Splash page from the aptly named "Captain America Battles the Camera Fiend and His Darts of Doom" Captain America Comics (1941 series) #6 (Marvel/Timely, September 1941), script and pencils by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, inks by Joe Simon
Said it before, say it again: ain't no splash page like a Simon/Kirby Cap splashpage.
I'll skip right to the exciting bit: after an entire story spent tracking down chasing down the evil Camera Fiend and his Kodak of Death, Bucky invites Cap to make a class appearance at a school filled with camera nuts! Who do you think will be the villain, huh? Could it be the guy in the green suit? Say, where do you get a green sHEY STOP SHOOTING POISON NEEDLES AT ME!
Luckily, among the kids in the class are Bucky's Sentinels of Liberty (including a guy named, yes, Tubby). Unluckily, among the janitors in the school are the Camera Fiend's Janitors of Injustice! Hey, it's all fun and games until you kids wreck the water heater!
Hey, what word do you think was in this balloon before it was replaced with a hastily re-lettered "mugs?" I like to this it was "whippersnappers."
Once again Jack Kirby throws kids who aren't old enough to vote into the dangerous fray of fighting Nazis and fifth columnists. Geez, Jack, Tubby woulda had a thriving career in the post-war economy as a Duncan Hines frosting taster if you hadn't had killed by the Red Skull in Captain America's Easily Expendable Sentinels of Liberty #16!
But I kids the Sentinels of Liberty. Later on they more or less became the Young Allies, who, as the Wikipedia entry tells us, literally beat up all three major Axis leaders: Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and Hideki Tojo. With erasers! So let Captain America salute those junior justice juys guys, and may we all learn to throw erasers at evil!
Say, how will Headline Hunter (The Sensational New Character Find of 1941, if you don't do any other research) stop the Nazis, or the Fascists, or the Nazifacists, from smashing a tank into the British Parliament?
Panels from the Headline Hunter story "The Engine of Destruction" in Captain America Comics #6 (Marvel/Timely, September 1941), script by Stan Lee, pencils and inks by Jack Binder (?)
Why, of course he crashes a plane into it. That certainly won't hurt anyone or anything at all near the densely populated Parliament Square, I betcha.
Good thing HH bailed out that suicide plane and landed three miles away across the Thames. Still: advantage, Headline Hunter.
Hey good people! I'm trying to catch up on this feature, so in the meantime, would it hurt you to do some work on it? No, it would not.
So get out your pen or pencils or crayon or El Marko and help Cap and Bucky fight the Nazi menace! Can you help Captain America save Bucky? Can you help Captain America find the spies in this picture? Can you believe you're actually drawing on your copy of a Golden Age Timely comic? Stimpy, you fool! You've ruined its priceless value!
Panels from "Sentinels of Liberty Secret Club News" in Captain America Comics #6 (Marvel/Timely, September 1941)
Undercover, Bucky infiltrates a group of Nazis masquerading as street beggars!
Panels from "The Unholy Legion" in Captain America Comics (Marvel/Timely 1941 series) #4 (June 1941), script by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Al Avison and Al Gabriele
There's a lotta orrible stuff in between involving torture, throat-slitting, and branding a swastika on the chest of an Allied spy, but let's skip to the good part: Nazi-punchin'! And goosing Nazis with a red-hot branding iron!
Remember: Cap and Bucky were punching Nazis before it became fashionable in December 1941! The moral of this story is, of course: Don't wait for the crowd...punch a Nazi today!
Splash page of The [Uncanny] X-Men #140 (Marvel, December 1980), co-plot and script by Chris Claremont, co-plot and pencils by John Byrne, inks by Terry Austin, colors by Glynis Wein, letters by Tom Orzechowski
No, no, not that Rasputin. Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin, the infamous "Mad Monk" and trusted friend of the family of Nicholas II, last Czar of the Russian Empire! (At least until they reboot it in Russian Empire: Rebirth #1.)
Rasputin was famously "unkillable," supposedly surviving several assassination attempts because of his adamantium bones and healing factor. That's why he's a perfect subject to star in his own Marvel/Timely-era comic book story! Remember how huge Rasputin got when they published this story? All the kids in the alleys and on the farms were running around yelling "I am Rasputin! You cannot kill me!" Ah, those were the days, the days of borscht and roses.
from "The Mad Monk!" in Amazing Detective Cases #6 (Marvel/Timely, May 1951), script by Carl Wessler, pencils by Pierce Rice, inks by John Tartaglione
Of course this sets up the story for plenty of wholesome pre-code murder attempts! That darn Rasputin, he got away...again!
Naturally, it ends the way it always does: with Rasputin being shot, rolled up in a carpet, and dropped in the ice-freezing Volga River. Eh, that old cliché.
