Born on this day in 1901: reporter, syndicated columnist, radio and TV personality and host Ed Sullivan! (You should mentally sing along to the song as you read that name.)
"Ed Sullivan" from Bye Bye Birdie (Columbia, 1963), song by Charles Strouse and Lee Adams, featuring Paul Lynde
By the man with a really big shew also had some big appearances...well, okay, medium guest-starring roles...would you believe, cameos?...in comic books throughout the years. Look, he's gettin' bounced by a seal!
cover of Miss Melody Lane of Broadway #3 (DC, June 1950), pencils and inks by Bob Oksner
from Captain America (2002 series) #25 (June 2004); script by Robert Morales; pencils by Chris Bachalo; inks by Tim Townsend, Al Vey, and Aaron Sowd; colors by Chris Bachalo; letters by Randy Gentile
Hullo folks hullo! If you have looked at the calendar or a newspaper or your rent bill you may have noticed that it's now
from Mighty Marvel Calendar 1981 (Marvel, 1980)
...and I hope it is a very fearless month for you, too.
One of the things that might help you wipe away the scares (aside from putting in your air conditioner) is a proper calendar to keep track of all the days in June. The beginning of Pride Month (today)! Father's Day (June 19)! Juneteenth (also the 19th)! Flag Day (June 14)! National Fudge Day (my fav'rit, on the 16th)! So as I do each month, pal-endars, I'm here to lend a hand by giving you a free June calendar! Pin it up and mark off Take Your Dog to Work Day (every day)!
from The Fury of Firestorm #63 (DC, September 1987), script by John Ostrander, pencils by Joe Brozowski, insk by Sam de la Rosa, colors by Nansi Hoolahan, letters by John Workman
Oh dear. That's very tiny and not of much use, huh? Well, let's take a big gapin' gander at this June calendar! It's got the Bee on it!
from "Vacation Vexation" in Archie and Me #104 (Archie, September 1978), script by George Gladir, pencils by Stan Goldberg, inks by Rudy Lapick, colors by Barry Grossman, letters by Bill Yoshida
Well, that's a perfectly legible calendar but it's not one you can use in 2022. But hang onto it! You can use it next year in 2023! You'd better clip 'n' save it now because I'm not gonna remind you in a year. (I will totally remind you in a year.)
No, better we switch off to an actual usuable calendar for June 2022 from the far-away long-gone era of 1994! Temember that fabulous year? Olympic figure skater Nancy Kerrigan attacked! Major League baseball players strike! Newt Gingrich named House Speaker! Uh, on second thought let's forget all about 1994 and just focus on this nifty calendar of Captain America and Nick Fury takin' down a big-ass robot from A.I.M.* Go get 'em, Cap! Yo, Nick! *Ain't It Malicious
"Classic Clash #6: Cap and Fury vs. A.I.M." from Marvel Age #138 (Marvel, July 1994), pencils by Darren Auck, inks by Keith Williams (Click picture to big-ass-robot-size)
Except, Cap doesn't fight any foe that looks like this in Tales of Suspense #79, and Fury doesn't even appear in that story! More research for me to do? Probably! Anyway, enjoy it while you can (i.e., this month), because there's only a few more months left of the Marvel Age calendar...and for that matter, Marvel Age!
More June calendars in a bit, so stay tuned, Bunky!
This is an expanded and updated version of a post originally published June 6, 2011.
It was fifty-five years ago today...since the release of my favorite rock album that includes a fake paper moustache of all time, The Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band! Happy Birthday, Sarge! (And Band!)
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove.
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wand'ring bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me prov'd,
I never writ, nor no man ever lov'd.
from Marvel Team-Up #139 (Marvel, March 1984), script by Cary Burkett, pencils by Brian Postman, inks by Mike Esposito, colors by George Roussos, letters by Diana Albers
* Shakespeare Haters Immediately Enter Locked Detention
This is a modified version of a post originally presented on January 27, 2017.
Born on this day: singer, songwriter, musician, actor and political activist Country Joe McDonald, he of "and the Fish" fame ("The "Fish" Cheer/I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag," "I Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Die Rag," "Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine," and the proverbial many more). Happy birthday, Joe!
