Today in Comics History, May 1, May Day: Dennis Mitchell declares "I want my Maypo!"

Dennis the Menace likes May Day? Why, whod'a thunk it?


from "The May Pole" in Dennis the Menace Bonus Magazine Series #160 [Dennis the Menace Yearbook] (Hallden/Facett, January 1977), creators uncredited and unknown
Aw, Dennis, don't use ablist language like that. Nowadays you should be insulting the May Pole by calling it woke.


Ah ha ha! Turns out Dennis's stomach is bigger than his sensitivity to ancient pagan rituals. That's our Dennis...he's a menace!


Bonus menacing feature: who is the Queen of May?


from "Maybe Yes Maybe No" in Dennis the Menace Bonus Magazine Series #151 [Dennis the Menace Yearbook] (Hallden/Fawcett, April 1976), creators uncredited and unknown

Today in Comics History, May 1, May Day: First recorded occurrence of "Doing the Dew"

"May Day Dew!" from Wonder Woman (1942 series) #119 (DC, January 1961), scripter and artists uncredited and unknown

Today in Comics History, May 1, May Day: Kraven's First Hunt

"Spidey and the Short Circus Make May Day Mischief" from Spidey Super Stories #11 (Marvel, August 1975), script by Jean Thomas, pencils by Win Mortimer, inks by Mike Esposito, letters by Irving Watanabe

Ten of a Kind: Moscow girls make me sing and shout

See also.

(More Ten of a Kind here.)

Ten of a Kind: Stop! Hammer and Sickle Time!

(More Ten of a Kind here.)

May Day Ten of a Kind: In Soviet Russia, comic bags and boards you

(More Ten of a Kind here.)

Today in Comics History: May 1, May Day: Stop eating donuts, start eating beans / You look more like a communist if you're lean

Happy May Day, folks!

Whether you celebrate the day by joyously raising the flag of the workers and saluting the mighty and glorious five-year plan for heavy-iron tractor production:


cover of [Uncanny] X-Men (1963 series) #124 (Marvel, August 1979), pencils by Dave Cockrum, inks by Terry Austin, letters by Danny Crespi
...or by smashing the Godless Commies and giving Uncle Josef a belt of all-American might and right between his beady red eyes:


cover of Captain America (1954 series) #78 (Marvel/Atlas, September 1954), pencils and inks by John Romita, Sr., colors by Stan Goldberg
...well, either way, have a happy May Day, Comrade!

Oh! And while I don't intend to turn this blog into "all Wodehouse, all the time," here's an especially apt passage from The Inimitable Jeeves that might help you choose what side you're on:

'Where did you meet her?'

'On top of a bus. Her name is Charlotte Corday Rowbotham.'

'My God!'

'It's not her fault, poor child. Her father had her christened that because he's all for the Revolution, and it seems that the original Charlotte Corday used to go about stabbing oppressors in their baths, which entitles her to consideration and respect. You must meet old Rowbotham, Bertie. A delightful chap. Wants to massacre the bourgeoisie, sack Park Lane, and disembowel the hereditary aristocracy. Well, nothing could be fairer than that, what?'

What, indeed! Sign me up and hand me my Junior Bolshevist card so I can at last be a card-carrying communist, please!