The world never saw the supposedly immortal Rasputin again.
Later in that same comic book, another story ends with death by drowning. Yes, thanks to Stan Lee's canny business sense, May 1951 was drowning month in all the Timely comic books! (See, for example, Patsy Walker #34, where Patsy attempts to get rid of an extra date, with hilarious and waterlogged consequences!)
Final panels of "Death on the River!" in Amazing Detective Cases #6 (Marvel/Timely, May 1951), pencils and inks by Jay Scott Pike
Hmmmmm, that story made me think. Hmmmmmm! Why, if I ran comics, that would give me an idea. An awesome idea. Bully got a wonderful, awesome idea!
So, cracking open the heavy plastic shell of my CGC 9.8 of Amazing Detective Cases #6 and going at the pages with scissors and glue, I've wound up with with this as the final panels of "The Mad Monk," and I think you'll all agree that it's an improvement and that I would be a natural working on the 14th floor of the Empire State Building, working alongside Stan Lee and suggesting maybe a superhero based on a spider might be a rather nifty thing to do.
Happy birthday, Rasputin, you immortal skunk monk, you.
"What chance do we have? The question is, what choice? Run, hide, flee, scatter your forces! You give way to an enemy this evil with this much power, and you condemn the galaxy to an eternity of submission. The time to fight is now!" — Jyn Erso, Rogue One
Well, let's try this again.
About halfway through each year I begin brainstorming for what the following year's "365 Days" in comics will be. This year had a few strong front-runners (I really am going to subject treat you to 365 Days of Gwen Stacy one of these years) but inside my little brain full of oatmeal flakes and pins and needles, celebrities in comic books won out for 2017.
The process after decision: I start researching, hunting down and savings instances of celebrities in comic books: picking ones I'd thought of off the top of my head, brainstorming searching for celebrity names in the invaluable Grand Comicbook Database (without which I couldn't do this blog, much less this feature, and I don't toast them enough), and asking pals o' mine to keep their eyes out for celebrity appearances between the pages of a four-color comic.
By the beginning of January, I had a few hundred ideas and beginnings to populate this feature (and I always add many more throughout the year). I've got a folder on my desktop labelled "365 Days of Celebs" containing 332 files totaling 115M, marked with notes like Rock Hudson, Orson Welles, Robin Quivers, Jay Leno, Ed Sullivan, Geraldo Rivera, and Grant Morrison. I've found comic book appearances of Brandan Behan and Fidel Castro and Rin Tin Tin and that time Herbie Popnecker met Mao. Remember when Pat Boone sang a song of Superman? Remember when Miracleman told off Margaret Thatcher? Remember when Star Brand killed John Byrne?
But before January had barely finished, I realized my heart wasn't in it. You may remember I spent most of November in a dresser drawer with some socks before I finally found the courage to come out again. But I didn't much like hiding, and it didn't make the problem go away. Instead, it got worse.
Look, I've been in depression much of the time since the election of Donald Trump and I'm obviously not very happy about it. But what can a little stuffed bull do? In this big terrible mess we're deep in, does a little stuffed bull really matter? Well, judging by the kindness and encourage and support of all my friends, I guess I do. And my heart only gets more fluffy and shiny thinking about that.
So, my point (and I think you'll be glad to know I have one) is that maybe this isn't the year to hoist celebrities in comic books up on our shoulders when there's the closest thing to a real life Lex Luthor with the manners and subtlety of a Solomon Grundy in the White House. This should now be 365 Days of Defiance.
I hinted at this abrupt early-stream change and hinted at it on Twitter, comparing it to turning a battleship under full steam around on a dime. It took me a while to get my figurative ducks in a row, though. And what becomes of 365 Days of Celebs in Comics? Well, if you glance at it now, you'll see that it's become A Month of Celebrities in Comics. And if you start on New Year's Day and work your way forward, you'll see that I've retroactively populated the blog with Defiance for each of the days of January. Please click on the tag and explore January 1-29 to see what's up now, and keep on following me for one more act of defiance a day.
But what form does Defiance in Comics take? Well, some of it will be Nazi-punching (or fascist-punching, or evil-slamming), some of it will be triumphs against self-doubt, some of it will be busting free from captivity, some of it will be vowing to fight a never-ending battle, some of it declarations of "Okay, bub, you took your best shot...now it's my turn!" It's all dedicated, in my own little stuffed way, to speaking the greatest truth to power: that we as a people will stand up to injustice. Even though it's all just dots on paper in the end, I hope it inspires you and animates you into words or action.
