Today in Comics History, January 31: Goin' Bananas on National Gorilla Suit Day

Hi hi hi everyone! It's me, Bully! No, it really it is me: I'm in my gorilla suit! That's because it's the most wonderful day of the year: National Gorilla Suit Day! I certainly hope you are wearing your gorilla suit today too. I could hardly sleep last night: I laid out my suit before I went to bed and I kept getting up to look at it all through the night! (But you're not allowed to put it on until morning). And you do have to go to sleep! While you are sleeping, The Great Ape swings in through your window, helps himself to the coconuts you have left out, goes through your fridge and makes himself a banana daquiri, and then blesses your gorilla suit with a loving "ook ook" before he swings on down the street! So you can only imagine my thrills when I woke up and found banana peels on the kitchen floor and the blender had been used! Hooray! I climbed right into my suit—I only need a little help zipping it up the back—and set about having an fun-filled day of the most exciting National Gorilla Suit Day activities:


First, I sat and read the full history of National Gorilla Suit Day. Remember that National Gorilla Suit Day is not just about the bananas and the ooking...it's a day to honor MAD's maddest artist, Don Martin! We in ape costumes salute you, Don!


from MAD #480 (August 2007)
A little traditional NGSD snack is always appropriate. Also, yummy!


Hooray! Cartoons! This one's fun any day but especially significant today!


A classic movie is appropriate viewing today too. Make sure you cheer for the right character! Knock those planes down, King!


Speaking of gorillas: those of you who were following my London blog know that I was obsessed with getting those wonderful vinyl figures of the band Gorillaz. I didn't buy them over in the UK but much to my surprise they were available over here, so they were my special National Gorilla Suit Day present! Hooray! Set 'em out, put on your G-Sides CD, and it's just like being in a Jamie Hewlett cartoon! Except Tank Girl is nowhere to be found. Darn.


My gorilla suit was getting a bit hot and whiffy, so in the evening I took it off to play with my new action figures. I know that shocks some of you. "Keep them in the box, Bully!" you scold. "If you take them out and play with them you'll ruin their resale value! How will you even sell them in eBay later?" To which I say to you: "Pfui!" Toys were made to be played with. If you don't take 'em out of the box and set 'em up and move 'em around and make them clash in Infinite Crises of Ultimate Secret Wars, what good are they? If you keep your toys in the cases and never take them out, you may as well just lock them away in a steel vault. I bet you seal your comics in those cheesy CGC plastic cases without even readin' 'em! People like that have no idea how to have fun.


F'r instance, why not join your favorite cartoon band in an impromptu jam session? Here I am plunking along with Gorillaz. Miss Noodle said I was a very good banjo plucker. Mister Murdoc said I was some other kind of plucker, I think.


Now it is time for a megaconcert for the City of London! Everybody sing along! "Don't get lost in heaven/They got locks on the gate."


Suddenly, giant mutant Kitten Kong (my kittycat Gus!) crashes the concert!


Londoners flee in terror as the giant kitten stampedes through the panicked city, knocking over the Post Office Tower and toppling the Gherkin! (Well, every cloud has a silver lining, I guess.)


Music may have charms to sooth a feline beast, but even the awesome power of Gorillaz rock can not stop her rampage!


Who can stop the terrifying giant kitten? Who can stop the terrible rampage? Who? Who? Teeny-tiny Harriet Jones, Prime Minister, puts out the call for help!


Vworp...vworp...vworp... Hooray! The Doctor and Rose arrive to save the city and drive off the giant mutant kitten! Hoorah!


Using the awesome power of timey-wimey stuff, The Doctor puts London back almost as good as new!


"I'm not the tin dog!" protests 2D.


Now it is time for a fabulous jam concert to celebrate. Everybody sing!


But Kitten Kong plots her revenge! The End...?


So, as you can see, it was quite the best National Gorilla Suit Day of them all. Hope you had a action-and-fun-packed one as well!

Mmmmm, pie chart.