But, you might ask, why are we talkin' 'bout him here on this comic blook blog, even one so springtime fresh-newly reborn? Answer: Celebrities get birthday wishes on this here puppet-town cow blog if'n they've been in a comic book (and, if we don't hate them. So yes, in additional to stage, screen, and probably that dive bar down the street that you love, Country Joe has also been in comic books?. Let me set up the scenario, as wel ike to say 'round these here parts, for y'all.
Nick Fury (the original one: e.g., David Hasselhoff rather than Sam Jackson) grew up as a member of the Greatest Generation, and he likes it that way, goldarnit it, not the way it is today with these modern kids with their underpants showing and their cone bras and their dancing with cartoon cats. Why, back in Nick's day when he was young and white, he and his gal pals jitterbugged to the smooth rhythms of Glenn Miller and Gene Autry and Spike Jones and the Fabulous Stains and Figrin D'an and the Modal Nodes! That was just the way music was, and Nick liked it that way!
Which is why Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.* (*Some How I'd Envy Literal Death) would rather be in the clitches of Baron Stucker and his All-Girl HYDRA Commandos than at a concert for today's birthday boy, Country Joe McDonald!
from Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD (1968 series) #15 (Marvel, November 1969); co-plot by Gary Friedrich, Herb Trimpe, and Dick Ayers; script by Gary Friedrich; pencils by Herb Trimpe and Dick Ayers; inks by Sam Grainger; letters by Jean Izzo
Yes indeed, those verses about the FF and Doc Strangerthanmost are not an invention of the Mighty Marvel Bullpen, but the actual song lyrics from C.J.&F.'s classic song "Superbird!" (There are lyrics referencing Superman and Kryptonite too, but I don't see any sign of the band appearing in that month's comics from the Distinguished Competition.
Why, it's such a short song even Nick should be able to stand it, but no! As soon as the band rocks into the freaky riffs of "Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine" Nick's head totally expands, man! I mean, like literally! He's completely blown away by this song!
Is Nick dead, Nick's generic date? Why, he's not only rockapelic dead, he's also psychedelic dead.
Is Nick really dead? Who knows? Who cares? Because this is the last original issue of his comic book and we don't get to find out! In fact, the next three issues are completely filled with reprints. Way to duck the press asking the probing questions about Nick Fury's death, Dum-Dum Dugan!
And nobody ever saw Nick Fury, ever again.
But we don't blame you, Country Joe McDonald! Let not the tragic shooting death of master spy Nicholas Fury weigh on your mind, especially today as you celebrate your 80th! Happy birthday, Joe!
Oh no! the Hate-Monger has tossed Captain America and Nick Fury into fast-rising water and weighed them down with chains! How can they escape, without even a chance to talk about it once they're under the surface? They're doomed! Naw, don't be silly: Cap 'n' Nick never give up! They just take off...Cap's belt?!?
Panels from Captain America (1998 sSeries) #26 (February 2000), script by Dan Jurgens, pencils by Andy Kubert, inks by Dan Green, colors by Gregory Wright, letters by Todd Klein
WAIT A MINUTE HOW DOES CAP STILL HAVE HIS BELT ON IN THE LAST PANEL
Panels from "Declaration" in Dark Reign: New Nation one-shot (February 2009), script by Brian Michael Bendis and Jonathan Hickman, pencils and inks by Stefano Caselli, colors by Daniele Rudoni, letters by Cory Petit
Not only has the New Hate-Monger — I dunno, Rush Limbaugh this time, prob'bly — stolen Cap's shield and painted a nasty swastika on it, he's also plotting to destroy everything we love and hold close top our hearts with anthrax missiles! That didn't work when Zemo plotted it and it won't work now, Hatey!
Panels from Captain America (1998 series) #27 (March 2000), script by Dan Jurgens, pencils by Andy Kubert, inks by Dan Green, colors by Gregory Wright, letters by Todd Klein
Whoops, that's not good. But while the Monger (Hate) taunts Cap and Nick Fury face-palms, Steve Rogers reveals that, like Batman, he has had prep time and he always had a scheme to take down the missiles. With righteousness.
