365 Days with the Warriors Three, Day 215: Volstagg Eats Food Week, Day 4

Panels from Thor: For Asgard #6 (April 2011), script by Robert Rodi, pencils and co-inking by Simone Bianchi, co-inking by Andrea Silvestri colors by Simone Peruzzi, letters by Cory Petit

Billboards of the Marvel Universe, Day 3: He goest thataway

Panel from Thor v.2 #74 (April 2004), script by Dan Jurgens, pencils by Roger Robinson, inks by James Pascoe, colors by Rob Ro , letters by Randy Gentile

The Zen of Batman: Feminism

From Batman: "The Ogg Couple" (December 21, 1967), script by Stanford Sherman

365 Days with the Warriors Three, Day 214: Volstagg Eats Food Week, Day 3

Actually, this one is more like "Volstagg Serves Food." But I bet he's taste-testing everything in the kitchen before it goes out.


Panel from Thor #604 (February 2010), script by Kieron Gillen, pencils by Billy Tan, inks by Batt, colors by Christina Strain, letters by Joe Sabino; VC

I'd like to point out that Volstagg and I worked out a deal to merchandise my cartoon likeness for his diner.

Billboards of the Marvel Universe, Day 2: New Improved Economy Size Daredevil!

Panel from What If? v.1 #19 (February 1980), script by Peter B. Gillis, pencils by Pat Broderick, inks by Mike Esposito, colors by Roger Slifer, letters by Tom Orzechowski

365 Days with the Marvel Universe

The year is 1975! And NASA launches the last of America's deep space probes life couldn't be finer in the middle of the swingin' seventies! People are driving the new Volkswagen Rabbit! Bill Gates founds Microsoft (and you coulda got in on the ground floor)! Even if you didn't, why not pick up a copy or ten of X-Men #94 and put 'em in plastic bags to pay for your future? But you didn't. Don't worry, neither did I.

1975! Jimmy Hoffa disappears (I didn't take him)! A gallon of gas is a whopping 44¢ a gallon! Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead! We're listening to Elton John's "Island Girl," David Bowie's "Fame," and, although we won't admit it, Minnie Riperton's "Lovin' You"! We're paying out three bucks to see Jaws, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Nashville, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and, if we had wanted to, At Long Last Love. And we're keeping track of our fabulous days of '75 by using our Mighty Marvel Calendar for 1975!



Didn't pick one up? Well, you can't claim you didn't know that the MMC '75 was coming—not with Smilin' Stan gleefully reminding you months in advance, as in this Bullpen Bulletin from Fantastic Four #151:



And again in FF #153, also letting us in on the secret that the calendar was defective! Well, only a little bit. That'll teach ya to hire the Hulk as your proofreader, Stan!



If you didn't live near a fine independent bookstore because Amazon Borders and Barnes & Noble superstores Waldenbook and B. Dalton mall stores were putting them out a business, no worry! You could send in a coupon (go ahead, cut it out and decrease the value of your comic, bwah-ha-ha-ha!) directly to Simon & Schuster to get one! Make sure to address it directly to Carly Simon, and ask her just who the heck "You're So Vain" is about! (Answer: US Secretary of Agriculture Earl L. Butz).



Truly, everybody who was anybody was using the Mighty Marvel Calendar for 1975! Joe Namath had one! So did Dustin Hoffman! Sally Field! Johnny Carson! Timothy Leary! Brett Somers and Mr. Brett Somers, Jack Klugman! And just in case you haven't heard of any of those people (and face it, who has?), check out exactly what calendar Dr. Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four is using to keep track of supervillain attacks!


Panel from Fantastic Four #165 (December 1975), script by Roy Thomas, breakdowns by George Perez, finishes by Joe Sinnott, colors by Petra Goldberg, letters by John Costanza

Please note that Reed ruined the future resale value of his Marvel Calendar by writing on it. Some "Futurist" he is!



Yep! It's the seventies, and for the first time you can now choose from among a dazzling array of to calendar to pin to your wall in the Baxter Building! Say, what kind of calendars do you think the rest of the Fantastic Four had (he said, setting himself up a nifty link)? Let's take a look at the rest of the Fantastic Four's 1975 Calendars!