Some days, you can blame Mighty Mike Sterling for the way my mind works:

Ten memorials Batman does have in the Batcave

Jason Todd

Prince's gold record for "Batdance"

The McDLT

Harley Quinn's Trick Underwear (from Batman/Harley Quinn Team-Up #24: "The Adventures of Knickerless Knicklebee")

Funnyman Jerry Stiller (n.b.: not dead)

The stuffed and mounted body of Ace the Bat-Hound

The stuffed and mounted body of Fat Alfred Pennyworth from Earth-2

Thom-El and Marth-El, Batman's true parents from the planet Batron

The 1992 Fox Thursday night lineup

Self-help author Stephanie Brown

A Wodehouse a Week #40: The Man with Two Left Feet

A Month of Firsts concludes (boo hoo!) with The Man with Two Left Feet (1917), a collection of short stories published in various UK and US magazines: not merely the usual Strand and Saturday Evening Post but also long-gone periodicals of yore like McClure's, Ainsley's, Pearson's, Argosy, and Redbook. What's that? Redbook's still around?



Well. That's a magazine that probably wouldn't publish P. G. Wodehouse anymore.

So what's so "first" about The Man with Two Left Feet? Well, flip to the second story of 13, "Extricating Young Gussie" and begin to read:

She sprang it on me before breakfast. There in seven words you have a complete character sketch of my Aunt Agatha. I could go on indefinitely about brutality and lack of consideration. I merely say that she routed me out of bed to listen to her painful story somewhere in the small hours. It can't have been half past eleven when Jeeves, my man, woke me out of the dreamless and broke the news:

'Mrs Gregson to see you, sir.'

Yes, there it is, folks: the very first appearance in print of Jeeves, the ultimate gentleman's gentleman. (And this is our first look at Bertie, too.) I bet you're excited at the prospect of the earliest adventures of Jeeves, huh? Let's take a look at another one of Jeeves's immortal lines from that story:

Jeeves came in with the tea.

'Jeeves,' I said, 'we start for America on Saturday.'

'Very good, sir,' he said; 'which suit will you wear?'

Hah! Fantastic Jeeves quote, eh? And then there's...





...well, that's it, actually. Those two lines are Jeeves's only appearance in the story. Unlike the late clever puzzle-box stories, Jeeves doesn't solve the problem or avert the imminent disaster through his clever plans and unique brain. In fact, he plays no other part than to pass quickly through the tale and slide backstage again. From such tiny acorns are mighty oaks grown: by the time of the next Jeeves stories (collected in My Man Jeeves, 1919) Jeeves has taken shape as a mover and shaker of the plots that encircle his master Bertie, and by The Inimitable Jeeves (1923) he's fully formed and thinking the pants off (not literally) everyone around him. Wodehouse scholars sometimes even argue whether the Bertie in "Extricating Young Gussie" is actually Bertie Wooster—although he speaks and acts like the later Bertie and has the abrasive and demanding Aunt Agatha we know and love know from further Jeeves history, there's much discussion of Bertie's cousin being named "Mannering-Phipps," and although I got confused when I tried to draw out with my crayons the family tree according to this story, that might mean this is in fact not Bertie Wooster, but rather Bertie Mannering-Phipps. Which means that this story isn't part of the real Jeeves canon. Which means, for those comic book fans of you out there, that this story is actually taking place on Earth-2. So, fan fictionists, sharpen up your pencils and prepare to write the ultimate crossover in which Bertie Wooster of Earth-1 meets Bertie Mannering-Phipps of Earth-2 and...

...or, we could just continue reading The Man with Two Left Feet.

Despite the atypical Jeeves, "Extricating Young Gussie" is a hoot. If it's not as laugh-out-loud as the later Jeeves tales, it's still clever and sharp in its dialogue and plotting as Bertie tries to tug his restless cousin away from the delights of New York City. Unfortunately, young Gussie has fallen in love with chorus girl Ray and started a (hilariously bad) stage singing career. When Aunt Julia, Gussie's mother, arrives, it looks like the soup is spilled all over the stove for Bertie. But it's fate rather than Jeeves that saves the day: Aunt Julia is a former chorus girl herself and is lovingly reunited with Ray's father (her old beau). She too vows to return to her theatrical life and to marry her love. All's happy for everyone except, as usual, Bertie, who wrestles with telling Aunt Agatha that he's failed:

'Gussie, old top,' I said, 'leave me for a while. I would be alone. I think I've got brain fever or something.'

'Sorry, old man; perhaps New York doesn't agree with you. When do you expect to go back to England?'

I looked again at Aunt Agatha's cable.

'With luck,' I said, 'in about ten years.'

When he was gone I took up the cable and read it again.

'What is happening?' it read. 'Shall I come over?'

I sucked a pencil for a while, and then I wrote the reply.

It was not an easy cable to word, but I managed it.

