Born on this day: comic book letterer and writer Jack Morelli (occasionally listed as John and nicknamed "Squid")! He's worked on Warlock and the Infinity Watch, Fantastic Four, Daredevil, The Thing, Elektra, Avengers, lots of Archie comics, and more!
from Marvel Age #34, 58, and 94 (Marvel, January 1986, January 1988, and November 1990); text by Jim Salicrup (#34), Mike Carlin (#58), and Chris Eliopoulis and Barry Dutter (#94); pencils and inks by Ron Zalme; colors by Adam Philips (#34), Paul Becton (#58), and Marie Javins (#94)
Born today in 1623, lets all raise a toast to the mathemetician with the most, Blaise Pascal, inventor of the Pascaline (an early calculator you could not spell "BOOBS" on), master of probability theory, creator of The Treatise on the Arithmetical Triangle (a convenient tabular presentation for binomial coefficients which he called the arithmetical triangle, but is now called Pascal's triangle. Thanks, Wikipedia!) and designer of Pascal's Wager, which ended with him owing forty large to the Vegas mob.
Also, he died pretty uniquely.
from "The Apple" in S.H.I.E.L.D.* (2011 series) #∞ (Marvel, June 2011); script by Jonathan Hickman; pencils, inks, and colors by Gabriel Hernández Walta; letters by Todd Klein
Happy birthday, M. Pascal! Sorry about all the formalin.
from Spectacular Spider-Man (2003 series) #19 (Marvel, November 2004), script by Paul Jenkins, pencils by Paco Medina, inks by Juan Vlasco, colors by Studio F, letters by Cory Petit
Born on this day: actor Ming-Na Wen, who voiced the title character in Disney's Mulan!
from Mulan (Disney Comics, 2013), absolutely no creator credits at all. Shame on you, Disney.
And Detective Ellen Yin in the 2004-2008 animated The Batman!
from The Batman Strikes! #9 (DC, July 2005), script by Bill Matheny, pencils by Christopher Jones, inks by Terry Beatty, colors by Heroic Age, letters by Pat Brosseau
And she played Melinda "The Cavalry" May in Agents of SHIELD!
covers from The Cavalry: SHIELD 50th Anniversary one-shot (Marvel, November 2015), by (top) Dale Keown and (bottom) John Tyler Christopher
Happy birthday, Ming-Na! And this time next year I hope there'll be a Fennec Shand comic book!
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!
Panels from Bruce Wayne, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.* #1 (April 1996), script by Chuck Dixon, pencils by Cary Nord,
inks by Mark Pennington, colors by Steve Buccellato, color separations by Malibu, letters by Richard Starkings
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.
Today! It's the very birthday of the Legionnaire you can open up with a can opener, Ferro Lad! That's "Andrew Nolan" to you and me who surely have all the ciiviian names or the Legion memorized. Reep Daggle? Imra Adreen? Jenni Ognuts? Yeah, you know 'em all, and how! (Jo Nah? See, that one was easy!)
Anyway, Andrew Nolan, sealed forever inside an iron suit moresuitable for storing pork and beans. Mmm, delicious, delicious pork and bears. But it's just him inside! I know, yu're disappointed too. Luckily the Iron Suit also gives him the power to iron to the core (and I think we all know how inconvenient that can be, especially when he's your water polo partner at the far end of the pool. "Marco!" you shout, gearing the pony to rear up in the pool, but all that happened at the other end is a series of slow bubbles from the bottom. I'm getting ahead of myself because for his birthday (and hey, one day beyond it!) we're going to look at how Andrew Nolan, Ferro Lad, showed his mettle metal by taking on the deadly and dangerous Sun-Eater! ("No man can escape the Sun-Eater," is its guaranteed slogan to you, the buyer!)
Remember that chilling, dramatic opening of Star Trek: The Motion Picture? Sure you do! You hadn't fallen asleep by then yet.
