Today in Comics History, March 25: Happy birthday, Elton John!

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

Born on this date, already wearing a sparkly pair of sunglasses and chunky heels: Elton John, the world's only Rock Star!


cover of Look-In #37/1973 (ITV, 8 September 1973), creators uncredited and unknown

The Best Muppet Show You've Never Seen

"The Giant Crumpet Show," 2015 advert for Warburtons Family Bakers

365 Days of Star Wars Comics, Day 336: Muppet Labs in the Star Wars Universe

Panels from Star Wars: Agent of the Empire: Iron Eclipse #1 (December 2011), script by John Ostrander, pencils by Stéphane Roux, inks by Julien Hugonnard-Bert, colors by Wes Dzioba, letters by Michael Heisler

The Muppet and Disney franchises are moving into interesting directions

From Comixology:

It was at that moment that Count Dooku realized the Clone War was not going as well as he had hoped

Bully's Sketchbook: Roger Langridge

Mr. Roger Langridge! He's one of my favorite comics writers and artists. I remember his work first catching my attention in one of the old Amzing Heroes swimsuit specials. Did he draw Wolverine with water wings? Thor in a thong? No! His contribution was the cast of the much-beloved (by me 'n' others) BBC 1950s cult classic radio program The Goon Show at the beach!:


"FamousPeopleGoonHoliday" by Roger Langridge, from Amazing Heroes Swimsuit Special #1 (1990)

You can catch Roger Langridge currently writing and drawing issues of the relentlessly delightful The Muppet Show comic book from BOOM!, or, as Mister L. himself describes it: "currently drawing pigs in wigs and socks with ping pong balls glued to them to earn a crust."

So, y'know, if he can draw felt frogs and plush pigs...surely he can draw a little stuffed bull, can't he?

A: Yes he can.



Thank you very much for the sketch, Roger Langridge!

If you wanna see more of the work and art of Roger (and why wouldn't ya?), book yourself a room at The Hotel Fred, Roger's blog named after his sad-sack, lovelorn comic character Fred the Clown. Or, buy his stuff...you know you want it!



Roger Langridge: he's great, and he makes me look great.

Kermit the Frog, Motivational Speaker

Born in a humble swamp, top sales and marketing genius Kermit T. Frog began his career selling the magazine Frog's Life door-to-door when he was only a tadpole. Graduating from Harvard Business School and serving his country overseas in the war in Vietnam, Kermit returned to the US to work for Merrill Lynch for four years as a securities consultant. A self-taught top salesman, Kermit rose to the pinnacle of Wall Street and soon formed his own worldwide firm of investment consultants. He made his first million dollars not long afterwards. The rest, as you know, is history.

Kermit's taken time out of his busy schedule to come speak today on the subject of "never giving up," the theme of his four bestselling business and inspirational books, his weekly cable television and radio shows, and the series of globally successful audiotapes and CDs. Acknowledged as one of the leading figures not only in world business and banking but also in the self-help field, Kermit speaks at over two hundred seminars like this one every year, inspiring you to reach for the top, to never give up, to go for the gold and the glory that comes with boldly stepping into life...The Kermit Way.

Ladies and gentlemen, please give a warm welcome to America's most popular self-help and financial advice guru, the frog who never gives up, and who will teach you how to bring that same never-say-die attitude to your own business and personal life. Author of There's No "I" in "I Give Up" and What's That Over There? Success? Let's Drive There Right Now!, the frog who will tell you what to do and how to avoid failure......Mister Kermit the Frog, Motivational Speaker!


Panels from Marvel Comics Super Special #32: The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984), script by Stan Kay, pencils by Dean Yeagle, inks by Jacqueline Roettcher, colors by Andy Yanchus, letters by Jim Novak
Join us next time when Kermit the Frog, Motivational Speaker, says:

Fun Fifty of 2009: #40-31

Hey, everybody! Happy Groundhog Day, and welcome back to the Fun Fifty!



