Today in Comics History, February 16: Happy birthday, Joseph Steiner!

Born on this day in 1907: Joseph L. Steiner...


...co-founder of the Kenner Toy Company...


from Fifty Who Made DC Great one-shot (DC, 1985)
...makers of DC Super Powers, Star Wars, Ghostbusters, Batman, and many other action figure lines that we know, love, collect and let gather dust!


Happy birthday, Joe Steiner! In his honor today, get down on the floor and play with your action figures, and make sure to lose a few accessories which will be sucked up by the vacuum cleaner and make WHIRRRR-CLANK-CLANK-CLANK-WHIRRRR-CRUNCH sounds.

365 Days of Power and Responsibility, Day 13: Toy Story

Panels from "Tales of the Puppet Master!" in Spider-Man Family #4 (October 2007); script, pencils, inks and letters by Chris Eliopoulos; colors by Brad Anderson

A Month of... Pancakes! Day 13: Ben Grimm Wants Pancakes, Part 3

Okay, let's try this thing one more time. Third time lucky to get Ben Grimm some pancakes? Old Blue Eyes is even making them himself, comics!



Panels from Marvel Two-in-One #69 (November 1980); script by Mark Gruenwald and Ralph Macchio, pencils by Ron Wilson, inks by Gene Day, colors by George Roussos, letters by John Costanza
I object to the portrayal of Ben Grimm using pre-boxed pancake mix! He oughta have a great made-from-scratch recipe that Aunt Petunia taught him! Anyway, thanks Suzie, fer savin' the pancakes. IT'S SLOBBERIN' TIME!

365 Days of Star Wars Comics, Day 337: Jedis are jerks

Panels from "Twisted Toyfare Theatre: Sith Sandwich" in Toyfare #98 (October 2005), by Pat McCallum, Zach Oat, and Justin Aclin; with Jon Gutierrez, Andrew Kardon, and Chris Ward

The Star Wars toys unboxing event today was actually pretty disappointing

(Click picture to over-expectation-size)

Sure, I like that new Hawkeye action figure, but I'm really looking forward to the variant version

Happy Birthday to Me 2014!

Hey, it's my birthday today! I am six. Which is a very good age to be.



I had birthday pies!...

You can never go wrong with a toy line tied into a sure-to-be blockbuster motion picture, right?

Lone Ranger movie tie-in toy ad printed in Saga of Swamp Thing #2 (June 1982)


Trailer for the commercial and critical bomb The Legend of the Lone Ranger (1981)

Today in Comics History, July 4: America, Heck Yeah!

Hey, it's the Fourth of July, which is the birthday of Uncle Sam! What better time than today to take a look back to the world of America immediately post-9/11 and see how we coped with our new uncertainty on the world stage and the sudden surge in paranoia-fueled patriotism, but most important, how you could fight al-Qaeda by buying action figures. Because if you don't continue with your hobby, the terrorists will have won. Just in one single issue of the late Wizard's late ToyFare magazine, there's so much flag-waving that your head will explode with six red stripes, seven red stripes, and and a heckuva lotta stars. First up: in the words of Graham "Suggs" McPherson: I'm sailing across the sea to see my Uncle Sam.


from ToyFare #56 (April 2002)
"He comes with two extra hands." I'm pretty sure I don't remember that about the mythical spirit of our country, and that it hasn't been previously featured in any of the history or guidebooks about Uncle Sam...


Huh. I stand corrected.

Here's an ad in the same issue by the manufacturer of that Uncle Sam figure. Well, it's a decent-looking figure and proceeds went to good causes, so I'll refrain from making fun by guessing how many of those 1,776 figures are still in the warehouse. The usage of Comics Sans, however, warrants a proper guffaw. "Guffaw!"


In case you prefer your Uncle Sam to be copyrighted by a major entertainment conglomerate, here's a competing figure of the Earth-X DC Comics hero version of U.S. No sign of his secondary mutation of two extra hands, but check out that snazzy star-spangled waistcoat he's sportin'. Fresh duds, Sam!


But hey, what if you want your fervent love-it-or-leave it for your country in anthropomorphic funny animal form complete with ripped abs and blasted delts? Well, in 2002, Toyfare has you covered. Oh boy do they have you covered.


IT'S A FREAKIN' KICK-ASSIN' EAGLE. WITH MUSCLES. Also, fingers. But at least he only comes with one set of hands.

So, from sea to shining sea, Toyfare has you covered for all your jingoistic opportunistic proud-to-be-American action figures needs. What do you have to add to that, Twisted ToyFare Theater?


Uh, Happy Independence Day, I think.

Psylocke Psaturday, Week #14: You got a plastic name and a plastic heart

Due to our X-Tra Large Jimmy Olsen, Secret Agent installment earlier, I'll do a quick Psylocke overview, one that's skimpy (hah!) and follow up next time with the survey of X-Men Annual #10: The One with the X-Babies, Oh No. Instead, here's a brief (hee hee!) peek at the Marvel Universe edition of the Psylocke Action Pfigure!



Please do not let her play with your Cyclops action figure.