But, if you're at all familiar with the history of the Legion of Super-Heroes, you can stand up in your seat back there in 1979 and proudly shout to the annoyed masses: "Comics did it first!" And while they're bodily kicking you out of the movie theater, you can be proud that you were right.
from The Legion of Super-Heroes stories in Adventure Comics #352-353 (DC, January-February 1967), script and layouts by Jim Shooter, pencils by Curt Swan, inks by George Klein, letters by Milton Snapinn
Now play Jerry Goldsmith's spaceariffic Star Trek movie theme while we do our opening (comics) credits and introduce our amazing cast from one thousand years in the future! (uture uture uture uture) But grife, what are the Fatal Five doing there getting star credits alongside the Legion of Super-Heroes? Inconceivable! I keep using that word and I think it means what it is! Why, that would be like, as the narration tells us, not dating the story at all, U.N.C.L.E. making a pact with T.H.R.U.S.H.! Or CONTROL teaming up with KAOS! Or S.H.I.E.L.D.* being controlled by HYDRA...um, well, maybe not that last one.
ONE OF THESE PEOPLE WILL DIE! (flashing arrow pointing directly to
Ferro Lad
) This is a good example of early Legion stories making great use of the Mission: Impossible concept: a specific but small group of Legionnaires pitted against a villain rather than all six hundred and eight of 'em. In this case, however, the villain is about as big as they get: a cosmic entity searching for sustenance throughout the galaies, but instead of jus' stopping by Hardee's in the Alpha Centauri Spacemall like you or I would do, it eats stars. What's more, it operates purely on instinct and is completely mindless. So, it's sort of like Galactus after a huge fraternity kegger party.
The Sun-Eater is (gasp! choke!) heading directly towards Earth's sun, apparently bypassing some other, meatier, tenderer stars on its way from the edge of the Milky Way Galaxy. It's like when you want White Castle and nothing else will do. Superboy runs a PowerPoint he's prepared earlier to show the Legionnaires what they'll be up against: victory is a totally utter, impossibility. For the Legion of Super-Heroes, this is Tuesday.
WHY ARE THERE ONLY FIVE LEGIONNAIRES AT HQ oh wait Superboy (and Jim Shooter) casually explain that the other Legionnaires are away in Dimension QK-51 (home of the Superman Meets the Quik Bunny crossover). That must be some doozy of a mission that makes them keep only five members in reserve (granted, one's Superboy; on the other hand, Projectra and Ferro) on Earth. I mean, they coulda left behind Matter-Eater Lad, the greatest Legionnaire, who would have handily ate the Sun-Eater. Burp!
Surely, you say, there must be other heroes in the galaxy considering there are entire planets whose biospheres support magnetic control or intangibility or extreme! computing!power! Well, sure there is, and stop calling me Shirley. But nobody, not the Heroes of Lallor, not the Wanderers, not even the Tiny, Tiny Avengers of Imsk (they're so cuuuute!) can come to the Legion's aide. And then there's these buncha jerks! They think they can get out of helping to save Earth just because they are only disembodied floating heads!
Incidentally, note the first caption in the panels above. A rare sliparoo from Shooter on which century LSH takes place in! (the Thirtieth). WHOOPS.
With a Legion consisting only of Superboy (almost infinitely powerful), Cosmic Boy (pretty darn powerful), Sun Boy (a dangerous thing to be around a Sun-Eater), Princess Projectra (ummmmm...) and Ferro Lad (.........), the Legion of Super-Heroes is in dire need of allies to battle the Sun-Eater. So they find and deputize the Fatal Five: Tharok (unstoppable cyborg), the Persuader (he'll beg the Sun-Eater to leave), the Emerald Empress (she'll keep an eye out for you), Mano (The Hand of Fate), and Validus (who, when he's not freaking out, has a tragic and yet-to-be-told Legion origin story!) This quintet of quirky quacksalvers are promised amnesty from their crimes if they help stop the Sun-Eater. That doubles the defense force and allows Jim Shooter to nod his very tall hat at a plot device from The Dirty Dozen Time for a soundtrack cue!
First up on our Star Search stage: Sun Boy! He's hot and fiery and full of cosmic gas! All the powers of a raging star and the ability to stand on a giant compact disc! But no savior of the universe he! So, they all give up and go home.