First up on the Fun Fifty...numbers 50 through 41! So let's get started right away!

#50: MARVEL ASSISTANT-SIZED SPECTACULAR • If you're as fond of the Shooter-suffused Marvel of the 1980s as I am, you remember the wacky stunt of late 1983 that put the Marvel Assistant Editors in charge of the books while the bigwigs were all away at Comic-Con. Chaos, of course, ensued, giving us Bernie America; Aunt May, Herald of Galactus; and a Spider-Man with swirly knees. That so crazee! Of course, Marvel editors never left the offices again...until 2009! Although a few of the stories in this this...

Whoa. Déjà vu.



Anyway! Hey, everybody! Happy Groundhog Day, and welcome back to the Fun Fifty! First up on the Fun Fifty...numbers 50 through 41!

#50: MARVEL ASSISTANT-SIZED SPECTACULAR • If you're as fond of the Shooter-suffused Marvel of the 1980s as I am, you remember the wacky stunt of late 1983 that put the

...Now cut that out!

Gwan, shoo! Shoo! Get outta here!

Now that he's gone...

#40: ADVENTURES IN CARTOONING • I like to think of myself as a creative little stuffed bull, but what I'm not very good at is drawing. (It's difficult holding the pencils in hooves.) Why do you think I always resort to fumetti to show my exciting adventures? Well, now I'm learning to be a cartoonist thanks to The Center for Cartoon Studies's Adventures in Cartooning, one of the best books I've seen to teach and inspire kids (like me!) to draw comics. In bright and colorful panels and panels, Adventures shows you how panels work, how to create movement and drama, the point and placement of word balloons, and, best of all, how to have fun designing and drawing your comic book or strip. The very first lesson, right from page 1 is that you don't need to be an expert artist to draw. Stick figures work great (just ask Matt Feazell!) or roly-poly blobs or even abstract shapes. Your skill isn't what matters...having fun and a sense of learning is! (And believe me, you will become a better artist as you follow the easy and entertaining lessons through the book and develop your own style.) The lessons, while similar to Scott McLeod's Understanding Comics, are demonstrated through a fast and funny narrative of a magical elf teaching a knight how to fight a dragon, by designing a comic. Geared for kids but accessible to adults, Adventures in Cartooning is perfect for the aspiring comics artist in your life...heck, inside you!


#39: THE MUPPET SHOW • One of my favorite comics of 2008 when I saw it in preview, BOOM!'s The Muppet Show didn't disappoint my high expectations. I've been a huge Roger Langridge fan for just about a bajillion years (or whenever it was I saw his wonderful Goon Show artwork), and I'll bet the sheer joy and enthusiasm he's bringing to each ish is exceeded only by my enjoyment of it. Langridge gives each issue the feel of a "real" Muppet Show (minus the 1970s guest stars), in addition to a subplot that spotlights the wonderful characters of Jim Henson's boundless imagination. The show-biz atmosphere and inventive design remind me of classic circus and carnival posters (of the "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite" variety). In his first four-issue miniseries each chapter spotlighted a different lead Muppet (Kermit, Fozzie, Gonzo and Piggy), while "The Treasure of Peg Leg Wilson" takes our felt-flocked fellows on a treasure hunt inside the Muppet Theater, complete with imposter Muppets (a sedate, restrained Animal ruins a Doctor Teeth number with his light jazz drumming), a series of silent panels where Kermits re-enact the Harpo Marx mirror sketch, trained fleas, Pigs in Space, dwarfs and rats, and, as always, Statler and Waldorf to catcall the whole thing. Glorious, goony, gorgeous comics. Have I got any complaints? Sure, although they're minor. First, the rougher, cheaper-grade paper now being used dulls and fades Langridge's ink-sharp art and gorgeous colors. If that's the paper stock going to be used on all Muppet comics from now on, I'll wait for the trades. Second, BOOM!'s publishing a lot of Muppets...Langridge's series plus several minis by other artists released in the past year need to be more visually distinct from one another; I was always under the impression I had already picked up an issue I saw on the comic book shop shelf. More to the point, I fret about BOOM! oversaturating the market too fast with too many books. The stuff's great, guys, but two or three comics featuring the same characters in continuing stories is confusing and too much for this penny-pinching bovine to pick up. It may be that with their new bookstore distribution deal with Simon & Schuster, BOOM! is thinking more towards the trade market than direct, but don't overdo it, guys: even when it comes to the Muppets, there can be too much of a good thing.


