Today in Comics History, September 27: Happy birthday, Scott Pilgrim!

It is Scott Pilgrim's birthday and he is all about PWNing it!



from Scott Pilgrim vs. the Universe (Oni, February 2009); script, pencils, inks and letters by Bryan Lee O'Malley

Today in Comics History, September 27: Scott Pilgrim finally dates a girl his own age

from Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together (Oni, October 2007); script, pencils, inks and letters by Bryan Lee O'Malley; colors by Nathan Fairbairn

Paper Doll Month, Day 27: Wake up Maggie I think I got paper clothes to stick to you

"She's a (Paper) Doll!" from Simpsons One-Shot Wonders: Maggie one-shot (October 2012); script, pencils, and inks by Sergio Aragonés, colors by Nathan Hamill
(Click picture to Homer-size)

Paper Doll Month, Day 26: In which I prove that Rob Liefeld anatomy is workable, as long as you make that his mutant power

Paper doll pages from Strong Guy Reborn one-shot (September 1997), script by Todd Dezago, pencils by Scott Cohn, inks by Harry Candelario, colors by Matt Webb, letters by Richard Starkings

Today in Comics History, September 26: Odin cares not for thy Midgardian emoticons

from Thor: Season One graphic novel (Marvel, October 2013), script by Lilah Sturges, pencils and inks by Pepe Larraz, colors by Wil Quintana, letters by Cory Petit

Paper Doll Month, Day 25: Remember Alf? He's back...in paper doll form!

"ALF's Dress-Up Dali" from ALF #33 (Marvel, September 1990), script by Michael Gallagher, pencils by Dave Manak, inks by Marie Severin, colors by George Roussos (?), letters by Rick Parker (?)
And nope...Marvel never published any reader submissions for ALF's fashions in the comic book, which was cancelled with issue #50. I do have to say this about Marvel: they gave ol' ALF a better saga wrap-up and story finish than NBC ever did.

The Entire Silver Age in One Comics Panel

Panel from "The Thousand Deaths of Batman!" in Detective Comics #269 (July 1959), pencils by Sheldon Moldoff, inks by Charles Paris

Paper Doll Month, Day 24: Dress my shorts

Paper doll back cover from Bart Simpson's Treehouse of Horror #1 (October 1995), artist unknown

Today in Comics History, September 24, 1947: The robotic buck stops there

from Atomic Robo Presents Real Science Adventures #11 (Red 5, September 2013), script by Brian Clevinger, pencils and inks by Dave Flora, letters by Jeff Powell

Humans are way better than those stupid animals and we can prove it

"Nature's Prize Pupil" from Batman #116 (June 1958), script by Jack Schiff (?), pencils and inks by Bob Brown, letters by Ira Schnapp
SO TAKE THAT YOU DUMB ANIMALS hey wait a minute

Paper Doll Month, Day 23: Mr. Cain's fashions provided by The House of Mystery, Hollywood

"Make Your Own Monster!" from House of Mystery (1951 series) #227 (October-November 1974), script by Paul Levitz, pencils by Dennis Janke

Not many people know that Jack Kirby invented targeted advertising

[Altered] panel from [Uncanny] X-Men (1963 series) #14 (November 1965), script by Stan Lee, layouts by Jack Kirby, finishes by Werner Roth, inks by Vince Colletta, letters by Artie Simek

Paper Doll Month, Day 22: At last, your chance to give Batman an orange costume

The World's Greatest Superheroes: The Superman Sunday Special (September 25, 1983); script by Bob Rozakis, pencils by José Delbo, inks by Sal Trapani, letters by Gaspar Saladino
(Click picture to Bruce's chest-size)

And a special Cut-Out-with-Safety-Scissors and Colored-by-Hand Bull-Prize to Mighty Mike Zeidler for showing this one to me! Thanks, Mike!

Ten of a Kind: Cross-Eyed Modesty Blaise

(More Ten of a Kind here.)

Paper Doll Month: You can also dress him up in Millie the Model's outfits

"Dresspool!" from Baby's First Deadpool Book one-shot (December 1998), pencils by Joe Cooper, inks by Scott Elmer, colors by Johnny Greene

Psylocke Psaturday: That's just love sneakin' up on you

Nowadays we would call this period in the never-ending history of those merry mutants known as the X-Men the March to the X-tinction Agenda, with suitable banners emblazoned across and on every single Marvel Comics title with an "X" in it (and that includes the then-recently retitled X-Daredevil). This trumpet blare of the approaching storyline that promises to shatter the Marvel U. as we know it indicates that we're just kinda buying time and treading water for a wee bit until that big crossover close on the horizon gets here. Back in 1990, however, we just had our stories without any advertising telling us that these comics don't really matter because the main event is what we're waitin' for, an' we liked 'em that way. In this case, Uncanny X-Men has during most of 1990 become one of those books where individual members or small teams of 'em go off on their separate ways and have different adventures before all joining up for a triumphant reunion. Nowadays we'd just send somebody out of town for their own miniseries, but Uncanny X-Men featuring Colossus or featuring Rogue or featuring Gambit and Li'l Stormy were what was being served up at your local comic book store. Yes, because that approach was <sarcasm>really successful</sarcasm> the last time the X-Men tried it:


Anyway, I have to admit to a bit of excitement here, because as the cover of UXM #261 proudly declares, Wolverine, Psylocke, and Jubilee are gonna meet Hardcase and the Harriers! OH BOY OH BOY OH BOY I LOVE THOSE GUYS!



