Today in Comics History, September 7, 1968: The day Ben Grimm fell on top of Peter Parker and kinda squished him

from Sub-Mariner (1968 series) #8 (December 1968), script by Roy Thomas, pencils by John Buscema, inks by Dan Adkins, letters by Sam Rosen

Today in Comics History, May 26: Happy birthday, Herb Trimpe!

Born today in 1939: comics artist Herb Trimpe, perhaps best known for his work on the Incredible Hulk, but he's also penciled very nearly every major Marvel character in books like The Avengers, Fantastic Four, X-Men, Spectacular Spider-Man and Marvel Team-Up, Iron Man, Sgt. Fury, Nick Fury, Dr. Strange, Marvel Two-in-One, Star Wars, What If...? Spitfire and the Troubleshooters, and gosh, a whole lot more!


from (top) Might Marvel Calendar 1979 and 1980 (Marvel, 1978 and 1979), Marvel Age #29 (Marvel, August 1985), text by Jim Salicrup, pencils and inks by Ron Zalme, and
(bottom) Marvel Age #53, 89, and 101 (Marvel, August 1987, June 1990, and June 1991); text by Mike Carlin (#53) and Chris Eliopoulis and Barry Dutter (#89 and 101); pencils and inks by Ron Zalme; colors by Paul Becton (#53) and Renee Witterstaetter (#89 and 101)

Today in Comics History, May 18: Happy birthday, Bill Everett!

Born on this day in 1917: comics writer and artist Bill Everett, creator of Prince Namor the Sub-Mariner and Hydroman; co-creator of Daredevil, Simon Garth the Zombie, Moondragon, Stingray, Foggy Nelson, Karen Page, Battlin' Jack Murdock, Namorita, and more!


from Fantastic Four Annual #7 (Marvel, November 1969)

The Marvel Age Calendar for 1994 2022: May Marine Mauling

Hey, it's


...so it's time for my usual monthly may-hem in bringing you a calendar for the month. Yup, here it is...May!


from Doom Patrol #23 (DC, June 1989), script by Grant Morrison, pencils by Richard Case, inks by Scott Hanna, colors by Daniel Vozzo, letters by John Workman
Isn't that helpful? Not! (as the kids say today) But seriously, what do you even need a calendar for?


from Batman/Superman (2019 series) #2 (DC, November 2021), script by Gene Luen Yang, pencils by Paul Pelletier, inks by Keith Champagne, colors by Hi-Fi, letters by Saida Temofonte
Oh, well, when ya put it like that, I better give you a calendar you can actually use this month, even though it's from (gazes deeply into the distant, prehistoric past) 1994!

"Classic Clash #5: Daredevil vs. Namor" from Marvel Age #137 (Marvel, June 1994), pencils by Darren Auck, inks by Michael
(Click picture to giant tuna-size)
Print it up and nail it to your wall! I'd suggest that you color it, but wow, they've already shaded in Daredevil and Namor's mostly just pink. What am I gonan do with all these red crayons?

More May calendar fun in about an hour! That work for you, Julian Day?

Today in Comics History, April 25, 1945: Namor hangs framed newspaper on his wall; value immediately decreases from water damage

from Sub-Mariner: Marvels Snapshots #1 one-shot (Marvel. May 2020), script by Alan Brennert, pencils and inks by Jerry Ordway, colors by Espen Grundetjern, letters by Travis Lanham

Liberty Bell March, Day 1: It's...

...Liberty Bell March! Featuring Monty Python all this month on Comics Oughta Be Fun! (gasps, falls down on beach)


Each day through the month of March, we'll present to you comic books highlighting Monty Python or its members, referencing their famous routines or movies, and (trying to be) putting them in context with video examples (where available). In other words, please don't sue us, Python (Monty) Ltd.! (Warning: there will be some John Cleese and Terry Gilliam material in this feature.)

First up: We can pretty much guess that somebody like, say, Deadpool is a big fan of the absurd compedy of Monty Python. But...if you ask me (and of course you won't)...who is the least likely character in the Marvel Universe to be an aficionado of the series? I think it would probably be this guy. And yet here he is, quoting from that infamous documentary on the Piranha Brothers, Ethel the Frog:


from Namor the Sub-Mariner #16 (Marvel, July 1991); script, pencils, inks, and letters by John Byrne, colors by Glynis Oliver

from Monty Python's Flying Circus series 2, episode 1 "Face the Press (or: Dinsdale!)" (15 September 1970)

So: join us here each week, my friends / for laffs 'n' fun undying / From six quite strange Englishmen / On Python's Circus, Flying!