#38: FUTURAMA COMICS • One of the perennial fixtures of the Fun Fifty: every year I tell you how much I miss Futurama the TV show, and every year I tell you how much I love Futurama the comic book. Now with the series coming back (Yah! Take that, Fox! In yer face, National Football League!) Futurama comics is more hip than ever. Pick it up for sheer enjoyment with all your 31st century friends from Fry to Leela, Bender to Nixon's Head. The plots and dialogue feel like they should, they could be actual episodes of the TV series (as you read 'em, you will hear the voices of Billy West, Katey Sagal, and John DiMaggio in your head). Look, just like last year, Futurama is sheer comics fun and enjoyment. Pick it up and you'll love it too. But that won't stop me from praising it in 2011 too.


#37: RICHARD STARK'S PARKER: THE HUNTER • Now, technically this is about as far from "fun" as it's usually defined: a gritty, fist-filled, bullet-zingin', double-crossin' noir based on the classic crime novel by Donald Westlake (aka Richard Stark). Now, pair that up with an adaptation and artwork by Darwyn Cooke, who gave us the bright and optimistic New Frontier. An outlandish match? No: pitch perfect. The Hunter is one of the most gorgeous books of the year, perfectly suited for a breakout from the comics market into a crime classic. DC/Vertigo shoulda thrown money at Cooke until he agreed to make this the flagship novel in their new Vertigo Crime series; instead IDW reaps the benefits with a beautiful and nuanced treatment in shaded two-toned artwork that spotlights the two extraordinary strengths of Darwyn Cooke: he knows how to lay out a scene with extensive or expository dialogue like an expert, and he knows when to shut up and let the images do the talking. I wish The Hunter had gotten more mainstream review attention and stronger sales (trade bookstore owners: try displaying it in the crime and mystery section next to the Westlake books and you'll be surprised by the sell-through), and I hope the promised second volume is still scheduled. In the meantime, The Hunter rewards repeat readings—so much more than an illustrated mystery novel, it shows how great books can be made into something equally great and new in comics form. That's a rare, precious skill, but Darwyn Cooke's got it, in spades.


#36: STRANGE SUSPENSE: THE STEVE DITKO ARCHIVES VOL. 1 • Okay, you guys know I luvs the classic Marvel artists, right? ("Jack Kirby Week" was an itty bitty clue of that, right?) As I've said, after a long time being unable to read and appreciate the early Marvels, we're at last in an age where we can buy 'em in inexpensive paperbacks or fancy archive hardcovers. But what about the pre-superhero careers of the greats? Hey, guess what: we can have that too! I'm a nut for the early quirky Steve Ditko crime, monster, and mystery books, but I've only ever seen a handful before this book. Ditko expert Blake Bell collects several dozen of Steve's 1950s work from Charlton and other publishers, plus plenty of amazing covers, in a thick, hardy collection with glorious gory and ghoulish Ditko comics from front to back. This thing's a gold mine! Old stories, sure, but aren't old comics you've never read before really brand-new? If all you know of his work is Spidey and Strange, educate yourself with Strange Suspense and get a thorough early-Ditko education. And those two little words "Volume One" fill me with excitement and anticipation for Volume Two: gimme more, more, more Ditko! Truth in disclosure: yours little stuffed truly, and my pal John, work for W. W. Norton, which distributes Fantagraphics titles to the bookstore trade.