And listen: I'm not fooling myself or pretending that posting pix of Captain America knowing Nazis' noggins is in any way a significant or serious part of battling against the actual horrible reality of our times. (I'm doing other things to protest, too, but I'll keep those out of this blog.) But I hope you'll be both inspired and informed by 365 Days of Defiance, to find that spark of heroism, courage, and will-not-take-this-lying-down of our comic book heroes: social justice warriors, every one of 'em, and I proud that they are. i (and you) probably will never get a chance to rip a rubber mask off the face of a corrupt government official and discover that they're the Red Skull. But I hope this feature encourages and reminds you that this is a never-ending battle. Discover your own boldness and fortitude and vow to ponder: what would Captain America do? What would Wonder Woman do? What would Princess Leia do? What would a hero do?
F'r instance, let's start out this series with perhaps the most iconic image of comic book defiance in history. Ask yourself "what would Captain America do?" He'd do this.
Cover of Captain America Comics #1 (Marvel/Timely, March 1941), pencils by Jack Kirby
Note that date of the first Captain America comic book: March 1941. Nine months before Pearl Harbor, before America was in a formal war with Germany, Jack Kirby and Joe Simon already knew Hitler was our enemy and they would not put up with this. Neither would Cap. There's a lesson in there somewhere: that your own sense of right shouldn't be influenced simply by what the government tells you. Steve Rogers was made a super-solider by the American Government, but he is Captain America because he loves what out country stands for and what it can be. (Um, let's momentarily ignore the comics' current anti-Cap as a temporary story trope; by the end of the year we'll look at him again and see what's goin' on in that Hydra-warped brain of his.)
Yes, this is serious stuff at heart. But that doesn't mean it won't be a little silly sometimes. You'll still see some goofy post titles and hovertext, for instance. We live in dark times but we still should laugh. Self-care is very important in days when you feel at your lowest. If a cup of tea or a silly comedy movie or a comic book or cuddling a little stuffed bull makes you feel a little comforted, I highly recommend it.
And if you have any suggestions as to scenes or moments of sheer defiance in comic books, please send 'em to me and I'll try to feature them at some point if I have or can get my hands on the comic! We're all in this together!
Oh, and those celebrities in comic books I didn't get to? Well, I'll cover some more of them periodically throughout the year. After all, I still have to spotlight the time The Avengers appeared on Late Night with David Letterman.
There's a poem by Maya Angelou that gives me comfort and strength in days of fear:
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may tread me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise
Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room
Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.
Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops
Weakened by my soulful cries
Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own back yard
You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.
It's also been turned into a heartlifting and inspiring dancepop theme for hope within the gay community, and I think its words and rhythm speak to all of us.
It's the Fourth of July, and you know what that means...blog posts about Captain America! Which this year, take the form of something my star-spangled pal John wrote over at 13th Dimension: "Captain America Scares the Pants Off Us!" Yep, it's the true tale of how Cap uses both fear and hope to convince Bucky...and us...to invest in America's future against the Axis powers.
Even so, seems to me that John left out this terribly frightening moment from that ish of Captain America:
Panels from "The Crocodile Strikes!" in Captain America Comics (October 1942); script by Stan Lee (?), pencils by Al Avison, inks by Syd Shores
The portrayals of Japanese sailors in this WWII-era Captain America comic are offensive and racist in their depiction. They are presented here as a historical document of a 1941 Golden Age comic book within the context of its contemporary history and perceptions of the time.
Panel from "The Gruesome Secret of the Dragon of Death!" in Captain America Comics #5 (August 1941), script and art by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby
By popular demand*, here's the full page that featured the header image I'm using today:
Contest ad from Marvel Mystery Comics #27 (January 1942)
*The phrase "by popular demand" is used here in the same way that Walt Disney's Comics and Stories used to use it, meaning "hey, look at this old piece we had lying around in inventory!"
Panels from "Electro, The Marvel of the Age" in Marvel Mystery Comics #10 (August 1940), art by Steve Dahlman
Is Electro creepy enough for you, kids? Why not check out his real-life counterpart?
You'll all remember the ro-but uprising of '57 when these once-kindly and obedient metal men rose up against us, destroyed our civilization, and became our masters. All hail the Robot Regime! All hail their Thousand Year Reign! All hail Electro, The Marvel of the Age!
Panels from "Electro, The Marvel of the Age" in Marvel Mystery Comics #5 (March 1940), art by Steve Dahlman
"What chance do we have? The question is, what choice? Run, hide, flee, scatter your forces! You give way to an enemy this evil with this much power, and you condemn the galaxy to an eternity of submission. The time to fight is now!" — Jyn Erso, Rogue One
So, my point (and I think you'll be glad to know I have one) is that maybe this isn't the year to hoist celebrities in comic books up on our shoulders when there's the closest thing to a real life Lex Luthor with the manners and subtlety of a Solomon Grundy in the White House. This should now be 365 Days of Defiance.
![](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...")