Now, Tharok and Validus try chopping at it and throwing lightning at it! But what works in Kitchen Stadium is ineffective in space, and they can't truly stop the unstoppable thing which cannot be stopped! Are ya sorry ya didn't go to Dimension QK-51 yet, Legionnaires?
Well, here comes the galaxy's most powerful hero (in handy compact boy form): Superboy! I dunno, Clark, use your Krypto-vision to shoot small dogs at it, or maybe super-ventriloqism to convince it our sun is out of business and not worth heading for. Because only Superboy can stand up to the power of a billion suns projecting yellow, orange, green, blue rays...D'OH! RED SUN RAYS!WHO COULD HAVE EXPECTED THAT?
Cosmic Boy / Cosmic Boy / He has got a cosmic ploy / Is he magnetic? / Listen, Jim / He'll attract any metal / Except aluminum / Alas / Sun-Eater's not made of metal / No joy
Emerald Empress and her Eye stare at it! Aside from the Sun-Eater feeling momentarily self-conscious about its weight, it does no damage.
Eh, what the heck, let's let the Princess take a crack sending illusions at it. It surely couldn't get worse. (beat) AIEEE! It got worse!
Mano! The man with the hand that destroys everything it touches! How he goes to the bathroom we'll never know. Ah, Mano, thank you for making us laugh at "Ehahh!" again.
Well, that's everybody from both teams, so Earth's gonna die, uh huh. I would kiss your loved ones and maybe eat that ice cream in the fridge before it goes to waste...oh yeah, Ferro Lad! Forgot about him! As is often the case in the Legion, a member you don't think is gonna pull off a mission is absolutely successful! Yay Ferro! I-RON-na give you a big hug!
Now that they know the thing has a brain that looks like a mascot from the 1964 World's Fair Let's Get Charged for Electrons pavilion, they can destroy it! Tharok quickly whips up a bomb out of ordinary household items you probably have lying around your place, but who will carry it into the heart of the storm? Aw, c'mon...if you didn't know the ending of this story, turn in your Comics Predicting Badge. Even Brainiac Minus-5 saw that coming, and he's the Dumbest Guy in the Galaxy three years running from 2964-2967.
I've poked gentle (well, except for Projectra) fun at this story throughout, but in terms of emotion and defiance, the sacrifice of Ferro Lad ranks very high on my list. This tale — and this first panel showing Ferro Lad flying into the heart of the Sun-Eater to ignite the bomb himself — is justifiably iconic in comics history, and the first "real" death of the Legion (altho' Lightning Lad had died before, he came back or Proty had babies with Saturn Girl, however you wanna think about that). I admit I cried...just a little...when I first read this story, lowering the value of my copy of Adventure #353 from VG to G: waterstained.
We salute you, Ferro Lad! We will miss your honor, your bravery, your ingenuity, and your ability to hold our grocery lists using fridge magnets.
Ferro Lad, we will not see your type again. Because Shooter killed you off on purpose because you couldn't have been black.
When Jim Shooter first created the character, he intended Ferro Lad to be black, but editor Mort Weisinger vetoed the idea, saying "we'll lose our distribution in the South."
This was in fact why Shooter chose Ferro Lad to be the one to die in the Sun Eater story. "Ferro Lad, I killed because my plan was that he was a black guy, and Mort said no. Then I said, "Well, let's see. I've got this idea for a story, and someone needs to die...Ah-ha! Him!" So basically, I killed him off because it annoyed me that I couldn't do with him what I wanted." — Wikipedia
Say, remember that whoops! caption above that said "Time: The twentieth century?" Well, in a way Jim Shooter could
have never predicted, it eventually wound up being true when the story was retold in Post-Zero Hour 1996. Tune in tomorrow to find out how, why, and when! (Oh, 1996. Ignore that last one.)