'No,' I wrote, 'stay where you are. Profession overcrowded.'

The Man with Two Left Feet has a number of unusual stories. Two are narrated by a dog who, after a lowly birth, finds himself falling into fortune and companionship. The writing isn't up to Wodehouse's later skill, but there's good humor to be found in the dog's misunderstanding of the intentions of the humans around him, if not necessarily in the dog's name. Because he's a black dog, he's nicknamed the n-word...an unfortunately jarring moniker in this day and age but a relic of an older and different time—and I feel fairly certain that Wodehouse, judging from his writing and biographies, would have blanched if he'd realize the loaded bomb that word would become in later years. Skip over the name (it's only mentioned once) and they're actually quite funny and delightful stories about dog-makes-good:

Round the corner, as the boss was speaking, I saw the kennel-man coming with a plate in his hand. It smelt fine, and he was headed straight for me.

He put the plate down before me. It was liver, which I love.

'Yes,' went on the boss, 'if it hadn't been for him, Peter would have been kidnapped and scared half to death, and I should be poorer, I suppose, by whatever the scoundrels had chosen to hold me up for.'

I am an honest dog, and hate to obtain credit under false pretences, but-liver is liver. I let it go at that.

About halfway through the book the stories from the mid-to-late teens turn a bit more emotional and sentimental (without becoming maudlin or cloying). A girl is unable to marry her love because her guardian grandfather forbids it...and he thinks he's the King of England. It's a quietly touching eccentricity that's not played for giggles or laughs as later Wodehouses would be, and in lesser hands it would be a tearjerker. In fact, this story and many of the others in the collection remind me of the short stories of O. Henry: quiet and touching, with twist endings (either dramatic or soft) that resolve the tale on an ironic touch.

"At Geisenheimer's" is a very O. Henry-esque tale: it's narrated by a spunky, no-nonsense New York girl, a dancer at Geisenheimer's night club, with the clever and sharp observational attitude of a Bertie Wooster:

There still come days in the spring when the country seems to get a stranglehold on me and start in pulling. This particular day had been one of them. I got up in the morning and looked out of the window, and the breeze just wrapped me round and began whispering about pigs an chickens. And when I went out on Fifth Avenue there seemed to be flowers everywhere. I headed for the Park, and there was the grass all green, and the trees coming out, and a sort of something in the air—why, say, if there hadn't have been a big policeman keeping an eye on me, I'd have flung myself down and bitten chunks out of the turf.

Picture the entire story read aloud by Arleen Sorkin (in her "Harley Quinn" voice) and I think you've got Wodehouse's intent: a tough-as-nail New York gal with a soft heart and a desire to see right done for a country wife sadly ignored by her nightclubbing husband. Add an O. Henry twist with a callback to a much-discussed character earlier in the story and it's as neat and tight a little tale as those of Mister William Sydney Porter's.

There's a couple suicide attempts (one startling and sad, one kinda funny, both averted), false beards on private detectives (a frequent Wodehouse plot device making an early appearance), a clever crime-and-punishment story circling on the cast of characters' love of baseball, and the title story, which is as very nearly O. Henry-esque as to be "The Gift of the Magi" (except minus combs and watch-fob and plus dancing lessons). All in all, a pleasant, brisk collection of early work that's not essential but is certainly entertaining. In other words—come for the Jeeves, but don't get disappointed by his mere cameo appearance: there's plenty other gems here.



I bought my copy of The Man with Two Left Feet (a Penguin mass market paperback) on my very first trip to London (longer ago that a little stuffed bull would like to admit), and read it eagerly at the time. I'm not certain if I appreciated it as much then as I do now: I was disappointed that there weren't more Jeeves stories and frustrated at the one that's there. Now that I'm older and slightly fluffier these days, I can appreciate these early sweetly sentimental tales a lot more. Like the adventures of Jack Aubrey, I wouldn't recommend this first appearance as your first Jeeves (start with The Inimitable Jeeves for that, and H. M. S. Surprise for Aubrey), but if you're a Wodehouse fan, you'll want to pick it up, and not merely for completist's sake. You're in luck: it's in the public domain, which means it's back in print (click on the Amazon link on the above right to buy a copy), or, if the money's too tight to mention, here's a free e-text of the book. Unlike Redbook magazine, it may not have buxom Miss Ashley Judd on the cover, but then again, only some of the world's great literature does.