Johnny!

Ben!

Sue!

Little Franklin!

FF auxiliary member Medusa!

And, since we peeked...

Doctor Doom!

We hope you have enjoyed this trip back to 1975. Please return your Gerald R. Ford to his fully upright and locked position.


Closer and more comprehensive looks at those magnificent Marvel calendars over at PTOR's Sanctum Sanctorum!

365 Days with the Warriors Three, Day 213: Volstagg Eats Food Week, Day 2

Panel from Marvel Fanfare #37 (April 1988), script by Alan Zelenetz, pencils and inks by Charles Vess, colors by Elaine Lee, letters by John Workman

Billboards of the Marvel Universe, Day 1: Join the Midwest Microscopy and Microanalysis Society!

The Mid-Day Matinee this week, all week: Billboards of the Marvel Universe! It's one place where you never have to worry about billboards selling you something you don't want, like car insurance for lizards or American Apparel "clothing"...because you know you already want this stuff! Like car insurance for Norse gods and unstable molecule clothing. The Mad Men of Earth-616 have got you right where they want you, baby...looking at the Billboards of the Marvel Universe!


Panel from Journey Into Mystery #113 (February 1965), script by Stan Lee, pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Chic Stone, letters by Art Simek

Ten of a Kind: That is the Question

(More Ten of a Kind here.)

365 Days with the Warriors Three, Day 212: Volstagg Eats Food Week, Day 1

Page from Thor v.2 #30 (December 2000), script by Dan Jurgens, pencils by Andy Kubert, inks by Scott Hanna, colors by Gregory Wright, letters by Wes Abbott and Richard Starkings

LOL Sundays #3: For the Seafood Lover in You

Panels from Alpha Flight v.4 #1 (August 2011), script by Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente, pencils by Dale Eaglesham, inks by Andrew Hennessy, colors by Sonia Oback, letters by Simon Bowland

Same Story, Different Cover: Who You Gonna Call? Thorbusters!

Hey, this is Same Story, Different Cover #50! (throws confetti, blows horn)

L: Thor #374 (December 1986), cover art by Walt Simonson
R: Sabretooth Classic #7 November 1994), reprinting Thor #374, cover art by Larry Stroman

(Click picture to fifty-size)

365 Days with the Warriors Three, Day 211

Panels from Thor v.3 #10 (September 2008), script by J. Michael Straczynski; pencils by Olivier Coipel; inks by Mark Morales, Allen Martinez, and Victor Olazaba; colors by Laura Martin; letters by Chris Eliopoulos

Hey, what's with this pronouncement of food? Could it be a lead-in to a special themed event week comin' up? Mmmmmm...could be!

You've heard of Man vs. Food? Well, get ready for

Stan Lee Saturdays #3: The Time Millie the Model Considered Having an Affair with Stan Lee

Stan Lee and Stan Goldberg pin-up page from Millie the Model Annual #1 (1962), by Stan Lee and Stan Goldberg, starring Stan Lee and Stan Goldberg

Little Cool Things: Beyond the Farthest Star

Superhero comic books focus on the big: the boistrous, the loud, the bombastic. But don't forget to focus past the action to check out the background details: the elements that aren't integral to the plot but which is a delightful little bit of stage dressing. In other words: keep your eyes peeled for the little cool things.

Star Trek is a show that once guest-starred a giant white rabbit...


...so it's only fitting that you'll often find Easter eggs in Trek. Tribbles in Star Trek III and Star Trek the reboot. "Tom Servo's Used Robots" is listed on the directory of Deep Space Nine's Promenade (one of dozens of signage easter eggs). When M*A*S*H's David Ogden Stiers guest-stars as a doctor on Star Trek: The Next Generation, he's working on Enterprise terminal #4077. The U.S.S. Bozeman, designed by modelmaker Greg Jein, who also worked on Steven Spielberg's 1941. The Bozeman's registry number? NCC-1941.

Around here I call easter eggs in comic books ""Little Cool Things." Here's a page from from a recent IDW Star Trek comic. Can you find the Little Cool Thing and explain its possible significance? (Sure you can! I have faith in your intelligence. And Trek geek-knowledge!)


