Today in Comics History: A religion grows up around the Who's famous rock opera

Panel from The Unwritten #37 (July 2012); plot, pencils, and inks by Peter Gross; script by Mike Carey; colors by Chris Chuckry; letters by Todd Klein

365 Days of DC House Ads, Day 147: Laugh, Hal, Laugh

House ad for Green Lantern #70 (July 1969); printed in Batman #213 (July-August 1969)
Comic cover art: pencils and inks by Gil Kane
Ad designed and lettered by Gaspar Saladino

Kick in the Crotch Month, Day 27: Actually, I had thought that was by the horns

Panel from Catwoman Annual #2 (July 1995), script by Jordan B. Gorfinkel, breakdowns by Jim Balent, finishes by James A. Hodgkins, colors by Buzz Setzer, letters by Albert Deguzman

I'll teach you all this in eight easy years

Please excuse the self-reference of a little stuffed bull, but I can't help blowing my little tin horn: it's the eighth anniversary of this here puppet-town cow blog! Yep, eight years ago today I started to talk about comics, post silly panels, and refer to myself online as yours little stuffed truly. Eight whole years! An' I'm only six years old myself. I believe that tachyons are involved in that somehow. Anyway, please have yourself a cupcake (or eight, as I am) to celebrate! Tell 'em Bully sent you! (To the cupcake store.)

As we usually do on such occasions, let's take a quick tour through some of my favorite posts of the previous year (so you don't have to read them again later)!


LISTS 'N' FEATURES

• I really loved spending 366 Days with Alfred Pennyworth. Here's one of my favorite Alfred appearances, and here's the 366th and final installment paying homage to the great man himself.
• The second annual Grover Groundhog Day, which also gave us the greatest team-up in comics history:

• I started my Comics News feature. Here's my favorite news item:

• I did a lot of "Ten of a Kind" posts, but this one on anger management is my favorite.

WRITIN' 'BOUT COMICS

• Jimmy Olsen is no James Bond.
• Speaking of 007, here's the Return of the Indian James Bond comic book.
• With apologies to Mike Sterling: AW GEEZ, DON'T DO THAT, RALPH DIBNY!

• No matter what you do, Batman did it first.
• Catchphrases of the Super-Heroes. I haven't yet gotten to "It's clobberin' time."
• An ode to monsters in little pants.
• Lois Lane killed a dog.

• Johnny Cash is more badass than Darth Vader.
• Who's that girl, who's that girl? It's Jess!

• Everything you wanted to ask about Marvel NOW! but were afraid to ask.
• In 2012 Marvel killed off Professor Charles Xavier (again), and I had quite a bit of fun with it. (Well, more fun than he did.) R.I.P. (Really Inhuman, Professor) • Nothing's more fun than flipping off the Reaper • A Supposedly Human Thing Xavier'll Never Do Again

• DC seemed to think that the Superman/Wonder Woman romance was revolutionary. I remind them about the times they've been romantic before.
• Ten other comic book characters who will be appearing in "Age of Ultron."

HISTORY, HOLIDAYS AND ANNIVERSARIES

• Guy Fawkes Day! With Superman!
• Remember when that one guy shot Abe Lincoln?

• Comics Oughta Be Fun was the Official Comics Blog of the 2012 Olympics!
• In honor of her Diamond Jubilee: Queen Elizabeth II's comic book appearances. Part One • Part Two.
• The two hundredth anniversary of Pride and Prejudice. In comic books.

• Halloween in Rutland, Vermont. (Like so many, I never did complete this feature! sigh)
• That day Superman dropped LSD.

THINGS BULLY DID

• I spent 24 days trying to assemble eensy-weensy Lego Star Wars Christmas kits.

• In tribute to Pal Dorian's brilliant long-running feature, I cosplayed Flop.
• I grew a mustache!

MY FAVORITE POSTS OF THE YEAR

• 100 Things That Make Star Trek Great. And that was before Into Darkness!
• Fifty Shades of Jean Grey.
• I outed a long-closeted DC character.
• What If Taylor Swift Lived in the Marvel Universe?