#35: M.O.D.O.K.: REIGN DELAY • As the blogosphere gears itself up for the end of Marvel's seven-year sprint through disassemblies, wars civil and hulk, invasions secret, M-houses, reigns dark and a whole lotta sieging goin' on, there's a lot of rejoicing at the promise that the Marvel Universe will return to a brighter, more fun and playful universe. To which I say, bull! (Meaning myself.) We don't need to return to that...it never left! For every death Giant-Man and brain-damaged Iron Man we've had wild and wacky rides through the MU that are indeed actually joyful, bright, high-adventured, and sometimes even laugh-out-loud. I'm not gonna mention them all right now (because a lot of them are coming up further in the list!), but I gotta give props to Ryan Dunlavey's gleefully insane M.O.D.O.K.: Reign Delay as the wackiest and most hilarious Dark Reign tie-in. Sure, our big-headed guy in the floating chair is played for laughs (MODOK and three henchmen move back home to Erie, Pennsylvania to live with the Big M's parents, hit the high school reunion, and oh, yeah, take over the Millcreek Mall. That sound you hear? It's me laughin'!



One of the problems with one-shots that aren't specifically connected with a series? They often don't wind up getting collected in trade. Notice I couldn't provide you with an Amazon link above. Yes, it's true...you cannot buy M.O.D.O.K.: Reign Delay. But because y'all are such good pals of mine, lemme tell ya where you can get it...for free!: right on Marvel's Digital Comics Site Read it and weep...with tears of joy!


#34: SEAGUY: THE SLAVES OF MICKEY EYE • Want proof we're living in the Golden Age of Comics, the best of all possible worlds, the nirvana of nerd-dom? Exhibit Q: there's a new Grant Morrison comic book released every ten minutes. The Grant Morrisoniest of all in 2009 was the triumphant and ocean-soaked return of Seaguy. Beautiful visuals (Cameron Stewart) and colors (Dave Stewart) highlight the story (Grant Stewart...er, Morrison) of our aqua-adventurer...suffering from ennui and depression, struggling to find his way in the world, and taking a new definition from his battle against a mighty worldwide conglomerate. It's surreal as it is superheroesque—not only rewarding but demanding repeat readings, and there's no easy answers in Morrison's text. (Why settle for easy answers and spelled-out morals in all your comics literature, kids?) By the end things have blowed up real good but has Seaguy really triumphed? Did it happen the way he thought it did? Did he make a difference? Does it matter? The journey is more than the sum of the results...both for Seaguy's odyssey and for us, the readers. Sublime stuff.


#33: WOLVERINE ART APPRECIATION • I was heartily sick of Marvel's alternate zombie covers of the past few years. "Pfui," sez I, "this joke has lasted too long, and we have no need to see a Power Pack Zombie cover." By that you might assume I jus' plain don't like alternate covers. Well, that is, until Wolverine Art Appreciation month in March 2009, where a baker's dozen of Marvel's books featured Wolverine on their covers...yes, even the two or three that didn't have ol' Adamantium-Skull appearing inside. Instead, each of these Wolvie works reinterpreted the world's second-favorite mutant* in pastiches of the most iconic art and history's greatest artists:






Yes, I did say "history's greatest artists":




Pointless? Kinda. Fun? Absolutely. Marvel released a one-shot collection of the covers later in the year that reprinted each artwork plus essays about the original artists and artwork and short interviews with the Marvel artists. It's a cool keepsake of one of the more fun stunts Marvel's pulled in the past few years, and a very nice way for non-completists to ogle the variety of art without having to search for each individual issue. Marvel's followed this up with a few other themed cover months (one of which I'll be talkin' about later down the list, and in 2010 we've got a month of Iron Man covers coming up, each with the old' red-and-gold suit in a different style of armor through the ages. Sure, you can't judge a book by its cover, but you can judge a cover as "fun!"