A Wodehouse a Week Index.

Mystery Science Monday: Hot Merging Action!

The car chase sequence from Mitchell starring Joe Don Baker (1975),
this version from Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode 512 (1993), starring Joel Hodgson, Trace Beaulieu, and Kevin Murphy

Mitchell!

Ten of a Kind: Batman's big! Yeah, yeah, yeah! He's not small! No, no, no!

As you may remember, last week on Ten of a Kind, we featured Tiny Batman:



Just like a good episode of the Batman TV series, however, this one's a two-parter. And there could be no better theme to follow up "Tiny Batman" with than with

Giant Batman!

So, there you go. You have your choice of either expanded or compressed Batman. But what if you can't make up your mind? What if you want both the pocket-sized Dark Knight and the giant economy size? Plus a regular-statured one to boot? Fear not, tenacious ten-of-a-kinders! Bully's here to give you all three Batmen in every size you need:

(More Ten of a Kind here.)

Separated at Birth: Rats!

L: Captain America #272 (August 1982), art by Mike Zeck and John Beatty
R: Detective Comics #585 (April 1988), art by Jerry Bingham
(Click picture to rodent-size)

Saturday Morning Cartoon: Finding His Voice

"Finding His Voice" (1929), directed by F. Lyle Goldman and Max Fleischer

Can we rebuild it? Yes we can!

Hey, look: reviews!:

X-MEN: FIRST CLASS #8: This comic is fun. I've been in love with the X-Men since I was a tiny stuffed calf, but that love's been spread among different titles, different creators, and different X-Men teams through certain periods. Right now I'm taking a break from most of the mainstream X-Teams (I do enjoy Astonishing X-Men, but it's really best read in big chunks or in the trade), so that leaves X-Men: First Class as my perennial top X-Title these days. I've heaped enough praise on this book from month to month that you know where I stand: it's fun without being full of angst, even in this month's issue which guest-stars the always gloomy Man-Thing and puts chipper Jean Grey face-to-face with her future, the future we all know from having read Uncanny X-Men #135-137, but which young Jeannie is sensing for the first time. I'm not quite certain weighing this book down with the gloom of the future is something I want to see every month, but it's done in such a light and clever way (the X-Men glimpse alternative future realities when Man-Thing's Everglades Nexus goes haywire) that it hardly seems as heavy as the frequent "Dark Phoenix" references of the mainstream X-Books. Add moments like the delighted glee Cyclops has at the opportunity to pilot a hydrofoil, Angel's encounter with valkyries, and consistently some of the best and cleverest intro/recap pages at Marvel. New (or guest?) artist Eric Nguyen provides suitably creepy swampish atmosphere, and there's a funny one-page Chris Giarrusso "Mini Marvels" strip at the back which ties into an Iron Man gag running in other Marvel magazines. In short, consistently delightful, even with dead Wolverine stinkin' up the place.


AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #548: This comic is fun. Well, here's the surprise comeback of the year as far as I'm concerned: bitter and tortured "One More Day" leading into an entertaining and energetic Spidey comic book. I picked this ish (and the two weekly issues preceding it) solely because Dan Slott's handling the writing on this story arc—he's a writer who I nearly always enjoy, and he does Spidey well. There's a fun and footloose 1970s Gerry Conway/Ross Andru feel to the entire proceedings: a clever death threat in a poison engineer to target certain DNA, the soap opera aspects of JJJ's heart attack and what Marla's getting up to while he's out of action, a funny and frantic taxi chase...and just what is the mystery with cute Carlie—will she and our hapless Pete become an item? Most of all I applaud the concept of actually having a story arc that ends (even though with weekly publication, it seemed to come to that end fairly fast) at the same time subplots continue from week to week. Since the next arc is not written by Slott, I'm not entirely certain I'll be buying it, but I'm certainly gonna peek at it. I do miss Mary Jane. But the best thing that Marvel can do now is produce entertaining Spidey stories, and with this, they're off to a good start.