Now is the time of Blogiversary when we dance do a Ten of a Kind with comic book covers based on the number of years this blog has been around! This is gonna get more difficult around year seventeen, but for now here are Ten Covers About Eight!












(More Ten of a Kind here.)

Before I sign off, let me thank all of your who read my blog and who comment on it, with special laurels tossed onto the lovely heads of mega-commenters Sally P. and Blam, both of whom have commented so many times that their comments add up to a bigger blog than mine is. I'm not certain how they do that, either. Thanks, Sally, Blam, and all! Very special little stuffed hugs go out to all my very supportive pals in The Bureau Chiefs, to Jane Wiedlin and Keira Knightley, to my kid sister Marshall and my pal Shelly the Little Otter Puppet, but 'specially to the Queen o' My Heart, the lovely Randi. Finally, this blog itself would be unpossible without the dandy online reference that is the Grand Comics Database, which helps me research those four-color favorites of yesteryear, provide the credits of each story, and without which "Ten of a Kind" would be a very, very short-lived feature. So thanks y'all, and speaking of Ten of a Kind: don't forget to come back here next year to celebrate my ninth blogiversary when you'll see me posting this comic book cover:

365 Days of DC House Ads, Day 146

House ad for DC's 1983 anniversary comics; printed in World's Finest Comics #291 (May 1983)

Kick in the Crotch Month, Day 26: Without his shield, Captain America was forced to get more creative

Cover of Deadpool v.4 #28 (December 2010), pencils and inks by Dave Johnson

Today in Comics History: Lance Heart attracts Japanese schoolgirl cosplayers

Panel from Batman: Orphans #1 (Early February 2011), script by Eddie Berganza, pencils by Carlo Barberi, inks by Juan Vlasco, colors by Chuck Pires, letters by John E. Workman, Jr.

365 Days of DC House Ads, Day 145

Two house ads for the Columbia Pictures movie serial Batman (1943); printed in (top) Batman v.1 #20 (December 1943-January 1944) and (bottom) World's Finest Comics #12 (Winter [January] 1944)
Ad artwork taken from the iconic cover of Batman #9:


Cover of Batman v.1 #9 (February-March 1942), pencils by Fred Ray, inks by Jerry Robinson

Here's the first chapter of the serial! Please do not judge it by the quality of Batman's cowl. And a note: the historical wartime racism in this film is sadly typical for this period, but is not approved of by yours little stuffed truly.

Kick in the Crotch Month, Day 25: Tony kicked him so hard he tilted the panel

Panel from Iron Man (2012 series) #7 (May 2013), script by Kieron Gillen, pencils by Greg Land, inks by Jay Leisten, colors by Guru eFX, letters by Joe Caramagna

Today in Comics History, May 24, 2278: Abe Lincoln's future Wembley show is sold out

from Orbital v.1: Scars graphic novel (Cinebook, 2009), script by Sylvain Runberg, art by Serge Pellé, 2009 translation for Cinebook by Jerome Saincantin, English lettering by Imadjinn
A special Bully salute to pal "Dangerous" Dave Lartigue for supplying me with this scan, way back in November 2012. (At last I did not forget to post something on the day it was meant for!)

After this post, folks, Crosby's gonna sing. Now's the time to go out and get the popcorn.

This morning, comedy writer Jon Hendren posted on Twitter:


To which I immediately thought: Hey, if hooligans hanging out near Bob Hope's Hollywood Walk star need some dressing down, why not just actually get Bob Hope to deal with them?:


DC public service ad, mostly printed in black-and-white on the inside front covers of comics, but this color version is from The Flash #169 (April 1967). Script by Jack Schiff, pencils and inks by Bob Oksner, letters by Ira Schnapp
Pal R. J. White then twittermented, and I turned his verbatim words into a comic (thanks R. J.!)


saw some ruffians hanging out near the bob hope star. wanted to lecture them about jobs and cash but i enjoy not having stab wounds

365 Days of DC House Ads, Day 144: From giant puppets to blood-vomiting Red Lanterns in a mere fifty years

House ad for Green Lantern #1 (July-August 1960); printed in Detective Comics #281 (July 1960)
Comic cover art: pencils by Gil Kane, inks by Joe Giella, colors by Jack Adler (?), letters by Ira Schnapp
Ad designed and lettered by Ira Schnapp

Kick in the Crotch Month, Day 24: Already the New 52 Looker is more effective than the first one

Panels from National Comics: Looker one-shot (October 2012), script by Ian Edginton, pencils and inks by Mike S. Miller, colors by Rex Lokus and Antonio Fabela, letters by Carlos M. Mangual

The Pauli exclusion principle doesn't work like that, Kitty Pryde

Hey, I call shenanigans on this scene from this week's A+X...