#32: TIMELY COMICS 70th ANNIVERSARY SPECIALS • Seventy years ago last year, a Human Torch burned his way through a comic book cover to kick the sass out of saboteurs, crooks, Nazis and the Sub-Mariner. Marvel paid homage to their rich history with a series of 12 specials, named after and commemorating the great Timely comics of the Golden Age: not only the ones we know and remember (Captain America, Marvel Mystery Comics, Sub-Mariner Comics), but the books...and the heroes...of Marvel's original universe. Each book featured a new story or two by today's writers and artists set in and starring the heroes of the 1940s, plus a classic story reprint. My favorite? All Select Comics, with a gleefully goofy "Marvex: The Super Robot" story by Michael Kupperman (Tales Designed to Thrizzle). Just when you can't believe there was actually a hero and adventures like Marvex, turn the page to read a Marvex reprint and discover that Kupperman wasn't that far off base form the original! Marvel even issued a Marvel Mystery Handbook with stat sheets and histories of all those great characters. Solid nostalgia and a spitfire full o' fun, and absolutely essential for anyone who wants to know more about the origins of the Marvel Universe: it's much wider and diverse than you ever imagined.


#31: THE JOHN STANLEY LIBRARY • Douglas Wolk said it best . today, right over at Comics Alliance: "We are very lucky to be living in a time when basically every comic book John Stanley ever worked on is coming back into print." Oh, yeah. I love Dark Horse's Little Lulu reprints (early issues were drawn by Stanley and later drawn by Irving Tripp), but the prize this year goes to Drawn & Quarterly for their beautifully-designed John Stanley Library series, especially Nancy (hey, Mike Sterling's not the only Nancy and Sluggo fan out here in the blogosphere!). Collecting the hard-to-find Nancy comic book series by Stanley, Nancy: Vol. 1 is definitely a horse of a different color from the Bushmiller strip: extended comic episodes expand Nancy's escapades and circle of friends, most notably the cheerfully weird Oona Goosepimple and her house of oddball relatives and magically macabre happenings—sort of a gleeful Addams Family. The John Stanley Library also includes the lovely Melvin the Monster, the adventures of a monster boy who just wants to be good, go to school, and eat right. We've got second volumes of both coming out in 2010, plus a collection of Stanley's teenage sitcomic Thirteen Going on Eighteen. They're all beautifully designed by Seth and packaged in the same elegant but accessible presentation that's distinguished my favorite books from D+Q. Kids'll love these, adults'll enjoy these, and little stuffed bulls just eat 'em up. (Not literally). Now, D+Q (he said, greedily), how about Stanley's Raggedy Ann and Peterkin Pottle comics, huh?


So there ya go: ten more books that made comics fun in 2009. Could there be more? Aw, you know the answer to that one. So, join me here tomorrow for pretty girls, big monsters, heinous villains, big-ass comics, and the one organization to work for where your life expectancy odds are pretty bleak. Until then, don't forget...



Aw, not again...get the heck off my lawn, you crummy groundhog!



Sigh. See ya tomorrow, folks!



*First favorite? Aw, c'mon, you shoulda been able to guess.

Sponsored advertisement FAIL

As seen here and throughout the Muppet Wiki on November 16, 2009

(Click picture to Sweetums-size)

Fun Fifty of 2008: Part 1 of 5

All together now:

Overture, curtains, lights!
This is it, the night of nights!
No more rehearsing and nursing a part!
We know every part by heart

Overture, curtains, lights!
This is it, you'll hit the heights!
And oh, what heights we'll hit!
On with the show, this is it!

Whew. Now let's run some Speedy Gonzales cartoons.

No, no, actually, it's time once again for the event of the Bully-Year, the Third Annual Academy Awards Fun Fifty of the Year, counting down and celebrating the comics (and other pop culture items) that I enjoyed the most in 2008. We're outside on the red carpet with a wide array of fabulous stars, from Mister Benjamin Grimm to Anakin Skywalker, from Donna Noble to Supergirl, and the hard-drinking duo of Iron Man and Homer Simpson! Quit popping your claws at Joan Rivers, Wolverine...I'm sure you'll win an award! And She-Hulk, put Isaac Mizrahi down...I'm sure he didn't mean anything by grabbing you there! Okay, everybody into the theater, because, in the immortal words of The Duchess of York, let's get it started in here!