Today in Comics History, February 2: Happy birthday, Sub-Mariner!

Born on this day: Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner! What, you didn't think he had a canonical birthday? Check it out:


from "Courage!" in Sub-Mariner (1954 series) #36 (Marvel/Atlas, November 1954); script, pencils, inks, and letters by Bill Everett
Happy birthday, Namor, ya ol' sea-cow, you!

The Marvel Calendar for September 2010 2021: Wow, Charlie the Tuna grew up and filled out.

Hubba hubba! This September 2010 Marvel Calendar also works for this month in 2021!

And check out all that Namor beefcake! I mean, uh, fishcake.

"September 2010" from Marvel Calendar 2010 (Marvel, 2009)
(Click picture to Atlanti-size)
Either that or Mister Spock has gone to the Riviera for his holiday.

Fun with Comics: Whoa, watch out for that fourth wall, Namor!

from "[The Torpedo Boat Terror]" in All-Winners Comics #1 (Marvel/Timely, Summer 1941); script, pencils, and inks by Bill Everett (and additional inks by Allen Simon?)

Namor vs. Fake News

Panel from The Avengers (1963 series) #287 (January 1988), plot by Roger Stern, script by Ralph Macchio, breakdowns by John Buscema, finishes by Tom Palmer, colors by Christie Scheele, letters by Bill Oakley

365 Days of Defiance, Day 103: Even I don't know why this guy is called "Snow King."

Does the Sub-Mariner need help to fight a big monster, namely Torg, The Abominable Snow King?


Panel from Sub-Mariner (1968 series) #55 (November 1972), script and pencils by Bill Everett, inks by Bill Everett and Frank Giacoia, letters by John Costanza
Well, yeah...actually he does, so the sailors watching the battle vow to stand with Namor against the weedy foe! And also: why isn't a creature named The Abominable Snow King white and furry and hanging around the actual snow-covered mountains of the Himalayas, not just some ice caves at sea? Hmmm.


I mean, I guess if the Abominable Snow King was actually a big abominable snow man, he could be easily defeated by tossing him down a ravine. Wait, no, that wouldn't work: bumbles bounce. Luckily these easily killed humans are leaping to aid the super-powered mutant by...um, jumping up onto him. Dudes! This isn't a climbing wall at your local gym!


Still, Snow King climbing is is a little more exciting than rock climbing.


Later, just plain ordinary humans show up to put the kibosh on Mr. So-Called "Snow King" (yeah, I'm lookin' at you, Greeny) by bombing him from helicopters and sending out a buncha boats to save the other guys.


So, it's Snow King 0, Sub-Mariner 1, Humanity 6. Even Subbie has to hand it to them: in a thought balloon to save his own fishy face. Send those guys a nice Hallmark thank you card, Namor, ya bum!

So there you have it: Torg the Snow King! The monster so ice he only appeared in comics twice!



Panels from Avengers (1998 series) #43/458 (August 2001), script by Kurt Busiek, pencils by Alan Davis, inks by Mark Farmer, colors by Tom Smith, letters by Albert Deschesne
To conclude: "THAT'S NO KING!"

A Month of... Celebrities in Comics, Day 1: There's Something Fishy About This Movie Studio

Andy Warhol once famously said "Who stole my can of Campbell's Soup?" He also said something or other about fifteen minutes, celebrity, yadda yadda yadda. But what he didn't say is that in the future, every superhero would be a celebrity! And he oughta to have done. Look, for instance, at the fame the Fantastic Four have achieved pretty early on in their careers: so famous that not only do kids play-act at being the FF, but there are licensed masks available in stores for the greatest superhero of them all!


Panels from Fantastic Four (1961 series) #11 (February 1963), script by Stan Lee, pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Dick Ayers, colors by Stan Goldberg, letters by Artie Simek
Yes, the Fantastic Four are such worldwide celebrities that they get a metric ton of fan mail every day. Actually, most of that is from Nigerian Princes to Johnny. And need we point out that this is the very first time that someone applies to be a member of the FF? That Galactus Trilogy woulda been over in six panels when faced with Willie Lumpkin's harrowing ear-wiggling power!


But superheroes as celebrities is not what we're going to feature this new year, all year! No, it's those occasional cameo stars, those special guest appearances, those "you'll never guess who shows up in this issue!" characters making a trip from the real world to Earth-616 or Earth-1 or whatever four-color paradise they're popping up in! In other words, welcome 2017, a year of 365 Days of Celebrities in Comics!