Panels from the Spider-Woman/Kitty Pryde/Lockheed story in A+X #8 (July 2013), script by Gerry Duggan, pencils by Salvador Larroca, colors by David Ocampo, letters by Clayton Coyles
...in which Kitty "Everybody forgot I do have a code name" Pryde fully phases a solid object into another solid object and leaves it there. But I don't think so, at least as we've seen her power work in the past. So, no, no, no, no, no. (No.) The Pauli exclusion principle tells us that "no two identical fermions (particles with half-integer spin) may occupy the same quantum state simultaneously." You and I can sum this up, more or less, as "two objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time." Kitty (or, say, the Vision) can phase through objects, but if she solidifies partly, it causes immense stress on the objects. usually this is illustrated in comics with a boom of some sort. Boom!

Well, at least, maybe. I will attempt to win my No-Prize right here (you may send my empty No-Prize envelope to me over the internet, Mister Stan Lee): the meteor is described as being a completely unknown substance. "We don't even know where it fits on the periodic table yet." say Spider-Woman earlier in the story. So, maybe that's the explanation: this mysterious alien substance which may be able to be phased into solid matter without damage.

Or: we might argue that Kitty's control of her phasing power has advanced to the point where she can slide the atoms of this meteor between the concrete of the pillar (after all, that's fundamentally how she phases), and then re-solidify the meteor so that its atoms co-exist in such close proximity that it's actually now interweaved with the concrete pillar. But then in the next panel the Absorbing Man breaks the pillar and takes the meteor out, so that can't be the explanation.


Or maybe the reason for it all is that A+X is primarily a punch-'em team-up book that's low on intricate plot but high on action, and it really doesn't matter. Let's face it: we'll probably never see that meteor again as it's only important to get the plot rolling. In other words: it's the MacGuffin Meteor.

But y'know, all that violation of SCIENCE! and physics really doesn't matter in a comic book which also contains this sight:


Panel portion from the Hawkeye/Deadpool story in A+X #8 (July 2013), script by Christopher Hastings, pencils and inks by Reilly Brown, colors by Brent Armstrong, letters by Clayton Coyles

I for one am really glad President Obama has produced the necessary documents needed to prove he is not a zombie. We're waiting for the same from you, Mister Romney!

I'm also willing to let A+X off the hook because it contains this scene of Deadpool making a boxing glove arrow by using one of Hawkeye's arrows and a Hulk Hand. Brain: meet awesome.


On second thought, Your Honor, I would like to drop the charges of not following its own internal pseudoscience against A+X #8 science due to its plea-bargain of awesome Hulk Hand arrows. Case dismissed!

Today in Comics History, May 23, 2003: As the media surges forward, Hank McCoy looks on with trepidation

from Batman: Orphans #1 (DC, February 2011), script by Eddie Berganza, pencils by Carlo Barberi, inks by Juan Vlasco, colors by Chuck Pires, letters by John Workman, Jr.

365 Days of DC House Ads, Day 143

House ad for Strange Adventures v.1 #213 [Deadman] (July-August 1968); printed in Wonder Woman v.1 #177 (July-August 1968)
Ad designed and lettered by Gaspar Saladino

Since "one picture is worth a one thousand words," as the ad tells us, here's the full gorgeous cover for that ish:


Cover of Strange Adventures v.1 #213 [Deadman] (July-August 1968), pencils and inks by Neal Adams

And here, in the form of a double-page spread from that issue by Neal Adams, is a couple bajillion more!

Two-page spread from of Strange Adventures v.1 #213; script, pencils, and inks by Neal Adams
(Click picture to blow-your-mind-size)
Neal Adams: the man voted most likely to freak me out in the late seventies.