Today in Comics History, May 13, 1965: Kevin Somers gets the hat color absolutely correct

from House of Secrets (1996 series) #12 (DC/Vertigo, September 1997), script by Steven T. Seagle, pencils and inks by Guy Davis, colors by Kevin Somers, color separations by Heroic Age, letters by Todd Klein
Same as it ever was.

Today in Comics History, May 13, 1918: Story about Houdini trying so hard to be a James Bond thriller

from After Houdini (Insight, October 2018), script by Jeremy Holt, illustrated by John Lucas, colors by Adrian Crossa, letters by A Larger World Studios

Today in Comics History, May 13, 1903: Floor-sleeper roused

from House of Secrets (1996 series) #10 (DC/Vertigo, July 1997), script by Steven T. Seagle, layouts by Christian Højgaard, finishes by Teddy Kristiansen, colors by Bjarne Hansen, color separations by Heroic Age, letters by Todd Klein

Today in Comics History, May 13: Happy birthday, Norman Maurer!

Let's all give a big hip-hip-hooray today (because it's his birthday) for Norman Maurer, born today in 1926! He's not a huge a household name even within the comics fandom, but he oughta be: he's tremendously influential for his comic books featuring the Three Stooges: Norman's wife Joan was the daughter of original Stooge Moe Howard, and Norm co-managed the Stooges in their post-Columbia careers, wrote the screen stories for their movies The Three Stooges Meet Hercules (1962), The Three Stooges in Orbit (1962), The Three Stooges Go Around the World in a Daze (1963) and The Outlaws Is Coming! (1965) — the last two of which he also directed. In animation, he was a writer for Scooby-Doo, Speed Buggy, and Richie Rich, altho' we won't hold that last one against him.

Maurer created the first 3-D comics at St. John's Publishing (with Joe Kubert), and he's the co-creator and inker (again with Kubert) of Tor, the classic comic book series starring a warrior caveman from 1,000,000 BC (now at DC). He didn't create Raquel Welch, though. (Sigh.)

Look here, he was a part of Joe Kubert's early foray into creating his famous The Kubert School for comics artists!


from St. John comics cover-dated June 1954

Today in Comics History, May 13: Happy birthday, Arthur Sullivan!

Born on this very day in 1842, so you'd better get peddling on your time bike if you want to see him make his spectacular debut: Arthur Sullivan, half of the laff-riot stand-up comedy team of Gilbert and Sullivan, and composer of one zillion light operas like H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance, The Mikado, Patience, The Yeoman of the Guard, Iolanthe, Ruddigore, The Gondoliers, and The Rise of Skywalker.

Now, musical composers are always difficult subjects to find in comic books, unless you're leafing through the pages of P. Craig Russell's Night Music, books from the Marvel Music line like Bob Marley: Tale of the Tuff Gong or Billy Ray Cyrus, or maybe Jennifer Love Hewitt's Music Box. Perhaps if I had a copy of this on my shelves in the Great Bully Underground Vault of Comics:


But I don't.

Today in Comics History, May 13: Happy birthday, Marv Wolfman!

Let's all wheel out a big-ass birthday cake for Marv Wolfman, award-winning comic book writer, co-creator of Deathstroke, Blade, Nova, Bullseye, Terrax, Black Cat, Lilith, Big Wheel, Karla Sofen, Modred the Mystic, Debra Whitman, Hannibal King, Copperhead, Corruptor, the Brothers Grimm (inhale)...


from Mighty Marvel Calendar 1979 and 1980 (Marvel, 1978 and 1979)

Today in Comics History, May 13, 1942: Stan Lee is ordered by his uncle to stop claiming other people's ideas as his

from All-Winners Squad: Band of Heroes #2 (Marvel, September 2011), script by Paul Jenkins, pencils and inks by Carmine Di Giandomenico, colors by Andy Troy, letters by Dave Lanphear

Today in Comics History, Friday the 13th (of May): Giant calendar pages continue their space-migration to Alpha Centauri

text page from Wonder Woman (1942 series) #32 (DC, November 1948), text by William I. Irwin

Today in Comics History, Friday the 13th (of May, 2040): "Captain's Log: A bunch of our ship fell off and nobody likes me."

from "Verdus, Part 2" in 2000 AD prog 77 (IPC, 12 August 1978), script by John Wagner as Mike Stott, pencils by José Ferrer, inks by Ian Gibson, letters by Steve Potter
How do we know it's Today in Comics History? Earlier, the story tells us it's 2040 (well, maybe), and May 13 is the only Friday the 13 in 2040! How's that for some brillinat extra-credit Bully research?

Today in Comics History, May 6, 1954: Baseballs that stream the date and city invented

from The Amazing Willie Mays one-shot (Eastern Color, September 1954), creators uncredited and unknown
Don't worry, I'll only be using this panel just this once despite the excellent later opportunities for posting it provides.

Say hey, it's also Willie Mays's birthday today; born in 1931! Happy birthday, Willie!

Today in Comics History, May 13, 1940: St. Basil, Patron of Guys Who Swear "Never Again" and Pour Out Their Bottles of Vodka, is invoked

from "Igor Sikorsky" in Real Life Comics #8 (Pines, November 1942), pencils and inks by Edmond Good

Today in Comics History, May 13, 1989: Comic book actually titles its final issue "The Fist of Love."

from Psi-Force #32 (Marvel/New Universe,June 1989), script by Fabian Nicieza, pencils by Rodney Ramos, inks by Chris Ivy, colors by Nel Yomtov, letters by Rick Parker

Today in Comics History, May 13, 2003: Twitter has still not been invented

from "Made of Wood, Part 3" in Detective Comics #786 (November 2003), script by Ed Brubaker, pencils by Patrick Zircher, inks by Aaron Sowd and Steve Bird, colors by Jason Wright, color separations by Wildstorm FX, letters by Todd Klein

Today in Comics History Future, May 13, 2446: The birth of Paris Hilton XVI

from Crisis on Infinite Earths #5 (DC, August 1985), script by Marv Wolfman, pencils by George Perez, inks by Jerry Ordway, colors by Anthony Tollin, letters by John Costanza