For those of you who came in late...don't let the Hulk park your car. For the rest of you, let me run over the rules of the Fun Fifty Countdown. It's a very subjective list of what this little stuffed bull enjoyed reading, watching, and even hearing (but no tasting! Don't lick your comic books!) over the past year...in short, the most Fun Stuff of 2008! While there are no prizes given, please feel free to award yourself special bonus Bull-Points if you have picked up and enjoyed one or more of the following fifty things! I'm sure you'll argue over some of my choices (specifically this year's number six fun comic book miniseries, Everyone's Secretly a Skrull and Also Invading, So Why Don't We Put a Convicted Murderer in Charge of S.H.I.E.L.D.*, and Hey, Didn't ROM: Spaceknight Already Do This Gig Back in the Eighties? (*Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division)). But while there's no wagering, please feel free to guess what I'm going to name as my favorite fun thing of 2008. It'll join the Pantheon (no, Hulk, wrong Pantheon...get off the stage, please!) of Bully's Funnest Comics of the Year: Banana Sunday (2005), Nextwave (2006), and Booster Gold (2007). So, as the Bully Dancers leave the stage, let's ring up the curtain and start the Countdown! (Hulk! What did I tell you...oh, never mind!)


#50: FINAL CRISIS: SUPERMAN BEYOND 3D You're gonna see a lotta comics by Mister Grant Morrison on this year's Fun Fifty, for a few very good reasons: because he writes wild, way-out, wacky comics that are high-energy, high-concept, and high-entertainment; because I happen to love the guy's writing like nobody's business; but mostly because he wrote approximately seventy-'leven comic books in 2008. (Final Crisis? He wrote it. Richie Rich? He wrote it. Slylock Fox? He wrote it.) Superman Beyond is a two-ish sidebar to Final Crisis, explaining just where the Sam Scratch Supes vanished to during the Earth's greatest moment of need. (Also, when he wasn't hanging around with supped-up teenagers in the future.) It's a fun and fast romp in the Mission: Impossible mode: gather a bunch of experts (in this case, different dimensional versions of Superman) to tackle a terror of cosmic proportions. With guest appearances by Ultraman, Ace the Bat-Hound, and Merryman! And it's in 3D. Holy cow, is that the destruction of the multiverse in three dimensions? It sure is! Strap on your 3D glasses and come along for the ride—it's solid, frantic adventure cranked up to 11 in the Mighty Morrison Mode. (Now, bring us the second issue, Grant!)


#49: EVERYBODY HURTS, EVEN SITH LORDSI picked this minicomic up at SPX in September, and boy howdy, did I enjoy it! A fast but furious read set in the Star Wars universe (but don't sue creator Alex Bullett, Lucasfilms!) pits that master of mean, Darth Vader, against the one foe he cannot defeat: love. And this ain't no girly-whiny Episode III Vader, no sir...this is the kickass Dark Lord of the Sith who asks for what he wants and if he doesn't get it, no one can. All this, plus a female Jedi in a belly shirt (aren't they all?) and a rousingly sniffle-worthy rendition of the saddest song in the galaxy. Plus, the comic is trimmed in the shape of Vader's helmet! I picked up a lot of minicomics this year but this is one of the few that stays with me. How can you pick it up? Um, well, I'm not sure. Live near a great comic store that sells minis, like Quimby's in Chicago? You can probably pick it up there. But for everybody else, you can read part of it at at Alex Bullett's Flickr, and I imagine if you leave a note for Alex there asking how to get the mini he can set you up. But not you, George Lucas!


