Today in Comics History, March 11, 1938: A Baller move against the Nazis

"They Shall Make Music" from Real Life Comics #33 (Pines, July 1946), text by Nat Schachner
(Click bottom picture to grand piano-size)
(Bully stands, salutes Adolph Baller)

Today in Comics History, March 11: Happy birthday, Ray Gill!

Born on this day in 1918: comic book writer, artist and editor Ray Gill (Mighty Mouse, Super Rabbit, Pals and Pastimes and more, and the co-creator of Airman and Terry Vance). He worked at Funnies Inc. (he was the #2 guy in hierachy there after Lloyd Jacquet), and created for Lev Gleason, Timely, Novelty, Archie, Fawcett, and more in books like Marvel Mystery Comics, Blue Bolt, 4Most, Archie Comics, Target Comics (note: not about the store), Laugh Comics, Pep Comics, etc. And his brother was comic book writer Joe Gill!

Here's a nod-and-a-wink reference to Ray in the pages of a Golden Age Human Torch story. Hey, can you guess which tough guy wrote the darn thing?


from "Hot Stamp Mob!" in All-Winners Comics #6 (Marvel/Timely, Fall 1942), script by Mickey Spillane, pencils by Harry Fisk (?), inks by Edd Ashe (?)
And in this text story I've read so you don't have to, Atomic Mouse meets Ray Gill (and Charlton editor Al Fago and his wife)!

"Bum-bum-bum-Bomb" from Funny Animals #87 (Charlton, October 1954), creator uncredited and unknown
(Click picture to gratuitous cameo-size)
Happy birthday, Ray!

Today in Comics History, March 11, 1994: Punisher daringly jets into a modern coloring technique

from "Eurohit '94" in The Punisher Annual (1988 series) #7 (Marvel, October 1994); script by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning; pencils by Doug Braithwaite; inks by Al Williamson, Fred Fredericks, and Art Nichols; colors by Christie Scheele; letters by Ken Lopez

Today in Comics History, March 11: Happy birthday, Anton Yelchin

Born on this date in 1989: Anton Yelchin, Russian-born American actor. Among his other roles, he played the Kelvin-timeline's version of Ensign Pavel Chekov in the Star Trek movies from 2009-2016.


Anton died at the age of 27 in 2016. He would have been 33 today. That's far too young to be taken from us.


from Star Trek (2011 series) #20 (IDW, April 2013), script by Ryan Parrott, pencils by Luca Lamberti, colors by Arianna Florean, letters by Tom B. Long
Fly high and free, Anton. Straight on 'til morning.

Today in Comics History, March 11: Happy birthday, Alex Kingston!

Happy birthday today to Alex Kingston, who's played River Song on Doctor Who!


cover B from Doctor Who Special #2 [The Lost Dimension] (Titan, November 2017
She's played lots of other roles, too, but there's no comic books for ER, the BBC's Moll Flanders, or Hope Springs, so we'll just have to leave it at that. (She was in Arrow too, as the original Dinah Lance, but I'm not finding any appearances of her in the Arrow tie-in comics. Let me know if you do!)

Happy birthday, Alex!

Today in Comics History, March 11, 2015: Cancel Culture rears its ugly, ugly head

from the recap page of Spider-Man and the X-Men #4 (Marvel, May 2015)

Today in Comics History, March 11, 1941: James Bond'll Tumble 4 Ya

from James Bond: Origin #1 (Dynamite, September 2018); script by Jeff Parker; pencils, inks, and colors by Bob Q; letters by Simon Bowland

Today in Comics History, March 11: Comic celebrates Douglas Adams's birthday with two characters boinkin' on a boat

from Dirk Gently: The Salmon of Doubt #9 (IDW, June 2017), script by Arvind Ethan David, pencils and inks by Ilias Kyriazis and Dani Strips, colors by Charlie Kirchoff, letters by Christa Miesner
(Happy birthday, Douglas!)

Today in Comics History, March 11, 2016: Batman story unfolds on so many different video screens, even Ozymandias is confused

from Detective Comics #943 (DC, December 2016), script by James Tynion IV, pencils by Alvaro MartÍnez, inks by Raúl Fernández, colors by Brad Anderson, letters by Marilyn Patrizio

Today in Comics History, March 11: Bruce Wayne test-drives the new '87 K.I.T.T.

from Batman #404 (DC, February 1987), script by Frank Miller, pencils and inks by David Mazzucchelli, colors by Richmond Lewis, letters by Todd Klein