With good aim of his shield and the aid of the Falcon, Captain America does exactly that. Wrap it up for us, Cap 'n' Nick!
Yesterday we saw what happened when the Howling Commandos were in the audience for the Big Show of '44, which featured real-life celebrities that Nick Fury liked, goldarnit it, and not these modern kids with their underpants showing and their cone bras and their dancing with cartoon cats. Why, back in Nick's day when he was young and white, he and his gal pals jitterbugged to the smooth rhythms of Glenn Miller and Gene Autry and Spike Jones and the Fabulous Stains and Figrin D'an and the Modal Nodes! That was just the way music was, and Nick liked it that way!
Which is why Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.* would rather be dead than at a concert for today's Celebs in Comics, Country Joe McDonald and the Fish!
Panels from Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD (1968 series) #15 (November 1969); co-plot by Gary Friedrich, Herb Trimpe, and Dick Ayers; script by Gary Friedrich; pencils by Herb Trimpe and Dick Ayers; inks by Sam Grainger; letters by Jean Izzo
Yes indeed, those verses about the FF and Doc Strangely are not an invention of the Mighty Marvel Bullpen, but the actual song lyrics from C.J.&F.'s classic song "Superbird!" (There are lyrics referencing Superman and Kryptonite too, but I don't see any sign of the band appearing in that month's comics from Distinguished Competition.
Why, it's such a short song even Nick should be able to stand it, but no! As soon as the band rocks into the freaky riffs of "Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine" Nick's head totally expands, man! I mean, like literally! He's completely blown away by this song!
Is Nick dead, Nick's generic date? Why, he's not only rockapelic dead, he's also psychedelic dead.
Is Nick really dead? Who knows? Who cares? Because this is the last original issue of his comic book and we don't get to find out! In fact, the next three issues are completely filled with reprints. Way to duck the press asking the probing questions about Nick Fury's death, Dum-Dum Dugan!
And nobody ever saw Nick Fury, ever again.
...until two months later.
Panels from Avengers #72 (January 1970), script by Roy Thomas, pencils by Sal Buscema,
inks and colors (?) by Sam Grainger, letters by Sam Rosen
Turns out Nick had gone undercover as his evil identical twin brother to infiltrate Z.O.D.I.A.C.**, leaving a Life Model Decoy in his place mid-concert, presumably when he left Laura and went to get a hot dog or warn somebody about the brown acid. An L.M.D. instead of a dead body in a Marvel Universe story?!? By golly, we never saw that twist coming!
* Some How I'd Envy Literal Death
** Oh sorry, that shouldn't have been acronymed. Those letters don't actually spell anything.
There's been plenty of Spider-Man games, and J. Jonah Jameson has been in some of them. But they haven't always done his distinctive personality any justice.
Luckily, for all your J. Jonah Jamesoning hand-held computer gaming action we now have Avengers Academy, a game for your cell phone, pad device, internet-equipped blender, or the robot in your life (attention Vision: that's just a little holiday gift hint for the lovely wife Virginia). Avengers Academy places the heroes and villains of the Marvel Universe, all suitably teen-aged, into a high-school level boarding school where they learn battle techniques, study books of knowledge in a very crowded library, play pool one at a time against each other, and even get down on the dance floor. Also: there is quite a bit of funny dialogue between the characters and NPCs, like AA-JJJ:
Here's an extended bit between Avengers Academy MVP Wasp and our favorite cranky newspaperman:
So remember: you may be paying for extra bits in your freemium game, but you get all this J. Jonah Jameson content for free!
This is a modified version of a post originally presented on 
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQenrY-T9_-EUVG2XBTW-ZiSnvw_V3JFU-8tiFlhrdgKCUBaE56ekbiILucymY9gA-xa4zdGy_z1Njojw78Z-YnlUiN4PIRRurK7GzqoEg3B-PmXl2RJaS1ZaVKVCEHP-m-WVr2xjqailLu1jlzylysiBGc3sVXLXNMFDzAURyrHhKBfcqyO4/s1600/button-libertybellmarch.jpg" "It's...")