#48: GREATEST HITS What If?...The Fab Four became The Fantastic Four? That's the general concept behind my favorite new Vertigo comic in the past couple years: a psychedelic tour through the sixties, seen through the eyes of a documentary filmmaker trying to capture the story behind the headlines of The Mates, the quintessential 1960s superhero quartet, at the same time unraveling a mystery stretching to the modern day. It's a furiously fun concept that I seriously can't believe nobody's done before, and series creators David Tischman and Glenn Fabry fill this miniseries with enough brilliant ideas for comics twice their length. Intentionally confusing, leaping back and forth in time, a whirlwind journey through sex, superheroes, and rock 'n' roll that rewards re-reading and will make a great gateway comic in trade paperback.


#47: SUPERMAN'S PAL JIMMY OLSEN SPECIAL My fave supporting character of the DC Universe (move over, Alfred Pennyworth) gets his own giant-sized Final Crisis tie-in special highlighting the sweater-vested star using his journalistic, detective, and Superman's-Pal skills to crack the mystery of Jim Harper, Guardian, and the clones of The Cadmus Project. While it harkens back to those crazy, kooky Kirby issues of Jimmy Olsen, it's well-integrated into the DCU's current interlocking adventures and is about as modern as an iPhone stapled to Barack Obama: Jimmy Olsen does, indeed, yes, certainly, have sex. (Off screen, but hey, Jimbo!) And if your eyes don't tear up at the scene with Dubblex, well then, you're made of stronger stuff than this fluff-filled little bull toy. One quibble? There's no real conclusion; the story continues in a Superman special. Aw, geez, give Mr. Action his due: a full story that centers around him with a real ending where he doesn't have to press that hypersonic watch to signal Big Blue.


#46: MARVEL ADVENTURES: THE AVENGERS (In 2007: #48) In a year crammed full of Avengers New, Mighty, Dark, and Cheese-Flavored, where monthly Avengers issues featured flashbacks to Skrulls inserting themselves into the lives of superheroes, Jarvis, and Fabian Stankowicz (hey, is he was a Skrull back in Avengers #239, that explains why he attacked David Letterman! Doesn't it?)...well, forgive me if I go hankerin' for some good old-fashioned "Avengers Assembling" on a monthly basis. This series of kid-friendly (but never child-like), done-in-one (but never short-shrifted on action and characterization) brings together Marvel's Greatest Heroes—as Spock would knowingly nod and say, "Ah yes...the Giants." This year they've faced off against Galactus, been popped into each other's bodies, explore Wakanda and go through therapy with Doc Samson. Most issues also feature a Chris Giarrusso "Mini-Marvels" strip, which is always pure delight in four-color form. If you're bemoaning the loss of an energetic and heroic team of Assemblers, your best bet's not on Earth-616: pick up Marvel Adventures: The Avengers and grin with joy.


#45: ZOT!: THE COMPLETE BLACK AND WHITE COLLECTION: 1987-1991 If you've read Understanding Comics and his other comic art theory books, you know that, agree with him or no, how influential Scott McCloud is to contemporary comics. But if you've never read his groundbreaking indie black-and-white comic Zot!, well, then, cowboy, you're livin' at the right time, because it's been reissued in a gorgeously-designed package by HarperCollins, with extensive new commentary by McCloud. At first glance a superhero or science fiction hero in the vein of Astro Boy or Flash Gordon, Zot's story is...especially in the b/w issues collected (#11-36)...also a teen romance, a light soap opera, and a comics whose dialogue and characters still stand as realistic and touching long after the b/w boom went bust. Buy it for yourself, buy it for a friend, buy it for a young adult...just read it, love it, and enjoy it. We live in a golden age of great comics and strips being reprinted, and Zot! rightfully takes it place among them as a treasured collection of a classic comic.


