (Hey, why does one have a hyphen and the other doesn't? Truly one of the great mysteries of the comics age!), The Witching Hour, Detective Comics and more!


from Limited Collectors' Edition #C-41 [Super Friends] (DC, December 1975), by Alex Toth

Today in Comics History, June 25, 2035: Capitalism wins again

from "The Man Who Owned the World" in Chamber of Darkness (1969 series) #4 (Marvel, April 1970); plot, pencils, and inks by Tom Sutton; script by Denny O'Neil; letters by Jean Simek
Hey, that's writer/artist Tom Sutton in the lower left-hand corner!

Here, I edited the panel to make it as up-to-date as today's headlines — Today in Comics History Headlines, that is!

Today in Comics History, June 25, 1954: The Creation of SPAAAAAAACE FOOOOOORCE!

"NRL Rockets" from Space War #6 (Charlton, August 1960), creators unidentified and unknown

Today in Comics History, June 25, 1976: So that's how you wanna end your comic, huh? Well, the heck with you.

from Hot Valley Days and Cocaine Nights #3 (Antarctic, February 2021), script by Matthew Spradlin, pencils and inks by Farid Karami, colors by Andrew Crossley

Today in Comics History, June 25: No One's Going to the Prom with You, Peter Parker

from Webspinners: Tales of Spider-Man #7 (Marvel, July 1999), script by Joe Kelly, pencils by Bart Sears and Andy Smith, inks by Mark Pennington, colors by Joe Rosas and Mark Bernardo, letters by Benchmark Productions

Today in Comics History, June 25: Editor-in-Chief of Marvel Comics calls the Black Panther; T'Challa rejects call because caller was pretending to be an Asian man

from Marvel Premiere (1972 series) #53 [Black Panther] (Marvel, April 1980), script by Ed Hannigan, pencils by Jerry Bingham, inks by Al Gordon, colors by Bob Sharen, letters by Gaspar Saladino