Page from Star Trek: Mission's End #1 (March 2009), script by Ty Templeton, pencils and inks by Stephen Molnar, colors by John Hunt, letters by Neil Uyetake

Obviously this is an early mission of Kirk on the Enterprise, set before "Where No Man Has Gone Before" (Gary Mitchell is still alive; the Starfleet uniforms still have colored collars), so chronologically this takes place previous to The Galileo Seven, the first appearance of the Enterprise's shuttlecraft in the original TV series.



According to Mission's End #1 Sutherland and Niagara are two of the Big E's other shuttles in non-continuity (can we use the term "expanded universe" here, or that solo-ly a Star Wars term?).

Sutherland is (like Enterprise) a ship name with a fine naval tradition: there are three ships of the British Royal Navy that have borne the name H.M.S. Sutherland, ranging from the early 18th century through today. This modern-day frigate was launched in 1996 and is still in service today:



Wow, that's a great but not very dramatic photo. If the Sutherland was starring in a Trek-like series, we'll need a much more theatrical opening shot.



Yeah! That's more like it! Bloody hell we're badass!

There's a canonical Sutherland in Trek history, although this ship appears chronologically after the events in this comic book:



That's the U.S.S. Sutherland, temporarily commanded by Data during one of the ten or twelve Klingon war episodes of TNG (this one was "Redemption II : Klingon Boogaloo."). Sutherland also saw action during the Dominion War on DS9, and is mentioned in other episodes. Onscreen, the Sutherland itself has a cool Little Cool Thing: the motto on her bridge's dedication plaque is "There will be an answer, let it be..." Probably the work of Admiral McCartney, commanding the fleet from U.S.S. Yellow Submarine.

So, maybe the shuttlecraft Sutherland is named after this or the fine RN ships before her. But I'd like to propose a different inspiration for the Sutherland:



This is another H.M.S. Sutherland but a fictional one: it's commanded by Captain Horatio Hornblower, hero of the series of naval adventure novels by C. S. Forester. Hornblower himself called it the ugliest ship of the line in the Royal Navy. During the Napoleonic Wars, Hornblower faces his own personal Kobayashi Maru test: Sutherland has lost her mast and many of his men are killed or wounded. How would James T. Kirk get out of this one? Hornblower, in a move the Kirk of Star Trek III would have understood, surrenders the Sutherland...but, as a demasted wreck, still manages to hold the blockade against the enemy French until reinforcements arrive to batter the French ships. Hornblower might have said "I don't believe in the no-win scenario," but he (as well as the rest of humanity throughout history) was never as cocky as Kirk. Tone it down a li'l, Tiberius!

EDIT: Mr. Ty Templeton, author of this Trek yarn, stops by in our comments to let me know that the Hornblower connection is the correct interpretation. Thanks for the clarification, Ty!)

If my memory serves me, Hikaru Sulu uses the same strategy of surrender to the Klingons during Academy test in the Trek novel Kobayashi Maru. Hmmm, I can definitely picture swashbucklin' Sulu reading the Hornblower novels. Which only goes to prove: it's okay to be Takei.



But there very well could be a third inspiration for the shuttle Sutherland. I'm a big fan of the animated Trek, and if you watch the end credits (from a time in television history when shows had end credits instead of a tiny strip of minuscule credits running at Scalosian-speed), you'll spot the rotating credits of Lou Schimer and Norm Prescott, forever locked in rotation, in their endless battle to be the guy with the credit on top. Hey, you two...let that be your last battlefield!



But in addition to the wheel o' Schimerscott, you'll recognize Hal Sutherland, longtime director of animation at Filmation...and director of the animated Trek series.



Well, sure: I think that the Hornblower novels are probably the most likely inspiration for Mission's End's shuttlecraft Sutherland. That's a Little Cool Thing. But I like to think that maybe Hal Sutherland, who directed episodes that showed us Spock's homeworld, gave us Kirk's middle name, and showed Uhura in command of the Enterprise for once, might have been an inspiration too. At least, in my book he is.

(Pssst: I won't mention that they misspelled "Niagara" if you don't.)