Cover of Legion of Super-Heroes (1989 series) #86 (DC, November 1996), pencils by Alan Davis, inks by Mark Farmer, colors by Patrick Martin
*Sun-Eater Heading Into Enormous Lightyear District
Back around Day 18 of this feature, oh, seventy-eight months ago, Smurfswacker of the great (and sadly late) comics blog Words and Pictures pointed out, and quite correctly, I must say:
I get the strangest impression that all these games are basically the same game: advance, lose turn, return to start, go back spaces, etc. I guess no one figured it was worth the effort to create an original, more complex game.
Ain't that the truth, and thanks for smurfing it out, Smurfswacker. I've mentioned several times that there's basically two templates for these simplified games: Candyland or Parcheesi/Sorry — you try to move your token(s) safely either back to your beginning or to a designated end. A few of them have had some slightly more complicated rules, but they're fundamentally a pasttime that's going to occupy you for maybe an hour or so, and not become a craze of a lifetime, like my crippling addiction to Hands Down.
To be fair, I've posted most of the games for their artwork or design sense (and some to pure poke a li'l fun at 'em), but once in a while a truly innovative board game gets printed in the pages of a comic or annual or...or even Foom, the fan magazine for Marvel Maniacs during the funky seventies. And who better to provide us with a game that goes above and beyond than the writer and artist who took comics above and beyond during the '70s, the one, the only Jim Steranko! It's an all-out battle between the nogoodniks of HYDRA and the agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.*, and it's gonna be exciting even than your average episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.**! Then again, so would a colonsocopy.
"Moving Target" in FOOM #1 (February 1973); by Jim Steranko (Click picture to STERANKO!-size)
This is no ordinary start-and-the-beginning and move-your-token-to-the-end: there is literal backstabbing involved in this game! (Note: not literally.) Check out not only the most involving rules to a comic book game ever, but the best-written:
And in conclusion to the rules and to this series that took me a lot longer to research and write than I had expected, here's a final word from Steranko:
See? Jim's got the idea. Mix and match the rules for maximum enjoyment! If you're bored with a board game, mix a little unpredictability into by tossing out the rules — say, a version of Monopoly where one player builds hotels and the other is Godzilla, knockin' 'em down! Or combine two or more board games for maximum Amalgam Universe action: "It was Colonel Mustard with the Mousetrap in Kamchatka!"
To paraphrase the Great Mister S., and perhaps sum up my entire exploration of these comic book games, I'll just leave you with this thought:
Board Games Oughta Be Fun!
* Spy Hijinks Involving Electric Laser Destruction
** Someone High-up In Entertainment Loves Daisy
Welcome to the exciting world of Secret Agent 21, the Spy of the Future, whose day job was editor-in-chief of the comic TV Century 21!Now who says Grant Morrison invented meta comic books??!
Editorial column from TV Century 21 #1 (23 January, 1965)
Also, he has a game!
"U.S.S. versus S.O.F.R.A.M." from TV Century 21 Annual 1968 (Century 21 Publishing Ltd. and City Magazines Ltd., 1967); creators unknown (Click picture to SHIELD*-size)
Because I know you're wondering: U.S.S. stands for Universal Secret Service. And S.O.F.R.A.M. stands for the Solar Organisation For Revenge and Murder! Man, the British are not as good with spy acronyms as Nick Fury, Napoleon Solo, or Ernst Stavro Blofeld.
In addition to Agent 21, the TV Century 21 series also featured comics starring Gerry Anderson's Thunderbirds, Stingray, and Fireball XL5...plus Get Smart, My Favo(u)rite Martian, and The Munsters!Wha-huh?!?
As for Century 21, it eventually evolved from a British comics weekly into a real estate firm and a mid-range fashion department store. Wow, they really did adapt to the changing markets of the 2000s!
This is a modified version of a post originally presented on January 27, 2017.
Today! It's the very birthday of the Legionnaire you can open up with a can opener, Ferro Lad! That's "Andrew Nolan" to you and me who surely have all the ciiviian names or the Legion memorized. Reep Daggle? Imra Adreen? Jenni Ognuts? Yeah, you know 'em all, and how! (Jo Nah? See, that one was easy!)
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