I'm sorry. I've just been informed I've made another one of my silly mistakes.

Anyway, the comic book promises "the ferocious introduction of Hardcase and the Harriers," which is a nice trick seeing as they had already appeared the year before in Wolverine.


Panel from Wolverine (1988 series) #5 (March 1989), script by Chris Claremont, pencils by John Buscema, inks by Al Williamson, colors by Glynis Oliver, letters by Janice Chiang
Anyway, this column is titled "Psylocke Psaturday" and not "Harrier Hwednesday," so what's our friendly neighborhood British/Japanese ex-pilot ex-supermodel ex-secret agent psychic ninja mutant X-Men up to? Why, she's perfecting her impersonation of Morticia Addams. In the next panel no doubt Wolverine exclaims "Bets! You spoke French!"


Panels from Uncanny X-Men #261 (May 1990), script by Chris Claremont, pencils by Marc Silvestri, inks by Dan Green, colors by Mike Rockwitz, letters by Tom Orzechowski
Jubilee still doesn't trust/is envious of Betsy, and it's a subplot that, while well handled by Claremont, pretty much goes away swiftly without comment, without even the type of quick-as-a-wink resolution that, say, the subplot of Kitty Pryde being spooked by Nightcrawler had ten years before. Psylocke is cool as a traditional English cucumber sandwich, and without even ever having met Professor X, she handily shows off one of his cleverer tricks of astral projection — sending out an invisible psychic avatar of herself to spy on the world. She encounters shades of Carol Danvers and Nick Fury (well, what woulda been a Nick Fury-bot at that point, if recent mega-events are to believed) and battles them briefly, continuing to set up a subplot about Wolverine's mental madness that would of course be completely forgotten a few issues from now and indeed never picked up in his own solo book.


And oh yes, they get to fight the previously promised Hardcase and the Harriers.


It's their second appearance and once again the "trained to take on the Avengers" line is trotted out. Well, maybe, but consider that at this period in time, the Avengers consisted of what many fans might consider one of their lamest line-ups, and still the active members were Captain America, Gilgamesh the Forgotten Guy, Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman, and Thor. Freakin' Thor, dudes. And yet here they are defeated by Jubilee. Hoo boy! Were Claremont and/or Silvestri trying to build up these characters and creating a "back-door pilot" for this new team? If so, wave goodbye to those tasty royalty checks, guys, because this is the second and the final appearance of Hardcase and the Harriers. Well, unless you count their appearance in The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Master Edition (yes, the one where you tear out the pages and store them in a three-hole binder)...but I don't.


Man, they really wiped out a dozen half-decent code-names for superheroes with this team, didn't they?

Why are the Harriers so ticked off at our mutant pals? Well, partly because Wolverine hired them to attack himself and the two X-Women to make sure that he and his team were in fighting shape, but mostly because Jubilee blew up their comic books.


So what was Psylocke doing during all this? Why, posing for her Milo Manara comic book cover, of course.


It's fairly early in the era of "ninja bathing suit-Betsy," so this might be the first sighting of the ever-changing-in-size uniform bottom. Sometimes it's fairly modest and pretty much covers up her whole derrière, but at other times it's not much bigger than a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model's thong. Well, here we can at least see it covers something. Not much, granted, but it protects UXM against the wrath of the all-powerful Comics Code Authority while at the same time giving young bulls boys something to ogle at in cartoon form. Good thing that they established at this point, then, that Betsy's thong bottom doesn't completely disappear up her


OH FOR PETE'S SAKE SILVESTRI

Paper Doll Month, Day 20: Based on the novella Sam & Max Get Chopped Up By Blunt Scissors

"Sam & Max's Disguise*O*Rama" from Sam & Max Freelance Police one-shot (Marvel (!), 1992); script, pencils, and inks by Steve Purcell; letters by L. Lois Buhalis
(Click picture to Auntie Alice-size)

Paper Doll Month, Day 19: Oh shoot! Isn't she cute!

"Dot's Dress Up" from Animaniacs #12 (DC, April 1996), artist unknown

Today in Comics History, September 18: Free Thor with every purchase

from Thor: Season One graphic novel (October 2013), script by Lilah Sturges, pencils and inks by Pepe Larraz, colors by Wil Quintana, letters by Cory Petit

7,200.

Paper Doll Month, Day 18: Geez, Paper Barbie has the same measurements as Doll Barbie

"Polynesian Fashions" in Barbie Fashion #12 (Marvel, December 1991), script and inks by Trina Robbins, pencils by Amanda Conner, colors by Ed Lazellari, letters by Jade Moede; George Roberts