#44: JOHNNY BOO: THE BEST LITTLE GHOST IN THE WORLD Of course I love Johnny Boo: just like me, he's the cutest little thing around—a boy ghost with the "Boo Power" to face off against the Ice Cream Monster and make friends galore, which already makes him more socially acceptable than Casper, who frightens off everybody left and right. Johnny Boo is one of those rare comics for kids that are thankfully accessible for adults: without being maudlin or dumbed-down, it's entertaining and compelling, like the best children's lit. There's a wonderful sense of just peering in on Johnny's daily life that brings James Kochalka's characters and fluid artwork closer to the reader. Certainly the best comic about a ghost this year, and joyful joy! It's the first in a series, with Johnny Boo Volume 2 arriving soon. Simply...(don't hit me)...bootiful.


#43: ST. TRINIAN'S: THE ENTIRE APPALLING BUSINESS I leapt for joy when I learned Overlook Press, already doing a bang-up job reissuing the Complete P. G. Wodehouse in attractive uniform hardcover editions, was also publishing Ronald Searle's complete cartoons of the macabre, manical, murderous little moppets of St. Trinian's School for Girls, where backstabbing isn't a metaphor, devil worship is the accepted religion, and Wednesday Addams woulda felt right at home. This gorgeous and hilarious package contains all the Searle cartoons, so if you only know the Belles of St. Trinian's from the fun but decidedly watered-down movie series (including the recent remake with Rupert Everett in drag), you owe it to yourself to see the master at work:




#42: THE MUPPET SHOW: THE COMIC BOOK PREVIEW What's the best thing about attending San Diego Comic-Con?

This.:

What's the second best thing? Getting a chance to pick up special preview issues of forthcoming comics! And there's none I'm looking forward to more than BOOM! Studios's The Muppet Show comic book, for which they issued a special preview illustrated by one of my favorite artists, the incomparable Roger Langridge, creator of Fred the Clown (the closest thing to a Buster Keaton comic book) and all-around Goon Show fan. Roger's artwork in this jam-packed but all-too-swift preview is (like the felt and foam creations of Jim Henson and associates), wonderfully detailed, energetic, and funny, and golly, I can't wait for the full-fledged comic from BOOM!, which oughta be around the corner in 2009. Check out a preview cover at Roger's blog, and seriously, pay no attention to the whiners and the naysayers complaining about his work: Langridge's art shows great love and respect for the characters and the storylines from The Muppet Show, and as a felt-and-fluff guy myself, I can't wait to see the series.


#41: RASL (In 2007: #45) It's a candy and a gum! Oh wait, I've made another one of my silly mistakes. It's actually a comic book: Jeff Smith's follow-up to the galactically-acclaimed Bone, and he couldn't go further in another direction from Bone if he tried. Speaking of preview issues, I picked up the (oversized) RASL preview at 2007's Comic-Con and loved it to pieces (not literally), so I was very much lookin' forward to diving into the full series. Mysterious, compelling, and beautifully-drawn (of course!), RASL is the mystery of a dimension-jumping thief hunted across reality as he leaps from place to place trying to put right what once went w finding worlds startlingly similar to his own except in the smaller details. And...so far, that's just about it, really, three issues into the comic. Critics of the series have complained it comes out too infrequently (four times a year) and is decompressed to such an extent that reading one issue gives only a fraction of the story, but hey, the first four issues of Bone took a year to come out, and while delightful, you can't glean the story just by reading one issue. In other words, if you're impatient for it, just wait. Like Bone, I think massive public praise for RASL will happen when the story is published in collected volumes (volume one is coming out very soon; click on the Amazon link above to pre-order it), but if you value the journey and the mystery, enjoy the quarterly single issues like me to see how the story grows and evolves. I bet in several years when it's finished, nobody'll remember the grumbling about the wait between issue #3 and 4.


Tomorrow: More fun stuff, you betcha! Want a sneak preview? Heck no! It's a surprise.

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Aw, okay. (inhale) Tomorrow: Dying heroes! Darn dirty apes! A movie you haven't seen yet! And an old radio show you probably don't know exists? All this and more in tomorrow's installment of...The Fun Fifty of 2008!