EDIT on 01/29/17: As you'll see elsewhere in this blog, I've made the mid-January decision to switch this year's feature from Celebrities in Comics to 365 Days of Defiance! Never fear, though: this feature is now A Month of Celebrities in Comics. And there'll be more throughout the year even after January, I promise you! So for please mentally replace all references here to 365 Days of Celebrities in Comics to A Month of Celebrities in Comics! You'll be glad you did!


Panels from Fantastic Four (1961 series) #9 (December 1962), script by Stan Lee, pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Dick Ayers, colors by Stan Goldberg, letters by Artie Simek
Hooray for Hollywood! Hooray for guest-stars! Like (in panel one, left to right), Amanda Blake and James Arness of TV's longest running oater, Gunsmoke, and that's the infamously recognizable profile of fright-meister Alfred Hitchcock! The guy next to Hitch is hard to ID, but I've read that he might be director André DeToth, who directed the 3-D classic House of Wax (even though he'd lost an eye at an early age!).

The bottom tier of panels: well, just call me Dorothy Lamour if you don't recognize Bing Crosby and Bob Hope, and on the bottom right being startled all the way to the moon by Ben Grimm is The Great One himself, Jackie Gleason!

In this next panel we can see alongside Gleason, by kind permission of DC Comics, Mister Dean Martin! An expy of Dino was very soon to begin appearing in Marvel's Sgt. Fury: Dino Manelli of the Howling Commandos, so you can look on this as a try-out of Jack Kirby drawing the proclaimed King of Cool.


Ladies and gentlemen, and especially gentlemen, prepare for wolf whistles for Miss Ann-Margret! Or, it might be Brigette Bardot! We're not certain and Stan doesn't remember, so an official Bombshell No-Bull Prize goes to the first Conqueror of Time to hop in his Delorean back to 1962 and ask Jack Kirby about it! All I know for sure is, it probably isn't Nicole Kidman.


Of course, no celebrity surprise appearance could be quite as shocking and improbable as the revelation that "S-M Studios" (bad name, marketing department) is headed by...Namor, the Sub-Mariner! Shown here, dashing, debonair, and smoking one of those seaweed cigarettes all the kids love so much. Hey, where'd he get that green suit? (rings bells, sounds klaxon for the first appearance of that joke in 2017)


So there you have it: 2017 is the year of 365 Days of Celebrities in Comics! You'lkl be seeing all sorts of guys 'n' gal from the real world crossing over to the land of four color comics in the next 52 weeks, all the way from Frank Sinatra to Lea Thompson! Look for Walter Cronkite and Humphrey Bogart! Popping in along the way will be Courtney Cox and Sarah Silverman! (And I'm hoping Jane Wiedlin will show up somewhere.) To paraphrase Lucy van Pelt, "how can you say someone is great who's never had his picture in comic books?" Stay tuned and find out...it's gonna be a star-studded year! But remember: with fame comes fan mail, and with fan mail comes...well, show us the risks, Ben Grimm:

366 Days with J. Jonah Jameson, Day 335: A Great Metropolitan Newspaper

"Hembeck" from Marvel Age #130 (November 1993); script, pencils, inks, colors and letters by Fred Hembeck

Comics News for May 17, 2016

Top to bottom: 2016 and 2012 DC logos; panel portion from Fantastic Four #15 (June 1963), pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Paul Reinman; panel from "The Human Torch and the Sub-Mariner Meet" in Marvel Mystery Comics #8 (June 1940), script, pencils, inks, and letters by Bill Everett; panel from Batman #358 I(April 1983), script by Gerry Conway, pencils by Curt Swan, inks by Rodin Rodriguez, colors by Adrienne Roy, letters by Ben Oda

366 Days with J. Jonah Jameson, Day 14: All in all we're just another brick in the wall collapsing on JJJ

Panels from Untold Tales of Spider-Man '96 (December 1996 annual), script by Kurt Busiek, pencils by Mike Allred, inks by Joe Sinnott, colors by Steve Mattsson, letters by Richard Starkings

No relation to Bea Arthur or Rue McClanahan.

I absolutely love Roy Thomas's 1970s Marvel series The Invaders (featuring the WWI Nazi-busting team of Captain America, Namor, and the Original Human Torch, plus pals), and I love the quirky, fluid figures of Frank Robbins, who drew the vast majority of the series' issues...but I've always had a huge problem in their design for Golden Girl, the Marvel Universe's (chronologically) first Japanese-American superhero. It's basically a shortie kimono robe (and it don't look like there's nuthin' beneath it, either). Did I mention she's a teenager? She's a teenager.



