Today in Comics History, Saturday the 14th (of May): We all continue to laugh at Robbie Reed's expense

from Silver Age: Dial H for Hero #1 one-shot (DC, July 2000), script by Mark Waid, pencils and inks by Barry Kitson, colors by James Sinclair, color separations by Zylonol, letters by John Costanza

365 Days of KirbyTech, Day 87: Kanjar Ro's Crypto-Portal

Green Lantern archnemesis Kanjar Ro's Crypto-Portal can look into all the events of Earth's past! Big whoop. I've got one of those, too. It's called The History Channel.


Panels from "The Silver Age" in Silver Age Secret Files one-shot (July 2000), script by D. Curtis Johnson, pencils by Mike Collins, inks by Vince Russell, colors by Tom McCraw, color separations by Digital Chameleon, letters by Kurt Hathaway
In order to show world-conqueror wanna-be Agamemno of the resistance he'll face on Earth and also the reason Kanjar Ro has failed every time, he has the Crypto-Portal show Agamemno the big-name superheroes of Earth! And Aquaman.




Yep, all that plus Superman, Batman, Wendy, Marvin, and Wonder Dog. A pretty impressive line-up. But I can't help but think that the whole invasion plot of Agamemno could have been averted, and the whole Silver Age miniseries wouldn't have needed to be published, if only Kanjar Ro had shown off Earth's Mightiest Heroes:







Right, yeah? Well, if you don't agree, then you make one to scare off Agamemno!:


6,900.

The Entire Silver Age in One Comics Panel

Panel from "Return of the Super Gorilla!" in The Flash (1959 series) #107 (June-July 1959), script by John Broome, pencils by Carmine Infantino, inks by Joe Giella

The Entire Silver Age in One Comics Panel

Panel from "The Menace of Metallo!" in Action Comics #252 (May 1959), script by Robert Bernstein, pencils and inks by Al Plastino

Ten of a Kind: Going to a Go-Go

Wow, I shoulda done this post a few weeks ago when I was running Go-Go Checks Week, shouldn't I have?











The theme, if you haven't got it by now, is Go-Go Checks Covers, but ones other than those published by DC Comics in the mid-sixties. In other words...Go-Go Homages! They're often used in a fashion to indicate or imitate a retro look (see Big Bang Comics and Radioactive Man). Marvel Comics published Assistant Editor's Month comics with Go-Go Checks topping them (Iron Man and Conan among them). Periodically they're even used just to indicate a story that takes place in that groovy time period itself (Animal Man).

Here's a few other covers that feature Go-Go Checks of a sort, but are definitely not intentional parodies...but I like 'em all the same, and it's my blog, so there.






How popular are Go-Go Checks? So popular that Ambush Bug has a nemesis designed and named after them.


Panels from Ambush Bug: Year None #1 (September 2008), plot and pencils by Keith Giffen, script by Robert Loren Fleming, inks by Al Milgrom, colors by Guy Major, letters by Pat Brosseau
So popular that even Doctor Octopus...er, I mean, the Superior Spider-Man, has decorated his lair with them!


Panel from The Avenging Spider-Man #15.1 (February 2013), script by Chris Yost, pencils by Paco Medina, inks by Juan Vlasco, colors by Dave Curiel, letters by Joe Caramagna
Bur by far my favorite homage to Go-Go Checks appears in the annual-size wrap-up to DC's 2000 special event Silver Age:


Cover of Silver Age 80-Page Giant one-shot (July 2000), pencils by Alan Davis, inks by Mark Farmer, colors by Lee Loughridge

Nope, there's no Go-Go checks along the top edge of this comic book, but check out the all-new, all-different superheroes charging right at us. Notice the one in black-and-white? What's his story, huh? Why, it's quite simple:


Panel from Silver Age 80-Page Giant one-shot (July 2000), script by Mark Waid, pencils and inks by Eduardo Barreto, colors by Glenn Whitmore, color separations by Digital Chameleon, letters by Kurt Hathaway

Why, that's SPOILER WARNING!!! none other than the Martian Manhunter using Robbie Reed's "Dial H for Hero" dial to become, like the rest of the Justice League, a new and different superhero, one that' not under the thrall of the Injustice League. In this case, J'onn's become...Go-Go!

And after the story ended, Go-Go was never seen again. Can his debut in the New 52 be far off?*

Credit where credit is due dept: Many of these covers were suggested by pal "Mighty" Mike Sterling, the uncontested King of Free Comic Book Day! G'wan, stop by his blog Progressive Ruin and tell him Bully, the Little Stuffed Bull Who Mike Often Refers To as A Little Stuffed Bull, sent ya!

(More Ten of a Kind here.)

*Yes.