DAMAGE CONTROL #1: This comic is fun. Or, as the full actual title in the indicia says "WORLD WAR HULK: AFTERSMASH!: DAMAGE CONTROL". But that's a bit like calling an old friend "Mister." I loved, loved, loved the three original nineties Damage Control miniseries, so picking up this issue this week was a no-brainer. What I hoped for but didn't quite expect was that it'd be a worthy 21s-century successor to the original, one of the cleverest concepts of the Marvel Universe: who picks up and rebuilds after superhero battles? Damage Control, that's who! This one hits all the right notes straight from the first scene, where DC CEO Ann-Marie Hoag negotiates with Tony Stark...and wins. Like the original, it's funny if not necessary laugh-out-loud, but it doesn't sacrifice story for silly jokes. There's an interesting subplot about unregistered superheroes and a dandy cliffhanger when the Thunderbolts show up on the last page to kick ass and check ID. All the original cast are back (even the Damage Control bulldog), and Damage Control creator Dwayne McDuffie scripting, which is good enough news to make me do the happy Bully dance. Damage Control is a three-issue limited series, and I think it works best in small short stories, but I'm hoping that like the original, this'll spin off annual miniseries. And in a week with funny Spider-quips and some thoughtful Jean Grey dialogue, I'm gonna award The Best Line of the Week to the title of this issue, which sums up the way I've been feelin' about the Marvel Universe before Damage Control's return: "Whatever Happened to All the Fun in the World?" Why, it's right here! Right here in a comic about guys who rebuild the shattered Marvel Universe and give us a good laugh. That's why DAMAGE CONTROL #1 is the most fun comic of the week: because if fun isn't what we all need right now, I don't know what we need.

Why, Ben, Why?

Panels from Fantastic Four #109 (April 1971), written by Stan Lee, art by John Buscema and Joe Sinnott, lettering by Joe Rosen

That's why.

Something's coming over me/I'm so dizzy I can't see

It’s a wonderful but frantic day, so what better way to celebrate it than with the wonderful and frantic Miss Jane Wiedlin? (little stuffed heartbeat pounding)


"Rush Hour" by Jane Wiedlin (EMI-Manhattan, 1988), written by Jane Wiedlin and Peter Rafelson


"Cool Places" by Sparks feat. Jane Wiedlin (Atlantic, 1983), written by Ron Mael and Russell Mael


"Blue Kiss" by Jane Wiedlin (I.R.S. Records, 1985), written by Jane Wiedlin and Randell Kirsch


"Inside a Dream" by Jane Wiedlin (EMI-Manhattan, 1988), written by Jane Wiedlin and Gardner Cole




"World on Fire" by Jane Wiedlin (EMI-Manhattan, 1990), written by Jane Wiedlin, Scott Cutler, Terry Hall, and Valerie Block

"Our Lips Are Sealed" by The Go-Go's (1981), written by Jane Wiedlin and Terry Hall

The Unsettling Slang of Mister Clint Barton, Part 7

The interior monologue of a superhero tells you a lot about his or her personality. Captain America, in quiet moments of repose, is likely to think on the American people and how much society has changed since the 1940s. Spider-Man will likely consider his plummeting bank account, concerns over his grades or Aunt May, or what great power is accompanied by. Thor will muse on the hallowed halls and the great green fields of Asgard, and whether or not Loki is giving Highfather Odin a hotfoot at the moment. Tony Stark is plotting his smooth, smooth romantic moves with the suave attitude and sureness of Billy Dee Williams. And Hawkeye? Do you wonder sometimes if, even when he's just thinking, whether Hawkeye uses cringeworthy, unfortunate slang when he's pinned to the floor in a sticky mess of gooey Adhesive X?


Panel from Giant Size Avengers #3 (February 1975), written by Steve Englehart and Roy Thomas, art by Dave Cockrum and Joe Giella, lettering by "L. G. Peter," coloring by Petra Goldberg

Still, who's to say that gummed up in a sticky, gloppy trap like that, we wouldn't think the same sort of unfortunate slang? But Hawkeye's always a good sport about this blog ragging him. Say, Hawkeye: Why do you always use so much unfortunate slang, huh? What's the reason?


Panel from Giant Size Avengers #2 (November 1974), written by Steve Englehart, art by Dave Cockrum, lettering by Tom Orzechowski, coloring by Bill Mantlo

Ten of a Kind: Poultry in Motion

Chicken Monday Continues!





















(More Ten of a Kind here. And a special tip o' the beak to Chickeny Chris Sims for a couple suggestions.)

Mystery Science Monday: "The Chicken of Tomorrow"

Hey, long as we're talkin' 'bout chickens...


"The Chicken of Tomorrow" Part One (1948), this version from Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode #702 (1996), starring Michael J. Nelson, Trace Beaulieu, and Kevin Murphy
Here's Part Two.