Panels from The Invaders (1975 series) #28 (May 1978), script by Roy Thomas, pencils by Frank Robbins, inks by Frank Springer, colors by George Roussos, letters by John Costanza
Let's not even go into the striped pajama look for Davy Mitchell, the Human Top. (Not in this post, anyway.)

Gwen Sabuki's costume got a little longer when it was drawn by different artists...but hey, it's still something you'd probably buy in Victoria's Secret not that I know anything about that.


Panel from The Invaders #38 (March 1979), script by Don Glut, pencils by Alan Kupperberg and Don Heck, inks by Chic Stone, colors by Carl Gafford, letters by Jim Novak
Especially when it's drawn like this:


Cover of The Invaders #39 (April 1979), pencils by Alan Kupperberg, inks by Joe Sinnott
That's why I was extremely happy to see this uniform on Golden Girl in today's All-New Invaders #7. I especially like the way it adapts the original color design and pattern of the kimono to a practical fighting outfit. With pants!


Panel portion from All-New Invaders #7 (September 2014), script by James Robinson, pencils and inks by Mark Laming, colors by Guru-eFX, letters by Cory Petit
This flashback takes place after the events of The Invaders series and its is-it-still-in-continuity sequel What If? #4, and is in fact after the disappearance/death of Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes, so this could be a "chronologically later" Golden Girl uniform.



But I'd like instead to think that this is actually a retcon of Gwen Sabuki's uniform and the one she woudl have worn "all along." It's certainly one of the best and most forward-thinking retcons of a stupid uniform into a practical, believable, yet still aesthetically attractive one.

Also, it's not a cast-off from one of Prince Namor's "lady friends."


Panels from Uncanny X-Men Annual (2006 series) #2 (March 2009); script by Matt Fraction; pencils, inks, and colors by Daniel Acuña; letters by Joe Caramagna
ICK STOP MAKING ME THINK ABOUT SUB-MARINER'S LOVE LIFE COMIC BOOKS

Comics News for March 12, 2014

Top: from "The Battle of New Britannia!" in Astonishing Tales #8 (October 1971), script by Roy Thomas and Gary Friedrich,
pencils by Herb Trimpe, inks by Tom Sutton, letters by Artie Simek
Middle: from Fantastic Four #42 (September 1965), script by Stan Lee, pencils by Jack Kirby,
inks by Vince Colletta, letters by Sam Rosen
Bottom: from Invaders #40 (May 1979), plot by Roy Thomas, script by Don Glut, breakdowns by Alan Kupperberg, finishes by Chic Stone, colors by Carl Gafford, letters by Tom Orzechowski

365 Days of KirbyTech, Day 36: Reed Richards' Neuromantic Disruptor

I hope you were here yesterday when I asked the musical question "How do you solve a problem like Victor von Doom?" "Is Reed going to use his totally cool Psionic-Refractor (which Dr. Doom stole) to battle the world's greatest psionic threat, Egg-Fu Onslaught, exactly 300 issues later?


Panels from Fantastic Four (1961 series) #116 (November 1971), script by Archie Goodwin, pencils by John Buscema, inks by Joe Sinnott, letters by Artie Simek
And the answer is...well, not specifically. He's going to create a much more powerful machine, one which I like to guess was based on and improved over the Psionic-Refractor: the Neuromantic Disruptor!


Panel from Fantastic Four (1961 series) #416 (September 1996); script by Tom DeFalco; pencils by Carlos Pacheco; inks by Bob Wiacek and Harry Candelario; ink assists by Ariane Lenshoek, Craig Huston, and Ed Lazzelari; letters by Richard Starkings and Kolja Fuchs

I have found the very first DC/Marvel crossover!

Hey, remember that time when the Sub-Mariner appeared in a DC/National book by kind permission of Timely Comics? When Batman and Robin teamed up with Prince Namor?


Panels from "The Mystery of the Winged People!" in Batman #61 (October-November 1950), script by Bill Finger, pencils by Dick Sprang, inks by Charles Paris, letters by Ira Schnapp
Naw, me neither. But we can dream, can't we?

Same Story, Different Cover: By the seventies, everyone was posing more dynamically

Left: Strange Tales v.1 #107 (April 1963), pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Sol Brodsky, letters by Artie Simek
Right: Human Torch #9 (September 1975), pencils by Ron Wilson, inks by Frank Giacoia, letters by Danny Crespi (?)

(Click picture to fireplace match-size)